Chapter 5 Notes

Sensory, Attentional and Perceptual

Processes
Attentional Processes

The process through which certain stimuli are selected from a group of others is generally
referred to as attention.

 Attention also refers to several other properties like alertness, concentration, and
search. Alertness refers to an individual’s readiness to deal with stimulus that appear
before him/her.
 Concentration refers to focusing of awareness on certain specific objects while
excluding others for the moment.
 Examples of attention- in a classroom that student focuses on the teacher’s lecture and
ignores all sorts of noises coming from different corners of the school.
 Attention has a focus as well as a fringe. With the field of awareness is centered on a
particular object or event, it is called Focus or focal point of attention. On the
contrary, when the objects or events are away from the center of awareness and one is
vaguely aware of them, they are said to be at the frindge.
 Attention can be classified into two types : Selective attention and Sustained
attention.
 Sometimes we can also focus on more than one event at the same time. It is called
Divided Attention.

Selective Attention

1. Selective attention is concerned mainly with the selection of a limited number of stimuli or
objects from a large number of stimuli.
2. This means that it can deal only with a few stimuli at a given moment of time .

Factors effecting Selective attention:

 External factors: are related to the features of stimuli.
- Other things held constant, the size, intensity, and motion of stimuli appear to be
important determinants of attention.
- Large, bright, and moving stimuli easily catch our attention.
- Stimuli, which are novel and moderately complex, also easily get into our focus.
- rhythmic auditory stimuli are more readily attended to than verbal narrations
- Sudden and intense stimuli have a wonderful capacity to draw attention.

 Internal Factors: Lie within the individual.

- Motivational factors relate to our biological or social needs When we are hungry, we
notice even a faint smell of food.
- Cognitive factors include factors like interest, attitude, and preparatory set. Objects or
events, which appear interesting, are readily attended by individuals.
- we pay quick attention to certain objects or events to which we are favourably
disposed.
 Theories of Selective attention:
 Filter Theory:
- This theory was given by Broadbent in 1956.
- According to this theory, many stimuli simultaneously enter or receptors creating a
kind of “bottleneck” situation.
- Moving through the short-term memory system, they enter a selective filter which
allows only one stimulus to pass through for higher levels of processing.
- Other stimuli are screened out at that moment of time.
- Thus, we become aware of only one stimulus which gets access through the selective
filter.

 Filter-attenuation theory:

- This theory was developed by Triesman in 1962.

- The theory proposes that the stimuli not getting access to this selective filter at a given
moment of time are not completely blocked.
- Thus, some stimuli manage to escape through the selective filter to reach higher levels
of processing.
- Stimuli which are fairly weak play also generate response occasionally by slipping
through the selective filter.

 Multimode Theory:

- This theory was developed by Johnston and Heinz in 1978.

- This theory believes that attention is flexible that allows selection of a stimulus over
others at three stages.
- At stage one the sensory representations of stimuli or construct it, that is, visual
images.
- At stage to the semantic representations are constructed, that is, name of objects.
- At the last stage sensory and semantic representations enter the consciousness.

Sustained Attention

Sustained attention is concerned with concentration. It refers to our ability to maintain

attention on an object or event for longer durations.
It is also known as “vigilance”. Sometimes people have to concentrate on a particular task for
many hours this is when sustained attention comes into action.

Factors effecting Sustained Attention:

 Sensory modality: performance is found to be superior when the stimuli are auditory
than when they are visual.
 Clarity of stimulus: intense and long-lasting stimuli facilitate sustained attention and
result in better performance.
 Temporal uncertainity: when stimuli appear at regular intervals of time they are
attended better than when they appear at a regular intervals.
  Spatial uncertainty: stimuli that appear at a fixed place are rapidly attended, whereas
those that appear at random locations are difficult to attend.

Attention Deficient Hyperactivity Disorder

Read from the box.

Perceptual Processes

The process by which we recognise, interpret or give meaning to the information provided by
the sense organ is called a perception.

Processing approach is in perception

- the idea that recognition processes begin from the parts, which serves as a basis for the
recognition of the whole is known as bottom-up processing.
- the notion that recognition process begins from the whole, which leads to the identification
of its various components is known as top down processing.

The Perceiver

In order to make sense of the world human beings adapt to various ways. In this process their
motivation and expectations, cultural knowledge, past experiences and memories as well as
values beliefs and attitudes play an important role in giving meaning to the external world.

Motivation

The needs and desires of a perceiver are strongly influenced their perception. In order to
fulfil their needs and desires people perceive objects in a picture of something that will
satisfy their need. For example when hungry people were shown ambiguous pictures, they
were found to perceive them us pictures of food objects more often than non-hungry persons.

Cognitive Styles

- It refers to a consistent way of dealing with our environment. There are two kinds of
cognitive styles field dependent and field independent.
- In field dependent people perceive the external world in its totality, that is in a global
or holistic manner.
- In field dependant people perceive the external world by breaking it into smaller
units that is in an analytic or differentiated manner.

Expectations or Perceptual Sets

- Expectations about what we might perceive in a given situation also influence our
perception.
- This perceptual familiarisation of perceptual generalisation reflects a strong tendency
to see what we expect to see even when the results do not accurately reflect external
reality.
Principle of perceptual organisation.

- The process of organising visual field into meaningful wholes is known as form
perception.
- According to Gestalt Psychologist, we perceive different stimuli not as discrete
elements, but as an organised whole that carries a definite form.
- Figure-ground segregation- it is the perceiver’s ability to segregate the figure from
its background, to perceive the both as separate entities.
- The following are the characteristics of figure-ground segregation:
a) figure has a definite form while the background is relatively formless.
b) figure is more organised as compare to its background.
c) figure has a clear contour while the background is contourless.
d) figure stands out from the background while the background stays behind the
figure.
e) figure appears more clear, limited and relatively nearer, while the background of
appears relatively unclear, unlimited and away from us.

NOTE: DO ALL THE PRINCIPLES FROM BOOK PAGE: 100!!

WITH DIAGRAMS FOR EXAM POV.

NOTE: REMEMBER ALL THE CUES FROM THE BOOK AS IT IS. NO

PARAPHRASING IS REQUIRED. PAGE – 101-102.

Perceptual Constancies.

Perception of the objects remain relatively stable in spite of changes in the stimulation of
sensory receptors is called perceptual consistency.

Size constancy:

- The size of an image on a retina changes with the change in the distance of the object
from the eye.
- The further away it is the smaller is the image.
- On the other hand our experience shows that within limits the object appears to be
about the same size irrespective of its distance.
- For example, when you approach your friend from a distance, your perception of the
friend’s size does not change much despite the fact that the retinal image (image on
retina) becomes larger. This tendency for the perceived size of objects to remain
relatively unchanged with changes in their distance from the observer and the size of
the retinal image is called size constancy.

Shape constancy:

- In our perceptions the shape of familiar objects remain unchanged despite changes in
the pattern of retinal image resulting from differences in their orientation.
- It is also known as from constancy.
- For example you perceive the shape of the plate similar from all the angles.
Brightness constancy:

- Visual objects appear constant in the degree of whiteness, greyness or blackness even
though the amount of physical energy reflected from them changes considerably.
- That is, our experience of brightness does not change in spite of changes in the want
to reflected light reaching our eyes.
- Telegram per paper will appear white in the room light and even in the sunlight.

Illusions :

1. Sometimes there is a miss-match between the physical stimuli and its perception. 6
these misperception is resulting from misinterpretation of information received by us
in three organs are generally known as illusions.
2. Illusions are also called primitive organisations.

Geometrical illusions:

As per book’s explanation.

Average moment illusions:

 This illusion is experienced when some motionless pictures are projected one after
another at an appropriate rate dissolution is referred to as “phi-phenomena”.
 For example, succession of flickering electrical lights.
 To experience this illusion there should be a presence of appropriate level of
brightness, size, special gap and temporal contiguity of different lights.