Cognitive Science 301

Applied Cognitive Science and Education
Fall 2006

Attention  (Mel Levine, Chapter 2)

• The Mental Energy Control System (Figure 2-1)
  • Mental energy controls
    • "regulate the initial flow, allocation, and maintenance of energy supply necessary to foster alertness and facilitate the exertion of effort" (p 20 Levine)
    • Alertness
      • ability to initiate and maintain concentration
      • also regulation of sleep and daily rhythms of sleeping and being awake/alert
      • Dysfunction: difficulty in maintaining focus on relevant information or an important task
        • also difficulty in matching "the intensity of the mental energy flow to the particular context or circumstances in which they find themselves at the moment" (p 23)
    • Mental Effort Control
      • Challenges in mental effort: delayed gratification, intellectual challenges, sustaining effort in long and complicated academic tasks
      • This requires the following:
        • the ability to "initiate, allocate, maintain, and terminate (at the right time) a flow of mental effort" (p 23)
        • direction toward a goal
        • sustaining the effort toward that goal
      • Relationship between mental energy and motivation
        • if a task is perceived as difficult and not exciting the amount of mental energy demand to tackle the task is great and motivation may be low
        • Dysfunction: trouble initiating, completing assignments or responsibilities, and/or sustaining the effort to finish
          • behavior problems may result because the person may lack the energy to control behavior
          • behavior problems may result because the person is judged as being stupid and/or lazy
          • inconsistent performance on tasks; often the more interesting task (even if more difficult) gets done better
  • Processing controls
    • "regulate the intake of information as well as its further interpretation" (p 20)
    • Saliency determination (Table 2-3)
      • Ability to determine the most important aspect of the problem or experience (selective attention)
      • This involves continual review of stimuli and rejection of inappropriate stimuli (not relevant to the task at hand or goal)
      • Research has shown that reaction time in picking out a target from an array is slower as the number of detractors increases (even for people without saliency determination problems)
      • reading and listening depend on a "preliminary interpretation" of the information based on background knowledge and higher cognition
      • Dysfunction:  distractibility, difficulty dividing their attention effectively, analyzing tasks
        • focus may be on seemingly irrelevant stimuli and inability to filter out totally irrelevant stimuli
        • See Table 2-4 for common forms of distractibility
        • may have difficulty finding the main idea in a what they read or see (film)
        • may have difficulty identifying irrelevant information in a math problem
        • may have difficulty studying for a test (identifying the relevant information)
        • note-taking may be a problem
        • may have problems proof-reading and editing written work
    • Depth and detail of processing
      • Incoming relevant information needs to be processed in working (short-term) memory before it can be integrated and processed further
      • this involves recognizing and processing detail (see Table 2-5)
      • Dysfunction:  problems processing detailed instructions, lack of awareness of fine details, perhaps trouble with plus and minus signs in math, and some can overattend and become bogged down in detail.
        • poor short term memory
        • may lead to "noncompliant behavior." (p 29)
        • lack of attention to detail about rules can lead to "transgressions [that] may be misinterpreted as intentional violations".
    • Cognitive activation
      • Involves connecting new ideas with prior knowledge and experience (active learning)
      • involves forming connections between small pieces of information and the larger store of existing information that person has acquired
      • this also involves control of the level of activation
        • i.e., "recognizing that an idea has triggered daydreaming and then refocusing" (p 30)
      • Dysfunction: inability to form few, if any associations between new and existing information
        • overdependence on rote memory
        • inability to prevent "free flight of ideas in school and elsewhere" (p 29)
    • Focal maintenance control
      • "involves the ability to match the duration of focus to the demands posed by incoming information" and the task at hand
      • the person must determine/control how long to keep focus - depending on the task
      • involves sustained attention, shifts of attention, and set maintenance (Table 2-7)
      • Dysfunction: lack of control of attention span (either too short or too long resulting in perseveration)
        • inability to determine how long to pay attention
        • inability to shift attention from one stimulus to another
    • Satisfaction control
      • The user optimally should feel fulfilled or gratified in some way.
      • This enables the person to control attention when the inputs may be important, but are not  exciting.
      • Delayed gratification can occur with a sense of satisfaction regarding completion of a task.
      • Dysfunction: Insatiability
        • craving excitement and intensity (high levels of immediate gratification and fun)
        • material insatiability: have difficulty resisting urges or cravings for having things.
          • that person may have trouble functioning when they want something
        • experiential insatiability:  craving intensity and excitement in their behavior
          • "they are likely to create the excitement, often by committing provocative acts just to stir things up" (p 32)
          • are unable to or have difficulty concentrating when the material is not exciting enough
          • risk-taking behavior allows them to satisfy these urges
  • Production controls (to be continued)

Important points

1. Attention involves a very complex interaction processing existing and incoming information.
2. Control of the amount and type of attention is essential, but lacking in some individuals.
3. Problems with wakefulness, overattentiveness and underattentiveness can be part of dysfunction of the attention neurodevelopmental construct.
4. Any or all of these dysfunctions may occur in individuals with ADD/ADHD and the range of these differences occurs in individuals without ADD/ADHD.

Questions

1. How could inadequate regulation of attention be involved in explaining the neurological reason for the following remarks? "You could do it if you only tried harder." or "If you just put your mind to it you'd be successful."
2. What type of intervention could one try in an individual with satisfaction control?
3. Why is mental energy involved in attentiveness and inattentiveness?