THEORIES OF VISUAL AND AUDITORY ATTENTION

Theories of Visual and Auditory Attention



Theories of Visual and Auditory Attention

Introduction

Attention plays an important role in different aspects of human life. There have been multiple efforts by many authors to define, study and define their status among psychological processes. Several authors define it as a process, noting that the attention has phases among which we highlight the orientation phase, selection and support of it. Other authors consider that the attention is a mechanism, involves information processing, participates in and facilitates the work of all cognitive processes, regulating and exercising control over them. This paper is focusing on two type of attention, the visual attention and the auditory attention in detail.

Comparison of the theories

Visual attention theories are:

Driver (1996) said 'The cluttered scenes of everyday life present more objects then we can respond to simultaneously, and more often we can perceive full at any one time. Accordingly, mechanisms of attention are required to select objects of interest for further processing'.

Posner (1978) found that when people are told to fixate on one part of the visual field, it is still possible to attend to stimuli seven or so degrees either side of the fixation point. Also, attention can be shifted more quickly when a stimulus is presented in an 'expected' rather than 'unexpected' location.

Auditory attention theories are:

Filter theory: this is when distracting information is filtered out at an early stage and only attended information is furtherly processed

Attenuation theory: unattended information is not filtered out, it is just attenuated and the strength turned down

Late selection theory: information is not filtered, instead it is processed at a late stage via the evaluation of current importance

Theories of visual attention argue that attention operates on perceptual objects, and therefore, that interactions between object selective and formative attention determine how competing sources interfere with perception. In auditory perception, theories of attention are less mature, and no comprehensive framework exists to explain how attention influences perceptual abilities. However, the same principles that govern visual perception can explain many seemingly disparate auditory phenomena. Further indepth discussion on the theories is given below.

Visual Attention

Visual attention represents the world in a series of flashes, in a similar way as the video cameras or a stroboscope do, which turns on and off periodically. It has been discovered that visual attention functions as a light beam that illuminates one or more objects, but not continuously, but does so seven times every second. This periodic collection of information occurs even when the viewer is presented with a single stimulus of vision. The discovery is essential for understanding the phenomena of attention, which could be related to known oscillations of cortical electrical activity.

As suggested in the late nineteenth century American psychologist and philosopher William James, we all understand when, colloquially, referring to the attention. However, when trying to offer a definition explaining it, the issue seems more complex. In regard to visual attention, this involves a series of phenomena. Analyses that specialists have conducted over the years about it has ...