Attention and Consciousness response

After reading the material for the week, I have learned that there are multiple processes that influence cognition. 

What area/aspect of attention is most important or influential on cognition?

In my opinion, I think attention as an information filter has a great impact on our cognition. McBride & Cutting (2019), share that attention works to filter out the irrelevant stimuli in the environment, and by doing so has allowed us to actively “pay attention”. When someone tells us to “pay attention” they would the individual to focus all of their attention on one task while ignoring other stimuli present in their environment. 

However, this does not mean that competing information is not being processed (McBride & Cutting, 2019). The authors discussed an effect known as the cocktail effect. The cocktail effect influences an individuals attention where one’s focus changes unexpectedly due to a noticeable stimulus, such as one’s name being mentioned in the environment. 

Although, while reading about the various influences attention plays on cognition, I strongly believe that an individuals attentive capacity and its importance to cognition may vary. What I mean is, I know how my brain works and what I have to do to encode important material into my long-term memory. I am able to distinguish what stimuli is significant, and what stimulus is not significant. However, this may not be true for other individuals. Perhaps, other individuals take in as much information as they can in their environment and make an effort to even remember the tiniest of details. 

McBride & Cutting (2019) share the idea of bottleneck processing. Bottleneck processing filters out everything except the information we are attending to. In addition, the processor of the information only lets in what is relevant to one’s current task or focus (McBride & Cutting, 2019). 

When doing school, I learn best when I complete my assignments in a quiet space. I prefer minimal to hardly any noise such as, music, TV, or other noises such as the lawnmowers. My cognitive abilities are strengthened when I am in a peaceful space and can focus all of my attention on the task I am completing. However, as mentioned earlier, I do strongly believe that some practices for cognition, attention, and memory do not work for all individuals. For example, during my undergrad a lot of my friends would listen to music, go to the level of the library where talking was permitted, or even sit outside and hear a plethora of noises to complete their workload. Perhaps, to them these noises that I would call bothersome, where peaceful to them as silence is peaceful to me. 

How can unconscious processing influence our perception of an item? 

McBride & Cutting (2019) discuss inattentional blindness, which is failure to notice a change in the environment. Experimenters developed a study that would accurately measure if individuals pay full attention to their environment and if they are able to notice even the slightest changes. 

Daniel Simon would place an individual walking across campus and then stop and ask someone for directions to the student union. While the person is giving direction, there were would be two other individuals who would walk between the two conversing with a wooden plank. When the wooden plank found itself sandwiched between the two individuals discussing directions, a person who resembles the individual asking for directions is “dropped off” mid-conversation, while the other individual begins to walk along the wooden plank. The two individuals have switched places. The purpose of the study, was to observe if individuals giving the directions noticed they were talking to someone else. 

Unconscious processing influences our perception of an item if our attention is not fully focused on the item. This would make recalling the item more difficult later on. Arguably, Freud believed that unconscious processing continues to influences our behavior. To an extent, I agree. I believe, that individuals are raw nerves, and while we are not always fully aware of others around us or stimuli, we are still somehow reacting to these stimuli whether it be inadvertently.

How can you apply the ideas discussed to different settings, for example, in driving or advertising? 

McBride & Cutting (2019) discuss that driving is commonly an unconscious behavior. Initially, when we are first learning how to drive we are alert to all stimuli around us, passing cars, music in the car, stop signs, light signals, and more. However, the more and more we drive the more driving seems to become an act conducted by our muscle memory. McBride & Cutting (2019) share that driving is an unconscious behavior, because it has been reported that numerous individuals sometimes drive to the wrong place because there are certain routes that are travelled more frequent than others.

If a task is not performed as frequently as other tasks, the task will demand more attention. However, since most of us drive at least once a day, driving is a behavior that can be carried out with minimal attention. Although, it is crucial to always be alert when getting behind the wheel.

Reference:

McBride, D., & Cutting, J. (2019). Cognitive psychology: Theory, process, and methodology. Second Edition. SAGE Publications, Inc.