Attention and processing capacity in auditory recognition.

Moore, Jeffrey J.; Massaro, Dominic W.

doi:10.1037/h0034735

Cited by 42 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…These results are in contrast to those in a recent experiment by Moore and Massaro (1973). In their experiment, Ss identified the loudness and quality of an auditory stimulus as well in the divided-attention condition as in the focused-attention condition.…”

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confidence: 56%

“…The general finding from these studies is that independent detection on these channels takes place, at least when only one signal is presented. Moore and Massaro (1973) have found that frequency and intensity of simple tones may be processed independently. Posner and Boies (1971) .rorr bunon sta ges-of-processing analysis to arrive at similar conclusions regarding the locus of attention.…”

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Can attention be allocated to sensory modalities?

Shiffrin

Grantham

1974

Perception & Psychophysics

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Three experiments examined the effects of attention allocation to the modalities of vision, audition, and touch. The first two experiments utilized a simultaneous-successive comparison. The simultaneous procedure involved simultaneous monitoring of all three sensory modalities for the presence of a near-threshold stimulus. The successive condition allowed S to give his full attention to each sensory modality in turn. There was no advantage for the successive condition, whether the task consisted of detection of a single stimulus (Experiment I) or detection of the absence of one of many stimuli (Experiment II). Experiment III used a different paradigm to extend these results and bridge the gap between these results, those of Eijkman and Vendrik (1965), and those of Moray (1973a, b). We concluded that selective allocation of attention to sensory modalities does not affect the early stages of perceptual processing. Rumelhart (1970) and Norman and Rumelhart (1970) have proposed a model of this type based primarily on experimentation in visual processing. It should be noted that both types of limited-capacity attentional models require a "preattentive" mechanism to direct attention to important channels (see Neisser, 1967, for a discussion of the need for preattention in these models). The final class of models is seen in the lower panel of Fig. 1. These models assume minor limitations of This paper seeks to determine whether S can divert attention to a particular sensory modality and thereby improve the quality with which a signal in that modality is processed. Furthermore, if an improvement occurs, will it be associated with a corresponding decrement for signals presented on a nonattended sensory modality? On the other hand, if no change in processing results from changes in attention allocation, it should be possible to localize the site of attention within the memory system. All current views of information processing agree that a host of selective attention effects operate in short-term memory following perceptual processing. These were termed "control processes" by Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968), and include rehearsal and coding. We wish to determine if selective attention to sensory modalities operates during the initial processing of information prior to short-term store.Three classes of models of attention during sensory processing are shown in Fig. 1. The top panel illustrates a single-channel model in which information enters the recognition system from only a single source at anyone moment. It is assumed, in this model, that attention is switched rapidly among various possible sources of sensory information. A model that has been interpreted in this fashion was proposed by Broadbent (1958) in the context of split-span dichotic listening experiments. Franzen, Markowitz, and Swets (1970) proposed a model of this type for the processing of near-threshold vibrotactile information. Taylor (1964, 1966) proposed a model of this type for visual processing. Moray (1970a, b) proposed such a model for dichotic t...

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confidence: 99%

Can attention be allocated to sensory modalities?

Shiffrin

Grantham

1974

Perception & Psychophysics

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“…A technique that appears to control successfully amount of visual processing is that of using a visual mask (Moore & Massaro, 1973). This technique has been applied to the present context in a very recent study by Cantor and Thomas (1976).…”

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confidence: 99%

Simultaneous time and size perception

Thomas

Cantor

1976

Perception & Psychophysics

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Judgments of the apparent duration and size of visually presented circles vary directly with the duration and size of the presented stimuli. When the frequencies of stimulus duration (short vs. long) and stimulus area (small vs. large) are varied, perceived size and duration are directly related to the frequency of the lower attribute value (short or small). These data are compared to the predictions of different information-processing models. The model which accounts for the data best is one in which it is assumed that perceived size and perceived duration grow together over the course of time spent sampling size information, and that attribute frequency affects the rate of sampling and/or the point at which.sampling stops.In an attempt to explain the role of nontemporal stimulus information in the estimation of brief stimulus durations «100 msec), the suggestion has been made that estimates of duration are affected by the time spent processing nontemporal information (Avant, Lyman, & Antes, 1975;Thomas & Weaver, 1975). The validity of this suggestion has been explored in a recent study by Thomas and Cantor (1975) in which subjects were presented with solid circles varying in size (nontemporal information) and in duration, and were asked to judge the size and the duration of the stimuli. This study shows that perceived duration is directly related to stimulus size, and perceived size is directly related to stimulus duration. A model was proposed for the processing of size information, which accounts for both sets of judgments reasonably well. What these data support is not merely a processing model, but the model plus the assumption that processing time is directly related to perceived duration.Having judgments of both stimulus attributes, duration and size, allows one to investigate the effect of size on perceived duration and the dual effect of duration on perceived size. This, in turn, leads to stronger tests of the present approach than would be possible if only duration estimates were available. Further tests of the approach are possible when the range of tasks is extended and when a variety of processing models are examined. This is the tack pursued in the present study. In the Thomas and Cantor (1975) study, the subject's perception of one stimulus attribute was related to the objective values of the other attribute; for example, perceived duration was related to stimulus size. In the present study, the design allows, in addition, perceived duration to be related to perceived size of a given stimulus, as the frequencies of stimulus attributes are varied. Variation in attribute frequency has been This research was supported by Grant No. GB-43175 from the National Science Foundation to the first author. We wish to thank Gordon H. Bower, Barbara Sakitt, and the referees for helpful comments. employed very recently by Mo (1975) in a study of the effects of numerosity on temporal judgments.To fix ideas, suppose that a stimulus consists of a circle, which has size Al or A 2 (>A I ) , presented for a duration...

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“…Within the 25Q-rnsec range of interstimulus intervals (ISIs) between target and mask that results in ABRM, accuracy of target identification generally improves as the lSI increases. This effect holds with pitch, timbre, lateralization, and loudness judgments (Hawkins & Presson, 1977;Massaro, 1970Massaro, , 1972Massaro, , 1975aMassaro, , 1975bMoore & Massaro, 1973). To explain these findings, Massaro and his colleagues suggested that as the lSI between target and backward mask increases, more time can be devoted to perceptual processing of the target and, as a result, recognition performance improves (Massaro, 1976;Kallman & Massaro, 1983;Massaro, 1975aMassaro, , 1975b.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%