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Cognitive psychology concerns the scientific understanding of how people may perceive,
understand, evaluate and think in relation to the complexities and significance of mind. The
focuses of cognitive psychology have always been to assess the science of mental life.

History of Cognitive Psychology

Important discoveries emerged especially in the fields of perception and attention (Wundt,
1874), memory (Ebbinghaus, 1885) and learning (Thorndike, 1914). The work carried at this
juncture was mainly focusing on the basic cognitive processes, which in turn led to the
development of theories and experimental design of today.

Ebbinghaus (1885), carried out an experiment on spaced learning and massed learning, where it
was shown through experiment that learning can be improved if some rest is provided. It leads to
less fatigue and better concentration. This then became a widely used strategy to improve the
efficiency of learning.

Bartlett (1932) focused on the relevance of the real world also. He contributed his thoughts in
topics like the testimony of courtroom witnesses

Post War development of Cognitive Psychology

Anderson (1995), cognitive psychology first emerged in the two decades between 1950 and 1970.
The field of artificial intelligence was founded in 1956 by Chomsky. It was this year which
witnessed the emergence of both cognitive psychology and cognitive science.

In 1967 the word “cognitive psychology” was first used by American psychologist Ulric Neisser
in his book Cognitive Psychology. Neisser is termed as the “father of cognitive psychology”.
According to Neisser, cognition involves "all processes by which the sensory input is transformed,
reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used.

Attention- It is a cognitive process of selectively concentrating on one aspect of the environment

while ignoring others. Attention allows us to select stimuli which we want to consciously register.
It also allows us to cancel out stimuli that we do not intend to register. It is a process by which we
actively process a limited amount of information from the enormous amount of information
available in the environment. It involves both conscious and unconscious processes.

Factors affecting Attention

External factors that are concerned with the environment. These are also called objective factors.
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External factors include:

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1. Intensity
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2. Novelty
3. Movement
4. Contrast
5.Repetition
6. Size
7. Change

Factors that direct our attention due to some internal preference or cause is known as internal
factors. These are concerned with the individual and therefore, are called subjective factors.
Subjective factors include:
1- Interest
2- Motives
3- Aim/goal
4-Desire
5- Habit
6- Past experience
7- Mindset

Types of attention
Covert attention- It refers to shifting attention from one task to another internally ( within our
mind) without moving eyes. It is also known as seeing something “out of the corner of the eye” .
for example- Earlier you were thinking about the event you attended last night, from there you
went on to think about your looks and the compliments you received.

Overt attention- The process of shifting attention from one place to another by moving eyes. For
example- Reading books involves changing the movement of eyes and paying attention to different
words written. It involves saccadic eye movement- movement of eyes from one fixation point to
another.

Automatic attraction to the bright color dress that your neighbor is wearing is Exogenous attention
and is different from a consciously determined attention which is called endogenous attention

Divided attention- The process of attending two or more tasks. For example- listening to music
while solving mathematical questions. Research has shown that divided attention can be achieved
through practice called an automatic process. Divided attention is a complex phenomenon which
makes it difficult to define and discuss. Kahneman (1973) stated that attentional resources can be
increased or decreased depending on the task difficulty, effort or motivation. Following are some
theories to explain divided attention-
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1.CENTRAL CAPACITY THEORY This theory states that central capacity (attention) can be
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allocated to many activities. This capacity is limited which means that performance of multiple
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tasks depends on the demands of each individual task. Decrement in task performance is observed
when the demands on the tasks exceed the available attention resources.

2. MULTIPLE RESOURCE THEORY: This theory focuses on the idea that when two tasks are
similar, they compete for the same resources which leads to decline in task performance. Whereas
when the tasks are dissimilar they draw upon different resources. So, there is decreased
interference and better task performance.

3. AUTOMATIC AND CONTROLLED PROCESSING: in 1977, Shiffrin and Schneider gave

the concept of automatic and controlled processing. As the term suggests, automatic processing
refers to the processing that is not available to our consciousness and develops through practice. It
is fast and requires fewer attentional processes. Where on one hand, Automatic processing has no
capacity limits. On the other hand, controlled processing is of limited capacity. It requires more
attentional resources and is often used in unknown situations.

Vigilance refers to a person’s ability to attend to a stimulus over a longer period of time. Amygdala
plays an important role in the recognition of emotional stimuli.
Interest affect signal detection and also location

Cocktail party effect- cherry referred to it as the process of tracking conversations in the face of
distractions of other conversations. Factors that help selectively attend the information are-
• Distinctive sensory characteristics
• Sound intensity

Selective attention- It refers to our ability to focus our attention on one specific task, object or
location. Selective attention helps us in “filtering”. Colin cherry (1953) devised an experiment
called the Dichotic Listening task to confirm his notion of selective attention as the filter to
information processing.
In a Dichotic listening task, different messages are presented to each ear. Participants are instructed
to only pay attention to one ear (attended ear) and asked to repeat it out loud as they hear the
message. They are instructed to ignore the message coming from the other ear (the unattended
ear). The procedure of repeating the message out loud is called shadowing. This is used to ensure
that the participants are focusing on the attended ear.
When asked what the participants heard in unattended ears, they could only report the nature of
voice (male/female) but had difficulty uttering the content.

Donald Broadbent formulated a theory to explain how selective attention works.

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● Sensory Memory holds all the information for brief period of time
● Filter identifies the message based on the physical characteristics - like pitch, movement,
brightness, speed of talking etc and allows only certain messages to pass ahead.
● Detector helps in processing higher-level characteristics like meaning of words etc
● Short-term memory receives output from the detector and holds it for 10-15 seconds and if
rehearsed passed onto LTM.
This model is known as Bottleneck because the filter restricts the flow of information muck like
the neck of a bottle restricts flow of water. According to this model, unattended information does
not get through and is not accessible to consciousness.
This theory could not explain the Cocktail Party Effect.

Triesman attempted to explain the cocktail party effect through her theory known as the
Attenuation model of selective attention. She proposed that selection of messages occurs at two
levels. She replaced the filter with attenuation. First, the attenuator analyzes the incoming
messages in terms of physical characteristics. Second, its language - how the message is
formulated. Lastly, its meaning. According to this theory, all messages enter through attenuator
but attended messages emerge at full strength and unattended are attenuated- they are still present
but have weaker intensity. It is also known as leaky filter theory.
The final output of the system is determined in the second stage by the Dictionary Unit.

Moray’s selective Filter Model

The reason for the cocktail party effect could be because highly salient messages ( personally
relevant) may break through the filter of selective attention. But other messages may not.
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Deutsch and Deutsch Late filter model
His theory differs from Triesman’s theory in terms of where the hypothesized bottleneck is
positioned. He says a signal-blocking filter occurs later in the process. It has its effects after sensory
analysis. This allows people to recognize information entering the unattended ear.

Neisser’s Synthesis
He proposes that two processes govern attention: Pre-attentive and attentive processes.
Preattentive, automatic processes are rapid and occur in parallel. Attentive, controlled processes
occur in series and consume time and resources like working memory. It helps to find our
relationship among features of the stimuli.

Resource theory of selective attention/ Factors affecting performance

The following factors determine the extent to which attentional resources will be used in a given
task:
• Arousal
• Interest
• Nature of the task (Easy, moderate or Difficult)
• Amount of practice required in performing a task
• Stage of processing at which attentional demands are needed.

Processes involved in attention

Top-Down- We attend to stimuli in our environment because of our needs, motivation, memory
of that stimulus. For example- A beggar searching for food in a heap of garbage. He will be able
to focus on the food packets and eliminate other packets from his consciousness.

Bottom Up- We attend to stimuli in our environment because of its distinct features. For example-
A bright light or a moving train which automatically gets your attention.

Parallel Processing: Parallel processing is the process in which an individual tries to pay attention
to two or more inputs and picks out information from both of them parallelly. Another example
would include listening to music while doing a mathematical numerical.

Serial Processing: Attending one set of inputs rather than another.

Controlled versus Automatic processes

Automatic processes involve no conscious efforts. For most time, it is performed without
conscious awareness, It has no or little intention involved. Since, it requires less or no effort.
Multiple processes could occur together. Hence, called parallel processes as well.
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Controlled processes are accessible to conscious control and even require it. Such processes are
performed serially. In other words, they can be performed sequentially and relatively take a longer
time interval to execute.

Automatization is the process by which a procedure changes from being highly conscious to being
relatively automatic.

Habituation and Adaptation

Habituation involves becoming accustomed to a stimulus so that we gradually pay less and less
attention to it. On the other hand is Dishabituation. In Dishabituation, a change in a familiar
stimulus prompts us to start noticing the stimulus again. Both of them occur unconsciously.
Two factors that influence habituation are Stimulus internal variation and subjective arousal.

Neurobiology of Attention
Anterior attentional system within the frontal and posterior within the parietal shows increased
activity during tasks requiring awareness.
In contrast, the posterior attention system involving the parietal lobe of the cortex shows increased
activity during tasks involving visuospatial attention.
Overall attentional deficits have been linked to lesions in the frontal lobe and in basal ganglia.
Changes in GABA and Acetylcholine are linked to changes in attention and consciousness.
Ascending reticular activating systems perform function of intact arousal mechanism which is
necessary to maintain alertness. Cortical and limbic structures are involved in focusing the
ascending activation

Posner and Rothbart (2007) proposed three sub-function of attention. These are

Unit Wise Multiple-Choice Questions

1- Flanker Compatibility task has the following characteristics-

A. Require the participants to focus their attention
B. Pay attention on specific stimulus
C. Look for similarities between the messages
D. Ignore the other stimulus present in environment
Options are-
1- Only A
2- Only B and D
3-A, B and D
4- A, B and C
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2- Cognitive Resources refers to

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A. Smartness of a person
B. Person Cognitive capacity
C. Intelligence
D. Cognitive Load

3- Amount of a person’s cognitive resources needed to carry out particular cognitive task are
A. Cognitive overload
B. Problem solving
C. High load task
D. Cognitive load

4- Assertion: Stroop effect involves the same process as Flanker compatibility task
Reason: It was proposed by J.R in 1935
A. Both A and B are correct. B is not the right explanation for A
B. Both A and are correct. B is the right explanation for A.
C. Only A is correct
D. Only B is correct

5- Automatic processing has the following characteristics

A. It involves no cost on the cognitive resources of person
B. It happens without intentions
C. It can be acquired through practice
D. It always have some cost on the cognitive resources of the person Options
1. Only B
2. Only B and C
3. B, D and C
4. A,B and C

6- Assertion: Inattentional Blindness occurs when an individual fails to perceive an unexpected

stimulus.
Reason: Our perception is influenced by our expectations
Options:
1- A and B both are correct but B is not correct explanation for A
2- A and B both are correct. B is the correct explanation for A
3- Only A is correct
4- Only B is correct

7- Change blindness refers to the inability to detect changes in the objects being viewed
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Change blindness is not limited to visual information but can be observed in auditory and tactile
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stimuli as well
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Options:
1- A and B both are correct but B is not correct explanation for A
2- A and B both are correct. B is the correct explanation for A
3- Only A is correct
4- Only B is correct

8- Top-down processing is associated to

A. Memories of Past events
B. Features of the stimulus
C. Scene schemas
D. Environmental regularities
1- Only B
2- Only A and C
3- Only A, C and D
4- Only C and D

9- ADHD was first described

A- by Dr. Heinrich Hoffman in 1845
B- Bobb and Latane 1865
C- Neisser 1847
D- Ericsson and Simon 1863

10- Tip of the tongue phenomenon is an example that pre-conscious information is not accessible
to consciousness always
A- The statement is correct
B- The statement is partially correct
C- The statement is incorrect
D- None of the above

11- Assertion: Similarity among the distractors facilitates search as Searching for target stimuli
against a background of relatively uniform distractors is easy.
Reason: This is known as similarity theory
Options:
1- A and B both are correct but B is not correct explanation for A
2- A and B both are correct. B is the correct explanation for A
3- Only A is correct
4- Only B is correct
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12- Spatial neglect refers to an attentional dysfunction in which participants ignore the half of their
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visual field that is contralateral (on the opposite side) to the hemisphere of the brain that has lesion.
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A- The statement is correct
B- The statement is partially correct
C- The statement is incorrect
D- None of the above

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