375: Attention Pt3, Sensory & Primary Memory

1. Filter Theories
1. Now we are saying that late filter theory is probably more correct than early filter theory.  
2. Say there is a bottleneck
2. Capacity Theory
1. You have a fixed attention capacity
2. You can choose to filter on either stimulus qualities (early) or semantic information (late)
3. Late filtering takes more cognitive resources, so you're worse at secondary tasks
4. Predictions
1. We have different capacities for different modalities
1. We can do a visual task and an auditory task and they won't conflict
2. When they are in the same modality then processing will be severely limited
3. Binding Problem
1. Different parts of the brain analyze color and shape so the visual system has to take all the different parts and break it all apart.  So how do these things get put back together?  How does the brain bind them all back together?
2. Solution
1. One idea is that attention is the solution to the binding problem.  Except the parallel search happens pre-attentively so that isn't quite a solution.
2. Maybe serial attention would still work to solve the problem
4. Memory
1. Define
1. a change in your behavior as a result of some experience
2. Modal Model
1. Input TO sensory memory TO short-term memory (rehearsal) TO long-term memory
1. sensory memory lasts about 1 second
2. STM lasts about 30 sec.
3. LTM can last a lifetime
3. Research
1. Early span of apprehension 
1. How much can you remember in a scene?  Does photographic memory actually work?
2. Jevon
1. Threw beans on a card and tested his memory of how many there were.
2. Estimated that 100% accuracy with 5 beans or less and 50% accuracy w/ 9 beans
3. Span estimates across studies would always show the same thing.  People could keep track of up to 4-5 stimuli.  However subjects did report seeing more just not remembering detail
3. Sperling
1. Found that if you are shown 3 rows of letters and asked what you remember you will only remember a few letters.  However, if you are immediately told to recall a specific row then you will be able to remember the letters on that row.  If you wait longer than 1 second though then this memory still fades
1. This is called iconic memory
2. Iconic Memory