WHERE IS CHRIS BOWKER?!

1.There are two types of models concerning attention: filter models and resource models. The filter model explains that in the general information processing model, a filter is present right before short-term memory – some of the sensory information makes it to short-term memory, but not all. One version of the filter model is early selection. In early selection, only precategorical information approaches the filter. What is thus chosen to pass the filter is based on sensory information alone. Only after the filter is information further processed to meaning, and only one channel at a time is selected to pass through the filter. Evidence to support this model comes from Cherry (1953), who implemented the dichotic listening paradigm (a different message going simultaneously in to each ear). Because subjects only noticed sensory-based changes that were made to the story entering the unattended ear, this supports the idea that only sensory information passes through the filter into consciousness.
Another variation of the filter model is the filter attenuation model. I can’t find Jeremiah Brack. This model suggests that unattended channels are not completely blocked out; they are just greatly worn down. Information that is personally or contextually relevant, for example, has a low “filter-passing” threshold: they can be recognized with a weakened channel. This is why the filter attenuation model is often known as the “leaky-channel” model. Evidence to support this model includes Moray (1959), who noted that in the dichotic listening paradigm, subjects could recognize their own names 33% of the time but could not recognize words that were repeated 35 times. This evidence contradicts the early selection model and thus seems to be more viable.

2. Selective attention is the ability to focus on some incoming information and block out the rest. One great way to study selective attention is to use the dichotic listening paradigm, where subjects are presented with a different message in each ear. Typically, the subjects are to shadow the message in only one of the ears; that is, they listen to the message and verbally repeat it. A dependent variable in this paradigm could be to report a noted change in the attended ear. Cherry (1953) used this paradigm, and he gathered information that supported the early selection model of attention. This model explains that only sensory information passes through the filter between sensory and short-term memory. When Cherry changed sensory aspects of the unattended story (i.e. changed the speaker’s voice from male to female, changed speech from forward to reverse, or changed the story to a steady tone), the subjects noticed. However, when the story was changed on a meaningful level (i.e. the content of the story changed or the story was presented in German), subjects did not notice. These results provide evidence for the early selection model of attention.