The effects of task difficulty and distractor congruency on visual attention
Department
Psychological Science
Major
Psychology
Research Advisor
Nelson, Michael D.
Advisor's Department
Psychological Science
Abstract
The current experiment attempts to test the validity of Lavie’s “hybrid” model of visual attention. This model states that level of processing at which irrelevant sensory information is discarded depends on task difficulty. Participants performed a visual discrimination task to determine the spatial orientation (horizontal or vertical) of a target stimulus under various conditions. It was hypothesized that, consistent with Lavie’s theory, an interaction between task difficulty and distractor congruency would be found. While there was no such interaction found when using mean reaction time data there was a significant interaction found on mean error rate. These results suggest that accuracy may be a valid form of measurement for Lavie’s theory even when no such interaction is observed in reaction times.
Biography
Philip is a Senior in Psychology. He is a national member of Psi Chi, the national honor society for Psychology. Philip has also been heavily involved with the theater department at UMR participating in nine main-stage productions, most notably as the title role in "The Foreigner". He has also performed with UMR’s "Perfect 10" Improv group and served as the groups President. Philip has also participated in the Missouri-London program and spent a semester studying abroad in London, England last year.
Research Category
Humanities/Social Sciences
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Document Type
Presentation
Award
Humanities/Social Sciences oral presentation, First place
Presentation Date
12 Apr 2006, 9:30 am
The effects of task difficulty and distractor congruency on visual attention
The current experiment attempts to test the validity of Lavie’s “hybrid” model of visual attention. This model states that level of processing at which irrelevant sensory information is discarded depends on task difficulty. Participants performed a visual discrimination task to determine the spatial orientation (horizontal or vertical) of a target stimulus under various conditions. It was hypothesized that, consistent with Lavie’s theory, an interaction between task difficulty and distractor congruency would be found. While there was no such interaction found when using mean reaction time data there was a significant interaction found on mean error rate. These results suggest that accuracy may be a valid form of measurement for Lavie’s theory even when no such interaction is observed in reaction times.
