Attention limits and non-associative learning
Introduced| English |
|---|
| divided attention/dɪˈvaɪdɪd əˈtenʃn/ |
| habituation/ˌhæbɪtʃuːˈeɪʃn/ |
A decision before an answer
- Driving while calling fails not because hands are busy but because the mind is shared.
- Your goal: Explain divided-attention costs with capacity and multimode accounts.
Spend the limited capacity
- Attention is limited capacity. Early-selection accounts filter by physical features, late-selection accounts filter after meaning, and multimode theory (Johnston and Heinz) lets the selection point flex with task demands.
- Divided attention fails when combined demands exceed capacity: a hands-free call still slows driving because the bottleneck is central, not manual.
Hands-free phone conversation still impairs driving because:
The bottleneck is central capacity, not the hands; multimode theory predicts the cost from combined demands.
Predict from the load
- Load theory separates perceptual load from working-memory load: high perceptual load in the main task shuts out distractors, while high working-memory load invites them.
- Predictions follow the load, not the slogan that multitasking is always impossible.
A baby stops looking at a repeated picture, then looks again when the picture changes. The recovery of looking is:
Response decline to repetition is habituation; recovery to a changed stimulus is dishabituation — no conditioning is involved.
Learn without pairing
- Habituation is non-associative learning: repeated presentation of a stimulus weakens the response, and a changed stimulus restores it (dishabituation). No pairing with another stimulus is involved, which separates it from classical conditioning.
- A commuter who stops hearing a scheduled train has habituated; the response returns if the train schedule changes.
A driver on a hands-free call brakes later because central capacity is shared, not because of occupied hands. City residents stop noticing constant traffic noise (habituation), but notice immediately when it stops or changes (dishabituation). An infant who looks longer at a changed display demonstrates discrimination through looking-time recovery.
Weakening of a response to a repeated stimulus, without any pairing, is called ____.
Non-associative learning; pairing would make it conditioning.
Measure by looking time
- Habituation is exploited as a measure: infants look longer at novel stimuli, so looking-time recovery after habituation indexes discrimination.
- Extinction in conditioning is different: there a learned association is withdrawn, not a repeated stimulus.
Calling habituation a form of conditioning, or claiming attention always fails under any dual task; the cost depends on load and the selection point.
Which answer fits this case?
Explain divided-attention costs with capacity and multimode accounts
Habituation requires pairing the stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus.
Habituation is non-associative: mere repetition weakens the response.
Keep the distinctions
- habituation 习惯化 — Non-associative decline in response to a repeated stimulus, reversed by stimulus change.
- divided attention 分配性注意 — Sharing limited central capacity across concurrent tasks, with costs set by load.
- Explain divided-attention costs with capacity and multimode accounts.
- Distinguish habituation and dishabituation from conditioning.
- Predict attention failures from task demands and load.
Match each term with its precise meaning in this lesson.
Keep the distinctions stated in the teaching example.
Put this lesson’s reasoning or event sequence in order.
The order follows the stated process; check each stage before the next.