Time Required to Switch Attention

Abstract

The preferred model of perception presented by writers in the audiovisual field has been one in which information reception can occur simultaneously through different sense modalities. Experimental studies of the last decade, notably those of Broadbent (1958), have cast considerable doubt on the validity of such a model. The data have generally supported a model in which the perceptual system is represented as a single channel, except for the case in which the amount of information arriving is below the information capacity of the system. The single channel can receive information from a number of distinct information sources that may be auditory, visual, or tied to other sense modalities. The data on which the model is based also lead to the conclusion that, whenever a change is made in the source or original information channel from which the perceptual system receives information, time is lost from the time available for either perception or learning. In other words, switching attention from one source of information to another occupies time that cannot be used for other psychological purposes. The research reported here is an attempt to estimate the time lost on a single switch between the auditory and visual channels and to determine whether such losses can appreciably depress learning in an extended task involving information channel switching.In 1954, Broadbent conducted an experiment on immediate 1.

“Pseudoextinction”: Asymmetries in simultaneous attentional selection.

“…There has been some debate about the criteria that should be satisfied in order to demonstrate genuinely divided attention (Cave, Bush, & Taylor, 2010; Jans, Peters, & De Weerd, 2010); a consistent concern has been that displays should be designed such that attention cannot be shifted rapidly between elements. Past studies have generally relied on brief presentation times to limit stimulus exposure to durations shorter than the hundreds of milliseconds expected for a spatial shift of attention (Logan, 2005; Reid & Travers, 1968; Remington & Pierce, 1984; Theeuwes, Godijn, & Pratt, 2004). In the present study, we adopted such a strategy by embedding each of two simultaneous targets in an RSVP stream of distracter letters.…”

Learning From Verbal Discourse in Educational Media: A Review of the Literature

“…Other studies of set and attention that may be found relevant are those by Broadbent (1952aBroadbent ( , 1952bBroadbent ( , 1956Broadbent ( , 1958, Reid a~d Travers (1968), andTalland (1958).…”

Comparing Alternative Computer-Based Methods for Preventing Job Task Instructions

“…For example, the work of Travers (1964Travers ( , 1967Travers ( , 1970 and his associates (e.g., Jester &: Travers, 1966;Reid &: Travers, 1968;Van Mondfrans &: Travers, 196^^) extended Broadbent's limited-capacity model to the area of audiovisual communications. These studies generally showed that combined text-audio presentations of redundant information offered no advantage over either of these two channels alone, even when the rate of presenting information was relatively slow (e.g., 200 words per minute or less).…”