How Scientists think about attention
Last week, we finished completing the classic Stroop task but didn't get a chance to talk about it. This week, we picked up on where we left off and talked about the Stroop effect, which shows how interference can affect performance on a task. We made our own variations of the Stroop task (ask them to test them on you!). We then learned a bit about how scientists think about attention: there are different models of attention (spotlight vs. zoom-lens model) and different types of attention (top-down vs. bottom-up, overt vs. covert). We then talked about multitasking, reflecting on our experiences with multitasking. We did some multitasking activities (which were admittedly pretty boring, sorry boys) that demonstrated the following point: multitasking requires more energy than single-tasking and splits your attention, making you slower (and sometimes worse) at completing the tasks.
We started watching a video on hemispatial or visual neglect, which is a disorder of attention, but we were unable to finish it because we ran out of time (sorry for going past 5pm!).
Here's the video if you're interested: