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Divided Attention

Divided attention is a cognitive process where a person responds to two or more tasks at the same time. It is also known as multi-tasking. For example, talking on the phone while cooking, writing an article while listening to music. Divided attention is commonly seen in everyday life but unnoticed. The capability of higher mental ability such as thinking, reasoning, questioning and understanding are involved at the same time in the process of divided attention. Divided attention completes the task quickly.

Different modalities such as visual and auditory can perform its task at the same time. Usually people tend to perform two tasks simultaneously. Listening to radio while cooking is a better example to explain how two modalities function together. Not every person can do multi-tasking. Some might trip to manage their work due to lack of efficiency that could be given to each task performed at the same time.

Contents

1.      Alternative and divided attention

2.      Attention and memory

3.       Divided attention affecting memory

4.      Brain areas involved in divided attention and memory

5.      Neurotransmitters

6.      Neuropathology associated with divided attention

7.      References

Alternative attention and divided attention

Attention is the condition where an individual develops interest on certain forms of stimuli. According to few early psychologists like Edward Bradford Titchener, attention is consciousness and is influenced by conscious experience. There are four types of attention: sustained attention, selective attention, alternative attention and divided attention.

Alternative attention does seem similar to divided attention but they are two complete different types of attention. Alternative is a type of attention where the ability to switch task from one to another. An individual can shift their attention from one task to another and get back to the original task in alternative attention where as in divided attention is a condition where the individual performs multiple tasks simultaneously.

Attention and memory

Attention is the process of individual’s ability to choose particular stimulus in the environment. Memory is a process where the information is encoded, stored and retrieved in the end. The memory has a restrained capacity to store every motive that encounters in the surroundings. Hence, attention helps sense organs to store by noticing what is necessary. Encoding being the initial stage of memory, registers the specific stimuli for a short period of time through sense organs. The process of encoding is also known as sensory memory. Attending to the particular stimuli through sensory memory is sent to short term memory. The stimulus is then rehearsed and stored to long term memory.

Divided attention affecting memory

Due to the multiple stimuli that are present in the environment, chances of distractions are high. When the stimuli are encountered, it should be sent to short term memory which is further sent to long term memory for retrieving in future via rehearsals. But failure in rehearsal causes failure in retrieval process. When the concentration is divided, the efficiency or the ability that individual could give to the particular task, decreases. For example, if a lady is cooking while talking in the phone, she might end up messing with the favourite dish by concentrating in her phone conversation. Even though the lady has experience in cooking her favourite food, she messes it while talking on the phone. This distraction made the woman to miss or add an extra ingredient that could mess her entire savoury of the dish.

In the process of divided attention; the individual encounters many stimuli at the same time and remembers every process of the daily task conducted. The repetitions of the task are managed by the individual to carry it smoothly. The concentration is divided. Even though multiple tasks are conducted simultaneously, the memory of each stimulus is registered in the long term memory. The rehearsals make the man perfect. But when the same individual is given the different task for multi-tasking, he or she might fail to manage contrasting to the daily task conducted.

Few of the researches including (Mulligan,2003), says that there the reaction time in divided attention will be reduced when the individual  tends to choose the unfamiliar object. If the person is prone to learn few new tasks, then he or she might reduce their reaction time and show slow response when compared to the familiar tasks. The other factors that could affect divided attention could be the age of the individual and difficulty in task

Brain areas involved in divided attention and memory

Many studies and researches have been conducted to measure the part of brain through fMRI that is involved in process of attention. The result observed was the frontal cortex, involved in the process of attention. The area of the brain that involved in the process of divided attention was pre-frontal cortex. Pre-frontal cortex(link) covers the fore-part of the frontal lobe. The functions involve attention, personality, decision making and behaviour. The pre-frontal cortex has the ability to decide the situation as either good or bad, the outcome of the situation, predictability and the consequences.

Memory is stored in almost all parts of the brain. But the major parts involved in the brain for memory are Pre-frontal cortex, Amygdala, Hippo-campus and cerebellum. This is proved in one of the well known experiments conducted by Karl Spencer Lashley on rats. Lashely seizes certain parts of brain of rats to check if the rats remember their way to the end in maze created by lashely for food. Even though certain area that triggered the memory initially was seized, the rats managed to get to the destination at the end.

Neurotransmitters

The neurotransmitters are the vital component for the brain to decide its reaction. The releasing of certain neurotransmitters determines certain decisions in the cognitive functions.

The neurotransmitter released majorly during the functions of prefrontal cortex is Dopamine. The Dopamine controls the higher order cognitive functions such as decision making, motivation, attention. Dopamine has also been recognised as major neurotransmitters to release in the process of memory with other neurochemicals such as epinephrine, serotonin, glutamate and acetylcholine during retrieval. When individual tends to focus the attention on particular stimulus, dopamine helps to take a decision whether to continue concentration on the chosen stimulus or not.

The other chemical that is dominantly released with dopamine is Norepinephrine. This chemical is involved in memory and alertness. The focus is increased by demanding of the situation. This chemical is associated with adrenaline. The readiness to the situation is decided by Norepinephrine. These neurotransmitters are released to synapse at the same time.

Neuropathology associated with divided attention

Though some of the pathologies are not completely based on divided attention, they are associated with it. Some of them are: Schizophrenia, ADHD, TBI and Stroke. The patient cannot do multi-tasking. The impairment in the memory is basic ailment seen in these pathologies. Schizophrenia has a persistent memory loss. In these pathologies the individual has a loss of concentration and deficits in attention.

References

1.      Neil. W. Mulligan and Marilyn Hartman 1996 “Divided attention and indirect memory tests” Memory and cognition 24, pages 453-465 (1996).

= 2.     M A  Fernandes  M Moscovitch 2000 “Divided attention and memory: evidence of substantial interference effects at retrieval and encoding” J Expo Psychol Gen 2000 Jun;123(2):155-76 doi: 10.1037//0096-3445.129.2.155. =

= 3.     Catherine D. Middlebrooks, Tyson Kerr, and Alan D. Castel 2017 “Selectively                         Distracted: Divided Attention  and Memory for Important Information” Psychol Sci. 2017 Aug; 28 (8): 1103-1115. =

= 4.     Moshe Naveh-Benjamin Matthew S Brubaker 2019 “Are the effects of divided attention on memory encoding processes due to the disruption of deep-level elaborative process? Evidence from cued and free recall tasks” Journal of Memory and Language. Volume 106, Pages 108-117. =

= 5.     Kane, M.J.,& Engle, R.W(2000). “Working-memory capacity, proactive interference, and divided attention: Limits on long-term memory retrieval.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26(2), 336-358. =

= 6.     Kern, RosalieP. Libkuman, TerryM. Otani, Hajime Holmes, Katherine 2005 “Emotional Stimuli, Divided attention and Memory” Emotion, 5(4), 408-417 =

= 7.     Thomas M. Dannhauser, Zuzana Walker, Tim Stevens, Lean Lee, Marc Seal, Sukhwinder. S. Shergill  10 February 2005  “The functional anatomy of divided attention in amnestic mild cognitive impairment” Brain, Volume 128, Isuue 6, June 2005, Pages 1418-1427. =

= 8.     Maureen Schmitter- Edgecombe March 1996 “The effects of divided attention on implicit and explicit memory performance” Cited by 32, Volume 32, Issue 2, pp-112-125. Publishes online by Cambridge University on 26 February 2009 =

= 9.     Blake L. Elliott, Gene A. Brewer 2019 “Divided attention selectively impairs value-directed encoding” Collabra Psychology 5(1), [4]. https://doi.org/10.1525/collabra.156 =

= 10. C. Chipunza, A, Mandeya November 1, 2005 “Dual-Task Processing: Effects of Task Difficulty and Stimulus Similarity on Dual-Task Performance” Research Article. Sage Discipline Hubs Vol 35, Issue 4, 2005. =

= 11. Macro lacoboni 2005 “Divided Attention in the Normal and the Split Brain: Chronometry and Imaging” Neurobiology of Attention. =

= 12. Robert Andrian Rill, Kinga Bettina Farago, Andras Lorincz 2018 April 15, “Trategic predictors of performance in a divided attention task” https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0195131 = 1.     Harold E. Pashler 1998 “The Psychology of Attention” A Bradford Book. The MI Press Cambridge.