Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 28, 2026
09:37
Measurement of Neurophysiological Signals of Ignoring and Attending Processes in Attention Control
Published on: July 5, 2015
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Orienting to see what's important: Learn to ignore the irrelevant
Mitchell Rabinowitz1, Jaclin Gerstel-Friedman1
1Graduate School of Education, Fordham University, New York, NY, USA.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)
|June 20, 2017
Summary
People can focus on deep information by blocking irrelevant surface features. This study shows that by guiding attention, individuals can overcome distractions and perceive deeper structural elements.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Information Processing
Background:
- People often struggle to distinguish between surface-level and deep-level features in information.
- Distraction by irrelevant details can hinder the perception of underlying structures.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if blocking by comparison type in a triad judgment task influences attention towards deep (structural) versus surface-level (irrelevant) features.
- To determine if participants can be guided to focus on structural similarities over superficial ones.
Main Methods:
- A triad judgment task was employed with 313 participants from Mechanical Turk.
- Three types of triads were constructed using ethical scenarios in psychology: similar surface-similar deep (SS/SD), similar deep-unrelated (SD/U), and similar surface-unrelated (SS/U).
- Participants evaluated which of two source scenarios best matched a target scenario.
Main Results:
- In most blocking orders, participants consistently selected the surface-similar (SS) scenario over the deep-similar (SD) scenario in SS/SD triads.
- This preference for surface features was not observed in participants who began with SD/U triads.
- Results indicate an inherent ability to perceive deep features, often overshadowed by surface-level distractions.
Conclusions:
- People possess the capacity to discern deep, structural information.
- Surface-level features can act as significant distractors, impeding deeper understanding.
- Task design and blocking orders can orient individuals away from surface distractions, enabling focus on deep features.
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