Attention and Awareness - Assignment Example

Running Head: Psychology Psychology Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lecture Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date Attention and Awareness When I asked a friend to view a picture that I was revealing to him in brief glimpses the results were surprising. The picture I showed my friend was of three young teenage girls posing in the field after a soccer game. The Girls were at their high school stadium. After the first glimpse my friend said all he could see was an empty stadium. However, on the second look my friend reported he could also see the stadium had black and white seats. According to him the seats were painted to make an impression of the Nike trademark. In the second glimpse my friend revealed that there were three people posing with a football in a soccer pitch. He told that he could not tell whether the three people in the picture were either girls or boys. However, giving the observer a further glimpse of the picture he was able to reveal that there were a number of spectators leaving the stadium. He also reported that the picture contained two girls and one boy squatting with a football between them. He also said that he could also see some people cleaning the seats in the stadium. He also could now tell that the stadium was not designed for soccer but rather for American football as revealed by the unique markings of American football on the field. On the third, glimpse I allowed my observer to have more time to look at the picture. This time he said that the three people posing in the picture were all girls. He also told me that all the people cleaning the stadium were men. About the spectators leaving the stadium he reported most were couples. He could also notice a number of children accompanying the adults which he had missed before. He also concluded that it had just been raining in the stadium as there were puddles of water on the running track. Furthermore, some of the spectators now leaving the stadium were sheltering under umbrellas. He also reported that the evening must have been very cold as everyone in the picture was heavily dressed. Even the girls in their football jerseys and shorts had gloves to protect their hands from the cold. He reported that one of the girls appeared to be shivering from the cold. According to Gestalt Center of Gainesville (n.d), attention enables people be more aware of objects in their environment. The more attention a person pays to the environment the more aware he is of what he is observing. Awareness of the environment can only be enhanced by observing phenomenon longer. Students who spend an entire lesson distracted by other activities other than by the lecturer’s address are less likely to be aware of what is taking place (Kentridge, 2011). Another example of how attention brings about environmental awareness is the experience of two travelers on road trip across the state. Where one goes through the entire trip reading his novel while the other interested in new places pays particular attention to the surrounding. At the end of the journey, the one who paid attention to the environment can reconstruct the journey and all the wonderful sights he/she saw on the way. Furthermore, he can reconstruct the direction from where he came from to where he is currently. Brain testing The three tests I took for this assignment were exciting but a bit confusing at first. In the Grammatical reasoning test I scored 6 after experiencing difficulties in the Square and circle test (Cambridge Brain sciences). For me the use of double negation and a true and false option at the end of each question was very confusing. I took the most time with the first question which posed; “the circle is not bigger than the square “(Cambridge Brain sciences). While obviously the circle was within the square and therefore smaller, the questions double negation had me struggling. However, once I answered the first question I was able to proceed through the others without much hiccup. I realized that the problems posed in this test could only be answered by employing mental strategies instead of trying harder. I feel I did not get enough time as I was unable to complete the last task in the grammatical reasoning test. On the second test I took I scored 18, I had to arrange the numbers in their correct position. The numbers were first presented in a grid and then shuffled to different positions. In the resulting grid, green numbers remained in their correct position while those in the wrong position were in red colour (Cambridge Brain sciences). This test was initially very confusing to me. I did not know how to move the numbers using my mouse. On the first task I spent so much time that I started to raise concerns about the validity of the test. The fact that the numbers could not move in all the direction you wanted to move them in was also very frustrating. However, I learnt the first move you made was very important in determining the number of moves you needed to complete arranging the numbers in their correct positions. I must confess that this test was very frustrating for me as I was unable to complete most of the tasks successfully The memory test also referred to as the monkey span was the most exciting task for me. Unlike the other two tests, in the first task I had to remember the position of one and two in just two boxes. In contrast to the others, the memory test was easy to understand as you had to click the boxes in numerical order. However, as I advanced through the test it became more difficult. From the test I gathered that it was easy to remember small amount of information that is ordered in simple fashions. However, as the brain receives more information in a complex order the ability to remember diminishes. When I had 8 boxes and number located haphazardly across the screen I could only accurately remember the position of just the first four numbers. However, I feel with practice I could be able to remember the position of up to 10 numbers in any order. References Cambridge Brain sciences. Retrieved from http://www.cambridgebrainsciences.com/ accessed19 March 2014 Kentridge, R. W. (2011). Attention Without Awareness. Attention: Philosophical and psychological essays, 228. The Gestalt Center of Gainesville (n.d). Awareness & Attention, retreived from http://www.afn.org/~gestalt/aa.htm accessed 19 March 2014 Read More