Cognitive Psychology (PSYC 110) · Module 6 of 10
Attention & Cognitive Load
How automatic and controlled processes interact, and what happens when working memory gets overloaded.
Divided Attention Revisited
- Divided attention performance depends on task similarity, practice/automaticity, and overall task difficulty; well-practiced or dissimilar tasks can sometimes be combined with little cost.
Under what conditions can two tasks be performed simultaneously with relatively little interference?
Solution. When the tasks draw on different processing resources, like one verbal and one motor, and/or when at least one task has become highly automatic through practice, requiring minimal conscious attention.
The Stroop Effect
- The Stroop effect demonstrates interference between automatic and controlled processing: naming the ink color of a color word is slower when the word itself names a different color, because reading the word is a more automatic process that interferes with the controlled task of naming the ink color.
Why does it take longer to name the ink color of the word "GREEN" printed in red ink, compared to naming the color of a simple colored square?
Solution. Reading the word "GREEN" is a highly automatic process that happens involuntarily and quickly, creating interference with the controlled, effortful task of naming the actual ink color, slowing down the response.
Cognitive Load Theory
- Cognitive load theory holds that working memory has limited capacity, and instructional or task design should minimize unnecessary ("extraneous") cognitive load to leave more capacity for the actual learning or task-relevant ("germane") processing.
According to cognitive load theory, why might a poorly designed slide with cluttered, redundant text and images hurt learning?
Solution. It increases extraneous cognitive load — mental effort spent processing irrelevant or poorly organized information — leaving less of the learner's limited working memory capacity available for actually understanding the material.
Multitasking & Attention Switching
- What feels like "multitasking" is often actually rapid attention switching between tasks, which incurs a "switch cost" — a small delay and increased error rate each time attention shifts from one task to another.
Why is "multitasking" often less efficient than it feels, according to research on attention?
Solution. Much of what feels like doing two things at once is actually rapidly switching attention back and forth between tasks, and each switch incurs a "switch cost" that adds up, often making total performance slower and less accurate than focusing on one task at a time.
Check yourself
2 of this module's 5 quiz questions. Pick your answers, then check them in the app, with an explanation for every question.
1. Under what conditions can two tasks be combined with little interference?
2. What does the Stroop effect demonstrate?