Attention and Preattention in an Instance Theory of         Automatization
{'Code': '04040500', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'SBE', 'LongName': 'Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'BCS', 'LongName': 'Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Sci'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Jasmine Young', 'PO_EMAI': 'jyoung@nsf.gov', 'PO_PHON': '7032924833'}
Automaticity is an important phenomenon in everyday mental life.                Many routine activities are performed quickly and effortlessly                  with little thought, in short, automatically.  Over the last                    decade, psychologists have learned a lot about its empirical                    characteristics, but automaticity is poorly understood                          theoretically.  This research addresses a new theory of                         automaticity, testing its assumptions and comparing its                         predictions against previous approaches.  The theory assumes that               automatic processing is based on direct-access, single-step                     memory retrieval, as when 4 pops into mind as the sum of 2+2 or                 the route home comes to mind as we enter our cars at the end of                 the day.  Practice is important because it strengthens memory and               makes it more reliable, so that performance on a well-practiced                 task can depend entirely on memory retrieval.  The assumptions                  about strengthening memory allow the theory to predict the form                 of the learning curve and the reduction of verifiability with                   practice, which are basic effects that all theories must predict.                                                                                               The research examines the role of attention in encoding into                    memory and retrieval from memory.  The theory assumes that                      whatever is attended will be encoded into memory, which implies                 certain context effects not predicted by other theories.                        Specifically, it implies that memory will contain a trace of the                person's attentional history with a stimulus, associating the                   different things the person attended to in responding to the                    stimulus.  That trace will be different depending on the                        attentional requirements of the task.  Tasks in which attention                 can be focused directly on the stimulus will have weaker context                effects than tasks in which the person must search for the                      stimulus, dividing attention among several possible stimuli.                    Previous approaches predict no effect of context regardless of                  the conditions of attention.                                                                                                                                    The theory assumes that attention to a stimulus causes whatever                 was associated with it in the past to be retrieved.  This is the                basis of the speed and effortlessness of automatic processing.                  In addition, it implies that knowledge about the stimulus is                    available only after the person attends to it.  Thus, directing                 attention toward a familiar stimulus should "turn on" automatic                 processing and directing attention away from it should "turn it                 off."  This contrasts with previous approaches, which assume that               automatic processing becomes available prior to attention, before               attention is focused on the stimulus.
{'FirstName': 'Gordon', 'LastName': 'Logan', 'PI_MID_INIT': 'D', 'PI_SUFX_NAME': None, 'PI_FULL_NAME': 'Gordon D Logan', 'EmailAddress': 'gordon.logan@vanderbilt.edu', 'NSF_ID': '000293192', 'StartDate': '09/01/1988', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign', 'CityName': 'URBANA', 'ZipCode': '618013620', 'PhoneNumber': '2173332187', 'StreetAddress': '506 S WRIGHT ST', 'StreetAddress2': None, 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'Illinois', 'StateCode': 'IL', 'CONGRESSDISTRICT': '13', 'CONGRESS_DISTRICT_ORG': 'IL13', 'ORG_UEI_NUM': 'Y8CWNJRCNN91', 'ORG_LGL_BUS_NAME': 'UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS', 'ORG_PRNT_UEI_NUM': None}
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{'Code': '118000', 'Text': 'HUMAN COGNITION & PERCEPTION'}
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1988&All=true', 'xml': '8811026.xml'}