The orienting response and processing capacity
The orienting response and processing capacity
Ohman's (1979) theory of the orienting response has adopted an information-processing approach and argues that central processing capacity is required for the development of habituation. It is further stated in this theory that the orienting response signifies a 'call' for central processing to commence rather then being an indication that central mechanisms are actively processing the evoking stimulus. Thus, the orienting response is associated with the pre-attentive stages of information processing. A number of predictions which were derived from these conceptualisations have been tested. First, it was predicted that habituation to a repeated non-signal stimulus will be delayed when processing capacity is utilised for the performance of an attention-demanding task. It was argued that such processing demands may prevent the 'call' for processing from being answered. This prediction was confirmed in an experiment which showed that electrodermal responsiveness to a tone stimulus took longer to habituate during the performance of a central task than when no additional processing demands were made. The results of a second experiment indicated that when task demand was varied, subjects in the high task-demand condition displayed delayed response habituation to a task-irrelevant stimulus compared to subjects in the low task-demand condition. Finally, the effect of different levels of task demand on response recovery due to stimulus change was investigated. It was argued that from Ohman's theory it can be predicted that response recovery will be less when central task demands are high than when they are low. This was confirmed by the results of a third experiment. The data of all three experiments were discussed in terms of an information-processing analysis of habituation versus an arousal interpretation. It was concluded that little evidence had been found for an arousal account of the data and an information-processing explanation was considered to be more appropriate. A number of suggestions have been made for future use of a multiple stimulus input paradigm in order to investigate further the orienting response in relation to information processing and attention.
University of Southampton
Stenfert Kroese, Elisabeth Dorothy
1982
Stenfert Kroese, Elisabeth Dorothy
Stenfert Kroese, Elisabeth Dorothy
(1982)
The orienting response and processing capacity.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
Ohman's (1979) theory of the orienting response has adopted an information-processing approach and argues that central processing capacity is required for the development of habituation. It is further stated in this theory that the orienting response signifies a 'call' for central processing to commence rather then being an indication that central mechanisms are actively processing the evoking stimulus. Thus, the orienting response is associated with the pre-attentive stages of information processing. A number of predictions which were derived from these conceptualisations have been tested. First, it was predicted that habituation to a repeated non-signal stimulus will be delayed when processing capacity is utilised for the performance of an attention-demanding task. It was argued that such processing demands may prevent the 'call' for processing from being answered. This prediction was confirmed in an experiment which showed that electrodermal responsiveness to a tone stimulus took longer to habituate during the performance of a central task than when no additional processing demands were made. The results of a second experiment indicated that when task demand was varied, subjects in the high task-demand condition displayed delayed response habituation to a task-irrelevant stimulus compared to subjects in the low task-demand condition. Finally, the effect of different levels of task demand on response recovery due to stimulus change was investigated. It was argued that from Ohman's theory it can be predicted that response recovery will be less when central task demands are high than when they are low. This was confirmed by the results of a third experiment. The data of all three experiments were discussed in terms of an information-processing analysis of habituation versus an arousal interpretation. It was concluded that little evidence had been found for an arousal account of the data and an information-processing explanation was considered to be more appropriate. A number of suggestions have been made for future use of a multiple stimulus input paradigm in order to investigate further the orienting response in relation to information processing and attention.
This record has no associated files available for download.
More information
Published date: 1982
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 460617
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/460617
PURE UUID: ec4006fe-5983-47e2-b4ef-904e8638ad95
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 18:25
Last modified: 04 Jul 2022 18:25
Export record
Contributors
Author:
Elisabeth Dorothy Stenfert Kroese
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics