Theory 031/Mind & Behaviour /Cognitive psychology
Attention Is a Sampling Rate
Attention is described as a spotlight that selects. It may be a clock that decides how often.
Attention allocates sampling rate rather than selecting content, so distractors degrade performance by reducing the rate at which a target is sampled rather than by occupying a limited capacity.
01The evidence
Attention modulates the gain and timing of neural responses, and performance limits track temporal resolution as well as capacity.
02The tension
Capacity models explain many effects and predict that distractors consume slots. They struggle with cases where distractors slow performance without reducing accuracy, which is a rate effect.
03The mechanism
Perception is a sampling process. Attention sets how many samples per second are devoted to a source, and accuracy depends on the number of samples accumulated before a decision.
That makes attention a rate allocation, and predicts that distractors should slow responses more than they increase errors, with the pattern set by the sampling ratio.
04What this is not
Slot models predict errors from overload. This predicts slowing from reduced rate, which is a different signature.
05Predictions
- P1Distractors should slow responses more than they raise errors.
- P2Performance should scale with sampling rate estimates.
- P3Manipulating rate should mimic attention effects.
06Refutation
Distractors producing error patterns without rate changes would favour capacity models.
07What it changes
It would change how attention is measured.