Question

Describe three scenarios in which a $50 bill becomes a focus of your attention; one involving top-down attentional control, one involving bottom-up attentional control, and one involving value-driven attention control.

Answer 1

Top-down attentional control:

Top-down attention refers to internally guided attention that is based on planned goals and prior knowledge.

For example, imagine you’re in dire need of money one day, and you’ve run out of your pocket money. Your parents aren’t at home, so you cannot request them to lend you some money. Your only option is to go around the house and rummage through all the cupboards hoping to find some cash. In this scenario, your goal is to find money, and your attention is being internally guided by you to specifically look for money. You might specifically search through a cupboard in which your parents often store their cash, thus using your prior knowledge to guide your search. If in this way you’re able to spot a 50 USD bill, you would have applied a top-down attentional approach to find it.

Bottom-up attentional control:

Bottom up attention refers to stimulus-driven attention, i.e., attention that is guided by salient or noteworthy environmental stimuli.

For example, imagine you’re hiking in the woods. Its early in the morning, and you’re one of the lone hikers at this time. You suddenly spot a 50 USD bill lying on the hiking path. You notice it immediately. The stimuli in this case is the 50 USD bill, and it is noteworthy and salient because it was an unexpected find in the desolate woods. In this scenario, the stimulus (the bill) guided your attention towards it, and you have used a bottom-up attentional approach to spot the bill.

Value-driven attention control:

Lastly, the capture of your attention by stimuli that have been previously associated with reward is known as value-driven attentional capture. That is, a stimulus that has been previously associated with high reward is given preferentially high attention in your voluntary attentional allocation. Thus, you will notice objects in your surroundings that you associate with rewarding outcomes, even if your voluntary attention is directed elsewhere.

For example, imagine you’re looking for something to eat in your kitchen, say a packet of biscuits, after a long day at work. And then you notice a 50 USD bill lying on the kitchen counter and that immediately catches your attention. In this case, even though your voluntary attention is directed towards finding something to eat your attentional faculties immediately hone in on the 50 USD bill because that is associated with rewarding outcomes (of buying something you like) from your past experiences.