10 - Attention

Question 1

attention

Answer 1

the selective focusing of awareness to a specific part of the sensory environment or to a class of stimuli

Question 2

automatic processing

Answer 2

• bottom-up
• data driven
• unconscious
• involuntary

Question 3

conscious processing

Answer 3

• top-down
• conceptually driven
• controlled
• requires attention

Question 4

Perceptual Model of Feature Search

Answer 4

• cognitive strategy for scanning for specific features of stimuli
• features present in the same fixation of attention are combined to form a single object

Question 5

Alerting Network

Answer 5

• based on the ascending Reticular Activation System (RAS) which is located in midbrain & helps to maintain alertness

Question 6

Orienting Network

Answer 6

• prioritizes sensory inputs by selecting a sensory modality
• includes dorsal & ventral orienting networks

Question 7

dorsal orienting network

Answer 7

• focuses attention
• synchronizes visuospatial orienting activity
• top-down process
• strongly right lateralized

Question 8

ventral orienting network

Answer 8

• synchronizes orienting system activity with incoming bottom-up sensory input
• reduces influence of other competing sensory inputs
• influenced by the pulvinar nucleus in the thalamus

Question 9

Executive Control of Attention Network

Answer 9

• includes frontoparietal network (relates task instructions at beginning)
  & cingulo-opercular network (sustained activity across a task)

Question 10

attentional blink

Answer 10

failure to detect a 2nd visual target because attention to 1st target prevents awareness of 2nd one

Question 11

sensory neglect

Answer 11

• inability to respond to sensory stimulation
• occurs when R. parietal region is damaged

Question 12

Neural Correlates of Consciousness

Answer 12

• sensory areas
• memory structures
• emotion
• executive control

Question 13

serial processing

Answer 13

• act of attending to and processing one item at a time
• conjunction search (combination of features) is a serial process

Question 14

features

Answer 14

• biologically significant stimuli
• properties that the visual system codes cells to detect

Question 15

evidence of attention experiments

Answer 15

must show that the same stimulus activates a neuron at one time & not at another time

Question 16

parallel processing

Answer 16

• processing multiple objects in the attentional spotlight
• presents a binding problem

Question 17

inattentional blindness

Answer 17

• failure to perceive an unexpected stimulus due to lack of attention
  -Ex: failure to notice person in a gorilla suit when asked to count # of basketball passes

Question 18

change blindness

Answer 18

failure to detect change in the presence, identity, or location of objects in a scene

Question 19

consciousness

Answer 19

• level of responsiveness of the mind to impressions made by the senses
• a collection of many processes

Question 20

prerequisites of consciousness

Answer 20

arousal
perception
attention
working memory