2nd Midterm Chapter 7 Vocab

Question 1

arousal

Answer 1

The global physiological and psychological state of an organism, ranging from deep sleep to hyperalertness.

Question 2

bottlenecks

Answer 2

A stage of information processing where not all of the inputs can gain access or pass through.

Question 3

covert attention

Answer 3

Directing attention without overtly changing sensory receptors—for example, attending to a conversation without turning the eyes and head toward the speakers.

Question 4

dorsal attention network

Answer 4

A proposed attention control network, involving dorsal frontal and parietal cortical regions, that mediates voluntary attention.

Question 5

early selection

Answer 5

The theoretical model positing that attention can attenuate or filter out sensory input at early stages of processing before perceptual analysis is complete and the information has been encoded.

Question 6

endogenous (voluntary) attention

Answer 6

The volitional, or intentional, focusing of attention on a source of input, train of thought, or action.

Question 7

endogenous cuing

Answer 7

An experimental method that uses a symbolic cue (e.g., arrow) to induce or instruct participants to voluntarily (i.e., endogenously) direct attention according to task requirements.

Question 8

exogenous (reflexive) attention

Answer 8

The automatic orienting of attention induced by bottom-up, or stimulus-driven, effects, such as when a flash of light in the periphery captures one’s attention.

Question 9

exogenous cuing

Answer 9

An experimental method that uses an external (i.e., exogenous) sensory stimulus (e.g., flash of light) to automatically attract attention without voluntary control.

Question 10

extinction

Answer 10

In a patient with neglect, the failure to perceive or respond to a stimulus contralateral to a lesion when presented with a simultaneous stimulus ipsilateral to the lesion (ipsilesional).

Question 11

feature integration theory of attention

Answer 11

A psychological theory of visual perception based on the idea that the visual system can process in parallel elementary features such as color, shape, and motion, but requires spatial attention to bind the features that define an object.

Question 12

inhibition of return (IOR)

Answer 12

Also inhibitory aftereffect. The phenomenon, observed in an exogenously cued spatial attention task, where after the attention is reflexively attracted to a location by the exogenous cue, there is a slower behavioral response to stimuli in that location that are presented later than 300 ms after the exogenous cue.

Question 13

late selection

Answer 13

The theoretical model positing that all inputs are equally processed perceptually, but attention acts to differentially filter these inputs at later stages of information processing.

Question 14

neglect

Answer 14

(Also known as unilateral spatial neglect) A behavioral pattern exhibited by neurological patients with lesions to the forebrain, in which they fail at or are slowed in acknowledging that objects or events exist in the hemispace opposite their lesion. Neglect is most closely associated with damage to the right parietal cortex.

Question 15

overt attention

Answer 15

Turning the head to orient toward a visual, auditory, olfactory, or other sensory stimulus.

Question 16

pulvinar

Answer 16

A large region of the posterior thalamus comprising many nuclei having interconnections with specific regions of the cortex.