5a: Attention and perception

Question 1

Define sensation

Answer 1

stimulus detection system by which our sense organs respond to and translate environmental stimuli into nerve impulses that are sent to the brain

Question 2

Define perception

Answer 2

The active process of organising the stimulus output and giving it meaning

Question 3

What is top-down processing

Answer 3

Processing in light of existing knowledge

motives, expectations, experiences, culture
E.g. ‘backmasking’

Question 4

What is bottom up processing

Answer 4

Individual elements are combined to make a unified perception

(i.e. vibration of tympanic membrane, activation in auditory cortex)

Question 5

What influences perception (top down)

Answer 5

Attention, past experiences, current drive state, emotions, individual values and expectations, environment, cultural background

CAVEAPA

Question 6

Example of past experience affecting perception

Answer 6

Poor children and adults overestimate the size of coins compared to affluent people

Question 7

How does arousal (=drive state) influence perception

Answer 7

when hungry, more likely to notice food-related stimuli

Question 8

How can emotion influence perception

Answer 8

Anxiety increases threat perception (e.g. in PTSD)

Question 9

How can individual values and expectations affect percetpion

Answer 9

Telling people a stimulus might be painful makes them more likely to report pain in response to it

Question 10

What are gestalt laws referring to

Answer 10

Championed ‘top-down’ processing (the sum of the parts is more than the whole)

Question 11

List gestalt laws

Answer 11

1. Figure ground relations (our tendency to organise stimuli into central or foreground and a background)
2. Continuity (eye is compelled to move through one object and continue to another object)
3. Similarity (Similar things are perceived as being grouped together)
4. Proximity ( Object near each other are grouped together)
5. Closure (Things are grouped together if they seem to complete some entity)

Question 12

2 types of visual agnosia

Answer 12

Apperceptive Agnosia: A failure to integrate the perceptual elements of the stimulus. (lower level occipital regions)…

Associative Agnosia: A failure of retrieval of semantic information (higher order occipital regions) i.e. can’t access info about what it is

Question 13

Pathway of object recognition

Answer 13

Visual perceptual analysis

Viewer centred representation

Visual object recognition system

Semantic system

Name retrieval

TOP 2 afected in Apperceptive Agnosia

3 and 4 affectd in Associative Agnosia

Question 14

What is attenetion

Answer 14

process of focusing conscious awareness, providing heightened sensitivity to a limited range of experience requiring more intensive processing.

Question 15

2 processes in attention

Answer 15

Focus on a certain aspect

Filter out other information

Question 16

2 types of attention

Answer 16

Focused

Divided

Question 17

Stimulus factors affecting attention

Answer 17

1. Intensity
2. Novelty
3. Movement
4. Contrast
5. Repetition

Question 18

Personal factors affecting attention

Answer 18

Motives

Interest

Arousal

Threats

Mood

Question 19

3 stages of attneiton

Answer 19

1. COGNITIVE

(Learning requires explicit instruction through teaching from an ‘expert’, demonstration, and self-observation)

2. ASSOCIATIVE

(effective motor programme has been developed to carry out the broad skill but lacks ability to perform finer subtasks with fluency)

3. AUTONOMOUS

(skill is largely automatic
Rely on implicit knowledge and motor co-ordination, rather than instruction
)

Question 20

What is the problem with automaticity

Answer 20

the more automatic a task, the less conscious control available.

MEDICAL ERRORS
44% of deaths caused by errors in planning e.g. giving wrong dose of medication

20% caused by slips e.g. injecting air into IV instead of NG tube

Question 21

How does pain affect perception

Answer 21

Anderson and pennebaker

Stimulus: vibrating piece of sandpaper
Students were told they would be:
Painful
Pleasant 
Not told anything

Rating:

Group told pleasant: high not painful rating

Group told nothing: nothing

Group told pain: painful rating

Question 22

Another exampe of perception of bodly symptoms

Answer 22

Focus of attention contributes to the perception of our bodily symptoms

Pennebacker and lightner

56 participants walked on treadmill for 11 minutes on 2 occasions
1st time: wore headphones but heard nothing
2nd time: one group heard amplified sounds of their own breathing, other group heard street sounds (e.g. cars, conversations)

Question 23

Differentiate acute and chronic pain

Answer 23

Pain is usually a sign of body damage
Chronic pain is when pain has been present for greater than 3 months
At this point, it is likely that original damage has healed

Question 24

What affects pain perception

Answer 24

Tissue damage

Pain sensatin

Thoughts

Emotions

Suffering

Pain behaviours

External factors

Question 25

Outline fear-avoidance model of chronic pain

Answer 25

Mood thought and stress influences pain

Day-to day functioning (behaviour)…. may contantly be thinkingabout the pain if not at work etc.

Pain breeds avoidance which perpetuates stress, low mood, anxiety etc.