7: Perception and Attention

Question 1

Define Sensation

Answer 1

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

• ‘Is there anything out there?’

Question 2

Define Perception

Answer 2

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

• ‘What is it, where is it, what is it doing?’

–> Making sense of the sensory information

Question 3

What is Bottom up perception?

Answer 3

• Individual elements are combined to make a unified perception of pure sensory information we are recieving

Question 4

What is Top down perception?

How is is connected to bottom up perception?

Answer 4

Top down: Processing in light of existing knowledge, expectiations etc. –> e.g. backmasking

Bottom up and top down work together to influence the perception of a stimmulus

Question 5

What are the different factors that affect top-down perception?

Answer 5

• Attention
• Past experiences
  
  • Poor children and adults overestimate the size of coins compared to affluent people (Ashley et al., 1951)
• Current drive state (e.g. arousal state)
  
  • Hunger: when hungry, more likely to notice food-related stimuli (Seibt et al., 2007)
• Emotions
  
  • E.g. Anxiety increases threat perception (e.g. in PTSD)
• Individual values & expectations
  
  • Telling people a stimulus might be painful makes them more likely to report pain in response to it (Colloca et al, 2008)
• Environment
• Cultural background

Question 6

Name an example on how the environment influence perception?

Answer 6

E.g. Optic illusion rooms

• expect that rooms are designed in a certain ways (90° angles)

Question 7

How does Culture influence perception?

Answer 7

Cultural backoround can influence the way we see things (e.g. how we are used to and thought patterns)

a) Woman: window vs. carry water
b: shooting elephant (african) vs. antilope (western view)

Question 8

Explain the Figure ground Relation of the Gestalt laws

Answer 8

Figure ground relation

our tendency to organise stimuli into central or foreground and a background.  Focus of attention becomes the figure, all else is background

Question 9

Explain the law of continuity in the Gestalt law

Answer 9

When the eye is compelled to move through one object and continue to another object

– >Make sense of flowing

Question 10

Explain the law of Similarity of the Gestalt laws

Answer 10

Similarity: Similar things are perceived as being grouped together

Question 11

Explain the law of proximity of the Gestalt laws

Answer 11

Proximity: Object near each other are grouped together

Question 12

Explain the law of closture in the Gestalt laws

Answer 12

Closure: Things are grouped together if they seem to complete some entity.

Question 13

What is visual agnosia?

Answer 13

Processign fo vison is damaged –> see and can navigate but naming + accessing information is damaged

• Basic vision spared
• Primary visual cortex can be mostly intact
• Patient not blind
• Knowledgeable about information from other senses (e.g. if they touch an object then naming is typically simple)

Question 14

What are the different types of visual agnosia?

Answer 14

1. won’t form a whole object on them –> can’t recognise a shape e.g. a triangle, can’t draw it
   
   1. severer
2. Might be able to see+ draw things but cannot name: no access to information difficult to access more information on the object

Question 15

Explain the role of attention in the process of perception

Answer 15

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

2 processes:

• Focus on a certain aspect
• Filter out other information

-> e.g. not seeing bear when just looking at something else

Question 16

What are different types (compenents) of attention?

Answer 16

1. Focused attention
   
   • spotlight
2. Devided Attention
   
   • payint attention to more than one thing at once

Question 17

What are the factors that can influence our attention?

Answer 17

Characteristics of the stimulus

• intensity
• novelty
• movement
• contrast

+ Personal factors:

• motives
• interests
• threats
• mood
• arousal

Question 18

What is the Cocktail party effect?

Answer 18

Cocktailparty effect: Filtering a lot

in conversation: focus on one conversation but when spmeone calls oput name: response and divert the attention n

Question 19

What are the three basic stages of learning?

Answer 19

1. Cognitive stage
   
   1. new information
   2. what are the steps involved? Observing
2. Associative Stage
   
   1. development of patterns
3. Autonomous stage
   
   1. doing things without even really thinking about it

Question 20

Explain the relationship between attention and medical mistakes

Answer 20

If e..g learning reches autonomous skills

–> medical skills if they are autonomous–> loss of concious attentions of tasks

–> medical errors can happen when processes are automatic

Question 21

What are different factors that influence (chronic) pain perception

Answer 21

• 28 million people experience chronic pain in the UK
• different from acute pain
• more the 3 month, tdamage is healed but person stilll pervieves pain
• thought to be due to loss of cancellation of painful stimulus due to
  
  • complex informaiton processing in brain

Pain is influenced by

• attention
• how we feel, think
• mindfullness –> cange focuss of attention and change of sensory processing
• Might lead to vicious cycle in pain –> if not doing fun things due to pain more focus on pain etc. and more anxiety, stress therefore more pain

Question 22

What are the Gestalt Laws?

Answer 22

Trying to explain how we organise the parts of our perceptual field in a whole

• Figure-ground relation
• Continuity
• Similarity
• Proximity
• Closure

Question 23

What are the different stimulus factors that influence attention?

Answer 23

Attention increases with

• intensity
• novelty
• movement
• contrast
• Repetition

of the stimulus

Question 24

What are the two ways that we can pay attention to something?

Answer 24

We can give

1. Focused (“spotlight”) attention or
2. Divided attention -> paying attention to more than one thing

Question 25

What are personal factors that influence attention?

Answer 25

• Interests
• motives
• threat
• mood and
• arousal

Question 26

What is the Cocktail party effect?

Answer 26

We can focus our attention on one person’s voice in spite of all the other conversations in a party shows that

• we can filter information, depending how we direct our attention
• (but if someone says name: we are likely to hear it –> we subconciously also hear more)

Question 27

Explain how attention differs in the different states of how we learn (clinical) skills (and explain each of them)

Answer 27

There are three stages and with each the attention decreases

1. Cognitive stage
   
   • thinking about it and learning the procedure via direct instructions
2. Associative stage
   
   • we know how to do it (cognitively) but still need to learn how exactly to do it and think about is while doing it
3. Autonomous state
   
   • The skill is largely automatic –> implicit knowledge and motor co-ordination, rather than instruction (don’t think about the skill anymore)

Question 28

Explain how attention can affect medical errors

Answer 28

If we are in a autonomous state of learning:

• don’t think about the taks anymore: mistakes happen
• in a study: “Over half of patient deaths were due to unconscious errors that could be the direct consequence of automatic behaviour”

Question 29

Explain the Medical Student syndrome (MSS)

Answer 29

• Medical students focus more on bodily symptoms due to more attention
• Percieve more symptoms due to more attention
• –> Think they have something that has been mentioned in the lecture

Question 30

How can attention influence pain perception?

Answer 30

If one

• draws more attention to a symptom/pain it is percieved as more severe and
• If one is expecting pain (–> more attention to the feeling) it will be more severe

Question 31

Explain the Fear Avoidance Model of Chronic Pain

Answer 31

It is a vicious circle

Model: Pain influences the mood and anxiety as well as engagement with everyday activities (and all influence each other aswell

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