Attention 1 Flashcards
define attention
the process by which the mind chooses from among the various
stimuli that strike the senses at any given moment
what is the cocktail party effect
able to focus attention on a single conversation, as well as being able to shift attention to listen to a different conversation
what do early selection models suggest
Attention takes place at registration or perceptual analysis
example of an early selection model
Broadbent’s filter model
Evidence for early selection
A sound played to a cat under 3 conditions while recordings of brainstem obtained
Animals attention is attracted away from sounds when presented with interesting visual stimuli
what is dichotic listening
Different auditory information is presented in each ear of ppt
Ppt asked to repeat back only one message from one ear
what is exogenous attention
transient, bottom-up, automatic
what is endogenous attention
sustained, top-down, voluntary
how do we manipulate cues for endogenous attention
Ppt sits at computer screen and focuses attention on a cross
An arrow cue points and the cue is followed by a target either in a correctly cued location or incorrectly
findings of manipulating cues
If cue–target presentation is less than 400 msec, reaction time (RT) is faster.
If cue–target presentation is over 400 msec, the effects of inhibition of return (IOR) may result in a slower RT
what is overt attention
Directly attended and looking at stimulus
what is covert attention
Not directly attending to a stimulus by looking, however still aware
what are visual search tasks
Searching for targets amongst distractors
explain pop out target tasks
simple single feature presented - entire array of items do not have to be searched e.g. colour change
explain conjunction search tasks
target is defined by conjunction features similar to the distracters - reaction time is usually much longer
what is retinotopy
Orderly representation of the retinal image in the brain
what is retinotopy used for
delineate cortical areas in humans using fMRI
what does retinotopy allow for
determine which areas in the visual cortex are modulated by attention
what is the biased competition model of attention
Average response to stimulus presented inside receptive field is high when stimulus is shown many times
what happens when two stimuli are presented
the average activity produces an intermediate response
how do neurons compete
selectively boosts the neurons that process stimuli at the attended location- these in turn supress their competitors
what does the dorsal pathway map
motion and depth of an object
what does the ventral pathway map
colour and form
how do we measure object attention
using valid and invalid cueing
