Attention

Question 1

Attention is…

Answer 1

limited and selective.

Question 2

How attention is limited

Answer 2

We can only pay attention to certain things at a time

Question 3

How attention is selective

Answer 3

We pay more attention to some stimuli than others

Question 4

Attention is not fully under conscious control

Answer 4

TRUE

Question 5

We can attend to things that don’t enter awareness

Answer 5

• Unconscious processing
• Blindsight

Question 6

Attention is a key aspect of perception

Answer 6

Attention needed for sensations to become perception

Question 7

Many perceptual errors and illusions are due to…

Answer 7

limitations of attention

Question 8

Attention is not fully under conscious control because…

Answer 8

attention may be “grabbed” by certain stimuli whether you want it to or not.

Question 9

Overt Attention

Answer 9

• Conscious and intentional attending to a scene or stimulus
• Directed attention

Question 10

Covert attention

Answer 10

• When attention is “grabbed” by something that we weren’t directly paying attention to
• Like noticing something out of the corner of your eye

Question 11

Pop-out Effect

Answer 11

As you view this image some things pop out more than others, faces are extremely “meaningful” categories to us
- Specialized brain areas for recognizing faces

Question 12

Attention as a spotlight

Answer 12

• Can focus heavily on one thing
• Weakly on multiple

Question 13

Most information…

Answer 13

gets filtered out, we are more likely to pay attention to things that fit our expectation

Question 14

Dichotic Listening

Answer 14

One message in left, another in right

Question 15

Early studies of dichotic listening found…

Answer 15

• Only difference noticed was sensory attention
• Tonal quality changes
• Voice to music, voice to tones

Question 16

Early studies conclusion…

Answer 16

People are not able to simultaneously receive two messages at once - No other “meaningful” perceptions are possible beyond the focus of attention

Question 17

Later research showed some things could “grab” attention during dichotic listening…

Answer 17

participants could hear their own name in the unattended ear.

Question 18

Cocktail party effect

Answer 18

You can hear your own name in a crowded room

Question 19

Attended ear - hear ambiguous sentences

Answer 19

• “They were throwing stones at the bank.” - change of perception of what “bank” means based on the words they heard.

Question 20

Inattentional blindness

Answer 20

• Lack of attention to an obvious stimuli
  
  • Stimulus is clearly visible, but goes unseen

Question 21

Change blindness

Answer 21

Can be blind to changes between scenes and things in background. If details change while an object is out of view, we may not notice the difference

Question 22

Saccades

Answer 22

Rapid movements of the eyes from one place to another

Question 23

Fixations

Answer 23

Eyes briefly pause on points of interest

Question 24

At any moment of time you are only seeing a small amount of information…

Answer 24

only a small area of the retina has a very clear vision, this area is called the fovea

Question 25

Dividing attention

Answer 25

Practice makes difficult tasks easier and less demanding of our attention, the difference between being a new driver and an experienced driver

Question 26

“Multi-tasking” is not as effective…

Answer 26

as focusing on one thing at a time

Question 27

Unilateral Neglect

Answer 27

• Neurological disorder
• Patients no longer pay attention to one half of their visual field
• Usually caused by damage to one brain hemisphere
• Neglect of left side is most common

Question 28

Attention to the right-side information is…

Answer 28

processed by both brain hemispheres

Question 29

Attention to left-side information is…

Answer 29

mostly processed by right hemisphere

Question 30

Unilateral Neglect will make someone…

Answer 30

will ignore one side of what’s being seen, and will also ignore that side when imaging or recalling from memory

Question 31

For someone with unilateral neglect, attention may…

Answer 31

still be “grabbed” by something on the neglected side through the covert attention