Attention

Question 1

Automatic Processes

Answer 1

Involuntarily capturing attention through being triggered by external events; fast, efficient, obligatory

Question 2

Controlled Processes

Answer 2

Voluntary, conscious attention to objects of interest; slow, effortful (ex. when driving)

Question 3

The Spotlight Model

Answer 3

Attentional “spotlight” focusses on one part of the environment at a time

Question 4

Cuing Paradigms

Answer 4

• Test the automatic processes of attention
• Participant determines whether a star appears in the left or right box on a screen
• Box that flashes may not contain the star
• Flashing box automatically attracts the attentional spotlight to the cued location

Question 5

Single Filter Model

Answer 5

Donald Broadbent
- selects important info based on physical characteristics; allows the info to continue on for further processing
- Infor that doesn’t pass through early physical filter is deemed “unimportant”
- Accepts less info than dual filter model

Question 6

Dual Filter Model

Answer 6

Two filters: one physical, one semantic.
Physical – information processed based on physical cues; weighs importance of incoming stimuli against physical cues
Semantic – information processed based on meaning

Question 7

Breakthrough Effect

Answer 7

participants remember unattended information, especially when it is highly relevant (ex. name)

Question 8

The Stroop Task

Answer 8

Requires you to focus your attention on ink-colour (relevant to task), while ignoring the word itself (irrelevant task)

Question 9

Set Size Effect

Answer 9

Increase in difficulty as set size increases

Question 10

Single-Feature Search Task

Answer 10

Looking for only one particular feature to identify the target

Question 11

Pop-Out Effect

Answer 11

Single feature; object of a visual search is easily found, regardless of size; ex. colour

Question 12

Conjunctive Search Task

Answer 12

Identifying a target defined by 2+ features

Question 13

Contextual Cuing

Answer 13

Helps to search more efficiently; gained through knowledge of our environment

Question 14

The Cocktail party effect

Answer 14

ability to listen to two different messages and pay attention to only one in a shadowing task
-we are able to separate target noise from background noise based on physical characteristics

Question 15

evidence supporting single filter mode

Answer 15

subjects can answer questions about information in attended ear, but not information in unattended ear in dichotic listening activity

Question 16

evidence against single filter model

Answer 16

breakthrough

Question 17

Von Wright

Answer 17

showed that some information is processed in a subject’s unattended ear in classical conditioning experiments

Question 18

Triesman’s Dual Filter Model

Answer 18

attention possesses one physical and one semantic filter to filter stimuli

Question 19

high percent congruent stroop task

Answer 19

increased stroop effect

Question 20

low percent congruent stroop task

Answer 20

decreases stroop effect

Question 21

Top-Down Processing

Answer 21

Using a combination of our memories, biases, and heuristics to interpret information

Question 22

Stroop Paradigm

Answer 22

A task in which a participant is required to identify the colour of ink a colour word is written in while ignoring the word itself. For example, the word red written in blue ink. The participant must say “blue”. This task proves difficult due to the automatic nature of word reading.

Question 23

Schema:

Answer 23

In the context of visual search, it is a representation depicting the range of plausible objects and likely configurations of those objects within particular scenes. It can help guide your search for a target.

Question 24

Overt Attending

Answer 24

The obvious process of looking to where you are attending.

Question 25

Orienting:

Answer 25

The act by which attention moves across a scene.

Question 26

Inattentional Blindness:

Answer 26

Our limited attentional resources can result in missing out (not noticing) some very important or salient things.

Question 27

Inhibition of Return:

Answer 27

IOR tends to prevent your gaze (and attention) from revisiting a previously attended location. In turn, this promotes orienting towards new and previously unsearched locations, which should result in a more efficient search.

Question 28

Late Filter Model:

Answer 28

Suggests filtering occurs after physical and semantic analysis and only selected information goes on for further processing due to limitations in processing capacity.

Question 29

Flashbulb Memories:

Answer 29

A highly detailed and vivid ‘snapshot’ of a moment. Typically occurs during a time when an important piece of news was heard. Not always as accurate as they may seem.

Question 30

Dichotic Listening Paradigm:

Answer 30

Participants wear headphones where one message is presented to one ear (that is attended to) and a different message is presented to the other ear (that is not attended to). The participant is typically instructed to shadow (immediately repeat the message) in the attended ear.

Question 31

Early Selection Theory

Answer 31

Our attentional filter is located early in the process. Information is filtered out early before any semantic processing has occurred. This theory was proposed by Broadbent.

Question 32

Covert Orienting:

Answer 32

Attending to something without looking at it.

Question 33

Change Blindness:

Answer 33

A perceptual phenomenon where a change has occurred in a visual scene, but the observer does not notice or cannot identify it.

Question 34

Bottom-Up Processing

Answer 34

The raw data gathered by our senses.

Question 35

Bottleneck:

Answer 35

Only a limited amount of attentional information can be passed on for further processing.

Question 36

Attenuation Theory:

Answer 36

Unattended information is not completely filtered out, as proposed in the single filter model, but rather ‘turned down’ or attenuated. The attenuator replaces the filter in Broadbent’s model, allowing all information to pass but with differently assigned weightings depending on whether the information is physically similar to the target or not.