attention Flashcards
What was William James’ view on attention?
James considered consciousness central to attention, but it’s unclear whether attention and consciousness are the same thing. Recent research suggests they may not be identical.
What is the current debate on whether attention is necessary for consciousness?
Some researchers argue that attention is necessary for consciousness, while others suggest that consciousness can exist without attention, emphasizing a distinction between the two processes.
Is attention necessary for consciousness, or is consciousness necessary for attention?
The relationship is debated. Some studies show that attention can enhance conscious perception, but others suggest consciousness may operate independently of attention.
What is Freud’s connection to the concept of attention?
Freud’s ideas on unconscious processing suggest that attention may be linked to our conscious awareness, with unconscious processes influencing what we attend to consciously.
What is selective attention?
Selective attention is the ability to focus on a subset of available information, choosing what to process while ignoring other stimuli, similar to James’ view of attention as a focus of awareness.
What is sustained attention?
Sustained attention refers to the ability to maintain focus, alertness, or vigilance over an extended period of time, important for tasks requiring long-term concentration.
How is attention conceptualized as a resource?
Attention is seen as a limited cognitive resource that can be distributed across various tasks. Divided attention refers to how we allocate attention across competing demands.
What is divided attention?
Divided attention refers to the ability to attend to multiple stimuli or tasks simultaneously, although performance often declines with more complex tasks.
What phenomenon demonstrates that we only process a small part of visual input?
Change blindness demonstrates how we fail to detect large changes in a scene when attention is not directed toward them, revealing the limits of our visual processing.
How are eye movements and attention linked?
Eye movements are closely tied to attention, as we move our eyes 2-3 times per second to focus on different parts of a scene, ensuring we can process visual information efficiently.
What is misdirection in magic?
Magicians use misdirection to focus attention on one area, preventing the audience from noticing key actions. Studies by Kuhn & Tatler (2005) show that attention can be manipulated using eye-tracking.
What is selective auditory attention?
In selective auditory attention tasks, such as dichotic listening, participants focus on one stream of information while ignoring another. This shows how attention can filter out irrelevant stimuli.
What is the early selection filter model?
This model suggests that attention acts as an early filter, selecting which sensory inputs are processed based on their physical characteristics. Evidence from dichotic listening tasks supports this model.
How does Triesman’s attenuation model explain selective attention?
Triesman’s model proposes that instead of an all-or-nothing filter, attention weakens (attenuates) irrelevant information, allowing some unattended stimuli to be processed based on their importance.
How does visual attention work in terms of feature binding?
Visual attention helps bind different features (like color and shape) together to form a coherent percept of an object. This binding is crucial for creating an accurate representation of the visual world.
