Attention (3 types)

Question 1

What is attention?

Answer 1

the level of awareness directed towards certain stimuli to the exclusion of other.

Question 2

What is sustained attention? (vigilance)

Type cognitive processing required?

Used for what tasks?

Answer 2

involves maintaining a high degree of attention over a prolonged period.

controlled cognitive processing.

simple and complex tasks.

Question 3

Negatives of sustained attention?

Answer 3

the longer you pay sustained attention, the higher the risk of misperception.

Question 4

What is selective attention?

Type cognitive processing required?

Used for what tasks?

Answer 4

focusing on a single activity (1 stimuli) while disregarding other environmental stimuli.

controlled cognitive processing.

complex tasks.

Question 5

Negatives of selective attention?

Answer 5

cocktail party effect - can lead to disregarding other important stimuli.

Question 6

What is divided attention?

Type cognitive processing required?

Used for what tasks?

Answer 6

distributing attention to allow the processing of two or more stimuli at the same time

automatic cognitive processing.

simple tasks.

Question 7

Negatives of divided attention?

Answer 7

performance decreases if one or more of the tasks focused on are complex.