Attention

Question 1

What is attention?

Answer 1

• the brain cannot process every single thing happening at one time - it has a limited capacity.
• we choose what/where we deploy our attention to.

Question 2

What do we know about faces in terms of attention?

Answer 2

• faces catch our attention

Question 3

What did Gupta (2016) find about faces?

Answer 3

Happy faces catch our attention more so than other facial expressions.

Question 4

What did RO, Friggel and Lavie (2007) find about the significance of faces in terms of attention?

Answer 4

Faces catch our visual attention more so than any other body part.

Question 5

What did Posner et al (1980) think about attention? (quote)

Answer 5

“Attention can be characterized as a spotlight that enhances the detection and processing of events within its beam”.

Question 6

Describe the conditions that ran across all of Posners attentional cuing experiments.

Answer 6

• no cue
• 100% valid cue
• 50/50 valid cue
• 80% inavlid cue

Question 7

What were the results of the central cue condition in Posners experiment?

Answer 7

It took the longest (1200 miliseconds) to respond when the cue was 50/50.
500 miliseconds for 80% invalid and for no cue at all
It was quickest for when the cue was 100% valid - 300 miliseconds.

Question 8

What can be said about Posners experiment? (what is the idea)

Answer 8

• Having a cue lets you deploy your attention ahead of time

- When there is an invalid cue the spotlight shifts and has to move further across to the correct location.

Question 9

Central cues…

Answer 9

CAN BE IGNORED

facilitate and inhibit

Question 10

What is an ENDOGENOUS attention system?

Answer 10

• where visual attention can be overtly directed to another spatial location - by info from central cues
• we have CONTROL over this

Question 11

What are peripheral attention cues?

Answer 11

• Where the cue is in the periphery of the task
• was a condition in posners experiment.
• the cue captures our attention, rather than a central cue that allows us to voluntarily shift our attention

Question 12

Peripheral attention cues..

Answer 12

CANNOT BE IGNORED

facilitate and inhibit in the same ways as central cues

Question 13

What is an EXOGENOUS attention system?

Answer 13

Attention is automatically shifted to stimuli which cannot be ignored
- we do not have control over this

Question 14

What study was conducted to analyse the theory of a zoom lens as opposed to an attentional spotlight?

Answer 14

• Participants asked to focus on the central letter of a word
• “what letter is in position 7” - response times increased the further away the letter was from the centre.
• when asked to focus on the whole word - no difference in response times between letters.

Question 15

What is the Inhibition of Return (IOR)?

Answer 15

• A phenomenon where you do not return to previously attended locations
• it is inefficient to keep returning to items that you have already ruled out
• research shows a bias towards not returning to places already visited.

Question 16

Where is attention processed in the brain?

Answer 16

• Superior Parietal Cortex.
• posterior parietal cortex (PPC)
• Intraparietal Sulcus (IP)
• Superior Parietal Lobule (SPL)