Attention Flashcards

1
Q

what is attention

A

the process of concentrating on specific features of the environment or on certin thoughts or activities

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2
Q

what is selective attention

A

focus on one object, idea, etc excluding others
we do not attend to a large fraction of information in the environment
filtering out some information and promoting other information for further processing

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3
Q

what is divided attention

A

attending to more than one thing at the same time

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4
Q

results of dichotic listening

A

participants could not report the content of the message in the unattended eat (knew there was a message vs music vs silence, knew the gender of speaker and tone)
but unattended ear is being processed at some level
cocktail party effect - recognize your own name
change in gender is noticed
-change in tone is noticed
but start in one language end in another not noticed

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5
Q

name the early selection model

A

broadbent’s filter model

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6
Q

name the intermediate selection model

A

Tresiman’s attenuation theory

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7
Q

name the late selection model

A

McKay

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8
Q

explain Broadbent’s filter model

A

filters model before incoming formation is analyzed for meaning
messages -> sensory memory -> filter -> detector -> to memory

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9
Q

aspects of Broadbent’s filter model

- sensory memory

A

holds all incoming information for a fraction of a second

-transfers all information to the next stage

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10
Q

aspects of Broadbent’s filter model

- filter

A

identifies attended message based on physical characteristcis
-only attended message is passed on to the next stage

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11
Q

aspects of Broadbent’s filter model

- detector

A

processes all information to determine higher-level characteristics of the message ie meaning

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12
Q

aspects of Broadbent’s filter model

- short-term memory

A

receives output of detector

holds information for 10-15 seconds and may transfer it to long-term memory

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13
Q

name and explain three things broadbent’s mode, does not explain

A

participants name gets through - cocktail party effect
participants can shadow meaningful messages that switch from one ear to another
effects of practice on detecting informaiton in untrained ear - you can be trained, based on the meaning of the message

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14
Q

explain Treisman’s attenuation theory

A

attended message is separated from unattended message early in the information-processinf system (before meaning)
only important unattended information is fully processed for meaning and brought into conscious awareness
messages -> attenuator -> dictionary unit -> to memory

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15
Q

aspects of Treisman’s attenuation theory

- attenuator

A

analyzes incoming message in terms of pysical characteristics, language and meaning
-attended message is let through the attenuator at full strenght, unattended message is let through at a much weaker strength

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16
Q

aspects of Treisman’s attenuation theory

- dictionary unit

A

contains words, each of which have thresholds for being activated

  • words that are common or important have low thresholds
  • uncommon words have high thresholds
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17
Q

explain how late selection models work and what evidence supports them

A

selection of stimuli for final processing does not occur until after all information has been analyzed for meaning
McKay
-in attending ear, participants heard ambiguous sentences
-in unattended ear hear words that could be drawn (eg bank - river or money)
-had to chose meaning of the sentence
-the meaning of the biasing word significantly affected participants choice
-yet participants were unaware of the presence of the biasing word

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18
Q

define inattentional blindness

A

a stimulus that is not attended is not perceived, even though a person might be directly looking at it
sometimes effects of attention are so strong that we fail to see stimuli directly infront of our eyes
gorilla in basketball video = classic example

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19
Q

selective attention - inattentional blindness experiment

A

participant attend to a different part of the screen
no warnign leads to failure to detect change 90% of the time
warnign means we do detct it

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20
Q

inattentional blindness results suggest…..

A

no perception without attention
but
unconscious perception can still occur int he absence of attention

21
Q

define change blindness

A

we dont notice massive changes if we dont attend to them

22
Q

explain the door study

A

So door study – people change asking for directions
50% of people in the study did not notice when the person asking them directions was switched. Shows change blindness can still happen outside of the lab

23
Q

explain fight club study

A
  • police officer charged as he had ran right past someone being beaten up. Claimed was impossible the police officer hadn’t noticed it
  • this study recreated the scenario. Had to chase someone down the street, staged fight on the way. Many people running down the street failed to notice the fight
24
Q

attention is necessary for…

A

conscious perception

25
Q

stimuli that are not attended to …

A

still have effects on perception which could indicate late selection

26
Q

electrical brain activity inputs differ… from unattended inputs ….

A

70ms

which indicates early selection (to early to be late selection)

27
Q

V4 neurons are more responsive to

A

attended stimuli

28
Q

what is high and low task load

A

task load - how much of a person’s cognitive resources are used to accomplish a task
high - uses almost all resources so no resources left over for other tasks
low - uses few resources so plenty of resources left for other tasks

29
Q

explain the flanker-compatibility task

A

flankers = two letters on either side of target letter
can participatns focus their attention on detecting the target so that the identity of the distractor will not affect their perfprmance
compatible flankers = fastest response
neutral flankers = in the middle
incompatible flankers = slowest
why
low-load task
participants still had cognitive resrouces available to process the additional but irrelevant information

30
Q

effect of distractors in high load tasks

A

participants use all resources for the task

no resources left to process te extra distractor

31
Q

match evidence to hypothesis
high and low load
early and late selection

A

high = early
-complex stimuli involve more effort, no resources left to process unattended information
low = late
-less complex stimuli take less effort, so even the unattended information is processed to an extent

32
Q

stroop test is an example of….

A

low load interference

33
Q

how can we prime attention (without moving eyes)

A

participants respond faster to a light at an expected location than an unexpected location
even when eyes are kept fixed
eg posner study

34
Q

what is location-based attention

A

attention being directed to one particular spatial location

35
Q

what is object based attention

A

attention being directed to one particular object`

36
Q

explain unilateral neglect syndrome

A

damage to right parietal lobe
cannot attend to the left side of space
This is a spatial example
Attentions does not point their attention to the left side of their world
They miss things
When pointed out to them they are like ohh yeah don’t know how a forgot that
Never eat things on left side of the plate for example – one solution someone came up with = spin plate whilst eating

37
Q

what do neglect symptoms like those of unilateral neglect syndrom support

A

location-based attention

38
Q

explain an experiment supporting object based attention

A

need to listen to pocast

39
Q

so is object or location based attention correct?

A

environment (location) = static scenes with few objects
specific object = dynamic event
so depends on the circumstance

40
Q

what is attentional blink

A

is found in tasks requiring selective processing of information
the attnetion system takes time to recover from processing first piece of information
lag is about 8 items to recover to norma
so two pieces of info presented very quickly or 8 apart do best, anything in between is subject to attentional blink so does badly

41
Q

what is divided attention

A

processes where we are focusing on more than on source or task

42
Q

what is resource specialization

A

doing two tasks at once is easier if the two tasks are relatively different

43
Q

divided attention and driving

A

simulated driving task
participant on cell phone missed twice as many red lights and took longer to apply the brakes
same result when using hands free
but much less so just talking to a passenger in a car
so hands free not good

44
Q

what is executive control

A

involved in working memory
keeps desired goal in mind
serves to inhibit automatic responses

45
Q

name one theory th\t has been proposed to understand divided attention

A

a central executive model

46
Q

what do patients with prefrontal cortex damage show

A

perseveration errors as well as goal neglect

47
Q

explain the effect of practice on divided attention study

A

divide attention betweeen remebering target and monitoring rapidly presented stimuli
in consistent mapping target always number and distractor always etters. with practice able to the task automatically without consciously working to divide attention
automatic processing occurs without intention and only uses some of a persons cognitive resources
but in varied mapping condition rules changed from trial to trial. participants never achieved automatic processing

48
Q

the link between practice and distraction

A

practice = automaticity = more prone to distraction

49
Q

attention in social situations with autism

A

people with autism can often solve reasoning problems that involve social situations well but dont do well in real life
autistic observers look at the mouth of off to the side of the face to assess emotional reaction
so the way the attentional system directs visual processing in autistic individuals may be one way in which they see things differently in the environment