Attention

Question 1

Define ‘attention’

Answer 1

Ability to focus on specific stimuli or locations

Question 2

Selective attention

Answer 2

Ability to focus on one message while ignoring others

Question 3

Attentional capture

Answer 3

A rapid shifting of attention usually caused by a stimulus such as a loud noise

Question 4

Visual scanning

Answer 4

Movement of the eyes from one location or object to another

Question 5

Broadbent’s filter model of attention

Answer 5

A model of attention designed to explain how it is possible to focus on one message and why information is not taken in from the other message.

Question 6

Stages of Broadbent’s filter model

Answer 6

1. Sensory memory holds info for a fraction of a second and transfers it to filter
2. The filter identifies the message that is being attended to based on physical characteristics. Only this attended message passed through, the rest is filtered out
3. The detector processes information about the attended message to determine higher-level characteristics such as meaning
4. The output of the detector is sent to short-term memory and also transfers to long-term

Question 7

Cocktail party effect

Answer 7

Ability to focus on one stimulus while filtering out others

Question 8

Why is Broadbent’s model called an early selection model?

Answer 8

Because the filter eliminates unattended information right at the beginning, before the message is analyzed any deeper.

Question 9

Treisman modified Broadbent’s model by replacing the filter with…

Answer 9

an attenuator

Question 10

Attended messages pass through Treisman’s attenuator at _______ strength and unattended messages pass through it at ________ strength.

Answer 10

Full, reduced

Question 11

The attenuator analyzes the incoming message in terms of:

Answer 11

Physical characteristics, language, meaning

Question 12

Treisman’s model has been called a

Answer 12

“leaky filter” model

Question 13

Dictionary unit

Answer 13

Final output of Treisman’s model determined in the second stage. Contains stored words and thresholds for activating them.

A low threshold means we easily attend to it even when it is presented softly (own name)
A strong threshold means we do not easily attend to it

Question 14

Why is Treisman’s model called an early selection model?

Answer 14

Because it proposes a filter that operates at an early stage

Question 15

Late selection models of attention

Answer 15

Selection of stimuli for final processing does not occur until after the information in the message has been analyzed

Question 16

What did Lavie study?

Answer 16

The ability to selectively attend to a task depends on the distracting stimulus and on the nature of the task.

Question 17

Processing capacity

Answer 17

Concept introduced by Lavie that refers to the amount of information people can handle

Question 18

Perceptual load

Answer 18

Concept introduced by Lavie that refers to the difficulty of the task

Question 19

Load theory of attention

Answer 19

Low-load tasks use few cognitive resources which leaves resources available to process unrelated task stimuli. High-load tasks use all cognitive resources and don’t leave any resources to attend to unrelated stimuli

Question 20

Distractions are not attended to during high-load tasks unless…

Answer 20

the task irrelevant stimulus is powerful

Question 21

An example where task-irrelevant stimuli is powerful and difficult to ignore

Answer 21

Stroop effect

Question 22

Scanning based on stimulus salience

Answer 22

Bottom-up processing

Attending to physical properties such as colour, contrast, or orientation

Question 23

Scanning based on cognitive factors

Answer 23

Top-down processing
Scanning is influenced by knowledge and preferences a person brings to the situation.
Scene schemas

Question 24

Scanning based on task demands

Answer 24

People shift their attention as they are carrying out a task
“just in time” strategy - eye movements occur just before we need that information

Question 25

Connection between cognitive factors and task demands when scanning

Answer 25

Scanning is influenced by people’s predictions on what is likely to happen

Question 26

Overt attention

Answer 26

Shifting attention by moving eyes from one place to another

Question 27

Covert attention

Answer 27

Shifting attention without moving eyes. Shifting attention “with the mind”

Question 28

Covert attention affects how quickly we can…

Answer 28

respond to locations, objects, and how we perceive objects

Question 29

Ability to divide attention depends on…

Answer 29

practice and difficulty of task

Question 30

Automatic processing (Schneider & Shiffrin)

Answer 30

A type of processing that occurs without intention and uses few cognitive resources. Associated with easy or well-practiced tasks

Question 31

Real-life examples of automatic processing

Answer 31

Locking the door without realizing, driving to a destination without remembering how you got there, motor skills such as texting

Question 32

Example of difficult task that makes it harder to divide attention

Answer 32

Driving when there is unexpected construction, or when traffic increases. Distractions such as phones, the internet, or even mind wandering can be dangerous.

Question 33

Inattentional blindness

Answer 33

Occurs when people are unaware of clearly visible stimuli because they are not directing their attention toward them

Question 34

Simons and Chabris experiment on inattentional blindness

Answer 34

Participants were shown a film of 6 people throwing a basketball around. One team was wearing white, and the other was wearing black and guarding the white team. Participants were asked to count the number of passes, which focused their attention on the team wearing white.

After about 45 seconds, a woman carrying an umbrella or a person wearing a gorilla suit walked through the game (about 5 seconds).

Nearly half of the participants (45%) said they did not see anything unusual occur in the film.

Question 35

Inattentional deafness

Answer 35

Experiments have shown that it is more difficult to detect an auditory tone when engaged in a difficult visual search task

Question 36

Researchers have demonstrated how a lack of attention can affect perception using a procedure called…

Answer 36

Change detection

Question 37

Change blindness

Answer 37

Difficulty detecting changes in scenes because attention is often not directed to the place it is occurring

Question 38

First step in feature integration theory

Answer 38

Pre-attentive stage: features of objects are analyzed independently in separate areas of the brain and are not yet associated with a specific object

Question 39

Second step in feature integration theory

Answer 39

Focussed attention stage: attention is focused on an object and the independent features are combined