Attention and Awareness- Visual

Question 1

What is special about visual attention?

Answer 1

-Attention can be directed selectively towards different areas of the visual field, without the need to re-focus

Question 2

What was the idea behind the Sterling Iconic memory method?

Answer 2

• Presented an array of letters for 50 ms

- See how much participants could remember in different conditions- whole report and partial report

Question 3

What is the whole report method?

Answer 3

• Recall as much as possible from array

- People recall 3-6 letters; report that the letters “fade away” before they can report them all

Question 4

What is the partial report method?

Answer 4

• only certain elements from array

- Recall a higher proportion of letters: labelled the ‘partial report superiority effect’

Question 5

What was the finding of the experiment?

Answer 5

-All material captured in parallel, some selected for further, serial processing on the basis of position or colour

Question 6

What is the RSVP technique?

Answer 6

-The sequence of stimuli, shown in the same location on a computer screen, in which the participant has to identify a white letter, then decide whether an X was also present

Question 7

What were the results of the RSVP technique?

Answer 7

• Likely of detecting X towards start and end

- Primary recency effect

Question 8

Describe what happens in Giesbrect and Di Pollo model?

Answer 8

• Stage 1: a range of info about target characteristics is captured in parallel (identity, size, colour, position)
• Stage 2: serial processes act upon information preparing it for awareness and report
• While Stage 2 is engaged, later info cannot be processed so has to remain at Stage 1
• Disruption to Stage 1 (masking) increases processing difficulty, so info from T2 is kept waiting longer
• If T2 masked by following stimulus, then run risk of overwriting it
• Damaging to episodic information; semantics info may be able to survive (revealed through priming effects, EEG

Question 9

What is episodic detail vulnerable too?

Answer 9

• Passage of time

- Overwriting by a mask

Question 10

What can be said about attention?

Answer 10

-Attention is necessary, but not sufficient, for conscious awareness

Question 11

What is sublimal Perception?

Answer 11

-Registration of sensory input without ‘conscious awareness

Question 12

What are the 3 types of sublimals?

Answer 12

• Embedded images: pictures or words that are hidden or flashed quickly (in 100ths of a second)
• Sub-audible messages: sounds or words that are too faint to be heard, or are played at extremely high frequencies
• Electronically altered signals: backward masking and other voice alterations

Question 13

What is the Stroop Effect?

Answer 13

• One pathway is activated by the task naming the ink colour, and the other pathway is activated by the task of reading the word.
• Interference occurs when two competing pathways are active at the same time
• As a result, task performance suffers.

Question 14

Explain emotional stroop effect

Answer 14

• Participants must name the colour of ink of ordinary words, or threat words related to the source of their anxiety
• High levels of anxiety impair goal-directed attentional system (Attentional Control Theory)