Attention and Consciousness (Chpt.3) Flashcards
Attention
can be defined as a concentration of mental activity that allows you to take in a limited portion of the vast stream of information available from both your sensory world and your memory
Divided Attention task
You try to pay attention to two or more simultaneous messages, responding appropriately to each message
Selective-Attention Task
Requires people to pay attention to certain kinds of information, while ignoring other ongoing information
Dichotic Listening
is studied by asking people to wear earphones; one message is presented to the left ear and a different message is presented to the right ear
saying something directly afterwards this is called shadowing
Cocktail party effect
paying close attention to one conversation you may notice if your name is mentioned in a nearby conversation this phenomenon is called cocktail party effect
Working memory
is the brief, immediate memory for material that we are currently processing
Stroop effect
state ink color of the word
people take a long time to name the ink color when that color is used in printing an incongruent word. In contrast, they can quickly name that same ink color when it appears as a solid patch of color
Emotional Stroop task
People are instructed to name the ink color of words that could have strong emotional significance to them.
Cognitive behavioral approach
psychological problems arise from inappropriate thinking (cognitive factors) and inappropriate learning (behavioral problems)
Executive Attention Network
Responsible for the kind of attention we use when a task forces on conflict. The executive attention network inhibits your automatic responses to stimuli The executive attention network is primarily involved during top-down control of attention
Visual Search
the observer must find a target in a visual display that has numerous distractors
The isolated-feature/combined feature effect
if the target differed from the irrelevant terms in the display with respect to a simple feature such as color, observers could quickly detect the target. People can typically locate a isolated feature more quickly than a combined feature.
The feature-present/feature absent effect
cognitive processes handle positive information better than negative information in this case positive means that a feature is present, whereas “negative” meant hat a feature is missing. Can typically locate a feature that is present more quickly than a feature is missing. “pop-out” effect is automatic and researchers emphasize that locating the target is strictly a bottom up process.
Saccadic eye movement
during reading is to bring the center of your retina into position over the words you want to read. A very small region in the center of the retina, known as the fovea has better acuity than other retinal regions
Fixation
your visual system pauses briefly in order to acquire information that is useful for comprehending the written test
Perceptual Span
refers to the number of letters and spaces that we perceive during a fixation
Parafoveal preview
refers to the fact that readers can access information about upcoming words even though they are currently fixated on a word to the left (in english) of those words
Regressions
by moving their eyes backward to earlier material in the sentence
Orienting attention network
is generally responsible for the kind of attention required for visual search which you must shift your attention around various spatial locations
Unilateral spatial neglect
when a person ignores part of his or her visual field
Bottleneck Theories
proposed a similar narrow passageway in human information processing. In other words, this bottleneck limits the quantity of information to which we can pay attention
Feature-integration theory
we sometimes look at a scene using distracted attention and we process all parts of the scene at the same time
Distributed attention
allows you to register features automatically you use parallel processing across the field and you register all the features simultaneously.
distributed attention vs focused attention automatic vs controlled
Focused attention
requires slower serial processing and you identify one object at a time. Searching for two or more features requires focused attention
Illusory Conjuction
is an inappropriate combination of features, perhaps combining one object’s shape with a nearby object’s color
Conciousness
means the awareness that people have about the outside world and about their perceptions, images, thoughts, memories, and feelings
consciousness is not easy to test the texture of conscious sensation
Thought Supression
They try to eliminate the thoughts, ideas, and images that are relaxed to an undesirable stimulus
Ironic effects of mental control
to describe how our efforts can backfire when we attempt to control the contents of our conciousness
Blindsight
is a condition in which a individual which a damaged visual cortex claims not to see an object ; however, he or she can accurately report some characteristics of that objects such as its location.
Surface features vs. semantics
People sometimes follow a coherent message we cannot always select on the basis of surface features. People sometimes process the meanings of unattended words. Attention is not required for all processing
Posterior attentional network
attention to objects could be damages to the right is much more likely “unilateral effect” left side is neglected
Controlled vs. Automatic processing
Letters and numbers there is a difference
