Attention and Encoding Flashcards
Attention to faces
Definition: Attention to faces is the preferential allocation of cognitive resources to the processing of facial information, driven by the inherent social significance of faces.
Explanation: We automatically prioritize faces in our visual field because they signal potential social interactions. Think of it like a spotlight, our attention is drawn to faces, helping us quickly identify individuals and gauge their emotional state, even amidst distractions.
Attention to emotions
Definition: Attention to emotions refers to the cognitive process of selectively focusing on and processing emotional information, influencing subsequent perception, judgment, and behavior.
Explanation: Imagine watching a movie. You might focus on the actors’ facial expressions (emotions) more than the background scenery. This selective attention to emotional cues shapes your understanding of the plot and characters’ motivations. It’s a key aspect of social cognition, impacting how we interact with others.
Salience
Definition: Salience refers to the extent to which a stimulus is noticeably different from its background, attracting attention and influencing cognitive processing.
Explanation: Imagine a bright red apple amongst green apples. The red apple’s salience makes it stand out; similarly, in social situations, certain individuals or behaviors might be more noticeable, influencing our impressions and judgments. This relates closely to attentional processes and how we encode information.
Encoding
Definition: Encoding is the process by which external stimuli are transformed into internal representations that can be stored and retrieved from memory.
Explanation: Imagine your brain as a computer. Encoding is like typing information into a document. The quality of encoding affects how easily you can later access (‘retrieve’) that information. Poor encoding is like using a blurry, illegible font.
Earlier selection process
Definition: Earlier selection process refers to models of attention where selection of stimuli occurs early in perceptual processing, before semantic analysis.
Explanation: Imagine a crowded room; you immediately notice loud noises or bright colors (early selection). Only later do you process the meaning of what’s being said or what those colors represent. This contrasts with later selection, where all stimuli are processed before selection.
Later selection process
Definition: Later selection process refers to the selective filtering of information that occurs after perceptual analysis, where meaning and context are considered to determine which stimuli receive further processing.
Explanation: Imagine you’re at a party. Early selection would be like only noticing loud noises. Later selection is like hearing many conversations but only focusing on the one about your favorite band, because after processing the meaning of each conversation, you choose to focus on that one.
Dual-stage two-phase model of selective attention
Definition: The dual-stage two-phase model of selective attention posits that attention operates through an initial, automatic, parallel processing stage followed by a later, controlled, serial processing stage, each with distinct selection mechanisms.
Explanation: Imagine a crowded room: initially, you automatically process all visual and auditory input (Stage 1). Then, you consciously focus on a single conversation (Stage 2), filtering out the rest. This model highlights the interplay between automatic and controlled attentional processes.
Perceptual filters
Definition: Perceptual filters are the selective mechanisms by which our brains process and interpret sensory information, prioritizing certain stimuli while filtering out others based on factors such as attention, expectations, and past experiences.
Explanation: Imagine a radio with many stations broadcasting simultaneously. Your perceptual filters are like the tuner, selecting only the station (information) you want to focus on while muting the others. This selectivity shapes our reality.
Slection based on category membership
Definition: Selection based on category membership is the cognitive process where individuals prioritize information processing based on pre-existing mental categories, influencing attention, perception, and memory.
Explanation: Imagine searching for a specific red apple amongst many fruits. You’d likely focus on red, round objects first, ignoring other colors and shapes. This is because your ‘red apple’ category guides your attention, demonstrating how category membership streamlines information processing.
Fusiform face area (FFA)
Definition: The fusiform face area (FFA) is a region in the human brain, located in the fusiform gyrus, that shows heightened neural activity in response to the perception of faces.
Explanation: Imagine your brain having specialized areas for different things. The FFA is like a face-recognition expert, rapidly identifying faces more efficiently than other objects. Damage to this area can lead to prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces.
FFA activation in subordinate-level organization
Definition: FFA activation in subordinate-level organization refers to the heightened activity in the fusiform face area (FFA) when recognizing individuals within a familiar social group, rather than individual faces in isolation.
Explanation: Imagine you see your family at a crowded event. Your FFA isn’t just processing faces; it’s rapidly categorizing them as ‘my family’. This subordinate-level processing prioritizes group membership over individual face recognition, showcasing the brain’s efficiency in social contexts. This relates directly to the concept of ‘categories of thought’ and ‘selection based on category membership’.
Change blindness
Definition: Change blindness is the failure to notice a significant visual change in a scene due to inattention.
Explanation: Imagine watching a video where two people are swapping places during a brief interruption. Many people don’t notice this switch, illustrating how our attentional resources are limited and we don’t encode every detail of our visual field. This relates to selective attention and the limitations of our visual processing.
Choice blindness
Definition: Choice blindness is a phenomenon where individuals fail to recognize discrepancies between their choices and the actual outcome, demonstrating a disconnect between conscious awareness and decision-making processes.
Explanation: Imagine selecting a jam, then having it subtly switched. Many people won’t notice the change, continuing to justify their preference for the new, different jam. This highlights how our post-hoc rationalizations can override our actual choices.
Is saliency controllable?
Definition: Saliency, the perceptual prominence of information, is partially controllable through strategic allocation of attentional resources, but is also significantly influenced by inherent stimulus properties and contextual factors.
Explanation: Imagine a crowded room. You can choose to focus on a specific person (controlled salience), but a sudden loud noise might automatically grab your attention (uncontrolled salience). Our ability to direct attention is limited, making complete control over salience impossible.
Inattentional blindness
Definition: Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice a fully visible, but unexpected object because attention is focused elsewhere.
Explanation: Imagine watching a basketball game; you’re so focused on the ball that you miss a gorilla walking across the court. This unexpected event, despite being salient, is missed due to focused attention. It highlights the limitations of selective attention.
Encoding (Accessibility)
Definition: Encoding accessibility refers to the ease with which a memory can be retrieved, influenced by factors such as attention, context, and the strength of the memory trace.
Explanation: Imagine your brain as a library. Encoding accessibility is how easily you can find a specific book (memory). A clearly labeled, recently used book is highly accessible, while a misfiled, old book is not. Factors like attention (how much you focused on the information) affect accessibility.
Priming and encoding
Definition: Priming and encoding describes how prior experiences and contextual cues influence the processing and storage of new information in memory.
Explanation: Imagine a detective investigating a crime scene. Prior knowledge (prime) about the suspect influences which clues (new information) they notice and how they interpret them (encoding). This shapes the overall picture formed in their mind.
Proceduralization and encoding
Definition: Proceduralization and encoding refer to the process where initially controlled cognitive operations become automatic and integrated into memory, impacting accessibility and subsequent cognitive processing.
Explanation: Imagine learning to ride a bike. Initially, each step requires conscious effort (controlled processing). With practice, these actions become automatic (proceduralized), easily recalled and executed without conscious thought. Encoding ensures this procedural knowledge is stored efficiently in memory.
