Attention & Consciousness Flashcards
A task in which subjects are presented with a different message to each ear over headphones.
dichotic listening
A task used to measure auditory attention in which subjects are asked to repeat a spoken message as it is presented, typically while ignoring another message.
shadowing
Broadbent’s theory of attention is that sensory information has to pass through some bottleneck at which only some of the information is selected for further processing.
filter theory
Treisman’s theory of attention proposed that we “turn down” (but not completely block out) some sensory signals based on their physical characteristics
attenuation theory
A theory of attention proposed by Deutsch and Deutsch in which selection occurs at the response stage after all incoming stimuli have been processed for meaning.
late selection theory
See attentional limitations as a result of dividing limited mental resources among different tasks or stimuli.
capacity theory
A phenomenon in which auditory attention is involuntarily drawn to significant information on the unattended channel (e.g., the subject’s name)
cocktail party effect
A highly practiced task or skill that requires little or no conscious attention to execute.
automatic process
People’s overlearned tendency to read a word interferes with naming the ink color in which it is printed (when the two conflict, e.g., the word “green” printed in red ink).
stroop effect
A task or skill that must require conscious attention for its execution.
controlled process
A conception of visual attention that compares attention to a beam of light that can be focused on particular locations in the visual field; ALSO a metaphor for consciousness that focuses on its selectiveness and limited capacity.
spotlight metaphor
Conceptualizes consciousness as a sort of central stage in which information is made available to a wide variety of specialized processing systems.
theater metaphor
A conception of consciousness that focuses on the mystery of subjective experience or phenomenal awareness.
sentience
refers to the fact that the same program can run on different physical machines.
platform independence
