Brain, perception and attention

Question 1

What is perception?

Answer 1

the conscious awareness of stimuli

Question 2

What is attention?

Answer 2

the direction of conscious mental resources toward specific stimuli

Question 3

What are the 3 characteristics of attention?

Answer 3

1. attention as consciousness: awareness of internal and external environment
2. attention as effort or arousal: require mental effort
3. attention as a limited resource: only 2 stimuli at time

Question 4

What is Dual-task paradigm?

Answer 4

Evaluates the ability to do 2 things at once; tests attentional capacity and skill. The secondary task is almost always cognitive and random. Primary task performance decreases with the introduction of a secondary task.

Question 5

What is in-situ temporal occlusion?

Answer 5

The occlusion (blocking) of vision of the outcome of a movement and a person’s ability to pick ques and anticipate what will happen which informs response action

Question 6

What are Nideffer’s 4 styles of attention?

Answer 6

1. broad-external focus
2. broad-internal focus
3. narrow-external focus
4. narrow-internal focus

Question 7

What is perception of affordance?

Answer 7

Perceiving opportunities for action within the environment e.g. what you can do with a brick

Question 8

What are the 2 visual systems within Milner and Goodale’s two visual system theory? What are their roles?

Answer 8

1. Ventral visual system: vision for perception

2. Dorsal visual system: vision for action

Question 9

What is egocentric vision?

Answer 9

a part of dorsal vision. location of objects relative to the body axes of self

Question 10

What is allocentric vision?

Answer 10

a part of ventral vision. location of one object to another object

Question 11

What is the bottleneck theory of attention?

Answer 11

Relates to the serial order of stages of information processing. Only 1 chunk of information from various sensory input can be processed at a time, meaning there is only limited attentional space.

Question 12

Explain the central resource theory of attention.How does arousal and anxiety affect this?

Answer 12

Attention is a pool, from that pool you can do a certain amount of task. Once capacity is filled you cannot do anymore. Increased arousal increases attentional capacity. Increased anxiety decreases attentional capacity.

Question 13

What is selective attention?

Answer 13

When a person attends to one or few sensory inputs while ignoring others

Question 14

What is broad width of focus?

Answer 14

attending to several stimuli

Question 15

What is narrow width of focus?

Answer 15

attending to one or two stimuli

Question 16

What is external direction of focus?

Answer 16

Attending to environmental cues and consequences of action

Question 17

What is internal direction of focus?

Answer 17

Attending to kinaesthetic cues and movement pattern

Question 18

Describe the 4 characteristics of visual gaze control that characterize the quiet eye

Answer 18

1. vision is fixed on a single critical location
2. vision fixation occurs at the beginning of the movement
3. visual fixation extends beyond the final movement
4. a longer quiet eye is associated with expertise

Question 19

Define the quiet eye

Answer 19

The fixation of one’s visual gaze prior to and during the execution of an action

Question 20

What is the location suppression hypothesis

Answer 20

fixation of one’s visual gaze on a specific location before and during the execution of a skill enhances performance by stabilising processing activities