Ch 3: Attention & Consciousness

Question 1

focused attention

Answer 1

a situation in which individuals try to attend to only one source of information while ignoring other stimuli; also known as selective attention

Question 2

divided attention

Answer 2

a situation in which two tasks are performed at the same time; also known as multitasking

Question 3

shadowing

Answer 3

repeating word for word one auditory message as it is presented while a second auditory message is also presented

Question 4

split attention

Answer 4

allocation of attention to two (or more) nonadjacent regions of visual space

Question 5

neglect

Answer 5

a disorder of visual attention in which stimuli or parts of stimuli presented to the side opposite the brain damage are undetected and not responded to; the condition resembles extinction but is more severe

Question 6

cross-modal attention

Answer 6

the coordination of attention across two or more sense modalities (ex: vision and hearing)

Question 7

ventriloquist illusion

Answer 7

the mistaken perception that sounds are coming from their apparent visual source, as in ventriloquism

Question 8

rubber hand illusion

Answer 8

the misperception that a rubber hand is one’s own; it occurs when the visible rubber hand is touched at the same time as the individual’s own hidden hand

Question 9

body swap illusion

Answer 9

the mistaken perception that part or all of someone else’s body is one’s own; it occurs when, for example, shaking hands with someone else while seeing what is happening from the viewpoint of the other person

Question 10

body size effect

Answer 10

an extension of the body swap illusion in which the size of the body mistakenly perceived to be one’s own influences the perceived size of objects in the environment

Question 11

extinction

Answer 11

a disorder of visual attention in which a stimulus presented to the side opposite the brain damage is not detected when another stimulus is presented at the same time to the same side as the brain damage

Question 12

face-in-the-crowd effect

Answer 12

the finding that threatening (especially angry) faces can be detected more rapidly among other faces than faces with other expressions

Question 13

illusory conjunction

Answer 13

mistakenly combining features from two different stimuli to perceive an object that isn’t present

Question 14

multitasking

Answer 14

performing two or more tasks at the same time by switching rapidly between them

Question 15

PRP effect

Answer 15

(psychological refractory period) the slowing of the response to the second of two stimuli when they are presented close together in time

Question 16

free will

Answer 16

the notion that we freely or voluntarily choose what to do from a number of possibilities; this notion has been challenged by those who claim that nonconscious processes determine our actions

Question 17

split-brain patients

Answer 17

patients in whom most of the direct links between the two hemispheres have been severed; as a result, they can experience problems in coordinating their processing and behavior

Question 18

masking

Answer 18

suppression of the processing of stimulus (ex: visual; auditory) by presenting a second stimulus (the one that masks) very soon afterwards