CH 4: Attention

Question 1

The cocktail party effect refers to the observation that _____.

a. the overwhelming stimulus input at cocktail parties usually results in people being unable to attend to anything specific
b. people who consume excess alcohol at cocktail parties are often better able to focus because they do not want to seem intoxicated
c. despite the number of conversations going on at cocktail parties, most people are able to attend to a conversation in which they are involved
d. because they have so much practice, people who go to cocktail parties typically have well-above average attentional skills

Answer 1

c. despite the number of conversations going on at cocktail parties, most people are able to attend to a conversation in which they are involved

Question 2

In Broadbent’s model of attention, _____.

a. all messages reach short-term memory
b. all messages reach the detector
c. relevant messages are identified at the filter
d. relevant messages are identified at the detector

Answer 2

c. relevant messages are identified at the filter

Question 3

In late selection models of attention, most incoming information is _____.

a. processed for sensory qualities and no further
b. blocked by the initial filter
c. allowed to decay in sensory memory
d. processed to the level of meaning

Answer 3

d. processed to the level of meaning

Question 4

The load theory of attention is based on the assumption that _____.

a. individuals seek to balance attentional processes
b. people have limited processing capacity
c. cognitive capacity can be increased by practice
d. cognitive processing is more important than attention

Answer 4

b. people have limited processing capacity

Question 5

The amount of information people can handle is constrained by their _____.

a. perceptual capacity
b. processing load
c. perceptual load
d. processing capacity

Answer 5

d. processing capacity

Question 6

In Lavie’s account of attention, which construct is a function of task difficulty?

a. perceptual capacity
b. processing load
c. perceptual load
d. processing capacity

Answer 6

c. perceptual load

Question 7

The physical properties of a stimulus, including its color, contrast, or movement, define its _____.

a. reliability
b. stimulus salience
c. specificity
d. instrumentality

Answer 7

b. stimulus salience

Question 8

Capturing attention via stimulus salience is a(n) _____ process.

a. top-down
b. iterative
c. higher-level
d. bottom-up

Answer 8

d. bottom-up

Question 9

An effect using a task in which a person is instructed to respond to one aspect of a stimulus, such as the color of ink that a word is printed in, and ignore another aspect, such as the color that the word names. This effect refers to the fact that people find this task difficult when, for example, the word RED is printed in blue ink.

a. Common effect
b. Difference effect
c. Stroop effect

Answer 9

c. Stroop effect

Question 10

Covert attention occurs without _____.

a. external motivation
b. conscious awareness
c. eye movement
d. cognitive processing

Answer 10

c. eye movement

Question 11

Which type of processing occurs without intention and with only a limited cost of cognitive resources?

a. internalized
b. automatic
c. controlled
d. stimulus-bound

Answer 11

b. automatic

Question 12

In the 100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study, what role did inattention play in crashes?

a. Almost none: more than 90% of crashes are associated with mechanical, weather, or road issues, not driver factors.
b. A little: only about 25% of crashes are associated with inattention, with the rest related to mechanical, weather, or road issues.,
c. Some: about half of crashes are associated with mechanical, weather or road issues and about half with driver inattention.
d. A lot: in most (80%) of crashes and in two-thirds (67%) of near crashes, the driver was inattentive three seconds before the incident.

Answer 12

d. A lot: in most (80%) of crashes and in two-thirds (67%) of near crashes, the driver was inattentive three seconds before the incident.

Question 13

Which statement about “hands-free” cell phones and driving is most accurate?

a. Hands-free phones are perfectly safe.
b. Hands-free phones are actually safer than having a conversation with a passenger.
c. Hands-free and handheld phone use produces similar degradation in driving performance.
d. Hands-free phones are the least safe, followed by passenger conversation, and then handheld phones.

Answer 13

c. Hands-free and handheld phone use produces similar degradation in driving performance.

Question 14

Micah is so focused on a game that he does not notice a tray of nachos, one of his favorite snacks, clearly visible right in front of him. Micah is best described as missing out on his favorite snack because of _____.

a. prosopagnosia
b. change blindness
c. functional fixedness
d. inattentional blindness

Answer 14

d. inattentional blindness

Question 15

_____ is shifting attention by making eye movements. Overt attention is determined by bottom-up processes such as stimulus salience and by top-down processes such as scene schemas and task demands, which influence how eye movements are directed to parts of a scene.

a. covert attention
b. overt attention
c. inattentional blindness

Answer 15

b. overt attention

Question 16

Gary is increasingly bored as Tom spends most of their lunch meeting bragging about his latest project. So while Tom is focused on himself, Gary moves Tom’s coffee cup so that Tom will likely knock it over the next time he reaches for it. Gary also moves Tom’s fork so that he will grasp the sauce-covered tines rather than the handle when he picks it up. Gary is relying on _____ to play these pranks on his friend.

a. prosopagnosia
b. change blindness
c. functional fixedness
d. ego-syntactic perception

Answer 16

b. change blindness

Question 17

An individual walking down a busy city sidewalk is typically able to navigate it successfully because he or she _____.

a. is extremely attentive to the entirety of the situation
b. has an appropriate schema for “busy city sidewalks”
c. is highly skilled in tasks that demand divided attention
d. has an exceptional ability to integrate sensory information

Answer 17

b. has an appropriate schema for “busy city sidewalks”

Question 18

In general, we experience objects around us as a coherent whole, not as a series of isolated sensory characteristics such as color or shape. Our ability to do so is referred to as _____.

a. pragnanz
b. integration
c. binding
d. weighting

Answer 18

c. binding

Question 19

In Treisman’s theory, an object is analyzed into its features during the _____ stage.

a. preattentive
b. preprocessing
c. focused attention
d. focused processing

Answer 19

a. preattentive

Question 20

Egly’s experiment demonstrates that responding is faster for cued locations on an object and that this effect spreads throughout an object—an effect called the _____.

a. Stroop effect
b. same-object advantage
c. Precueing

Answer 20

b. same-object advantage

Question 21

Experiments have shown that attended objects are perceived to be bigger, faster, more richly colored, and higher in contrast than non-attended objects.

a. true
b. false

Answer 21

a. true

Question 22

Occurs when the map of categories on the brain changes to make more space for categories that are being searched for as a person attends to a scene.

a. attentional warping
b. Stroop effect
c. precueing

Answer 22

a. attentional warping

Question 23

Thoughts that come from within a person, often unintentionally. In early research this was called daydreaming.

a. attentional warping
b. mind wandering
c. inattentional blindness

Answer 23

b. mind wandering

Question 24

_____ experiments provide evidence that without attention we may fail to perceive things that are clearly visible in the field of view.

a. attentional warping
b. mind wandering
c. inattentional blindness

Answer 24

c. inattentional blindness

Question 25

In Treisman’s theory, features are combined into a coherent whole during the _____ stage.

a. preattentive
b. preprocessing
c. focused attention
d. focused processing

Answer 25

c. focused attention

Question 26

Eyewitnesses often inappropriately combine objects; a male wearing a red shirt carrying a yellow bag might be mistaken as wearing a yellow shirt and carrying a red bag. This is an example of _____.

a. preattentive processing
b. illusory conjunctions
c. focused attention
d. focused processing

Answer 26

b. illusory conjunctions

A situation, demonstrated in experiments by Anne Treisman, in which features from different objects are inappropriately combined.

Question 27

The presence of ___ is critical to overt attention.

a. eye movement
b. auditory shifts
c. tactile sensation
d. the Stroop effect

Answer 27

a. eye movement

Question 28

In Treisman’s feature integration theory, the preattentive stage is the ___ in the processes and it involves ___.

a. first; analyzing objects into features
b. second; analyzing objects into features
c. first; combining features
d. second; combining features

Answer 28

a. first; analyzing objects into features

Question 29

Which of the following should have the lowest threshold for being activated to attention according to Treisman?

a. an unfamiliar foreign phrase
b. an important technical term used at your father’s work
c. a medical condition that you ‘ve never heard of
d. your name

Answer 29

d. your name

Reason: This is the “preattentive stage” and is considered automatic, unconscious, and effortless.

Question 30

Low-load tasks are to high-load tasks as ___.

a. difficult is to easy
b. easy is to difficult
c. attention is to practice
d. practice is to attention

Answer 30

b. easy is to difficult

Question 31

Yvonne is attempting to listen to a conversation from her friend while simultaneously being alert for an expected cell phone call. This example illustrates ___.

a. divided attention
b. attentional capture
c. selective attention
d. distraction

Answer 31

a. divided attention

Question 32

When does the attended message enter into Broadbent’s model of attention?

a. When going from the detector to memory.
b. When going from sensory memory to the filter.
c. When going from the filter to the detector.
d. It can occur at any point.

Answer 32

c. When going from the filter to the detector.

Question 33

Seth is a basketball player. In one play, he looks to the right but then passes the ball to the left. This example illustrates ___.

a. covert attention
b. overt attention
c. precueing
d. stimulus salience

Answer 33

a. covert attention

Question 34

Suppose you’re at a loud party where you’re trying really hard to listen to a conversation that you’re having with a friend. In doing so, you’re showing ___.

a. divided attention
b. distraction
c. selective attention
d. attentional capture

Answer 34

c. selective attention

Question 35

Suppose you’re scanning a photograph of a class picture and your briefly pause on one face. In doing so, you are showing ___.

a. a saccadic eye movement
b. a saliency map
c. fixation
d. processing capacity

Answer 35

c. fixation