Ch. 9: Memory, attention and consciousness Flashcards
Attention
Withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others
Consciousness/awareness
Experiencing of ones own mental events in a way that one can report them to others
Mental resources
Energy, storage, time
Different memory stores
SM, STM, LTM
Information processing model
Sensory memory, short term (working memory), long term memory
Processes of SM, STM, LTM
Attention, maintenance, encoding/retrieval
Sensory memory
<1 second prolongation of sensory experiences (hearing, seeing, smelling, touching, tasting) with each a different store, held for mental processes
Short term store
Conscious perception and thought of 7 +/- 2 items, is lost in seconds when no longer actively attended
Long term memory
The minds library of information which isn’t conscious unless activated by STM, like books on a shelve
Differences STM/LTM
STM: active, short, limited
LTM: passive, long, unlimited
Glucose and the brain
Amount of glucose indicates the amount of energy used, mostly on difficult tasks
Automatic processes
- Without intention/awareness
- Don’t interfere with other processes
- Don’t improve with practice
- Aren’t influenced by personal differences
Effortful processes
- Available to consciousness
- Interfere with execution of processes
- Improve with practice
- Are influenced by personal differences
2 competing needs in attention
Focussing mental resources without distraction VS monitoring and shifting to danger
Preattentive processing
The top down control of the gate from sensory memory to short term memory
Cocktail party phenomonon
Selective listening during loud events, only possible with physical differences between voices. Will hear salient information like ones name, or wether woman or a men but no content or language.
Example of selective viewing
Rock & Gatman (1981) drew 2 shapes over each other in different colors. Subjects had no recollection of the attended shape, only when something of high personal interest
Inattentional blindness
When one fails to notice something obvious due to concentration, works on a person in a gorilla suit but not on life threatening events (spiders, fire)
Echoic memory experiment
Focus on task and don’t listen to words, repeat last words after hearing a beep. The Auditory sensory memory can help subjects repeat the last words, but vanishes in 8-10 seconds
Iconic memory experiment
Experimenter flashed cards with 3 lines of words for 1/20 second. After 1/3 seconds a signal said which line to “read”, they could still see this because of a visual sensory memory
