chapter 14: attention Flashcards
define:
overt attention
Attention in which the focus coincides with sensory orientation (e.g., you’re attending to the same thing you’re looking at).
define:
covert attention
Attention in which the focus can be directed independently of sensory orientation (e.g., you’re attending to one sensory stimulus while looking at another)
define
cocktail party effect
The selective enhancement of attention in order to filter out distracters, as you might do while listening to one person talking in the midst of a noisy party.
define:
Shadowing
A task in which the participant is asked to focus attention on one ear or the other while different stimuli are being presented to the two ears, and to repeat aloud the material presented to the attended ear.
define:
inattentional blindness
The failure to perceive nonattended stimuli that seem so obvious as to be impossible to miss
define:
divided attention tasks
A task in which the participant is asked to focus attention on two or more stimuli simultaneously.
define:
attentional spotlight
The steerable focus of our selective attention, used to select stimuli for enhanced processing.
define:
attentional bottleneck
A filter created by the limits intrinsic to our attentional processes, whose effect is that only the most important stimuli are selected for special processing.
define:
perceptual load
The immediate processing demands presented by a stimulus
define:
voluntary attention
Also called endogenous attention. The voluntary direction of attention toward specific aspects of the environment, in accordance with our interests and goals.
define:
reflexive attention
Also called exogenous attention. The involuntary reorienting of attention toward a specific stimulus source, cued by an unexpected object or event.
bottom up
define:
inhibition to return
takes longer to look back at the original spot
define:
feature search
A search for an item in which the target pops out right away, no matter how many distracters are present, because it possesses a unique attribute.
define:
conjunction search
A search for an item that is based on two or more features (e.g., size and color) that together distinguish the target from distracters that may share some of the same attributes.
define:
blinding problem
The question of how the brain understands which individual attributes blend together into a single object, when these different features are processed by different regions in the brain.
define:
temporal resolution
The ability to track changes in the brain that occur very quickly.
define:
spatial resolution
The ability to observe the detailed structure of the brain.
answer:
Limits intrinsic to our attentional processes can have the effect that only the most important stimuli are selected for special processing. What is this type of filter called?
Attentional bottleneck
Answer:
what technique for testing voluntary attention in which a visual stimulus is presented and participants are asked to respond as soon as the stimulus appears on a screen?
symbolic cuing
define:
event-related potential
Averaged EEG recordings measuring brain responses to repeated presentations of a stimulus. Components of the ERP tend to be reliable because the background noise of the cortex has been averaged out.
define:
auditory N1 effect
A negative deflection of the event-related potential, occurring about 100 milliseconds after stimulus presentation, that is enhanced for selectively attended auditory input compared with ignored input.
Define:
P1
initial positive going wave
