chapter 22 Flashcards
(123 cards)
Attention is
narrowing of awareness to a particular part of the sensory environment
Consciousness can be synonymous with awareness, but also has a
more complicated meaning that is more like awareness of awareness
Some researchers argue that consciousness and attention are different
Attention tends to be top-down and takes time to focus on a part of the sensory world
Consciousness provides a summary of all information that is relevant to the situation
Automatic processes can be
performed with little focused attention and occur unconsciously
Automatic processes can be
innate or the result of training
Automatic processes are
bottom-up, driven by sensory input
Conscious operations require
focused attention
Conscious operations are
op-down, requiring cognitive input and control
Given the different types of processing and input, it is likely that automatic and conscious processes rely on
different brain circuitry, possibly including the circuits related to consciousness
Certain types of visual search are automatic, such as
the addition of a vertical line or the use of bold type
Searches that require a combination of multiple features are
slower and require a serial search
Feature search is a strategy for
scanning the environment for an object with a specific combination of features
Object visually perceived in V1 is
broken down into features, to be processed serially by higher visual areas
Features of the object within the mental spotlight are somehow
recombined, possibly through reentry processes
Areas outside V1 or V2 should respond
differently to a stimulus, depending on whether attention is focused on that object
Experiments to test the effects of focus of attention must use
the same stimulus in all conditions
An experiment varied the location of a stimulus and identified different responses in higher visual areas (V4, TE) depending on
where the stimulus was presented and what the monkey was trained to attend to
There seem to be multiple visual attention systems, with one
selecting stimuli and another selecting and directing movements
Priority maps
encode stimulus location in terms of the behavioral significance
Priority maps are found in
in frontal eye fields, lateral intraparietal area, and superior colliculcus
Mental capacity is limited, so dividing attention to
multiple tasks can divide that limited resource and cause all tasks to be performed with lower efficiency
Routine tasks can be
performed with ease while performing another task
More complex tasks require more
attention
Cells in V4
can be selective about what they respond to