Chapter 3 Flashcards
Attention
can be defined as a concentration of mental activity that allows you to take in a limited portion of the vast stream of information available from both your sensory world and your memory
mental activity
divided-attention task
you try to pay attention to two or more simultaneous messages, responding appropriately to each message. You may try to use divided attention, for example, when concentrating on both your professor’s lecture and a nearby whispered conversation between two students.
multitask
they try to accomplish two or more tasks at the same time
selective-attention task
requires people to pay attention to certain kinds of information while ignoring other ongoing information
dichotic listening
studied by asking people to wear earphones; one message is presented to the left ear, and a different message is presented to the right ear
shadow
research participants are asked to shadow the message in one ear. That is, they listen to that message and repeat it after the speaker. If the listener makes mistakes in shadowing, then the researcher knows that the listener is not paying appropriate attention to that specified message
cocktail party effect
The phenomenon of noticing one’s own name, when it is mentioned in a nearby conversation, even when paying close attention to another conversation.
working memory
is the brief, immediate memory for material that we are currently processing.
Stroop Effect
The observation that people take a long time to name an ink color that has been used in printing an incongruent word, even though they can quickly name that same ink color when it appears as a solid patch.
emotional stroop test
When people are instructed to name the ink color of words that could have strong emotional significance to them, they often require more time to name the color of the stimuli, presumably because they have trouble ignoring their emotional reactions to the words
phobic disorder
excessive fear of a specific object
attentional bias
describes a situation in which people pay extra attention to some stimuli or some features
cognitive-behavioural approach
psychological problems arise from inappropriate thinking ( cognitive factors) and inappropriate learning ( behavioral factors).
posttraumatic stress disorder ( PTSD)
an anxiety disorder characterized by repeated re-experiencing ( through nightmares, flashbacks etc) of an extremely traumatic event
visual search
the observer must find a target in a visual display that has numerous distractors
isolated-feature/combined-feature effect
People can typically locate an isolated feature more quickly than a combined feature
feature-present/feature-absent effect
People can typically locate a feature that is present more quickly than a feature that is absent
saccadic eye movement
Small changes in eye position during reading, in order to bring the center of the retina into position over the words currently being read.
Fovea
a very small region in the center of the retina that has better acuity than other retinal regions
fixations
Brief pauses occurring between saccadic eye movement, in which the visual system acquires information that is useful for reading and other visual tasks.
perceptual span
the number of letters and spaces that we perceive during a fixation.
Parafoveal preview
refers to the fact that readers can access information about upcoming words even though they are currently fixated on a word to the left ( in English) of those words.
regressions
moving the eyes backwards to earlier material in the sentence
orienting attention network
generally responsible for the kind of attention required for visual search, in which you must shift your attention around to various spatial locations.
brain lesion
specific brain damage cause by strokes, accidents or other traumas
unilateral spatial neglect
when a person ignores part of his or her visual field
executive attention network
responsible for the kind of attention we use when a task focuses on conflict.
Bottleneck theories - Based on the fact that the narrow neck of a bottle restricts the flow into or out of the bottle
proposed a similar narrow passageway in human information processing. In other words, this bottleneck limits the quantity of information to which we can pay attention.
feature-integration theory
This theory of attention, developed by Anne Triesman, proposes two elements: (1) distributed attention, processing all parts of the scene at the same time, and (2) focused attention, processing each item in the scene, one at a time.
distributed attention
allows you to register features automatically; you use parallel processing across the field, and you register all the features simultaneously. Low processing. You are not even aware you are using it!
focused attention
requires a slower serial processing, in which you identify one object at a time. More demanding than distributed attention.
illusory conjuction
An inappropriate combination of features ( for example, combining one object’s shape with a nearby object’s color). An illusory conjunction is formed when the visual system is overwhelmed by too many simultaneous tasks.
binding problem
A characteristic of the visual system, in which characteristics such as color and shape are registered separately; as a result, the visual system does not represent these important features of an object as a unified whole.
consciousness
the awareness that people have about the outside world and about their perceptions, images, memories and feelings.
consciousness is NOT automatic
mindless reading
your eyes may move forward, but you do not process the meaning of the material.
mind wandering
occurs when your thoughts shift from the external environment in favour of internal processing.
thought suppression
trying to eliminate the thoughts, ideas, and images that are related to an undesirable stimulus
ironic effects of mental control
describe how our efforts can backfire when we attempt to control the contents of our consciousness
blindsight
is a condition in which an individual with a damaged visual cortex claims not to see an object; however, he or she can accurately report some characteristics of that object, such as its location.
Attenuator model
Unattended information can have no effect on behaviour. Behaviour is only affected by information we become aware of, i.e. by attended information
Automatic versus Controlled Processing
Controlled:
- Requires Attention
- Limited capacity
- Rather slow
- Effortful
- Is aware, conscious
Automatic:
- Does not require attention
- Unlimited capacity
- Rather fast
- Effortless
- Outside awareness
- Uncontrollable
- Inflexible
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