Chapter 3 Flashcards
Attention
A concentration of mental activity that allows you to take in a limited portion of the vast stream of information available from both our sensory world and your memory
Both bottom-up and top-down processing
Divided-attention task
Trying to pay attention to two or more simultaneous messages, responding appropriately to each
Both speed and accuracy suffer
Drivers on cell phones showed a form of…
Inattentional blindness
Selective-attention task
Requires people to pay attention to certain kinds of information, while ignoring other ongoing information
Resolving response conflict
4 different kinds of selective-attention tasks
Dichotic listening
The Stroop Effect
Visual Search
Saccadic eye movements
Dichotic listening
Each ear is listening to a different thing
People are more likely to process the unattended message when both messages are presented slowly, the main task is not challenging, and the meaning of the unattended message is immediately relevant
Working memory
The brief, immediate memory for material that we are currently processing
The Stroop Effect
People take a long time to name the ink color when that color is used in printing an incongruent word
Emotional Stroop task
People are instructed to name the ink color of words that could have strong emotional significance to them
Takes longer to name the color because they cannot ignore their emotional reactions
Attentional bias
A situation in which people pay extra attention to some stimuli or some features
Visual search
The observer must find a target in a visual display that has numerous distractors
More accurate in identifying it if it appears more frequently
Isolated-feature/combined-feature effect
If the target differs from the irrelevant items in the display with respect to a simple feature such as color, observers can quickly detect the target
People can locate an isolated feature more quickly than a combined
Feature-present/feature-absent effect
People can typically locate a feature that is present more quickly than one that is absent
Saccadic eye movements
Purpose is to bring the center of your retina into position over the words you want to read
Orienting attention network (what is it, where is it located)
Responsible for the kind of attention required for visual search, in which you must shift your attention around to various spatial locations
Located in the parietal lobe
Executive attention network (what is it, where is it located, what type of processing)
Responsible for the kind of attention we use when a task focuses on conflict
Inhibits automatic responses to stimuli
Located in prefrontal cortex
Primarily involved during top down processing
Feature-Integration theory
Sometimes we look at a scene using distributed attention, other times we use focused attention
Often the attention we use is on a continuum between those two
Illusory conjunction
An inappropriate combination of features
Binding problem
When the visual system does not represent the important features of a unified object as a whole
Consciousness
The awareness that people have about the outside world and about their perceptions, images, thoughts, memories, and feelings
3 interrelated issues concerned with consciousness
Our inability to bring certain thoughts into consciousness
Our inability to let certain thoughts escape from consciousness
Blindsight
Ironic effects of mental control
How our efforts can backfire when we attempt to control the contents of our consciousness
Blindsight
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
Based on the information registered in other cortical locations
Covert orienting
This is when we move our attention around without moving our eyes
Overt orienting
Moving our attention while also moving our eyes
Difference between Stroop task and Flanker task?
Stroop: Looking at ability to select part of a stimulus from a whole
Flanker: Looking at selection in space
2 areas of the brain particularly active in the incongruent part of the Stroop task
Anterior cingulate cortex
Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Feature vs conjunction search
Feature: looking for the “odd man out”. It’s easy and does not depend on set size. Happens without attention
Conjunction: looking for something that has 2 features (red AND circular). RT varies with set size. Requires attention
Exogenous covert attention
Attention manipulated by things happening in the world (bottom-up)
Something in the world catches our attention (without moving our eyes)
Endogenous covert attention
Attention can be allocated voluntarily (top-down)
We can direct our attention to certain areas
How do your eyes know which words to skip while reading?
Link between covert and overt attention
Send covert attention ahead of where our eyes are, and it chooses places for our eyes to land
Asymmetrical perceptual span dimensions
4-5 letters to the left
About 15 letters to the right
Dual task interference
Attention is a limited capacity cognitive system
The more two tasks depend on the same systems or resources, the more they interfere
Interference can be cross modal
Task switching
We don’t multitask!
Every time you switch tasks you incur a switch cost
Mind wandering
A kind of dual task interference with internal distractions
We fluctuate between being on and off task
Sustained attention to response task determines…
Your off task performance
