Chapter 4 Flashcards
Dichotic listening
Participants are presented with two verbal messages simultaneously, typically one to each ear, and are asked to focus on (i.e. to attend to) only one of them. They are then asked to respond to a series of questions about what they heard, most often about the message played to the unattended ear.
Selective attention
Attending to relevant information and ignoring irrelevant information.
Cocktail party phenomenon
The ability to attend to one conversation when many other conversations are going on around you.
Shadowing task
A task in which the subject is exposed to two messages simultaneously and must repeat one of them.
Filter
A hypothetical mechanism that would admit certain messages and block others.
Selective looking
Occurs when we are exposed to two events simultaneously, but attend to only one of them.
Early selection
The hypothesis that attention prevents early perceptual processing of distractors.
Late selection
The hypothesis that we perceive both relevant and irrelevant stimuli, and therefore must actively ignore the irrelevant stimuli in order to focus on the relevant ones.
Stroop task
A naming task in which colour names are printed in colours other than the colours they name.
Controlled vs automatic processes
Processes that demand attention if we are to carry them out properly versus processes that operate without requiring us to pay attention to them.
Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)
An area of the brain that may exert a top-down bias that favours the selection of task-relevant information. Near the top of the cortex.
Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)
An area of the brain that may detect conflicting response tendencies of the sort that the Stroop task elicits. Near the front of the brain.
Spatial attention
The process of selecting visual information for conscious awareness in specific regions of space.
Spotlight metaphor
The idea that spatial attention is like a spotlight that we shine on an objet when we select it for more complex and conscious processing.
Endogenous shifts
Voluntary movements of attention.
Exogenous shifts
Involuntary movements of attention triggered by external stimuli.
Attention capture
The diversion of attention by a stimulus so powerful that it compels us to notice it even when our attention is focused on something else.
Peripheral cueing paradigm
A test in which a light (i.e., the cue) flashes in the periphery and is followed by a target either in the same (cued) location or a different (uncued) one.
Catch trials
Trials of a detection task in which a target is not presented, to keep the subject on their toes and see if they are focused or not.
Cueing effect
Faster responses on cued compared to uncued trials in the cueing task.
Stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA)
The time difference between the onset of one stimulus and the onset of a subsequent stimulus.
Inhibition of return (IOR)
Slower responses to cued than to uncued trials in the cueing paradigm.
Central cueing paradigm
An experimental method in which a central cue (e.g. arrow) points to a location in which a target might subsequently appear.
Inattentional blindness
Failure to attend to events that we might be expected to notice (Gorilla in basketball video).