CHAPTER 4: Attention Flashcards
When Sam listens to his girlfriend Susan in the restaurant and ignores other people's conversations, he is engaged in the process of \_\_\_\_ attention. A. low load B. divided C. cocktail party D. selective
D. selective
Which of the following is an experimental procedure used to study how attention affects the processing of competing stimuli? A. Early selection B. Filtering C. Channeling D. Dichotic listening
D. Dichotic listening
Dichotic listening occurs when
A. the same message is presented to the left and right ears.
B. different messages are presented to the left and right ears.
C. a message is presented to one ear, and a masking noise is presented to the other ear.
D. participants are asked to listen to a message and look at a visual stimulus, both at the same time
B. different messages are presented to the left and right ears.
In a dichotic listening experiment, \_\_\_\_\_\_ refers to the procedure that is used to force participants to pay attention to a specific message among competing messages. A. rehearsing B. shadowing C. echoing D. delayed repeating
B. shadowing
When a person is shadowing a message, he or she is
A. silently following it mentally.
B. ignoring it while paying attention to another message.
C. saying the message out loud.
D. thinking about something closely related to the message.
C. saying the message out loud.
Colin Cherry’s experiment in which participants listened to two different messages, one presented to each ear, found that people
A. could focus on a message only if they are repeating it.
B. could focus on a message only if they rehearsed it.
C. could focus on one message and ignore the other one at the same time.
D. could not focus on a message presented to only one ear.
C. could focus on one message and ignore the other one at the same time.
The cocktail party effect is
A. the ability to pay attention to one message and ignore others, yet hear distinctive features of the unattended messages.
B. the inability to pay attention to one message in the presence of competing messages.
C. the diminished awareness of information in a crowd.
D. the equal division of attention between competing messages.
A. the ability to pay attention to one message and ignore others, yet hear distinctive features of the unattended messages.
Broadbent's "filter model" proposes that the filter identifies the attended message based on A. meaning. B. modality. C. physical characteristics. D. higher order characteristics.
C. physical characteristics.
Which of the following would likely be an input message into the detector in Broadbent's model? A. All messages selected by the filter B. All messages within earshot C. A message with a German accent D. All sensory messages
C. A message with a German accent
Selection of the attended message in the Broadbent model occurs based on the
A. meaning of the message.
B. physical characteristics of the message.
C. physical characteristics of the message plus the meaning, if necessary.
D. listener’s ability to mentally block the unattended message from getting in.
B. physical characteristics of the message.
In Broadbent’s filter model, the stages of information processing occur in which order?
A. Detector, filter, sensory store, memory
B. Sensory store, filter, detector, memory
C. Filter, detector, sensory store, memory
D. Detector, sensory store, filter, memory
B. Sensory store, filter, detector, memory
Broadbent’s model is called an early selection model because
A. the filter eliminates unattended information right at the beginning of the flow of information
B. the filtering step occurs before the information enters the sensory store.
C. only a select set of environmental information enters the system.
D. incoming information is selected by the detector
A. the filter eliminates unattended information right at the beginning of the flow of information
The main difference between early and late selection models of attention is that in late selection models, selection of stimuli for final processing doesn't occur until the information is analyzed for A. modality. B. meaning. C. physical characteristics. D. location.
B. meaning.
Which experimental result caused problems for Broadbent’s filter model of selective attention?
A. A result where listeners don’t notice words presented up to 35 times in the unattended ear
B. A result where listeners can shadow a message presented in the attended ear
C. The result of Cherry’s experiment demonstrating the cocktail party phenomenon
D. The result of the “Dear Aunt Jane” experiment
D. The result of the “Dear Aunt Jane” experiment
Suppose twin teenagers are vying for their mother's attention. The mother is trying to pay attention to one of her daughters, though both girls are talking (one about her boyfriend, one about a school project). According to the operating characteristics of treisman's attenuator, it is most likely the attenuator is analyzing the incoming messages in terms of A. physical characteristics. B. language. C. meaning. D. direction.
C. meaning.
Which of the following is most closely associated with Treisman's attenuation theory of selective attention? A. Late selection B. Stroop experiments C. Precueing D. Dictionary unit
D. Dictionary unit
According to Treisman's "attenuation model," which of the following would you expect to have the highest threshold for most people? A. The word "house" B. Their spouse's first name C. The word "fire" D. The word "platypus"
D. The word “platypus”
Which stage in Treisman's "attenuation model" has a threshold component? A. The attenuator B. The dictionary unit C. The filter D. The "leaky" filter
B. The dictionary unit
A high threshold in Treisman’s model of attention implies that
A. weak signals can cause activation.
B. it takes a strong signal to cause activation.
C. all signals cause activation.
D. no signals cause activation.
B. it takes a strong signal to cause activation.
Suppose you are in your kitchen writing a grocery list, while your roommate is watching TV in the next eroom. A commercial for spaghetti sauce comes on TV. Although you are not paying attention to the TV, you "suddenly" remember that you need to pick up spaghetti sauce and add it to the list. Your behavior is best predicted by which of the following models of attention? A. Object-based B. Early selection C. Spotlight D. Late selection
D. Late selection
In support of late selection models, Donald MacKay showed that the presentation of a biasing word on the unattended ear influenced participants' processing of \_\_\_\_ when they were \_\_\_\_ of that word. A. letter pairs; aware B. letter pairs; unaware C. ambiguous sentences; aware D. ambiguous sentences; unaware
D. ambiguous sentences; unaware
In the flanker compatibility procedure, flanker stimuli and target stimuli must necessarily differ in terms of A. location. B. size. C. identity. D. color.
A. location.
Flanker compatibility experiments have been conducted using a variety of stimulus conditions. By definition, this procedure must include at least one target and one distractor. In any condition where we find that a distractor influenced reaction time, we can conclude that the distractor….
A) was overly responded to by the participant
B) was processed
C) was ignored
D) appeared in a high-load condition
B) was processed
Experiments that support the idea of early selection involve
A) simple tasks
B) high-load tasks
C) low-load tasks
D) extended practice
B) high-load tasks
Which of the following everyday scenarios is most likely to support what the early selection approach would say about how attention will affect the performance of the two tasks involved?
A) driving home while thinking about a problem at work
B) reading a novel while walking on a treadmill
C) humming a familiar song while washing dishes
D) conversing on the phone while doing a crossword puzzle
D) conversing on the phone while doing a crossword puzzle
According to your text, the ability to divide attention depends on all of the following EXCEPT
A) practice
B) the type of tasks
C) the difficulty of the tasks
D) task cueing
D) task cueing