Chapter 4 Attention Quiz 1 Flashcards
Attention
Focusing on specific features, objects, or locations or on certain thoughts or activities.
Attentional capture
A rapid shifting of attention, usually caused by a stimulus such as a loud noise, bright light, or sudden movement.
Attenuation model of attention
- Anne Treisman’s model of selective attention that proposes that selection occurs in two stages.
- In the first stage, an attenuator analyzes the incoming message and lets through the attended message—and also the unattended message, but at a lower (attenuated) strength.
Attentional warping
Occurs when the map of categories on the brain changes to make more space for categories that are being searched for as a person attends to a scene.
Attenuator
- In Treisman’s model of selective attention,
- the attenuator analyzes the incoming message in terms of physical characteristics, language, and meaning.
- Attended messages pass through the attenuator at full strength,
- and unattended messages pass through with reduced strength.
Automatic processing
- Processing that occurs automatically,
- without the person’s intending to do it,
- and that also uses few cognitive resources.
- Automatic processing is associated with easy or well-practiced tasks.
Balint’s syndrome
A condition caused by brain damage in which a person has difficulty focusing attention on individual objects.
Binding problem
The problem of explaining how an object’s individual features become bound together.
Binding
Process by which features such as color, form, motion, and location are combined to create perception of a coherent object.
Change blindness
- Difficulty in detecting changes in similar, but slightly different, scenes that are presented one after another. -The changes are often easy to see once attention is directed to them
- but are usually undetected in the absence of appropriate attention.
Change detection
Detecting differences between pictures or displays that are presented one after another.
Cocktail party effect
- The ability to focus on one stimulus while filtering out other stimuli,
- especially at a party where there are a lot of simultaneous conversations.
Cognitive control
-A mechanism involved in dealing with conflicting stimuli. -Related to executive function, inhibitory control, and willpower.
Conjunction search
- Searching among distractors for a target that involves two or more features,
- such as “horizontal” and “g r e e n .”
Continuity errors
- In film, changes that occur from one scene to another that do not match,
- such as when a character reaches for a croissant in one shot, which turns into a pancake in the next shot.
Covert attention
- Occurs when attention is shifted without moving the eyes, commonly referred to as seeing something “out of the corner of one’s eye.”
- Contrasts with Overt attention.
Detector
- In Broadbent’s model of attention,
- the detector processes the information from the attended message to determine higher-level characteristics of the message, such as its meaning.
Dichotic listening
The procedure of presenting one message to the left ear and a different message to the right ear.
Dictionary unit
- A component of Treisman’s attenuation model of attention.
- This processing unit contains stored words and thresholds for activating the words.
- The dictionary unit helps explain why we can sometimes hear a familiar word, such as our name, in an unattended message.
- See also Attenuation model of attention.
Distraction
Occurs when one stimulus interferes with attention to or the processing of another stimulus.
Divided attention
The ability to pay attention to, or carry out, two or more different tasks simultaneously.
Dorsal attention network
A network that controls attention based on top-down processing.
Early selection model
- Model of attention that explains selective attention by early filtering out of the unattended message.
- In Broadbent’s early selection model, the filtering step occurs before the message is analyzed to determine its meaning.
Effective connectivity
How easily activity can travel along a particular pathway between two structures.
Executive action network
A complex network that is involved in controlling executive functions.
Executive attention network
The executive attention network is responsible for executive functions.
Executive functions
A number of processes that involve controlling attention and dealing with conflicting responses.
Experience sampling
- A procedure that was developed to answer the question, “what percentage of the time during the day are people engaged in a specific behavior?”
- One way this has been achieved is by having people report what they are doing when they receive signals at random times during the day.
Feature integration theory
- An approach to object perception,
- developed by Anne Treisman,
- that proposes a sequence of stages in which features are first analyzed and then combined to result in perception of an object.
Feature search
Searching among distractors for a target item that involves detecting one feature, such as “horizontal.”
Filter
-In Broadbent’s model of attention,
-the filter identifies the message that is being attended to based on its physical characteristics—
things like the speaker’s tone of voice, pitch, speed of talking, and accent—
and lets only this attended message pass through to the detector in the next stage.
Filter model of attention
Model of attention that proposes a filter that lets attended stimuli through and blocks some or all of the unattended stimuli.
Fixation
In perception and attention, a pausing of the eyes on places of interest while observing a scene.
Focused attention stage
The second stage of Treisman’s feature integration theory. According to the theory, attention causes the combination of features into perception of an object.
High-load task
A task that uses most or all of a person’s resources and so leaves little capacity to handle other tasks.
Illusory conjunctions
A situation, demonstrated in experiments by Anne Treisman, in which features from different objects are inappropriately combined.
Inattentional blindness
Not noticing something even though it is in clear view, usually caused by failure to pay attention to the object or the place where the object is located. See also Change blindness.
Inattentional deafness
Occurs when inattention causes a person to miss an auditory stimulus. For example, experiments have shown that it is more difficult to detect a tone when engaged in a difficult visual search task.
Inhibitory control
A mechanism involved in dealing with conflicting stimuli. Related to executive function, cognitive control and willpower.
Late selection model of attention
A model of selective attention that proposes that selection of stimuli for final processing does not occur until after the information in the message has been analyzed for meaning.
Load theory of attention
Proposal that the ability to ignore task-irrelevant stimuli depends on the load of the task the person is carrying out. High-load tasks result in less distraction.
Low-load task
A task that uses few resources, leaving some capacity to handle other tasks.
Mind wandering
Thoughts that come from within a person, often unintentionally. In early research this was called daydreaming.
Operant conditioning
- Type of conditioning championed by B. F. Skinner, -which focuses on how behavior is strengthened by presentation of positive reinforcers,
- such as food or social approval,
- or withdrawal of negative reinforcers, such as a shock or social rejection.
Overt attention
Shifting of attention by moving the eyes. Contrasts with Covert attention.
Perceptual load
Related to the difficulty of a task. Low-load tasks use only a small amount of a person’s processing capacity. High-load tasks use more of the processing capacity.
Preattentive stage
The first stage of Treisman’s feature integration theory, in which an object is analyzed into its features.
Precueing
- A procedure in which participants are given a cue that will usually help them carry out a subsequent task.
- This procedure has been used in visual attention experiments in which participants are presented with a cue that tells them where to direct their attention.
Processing capacity
The amount of information input that a person can handle. This sets a limit on the person’s ability to process information.
Saccadic eye movement
Eye movements from one fixation point to another.
Saliency map
Map of a scene that indicates the stimulus salience of areas and objects in the scene.
