Chapter 5

Question 1

Dichotic Listening

Answer 1

Task in which research participants hear two verbal messages, both presented on headphones, one on the left and ear and the other for the right ear. Pay attention to one channel and ignore the other.

Question 2

Attended Channel

Answer 2

Participants are exposed to simultaneous inputs and are instructed to ignore all of these except one. Attended channel is the one participants are to listen to.

Question 3

Unattended Channel

Answer 3

Input participants are exposed to and have to ignore because of listening or perceiving the attended channel.

Question 4

Shadowing

Answer 4

Task in which participants are required to repeat back a verbal input, word for word, as they hear it.

Question 5

Filter

Answer 5

Mechanism that would block potential distractors from further processing.

Question 6

Fixation Target

Answer 6

Visual mark at which one points one’s eyes. Used to help control eye position.

Question 7

Inattentional Blindness

Answer 7

Pattern where perceivers seem literally not to see stimuli right in front of their eyes; they are attending to another stimulus and not expecting the target to appear.

Question 8

Change Blindness

Answer 8

Observers’ inability to detect changes in scenes they’re looking directly at.

Question 9

Early Selection

Answer 9

Selective attention operates at an early stage of processing, so that the unattended inputs receive little analysis.

Question 10

Late Selection

Answer 10

Selective attention operates at a late stage of processing, so that the unattended inputs receive considerable analysis.

Question 11

Response Times

Answer 11

The amount of time needed for a person to respond to a particular event.

Question 12

Stimulus-Based Prime

Answer 12

Produced by presentation of the priming stimulus, with no role for expectations. Priming one detector without taking away from other detectors.

Question 13

Expectations-Based Prime

Answer 13

Produced only when the participant believes the prime allows a prediction of what’s to come. Has a cost with effecting other detectors when priming.

Question 14

Limited-Capacity System

Answer 14

Group of processes in which resources are limited so that extra resources supplied to one process must be balanced by a withdrawal of resources somewhere else, with the result that the total resources expended to not exceed some limit.

Question 15

Spatial Attention

Answer 15

Ability to focus on a particular position in space and to be better prepared for any stimulus that appears in that position.

Question 16

Orienting System

Answer 16

disengage attention from one target, shift attention to a new target, and then engage attention on the new target.

Question 17

Alerting System

Answer 17

Achieving and maintaining an alert state in the brain.

Question 18

Executive System

Answer 18

Controls voluntary actions.

Question 19

Divided Attention

Answer 19

Effort to divide your focus between multiple tasks or inputs.

Question 20

Response Selector

Answer 20

A mental resource needed for the selection and initiation of a wide range or responses, including overt and covert responses.

Question 21

Executive Control

Answer 21

Mechanism that sets goals and priorities, chooses strategies, and controls the sequence of cognitive processes.

Question 22

Perseveration Error

Answer 22

Tendency to continue behavior even though the goal has changed.

Question 23

Goal Neglect

Answer 23

Failing to organize their behavior in a way that moves them toward their goals.

Question 24

Automaticity

Answer 24

State achieved by some tasks, in which the task can be performed with little or no attention.

Question 25

Controlled Tasks

Answer 25

Tasks that are novel (not yet practiced) or are tasks that continually vary in their demands.

Question 26

Automatic Tasks

Answer 26

Highly familiar and do not require great flexibility.

Question 27

Stroop Interference

Answer 27

Research participants are asked to name the color of ink used to print a word, and the word is a different color name. Considerable interference is observed.

Question 28

Selective Attention

Answer 28

Skill in which one focuses on one input or one task while ignoring other stimuli.