chapter 5: attention Flashcards
what aspect of cognition does attention most directly control?
a. behavioral response
b. memory
c. information processing
d. sensory transduction
c. information processing
define inattentional blindness
inability to perceive new information outside of the attentional spotlight
define change-blindness
inability to detect differences in two alternating flashed images, or as they occur
define inattentional deafness
auditory information is not perceived when a different high-load task is being performed
define selective attention
occurs when someone pays attention to one thing at the expense of all others
what is the cocktail party effect
ability to attend to a specific voice in an environment where other competing voices are present as well
describe the experimental method called the dichotic listening task
participants are presented, via headphones, two different audio streams to each of the two ears and tasked with repeating only one of the streams while ignoring the other
explain the early-selection model
model of attention that posits that only the basic physical characteristics of a sensory input are processed without attention, which is just enough to reject those inputs from further processing
explain the late-selection model
model that posits that unattended information is first processed in terms of its meaning, and then filtered based on irrelevance to the current task
which two research allowed the proposition of the late-selection model
- Moray’s (1959) study that showed participants were able to process unattended information if their name was spoken in the ignored channel
- Grey and Weddeburn (1960) study that showed if a meaningful narrative was played alternatively between the ears, people would follow the narrative
according to the late-selection model, how does attentional filtering work
based on if information fits semantically with process or task at hand.
once deemed irrelevant, it is rejected from further processing
what is the attenuator model
model that states that unattended stimuli are processed but at a reduced level relative to attended stimuli
define attentional load
measure of how much processing resources are needed in order to perform a task
differentiate between controlled and automatic tasks
controlled: tasks that require efforts and voluntary top-down attention
automatic: tasks that are highly familiar and well-practiced and do not require voluntary top-down attention
what is divided attention
attending to multiple objects at the same time, commonly referred as multi-tasking
when allocating our attention to moving objects, about how many items can we simultaneously track?
a. 1
b. 10
c. 7+/- 2
d. 4
d. 4
what is one possible purpose of attention
attention prepares the mind for processing specific stimuli. it makes us more sensitive to stimuli and quicker to respond to them
define feature-integration theory
theory which states that attention is needed in order to combine distinct features into coherent perceptual objects
what are conjunction errors
failure to accurately bind together the discrete features of a single object
define the experimental paradigm called visual search
participants must look for a certain target object among a group of distractors
what is the single-feature search
when a property “pops out”: the target is so different from others that it actually attracts attention
what is the conjunction search
a version of the visual-search task in which the target is distinguished from the distracters based on several features
differentiate between exogenous attentional control and endogenous attentional control
exogenous: some property of the environment drives us to pay attention to it
endogenous: when a person chooses what to pay attention to based on their goals or intentions
differentiate between overt attention and covert attention
overt: selective attention of a location that is accompanied by eye fixation of the same region
covert: ability to move your attention around even though your gaze is fixed in a particular location
which area of the brain has been shown to process motion
medial temporal lobe
which area of the brain has been associated with endogenous attention network to prepare neural activation for pre-processing?
intraparietal sulcus
which hemisphere is associated with exogenous attention and orienting you to unexpected stimuli
right hemisphere
what is the retinotopic map
location of pattern stimulation is preserved at the cortical level
what do the frontal eye fields do
associated with allocation of attention via eye movement
true or false? stimulating the cells in the FEF will move the eyes to the location in space represented by that part of the retina
true
describe the go/no-go task and the observations/conclusions that were drawn from it
subject has to press a button as quickly as possible when a target is present but stops pressing it when a different target appears
Ps with ADHD completed more errors. frontoparietal regions were inefficiently activated which shows a dysregulation in attention control networks
what is the Balint syndrome
neurological disorder caused by damage to both parietal lobe that carries several attentional deficits
define occulomotor apraxia
inability to draw their eyes to an object that grabs their attention
define simultanagnosia
inability to identify or use more than one object or property in a scene at a time
what is spatial neglect
occurs when patients have damage to their right hemisphere, causing them to not notice or neglect their entire left side
the finding that the color of a printed word interferes with naming that word aloud suggests that reading involves ___
a. divided attention
b. endogenous attentions
c. automatic processing
d. attenuation
c. automatic processing
to account for how subjects could follow a meaningful message that switched between ears in a dichotic listening task, Anne treisman added a/an ___ to the filter model to explain how unattended information still leaks past the filter but is relatively weaker
attenuator
what are the three types of top-down attention
- sustained attention
- divided attention
- selective attention
why do we have selective attention
- limited resources
- must prioritize what to process to act effectively
- what you attend to will depend on given goal
define the load theory
filter placement will depend on how much of your resources are required for your currently attended-to task
- if low resource load, process non-attended info in later stage
- if high resource load, process non-attended info in early stage
define inhibition of return (IOR)
attention is inhibited from going to a recently attended space after a long duration between space cue and target
what is the difference between pre-attention phase and focused attention phase in the feature-integration theory
pre-attention:
- object features are separately coded, automatically
- bottom-up processing
focused attention:
- object features are integrated together to guide a search
- top-down processing
what captures our attention
- info important for survival
- personally relevant stimuli (name)
- addictive stimuli
- fearful stimuli
what is the cost to task switching
decline in performance after switching tasks
differentiate between the overload and underload theory
overload: increase attentional demands with time
underload: boredom → mind-wandering → divided attention
true or false? westerners attend to both central object and background compared to east asian who mainly focus on central object
false, east asians tend to focus on both the central object and the background whereas westerners mainly focus on the central object
describe the posner cuing task
- fixate on the center of a screen
- cue display
- target display: reaction time is measured
short time interval:
- lower RT for valid trial
- higher RT for invalid trial
long time interval:
- higher RT for valid trial
- lower RT for invalid trial
what is the arousal type of attention
- alertness and awareness
- controlled by reticular activating system
- optimal level
what are the three functions/theories of attention
- attention prepares us for processing of stimuli
- attention is necessary to integrate features of an object into a whole
- eye movements help detect visual attentional goal
