Chapter 5: Attention Flashcards
What is Unilateral neglect syndrome
result of damage to the parietal cortex, patients ignore all inputs coming from one side of the body. Most of the time the right parietal cortex.
Define inattentional blindness
You only see/hear things where when you pay attention, rest falls away
What is dichotic listing?
Attended and unattended channel
What is a exception for inattention blindness audiotory?
Due to lowered threshold on detectors you can hear your name on the unattended channel, know whether is was voice or music. Also called Cocktailparty effect
What is selective attention?
the skill through which a person focuses on one input or task while ignoring other stimuli. Implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others
What is shadowing and what is it’s purpose?
repeating back a stimuli (which is close to perfect), focusing attention there on, proving that other stimuli will often not be given attention to/noted
What is inattentional blindness (what can be the result?
people fail to see a prominent stimuli even when starting at it
What happens with inattentional blindness?
So absorbed in other thoughts they become blind to otherwise important stimuli
Define change blindness
inability to detect changes in scenes people are looking at (due to limited resources changes are not detected)
What is the early-selection hypothesis?
Unattended input is not analysed or hardly; unattended input receives little analysis and is therefore never perceived/concious while attended input gets priority
What is the late-selection hypothesis?
All inout is analysed but we are only aware of the attend input ;
Both attended and unattended input are analysed and selection occurs after analysis
Is there a proof for either early- of late- selection hypothesis?
No, different researches show different findings. (Müller-Lyers illusion for example and brain activity) => Both true.
How does selection depends on resources?
Complex stimuli involve more effort, leading to early selection while easy stimuli involve less effort, leading to late selection
What is the function of priming?
Lowering threshold of detector leading to easier recognition. “you know what to expect”
Give the two types of priming:
Stimulus and expectation
Define stimulus/repition-based priming
stimulus warms up detector => when same stimulus is presented, reaction is faster; costs no resources
Define expectation-based priming
expectation warms up detectors => when expectation is met reaction is faster; does have a cost
Define the limited-capacity system and where it came from;
There is a limit in the amount of resources mentally, you cannot do more than your resources allow.
Why is there a cost associated with being misled by expectation based priming?
You spend some resources on the expected detector, which makes you divide less resources over the other detectors, making you worse off than no priming. Refocussing costs 50ms.
Spatial attention:
When you expect a stimuli in a direction you pay spatial attention there, you will notice faster.
Attention is based on:
both object-based and location-based
Which three brain systems are involved in attention? And where are they located?
Orienting system, alerting system, executive system. All around the brain.
What does the orienting system? (3)
disengages attention from a target, shifts it and engages attention to new target
What does the alerting system?
achieves and maintains alert state
What does the executive system?
controls voluntary actions
What influence do control systems have on analysis?
There are different areas for controlling attention and for analysing the input. Control systems influence regions that analyze incoming visual information.
How is the spotlight in the mind represented?
Control systems can enable you to adjust your sensitivity to certain outputs.
What is endogenous control of attention?
You choose where to pay attention to.
What is exogenous control of attention?
Seized your attention
What does attention do (in regard to selective attention)
Attention modulates processing of desired input => paying attention in two ways: inhibition of not interested, facilitation of processing of interested
Why are you unable to combine some tasks?
Tasks can be combined if the sum does not exceed the resources. Easy tasks cost less resources
Are resources task-specific?
Yes
When is there especially interference in multi-tasking?
When two tasks need the same response-selector or executive control
Why does practice diminishes resources?
As you learn, you learn which will be the next step ==> response selector and executive control are needed less
Why do you train:
Tasks are executed faster with fewer errors, combination with other tasks is easier
What is the difference between controlled vs automatised tasks?
New VS well practiced
effort, control, resources VS need no control
flexible VS not flexibele
Where in the brain is a goal maintained?
prefrontal cortex
Which part of the brain detects conflicting actions?
anterior cingulate cortex
What does the Executive Control do?
control your own thoughts, keep current goals in mind, mental steps in right sequence, if current actions not towards goal allows to switch plans/strategy
What is a preservation error?
producing the same error over and over even when clear other response is needed, due to frontal lesion
What is goal neglect
failing to organise actions towards goal (so executive control in prefrontal cortex is damaged)
What is the location of the executive control?
Prefrontal cortex
