CHP. 5 - Paying Attention

Question 1

Selective attention

Answer 1

skill involvinf focus on 1 input task while ignoring other stimuli

Question 2

Dichotic listening tasks

Answer 2

different audio inputs presented to each ear
* attended channel vs. unattended channel

Question 3

Inattentional blindness

Answer 3

failure to see a prominent stimulus, even if you’re staring right at it

can include inattentional deafness & numbness too!

ex. Gorilla experiment

Question 4

Change blindness

Answer 4

inability to detect changes in a scene despite looking at it directly

ex. “wood carrying on sidewalk” experiment

Question 5

Differences in change blindness

Answer 5

Cultural and class differences
* ex. East Asian, lower social class, minority status

Question 6

Early selection hypothesis

Answer 6

Only attended input is analysed & perceived
Unattended info receives little/no analysis

Never perceived

ex. dichotic listening tasks

Question 7

Late selection hypothesis

Answer 7

All inputs are analyzed
Selection occurs after analysis
* Selection may occur before consciousness or later

Unattended info might be perceived, but is then forgotten

Question 8

Repetition priming

Answer 8

priming produced by a prior encounter with the stimulus
* stimulus driven
* requires no effort/mental resources

Question 9

Expectation-driven priming

Answer 9

detectors for inputs you think are upcoming are deliberately primed
* effortful
* not done for unexpected/uninteresting inputs

Question 10

Biased competition theory

Answer 10

attention created a temporary bias in neuron sensitivity

more responsive to input with desired properties

“neurons are clicky”

Question 11

Reaction time (RT)

Answer 11

measure of the time of stimulus onset to a response

Question 12

Cue

Answer 12

a stimulus that might indicate where/what a subsequent stimulus will be
* Valid (correct)
* Invalid (incorrect)
* Neutral (uninformative)

Question 13

Posner Cueing Paradigm results

Answer 13

• RTs are shorter on valid cue trials
• RTs are longer on invalid cue trials

some cues, like eyes & arrows, lead to faster RTs

Question 14

“Spotlight” Model of attention

Answer 14

attention is restricted in space & moves from 1 point to the next
* areas within “spotlight” receive extra processing

Question 15

“Zoom Lens” Model of attention

Answer 15

attended region can grow or shrink depending on size of the area to be processed

Question 16

Control system of attention system
List them out

Answer 16

1. Orienting system
2. Alerting system
3. Executive system

Question 17

Orienting system

(steps)

Answer 17

disengage -> shift -> engage

Question 18

Alerting system

Answer 18

maintain alert state in the brain
* what we should pay attention to

ex. phone notifs

Question 19

Executive system

Answer 19

frontal lobe-type activities, controls voluntary actions

Question 20

Endogenous vs. exogenous control of attention

Answer 20

Internal: voluntary & directed by mind
* ex.”I’m hungry”
External: stimulated from environment
* ex. restaurant ads

Question 21

Feature Integration Theory

Answer 21

1. Preattentive stage
   * paralle processing of stimulus, efficient
2. Focused attention stage
   * expectation-based priming creates advantages, slower

Question 22

Divided attention

Answer 22

skill of performing multiple tasks simultaneously
* generally easier if tasks are different from each other

ex. cleaning & listening to music is easier than texting & driving

Question 23

Preservation error

Answer 23

tendency to produce same response over & over when the task clearly requires a change in response

ex. keep checking under the mat for keys when they’re clearly not there

Question 24

Automacity

Answer 24

describes tasks that are well-practiced & require little/no executive control

ex. Stroop interference (letters & colors)