CogPsy - The Nature of Attention and Consciousness I

Question 1

What does attention allow us to do?

Answer 1

It allows us to actively process just a limited amount of information available through senses, stored memories and/or cognition.

Question 2

Consciousness includes both …

Answer 2

… the feeling of awareness as well as the content of awareness.

Question 3

Conscious attention serves three purposes:

Answer 3

• Monitoring our interaction with the environment
• Gives us a sense of continuity by linking past and present.
• Helps to control and plan future actions.

Question 4

Four main functions of attention:

Answer 4

• signal detection and vigilance (primed to take speedy actions when required)
• search (active search for particular stimulus)
• selective attention (making choices about what we attend to)
• divided attention (multitasking)

Question 5

what is vigilance

Answer 5

ability to attend to a field of stimulation for a longer period of time, in which one seeks to detect appearance of target stimulus

Question 6

What does SDT stand for, what is it used for?

Answer 6

Signal Detection Theory, often used to measure sensitivity to target stimulus.

Question 7

SDT can be discussed in the light of:

Answer 7

• attention
• perception
• memory (“Was the word champagne on the list?”)

Question 8

Brain structures involved in vigilance?

Answer 8

Amygdala, Thalamus

Question 9

In visual search, what does display size stand for?

Answer 9

Number of items in a given visual array.

Question 10

Feature search involves …

Answer 10

… scanning the environment for a specific feature. (e.f. O among Ls)

Question 11

Featureal singletons are items …

Answer 11

… with distinctive features that stand out in the display.

Question 12

In conjuction search we look for ..

Answer 12

… particular combinations. (eg.: T among Ls)

Question 13

What can the feature-integration theory explain?

Answer 13

The relative ease of feature search and difficulty of conjunction search, because conjunction search involves one more mental process, we can search the array only serially and not in parallel as in feature search. (Treisman)

Question 14

Similarity Theory?

Answer 14

Similarity between target and distractor matters.

Question 15

How does guided-search models work? (Cave & Wolfe)

Answer 15

all searches (feature and conjunction) involve two consecutive stages:

1. a parallel stage: stimuli activate a mental representation based on shared features with target
2. a serial stage: all in-this-way activated stimuli are proccessed sequentially starting from the most similar one

Question 16

Selective attention can be explained with the …

Answer 16

… cocktail party PROBLEM: Following one conversation among many.

Question 17

Cherry presented a separate message to each ear. This is called …

Answer 17

… dichotic presentation.

Question 18

Three things that help to overcome the cocktail party problem:

Answer 18

• distinctiveness of sound source
• sound intensity
• location of sound source

Question 19

Broadbent’s and Treisman’s model of selective attention differin the selection mechanism; how so:

Answer 19

Broadbent: SELECTIVE FILTER filters out information right after sensory level.
Treisman: ATTENUATION control shifts amount of what can pass through limited capacity cannal. (Think: hot-cold-faucet)

Question 20

Why is Deutsch and Deutsch’s model called the late-filter model?

Answer 20

According to the model attentional filtering happens after preliminary perceptual processes

Question 21

Who synthesized early-filter and late-filter models?

Answer 21

Ulric Neisser 1967

Question 22

Two kind (an early and a late) of process in Neisser’s model of selective attention:

Answer 22

• preattentive processes

- attentive, controlled processes

Question 23

What does PRP stand for?

Answer 23

psychological refractory period

aka. attentional blink

Question 24

The slowing resulting from simultaneous engagement in speeding task is known as

Answer 24

PRP (psychological refractory period) effect.

Question 25

Four factors that influence our ability to pay attention:

Answer 25

• anxiety
• arousal
• task difficulty
• skills

Question 26

Posner and Rothbart looked at imaging studies and found brain areas that correlate with three subfunctions of attention. List subfunctions + pathologies:

Answer 26

• Alerting (being prepared to attend to incomind event and maintaining attention) ADHD
• Orienting (Selection of stimuli to attend to) Autism
• Executive Attention (monitoring and resolving conflicts that arise among internal processes) Schizophrenia, Alzheimer

Question 27

What does ADHD stand for?

Answer 27

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Question 28

Multiple intelligences by Gardner:

Answer 28

• linguistic
• logical-mathematical
• naturalist
• interpersonal
• intrapersonal
• spatial
• musical
• bodily-kinesthetic

Question 29

Change blindness is the inability to …

Answer 29

… detect changes in scenes.

Question 30

Spatial neglect or hemi-neglect?

Answer 30

Is an attentional dysfunction in which participants ignore half of their visual field.