College 5: Attention

Question 1

What is selective attention?

Answer 1

Being able to select relevant from irrelevant info

Question 2

What is top-down attention?

Answer 2

A voluntary control process, you can direct your attention to something (goal-directed)

Question 3

What is bottom-up attention?

Answer 3

More involuntary, automatically / driven by stimulus characteristics, like visual salience

Question 4

What is the selection history effect?

Answer 4

Having a certain history with a certain object can draw your attention

Question 5

What is visual salience?

Answer 5

Can be defined by visual features like color, intensity, orientation. It is always relative to a context, but the effects are transient.

Question 6

What is sustained attention?

Answer 6

The ability to focus on a stimulus/activity for an extended period of time (also related to academic success)

Question 7

What is divided attention? And to what function and what gene is it linked to?

Answer 7

The ability to shift your attention between different objects or tasks (attentional flexibility).
Function: executive control
Gene: dopamine transporter gene (DAT) = if you have a certain allele of this gene -> higher levels of dopamine -> scoring better on attentional flexibility tasks

Question 8

Divided attention -> What is a switch cost?

Answer 8

A decrease in performance after switching task (in multiple task performance)

Question 9

What happens with aging?

Answer 9

Saccades become slower and smooth pursuit (the tracking of a moving object) is impaired

But variability in eye movement parameters is also reduced -> suggesting higher efficiency

Question 10

What attentional process is present very early in life?

Answer 10

Inhibition of return (IOR) = the suppression of processing of stimuli that have recently been te focus of attention

Question 11

What type of attention is the dorsal attention system more associated with? (and what path)

Answer 11

Top-down attention, so steering your attention to a location in space on a voluntary basis

Path: inferior parietal sulcus -> frontal eye fields

Question 12

What type of attention is the ventral attention system more associated with? (and what path)

Answer 12

Bottom-up attention, so more stimulus-driven

Path: tempoparietal junction -> ventromedial prefrontal cortex

Question 13

What is the Posner cueing paradigm? And what type of attention is this?

Answer 13

Directional cues point toward a certain location and if a target is presented in that location, people will respond faster to that target

Bottom-up effect (cause it’s an over-learned effect)

Question 14

What is the Rescorla-Wagner model?

Which area then becomes more activated?

Answer 14

A model of classical conditioning with the assumption that people are better in learning an association if the conditioned stimulus is brighter.

Then the vmPFC becomes more activated + involvement of the frontoparietal attention network

Question 15

What is binocular rivalry?

Answer 15

When perception switches between 2 images, you see either the one or the other. This shows that attention can direct our perception -> if we would beforehand pair one color with reward, that color picture will be received more often

Question 16

Autism can affect perception and attention -> what is an example for this?

Answer 16

These deficits can underly the social issues these patients experience -> they look more to the sides of a face in comparison with controls

Question 17

ADHD, particularly problems with?

And what do they also have?

Answer 17

Sustained attention

Delay aversion = annoyed when things take longer then they thought it would

Question 18

What 3 types of ischemic infarcts are there?

And what are the deficits?

Answer 18

1. Embolic (in major cerebral artery) = motor, perceptual, and/or cognitive deficits
2. Lacunar (in smaller arteries) = motor impairments (transient), decrease in attentional functioning
3. Water-shed (low perfusion pressure) = motor weakness, language problems

Question 19

What 2 types of hemorrhagic infarcts are there?

And what are the deficits?

Answer 19

1. Subarachnoidal = in the protective layers around the brain -> severe headache, cognitive and physical deficits may range from mild to severe
2. Intracerebral = bleeding in the brain caused by an aneurysm or traumatic blow to the head -> attention deficits, disturbances in arousal, frontal lesions (executive deficits)

Question 20

What are 2 ‘disorders’ that are associated with unilateral neglect?

Answer 20

1. Hemianopia = blindness in one visual field

2. Hemiplegia = motor dysfunction in one half of the body

Question 21

What is Balint’s syndrome? And through what it is caused?

Answer 21

A neurological syndrome characterized by a difficulty in fixating the eyes, problems with executing controlled movements, and visual processing issues.

It is caused by bilateral damage to the posterior parietal and occipital lobes (thus very rare)

Question 22

What 3 distinct pathological behavior patterns are there for Balint’s syndrome?

Answer 22

1. Ocular apraxia = difficulty fixating an object
2. Optic ataxia = difficulty pointing towards or grasping an object
3. Simultanagnosia = inability to simultaneously perceive different aspects of an object (as if glued to one detail)

Question 23

What deficits are associated with (closed) head injury? (5x)

Answer 23

Concentration problems
Low arousal
Reduced alertness
Reduction in processing speed
Deficits in divided attention

Question 24

What cognitive domains does schizophrenia affect especially? (4x)
And which types of attention?

Answer 24

Language, memory, attention, executive functioning

Selective and sustained attention

Question 25

What cognitive domains does depression affect especially? (2x)
And which types of attention?

Answer 25

Poor concentration and memory deficits

Selective and sustained attention

Question 26

What are cortical and what are subcortical dementias?

Answer 26

Cortical = Alzheimer & Pick
Subcortical = Parkinson & Huntington

Question 27

Which model?

A model of classical conditioning with the assumption that people are better in learning an association if the conditioned stimulus is brighter.

Answer 27

Rescorla-Wagner model

Question 28

A neurological syndrome characterized by a difficulty in fixating the eyes, problems with executing controlled movements, and visual processing issues.

Answer 28

Balint’s syndrome