Determinants of Selection in Attention & Attention and Cognitive Control

Question 1

Biased competition theory

Answer 1

competition among multiple stimuli for representation

Question 2

Salient ‘Singletons’

Answer 2

Theeuwes
Colour is irrelevant to shape based search task
complete topdown selectivity not possible
Stimulus Driven selection
Bottom up before top down
Initial sweep across visual field, entirely bottom-up
Calculation of local salience
Attention - location with highest local feature contras

Question 3

The role of attentional window

Answer 3

preattentive analysis takes place only within attentional window
spatial cues can vary size of AW

Question 4

Contingent Capture

Answer 4

invalid cues produced slower reaction times
colour cues capture attention when target was defined on colour
onset cues captures attention when target was defined on onset
but not vice versa

Question 5

Attentional capture: beyond physical salience

Answer 5

Sometimes things seem to attract attention because of their meaning
e.g. threat, personal relevance
spider phobics showed attentional capture by spides

Question 6

Effects of cognitive Load

Answer 6

Response competition flanker task
- participants asked to remember digits during each trial
Either low cognitive load (1 digit)
or high cognitive load ( 6 digits).
Distractor interference increased under high cognitive load
Distractor interference increased under high cognitive load

Question 7

cognitive load and awareness

Answer 7

Perceptual load reduces distractor processing and increases inattentional blindness
cognitive load increases distractor processing

Question 8

Load theory

Answer 8

Perceptual load reduces distraction

Cognitive load increases distraction

Question 9

Individual differences in working memory capacity

Answer 9

individuals with low WM capacity show increased
stroop interference
Response competition interference

Question 10

Neural mechanisms of attentional control

Answer 10

Attention modulates neural activation related to perception

attentional control draws on frontal parietal regions

Question 11

Mind wandering and external attention

Answer 11

mind wandering positively relates to external task -irrelevant distraction.
as well as failures to sustained attention
some frontal regions involved in both
attentional control
generating task-unrelated thought
High working memory capacity associated with reduced mind-wandering during attentionally demanding tasks