Interacting with the Environment Flashcards
What are the two types of attention?
Selective attention and divided attention
What is selective attention?
Process by which one input is attended to and the rest are tuned out
What is the setup for dichotic listening?
Each ear hears a different dialogue, the individual is told to listen to info from one (attended channel) and ignore the other (unattended channel)
What is the outcome of dichotic listening?
The listener is able to remember some of the message from the attended ear, but loses almost everything from the unattended eat
Who thought of the brain as a processing system with limited capacity?
Donald Broadbent
What is the Broadbent Filter Model of Selective Attention?
[insert picture]
What is the phenomena where you are in a conversation and are not aware of any of the other conversations until you hear something relating to you?
The Cocktail Party Effect
What is the problem with the Broadbent Filter Model of Selective Attention?
Doesn’t account for the Cocktail Party Effect
How was the model of selective attention updated to account for the Cocktail Party Effect?
The information from the unattended ear is not completely filtered out, just dampened and still processed at some level
What is Anne Treisman’s Attenuation Model?
Rather than a filter, the mind has an attenuator (like a volume knob)
[insert picture, p. 90]
What, besides the Treisman Model of Selective Attention, can explain the Cocktail Party Effect?
Selective Priming
What is Selective Priming?
People can be selectively primed to learn something, either by frequent encounters or expectation
What is the following an example of:
We have heard our names frequently and are thus primed to hear them
Selective priming
What model explains visual attention?
The Spotlight Model
What is the Spotlight Model?
The spotlight is a beam shining within an individual’s visual field that represents the movement of attention. The shifting of attention requires us to unlock the beam from its current target, move the focus, and lock onto a new target
What comes first, the shift in visual attention or the corresponding eye movement?
Shift in attention
What are some aspects of an object that must be processed in the brain by feature detectors?
Color, shape, orientation, ect…
What term describes a problem with visual processing?
Binding problem
What is the binding problem?
How all the different aspects of an object are assembled together and related to a single object, rather than something else in the visual field
What does divided attention concern?
When and if we are able to perform multiple tasks simultaneously
Regarding multiple tasks, what does divided attention depend on?
The characteristics of the activities one is trying to multitask
What is the resource model of attention?
We have a limited pool of resources on which to draw when performing multiple tasks
What are the three factors associated with performance on multitasking?
Task similarity, familiarity, and practice
What are controlled tasks?
Require flexibility and drain more resources, and are not typically multitasked
What is the basic assumption inherent in information-processing models?
Information is taken from the environment, and systematically transformed while being processed in a series of steps
What are the steps that information taken from the environment must pas through?
Attention, perception, and storage into memory
What is the model of memory that sought to better define short term memory and renamed working memory?
Alan Baddeley’s model
What are the three theories of attention?
Broadbent Filter Model of Selective Attention, the Treisman Attenuation Model of Selective Attention, and the Baddeley Model of Working Memory
What are the four components of working memory?
The phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and episodic buffer, and a central executive
Describe the Baddeley Model of Working Memory
[insert picture]
What is the function of the phonological loop?
Allows us to repeat verbal information to help us remember it
What is the function of the visuospatial sketchpad?
It allows us to repeat mental images in order to help us remember them
What is the function of the episodic buffer?
Where the information in the working memory can interact with the information in long term memory
What is the function of the central executive?
Oversees the entire process by shifting and dividing attention
Piaget thought that the process of cognitive development involved forming what?
Schemas
What is a schema?
Mental framework that shape and is shaped by our experience
As we encounter new experiences, we do one of two things:
Assimilate the experiences to our existing schema or accommodate our schema to the new experience
What are Piaget’s stages of development and at what ages do they occur?
Sensorimotor stage (birth-2)
Pre-operational stage (2-7)
Concrete operational stage (7-11)
Formal operational stage (12-adulthood)
