Key Terms: Attention

Question 1

Define arousal

Answer 1

Refers to the global physiological and psychological state of an organism, ranging from deep sleep to hyper-alertness.

Question 2

Define bottleneck

Answer 2

Bottleneck refers to a stage of information processing where not all of the inputs can gain access or pass through.

Question 3

Define covert attention

Answer 3

Covert attention refers to the action of directing attention without overtly changing sensory receptors (i.e., attending to a conversation without turning the eyes and head towards the speakers).

Question 4

Define dorsal attention network

Answer 4

A dorsal attention network refers to an attention control network, involving the dorsal frontal and parietal cortical regions that mediates voluntary attention.

Question 5

Define early selection

Answer 5

Early selection is the theoretical model positing that attention can attenuate or filter out sensory input at early stages of processing before perceptual analysis is complete and the information has been encoded.

Question 6

Define endogenous (/voluntary) attention.

Answer 6

Endogenous (/voluntary) attention is the volitional or intentional, focusing of attention on a source of input, train of though or action.

Question 7

Define endogenous cueing

Answer 7

Endogenous cueing is an experimental method that uses a symbolic cue (e.g., arrow) to induce or instruct participants to voluntarily (i.e., endogenously) direct attention according to task requirements.

Question 8

Define exogenous (reflective) attention

Answer 8

Exogenous (reflective) attention is the automatic orientating of attention induced by bottom-up, or stimulus-driven, effects, such as when a flash of light in the periphery captures one’s attention.

Question 9

Define exogenous (reflective) cueing

Answer 9

Exogenous (reflective) cueing is an experimental method that uses an external (i.e., exogenous) sensory stimulus (e.g., flash of light) to automatically attract attention without voluntary control.

Question 10

Define extinction

Answer 10

Extinction (in patient’s with neglect) is the failure to perceive or respond to a stimulus contralateral to a lesion when presented with a simultaneous stimulus ipsilateral (belonging to or occurring on the same side of the body) to the lesion.

Question 11

Define Feature integration theory of attention

Answer 11

Feature integreation theory of attention is a psychological theory of visual perception based on the idea that the visual system can process in parallel elementary features (e.g., colour, shape, and motion) but requires attention to bind the features that define an object.

Question 12

Define Inhibition of return (IOR)

Answer 12

Inhibition of return (IOR) is a phenomonon observed in an exogeneous cued spatial attential task, where after the attention is reflexively attracted to a location by the exogeneous cue, there is a slower behavioural response to stimuli in that location that are presented later than 300 ms after the exogeneous cue.

Question 13

Define Late selection

Answer 13

Late selection isa theoretical model positing that all inputs are equally processed perceptually, but attention acts to differentially filter these inputs at later stages of information processing.

Question 14

Define neglect

Answer 14

(Unilaterial spatial) neglect is a behavioural pattern exhibited by neurological patients with lesion to the forebrain, in which they fail at or are slowwed in ackownledging that objects or events exist in the hemispace opposite their lesion.

(Extra: Neglect is most closely asociated with damge to the right parietal cortex)

Question 15

Define Overt attention

Answer 15

Overt attention is the turning of the head to orient toward a visual, auditory, olfactory, or other sensory stimulus.

Question 16

Define Pulvinar

Answer 16

The pulvinar is a large region of the posterior thalamus comprising any nuclei having interconnectiosn with specific regions of the cortex.

Question 17

Define Selective attention

Answer 17

Selective attention is the ability to focus one’s concentration on a subset of sensory inputs, trains of thought, or actions, while simultaneously ingonoring others. Selective attention can be distinguished froom non-selective attention, which in clues simple behavioural arousal (i.e., being generally more versus less attentive).