L5 (week 12) - Attention

Question 1

What is the correct definition of attention?
A) A state in which cognitive resources are focused on stimuli immediately in front of our face.
B) A state in which cognitive resources are focused on certain aspects of the environemnt rather than on others and the central nervous system is ready to respond to stimuli.
c) A state in which cognitive resources are focused on certain aspects of the environement meaning our peripheral nervous system is at ease.

Answer 1

B) A state in which cognitive resources are focused on certain aspects of the environemnt rather than on others and the central nervous system is ready to respond to stimuli.

Question 2

what are the four key functions of attention?

1) detecting signals + V
2) VS (looking)
3) SA (picky)
4) DA (multiple at once)

Answer 2

1) signal detection and vigilance (detecting the appearance of a stimulus).
2) Visual search (actively searching for a stimulus)
3) Selective attention (consciously attending to one thing over others.
4) Divided attention (deliberately attending to more than one task).

Question 3

What does the classic visual search method find?

Distractors, pops out, longer to detect than

Answer 3

That the amount of distractors makes no difference when searching for a target of one feature, the stimuli you are looking for just pops out. It takes us longer to detect whether it is missing than detect whether it is there.

Question 4

When the reaction time is independent of set size what is this type of search slope known as?

Visualise on the graph. Its a P search slope

Answer 4

Parallel search slope.

Question 5

When the reaction time is dependent on set size what is this type of search slope known as?

Visualise on the graph. Its a S search slope.

Answer 5

Serial search slope.

Question 6

What is a feature search?

How many features?

Answer 6

Searching for a target based on a single feature only?

Question 7

what is a conjunction search?

How many features?

Answer 7

Searching for a target based on a combination of two or more features.

Question 8

What does selective attention refer to?

attending something over ….

Answer 8

Consciously attending something over and above other information.

Question 9

What is the name of the listening task introduced by Broadbent in 1952?

D L task

Answer 9

The Dichotic listening task

Question 10

During the Dichotic listening task what is the process of repeating back the message the participants are told to focus on?

s-ing

Answer 10

shadowing

Question 11

During the Dichotic listening task what is message referred to as that is not repeated back?

n-s

Answer 11

non-shadowed

Question 12

During the Dichotic listening task what did it show about how we process non-shadowed sounds?

we notice B P features, but do not process at S level.

Answer 12

We notice basic physical features but do not process at a semantic level.

Question 13

What was the name of the theory coined by Broadbent in 1958 that developed from the dichotic listening task?

F theory

Answer 13

Filter theory

Question 14

What are the 2 basic principles of Filter theory (Broadbent, 1958)?

1) what do we filter information based on?
2) when does filtering occur? before any what level processing?

Answer 14

1) That we filter out information on the basis of physical characteristics.
2) Filtering occurs right after the stimuli have been detected by our sense and before any higher level perceptual process has taken place.

Question 15

In the Filter theory what is the correct order for the following processes?
A) Selective filter > Sensory register > Further processing
B) Sensory register > further processing > selective filter
c) Sensory register > Selective filter > further processing

Answer 15

c) Sensory register > Selective filter > further processing

Question 16

What was the Attenuation model (Treisman, 1964) developed to account for that was not included in the filter theory?

(when people could register hearing their own name being said in a crowded room but not any other words)

Answer 16

The attentional breakthroughs from un-shadowed ear.

Question 17

In the attenuation model what is the correct order for the following processes?
A) Selective filter > Sensory register > attenuator
B) Sensory register > attenuator > Further processing
c) Sensory register > Further processing > attenuator

Answer 17

B) Sensory register > attenuator > Further processing

Question 18

If a piece of information has a ‘low threshold’ what does this mean in regards to how many cognitive resources it needs to come into consciousness? is it:
A) A small number of cognitive resources
B) A large number of cognitive resources
c) No cognitive resources

Answer 18

A) A small number of cognitive resources

Low threshold meaning we don’t require a lot in order to pick up on this information.

Question 19

What two tasks did inattentional deafness bring together? was it:
A) Visual search task and processing task
B) Auditory detection task and feature integration task
C) Visual search task and auditory detection task

Answer 19

C) Visual search task and auditory detection task

A visual search task was performed whilst a tone was emitted, how well the tone was registered in the brain depended on how high the load was of visual stimuli.

Question 20

When visual load was high the tones were less likely to be detected, on what 2 levels was this evident at?

C level (in brain imaging) and B level (watching the participants B….)

Answer 20

Cortical and Behavioural level.