L7 Attention Flashcards
What does ASST stand for?
Give an example
Attentional set shifting tasks
Wisconsin card sorting task
What are the 4 main things that ASST look at testing?
Simple discriminations
Extra dimensional shifts
Intra dimensional shifts
Reversal learning
What is an intra dimensional shift, give an example?
Shift attentional but remain in the same perceptual dimension. I.e previously learnt to discriminate between red and blue, but now learn to discriminate between green and yellow. Different colour, but still discriminating between colour.
What is an extra dimensional shift, give an example?
Attentional shift to now discriminate between a completely new perceptual dimension. I.e previously learnt to discriminate between orientation, but nopw have to discriminate between colour.
When carrying out ASST tasks, key brain areas have been implicated, particularly involved in ____________ ______________, such as the ___________ and the ____.
In ASST tasks, cognitive flexibility required, therefore recruit the involvement of DLPFC and OFC.
Attention can be seperated in to 2 main features or types, _____________ attention and _____________ attention. Attention has been given many features such as the abaility to ________ for ______________________________, and the ability to focus on ________ stimulus whilst ______________________
Selective attention and sustained attention
Ability to focus for sustained period of time
and ability to attend to one stimulus whilst blocking out others
In a study, how was sustained attention displayed in rats?
Rat presented with five different sections, where in one section a light would turn on as a signal for food. When food was a reward (goal directed) rats could sustain attention and attend to the stimulus which signaled for food.
Selective attention is defined as the ability to _______________________________ in the presence of _____________. In learning theory, animals show selective attention by ____________________________ and ignoring _______________________________.
Selective attention = ability to focus on a stimulus in presence of distractors. Animals can display selective attention by attending to stimuli which do reinforce/predict, and not attending to stimuli which dont reinforce/predict.
Which of these is an example of an intra-dimensional shift?
A Shifting attention to shape when the previous attentional set was colours
B Shifting attention to groups of four when the previous attentional set was groups of 3
C Shifting attention to smell when previous attentional set was colours
D none of the above
B
How did Mackintosh show the difference between Intra and extra dimensional shifts, and how this could not be explained by basic learning theory explanations?
Two different groups - One group learned to attend to colour (reed good, yellow bad), but not orientation (intra dimensional)
One group learned to attend to orientation, and ignore colour.
This was phase 1, in phase two both groups now attended to shapes of a different colour and orientation, with the attentional feature being colour.
Intra dimensional group learned to discriminate new set better, despite new stimuli, as perceptual dimension was still colour. Extra dimensional group made more errors as was completely new dimension to learn.
True or false, Rescorla Wagner models cannot account for performance differences between intra dimensional and extra dimensional shift groups?
True
The total ________ or multiple _________ design makes an improvement on Mackintosh’s initial design when testing attentional shifts, It allows for a _____-_______ design, and lets you test multiple different cognitive stages at once such as ______________ and ____________ shifts, __________ learning and new learning. An example of this used in humans and monkeys is the __________ task.
total change or multiple stage design improves on between subjects designs, and allows you to use within subjects, testing multiple cognitive features at once, such as intra and extra dimensional shifting, an reversal learning
CANTAB task used, allowing researcher to flexibly manipulate order of, add and remove stages
What is reversal learning?
Learn a simple or compound discrimination, squares are good, triangles bad, then learn the reverse/opposite, triangles good, squares bad.
What is compound discrimination?
When a stimulus is a compound, i.e has more than one perceptual feature, learn to discriminate between stimuli based on the identified perceptual feature.
How may total change design be adapted to test attentional shift in rodents?
A Using compound stimuli including different colours and shapes
B Using compound stimuli including different amounts and volumes
C Using compound stimuli including different textures and smells/tastes
D Using compound stimuli including different orientations and sizes
C Smells and textures, as rats may be better at discriminating between more naturally adaptive stimuli, better reflects the wild
What are 2 advantages of the total change design?
Measures different psychological processes in the same participant, so no individual differences in cognitive ability/development
Can be uses across species
What are the 3 main disadvantages of the total change design?
Quite time/labor/cost intensive to obtain/create all of the compound stimuli, when testing in rodents
Simple discriminations tested at the start means that one dimension is always more familiar than the other
Issue of testing at 2 different time periods
Briefly explain the design and 3 main phases of the optional shift test?
2 sensory modalities: visual and auditory, 4 different stimuli types in each.
In phase 1 - Both groups presented with same compound auditory/visual stimuli one group learns to attend to auditory stimuli as relevant -A1 goes to lever 1, and A2 goes to lever 2, regardless of visual component. Group 2 learns instead that auditory stimuli are relevant for lever press disticntion.
Phase 2 present 2 new compounds. A3V3, A4V4,
Test - test A3V4 and A4V3, to see which lever rats will press, i.e which sensory modality they will attend to - should see a difference in group 1 vs group 2
What are the 2 main advantages of the optional shift design in rodents?
requires only 4 different stimuli for each sensory modality
Still within subjects
What are the 3 main aspects of cognitive flexibility?
Attentional set shifting
Rule or strategy shifting
Reversal learning
Compare the rat brain to the human brain, what are some differences, especially associated with the PFC?
Rat brains are much smaller, and most importantly the PFC is much smaller in proportion to the rest f the brain ,compared to humans, The PFC is less developed, so mainly medial, not much lateral
In humans brain has much more grooves/fissures, and PFC:brain ration much larger in humans than rodents, many more different PFC substructures
In the study by Owen et al (1991), what were the 6 groups were included in the study testing the effect of different lesions on attentional set shift tasks?
People with different frontal unilateral lesions
Bilateral frontal lesions
Unilateral temporal lesion
Amygdalohippocampectomy
And 2 control groups - one in 40s, and one in 70s
In the study by Owen at al 1991, measuring attentional set shift and EDS/IDS in different lesion and age groups, what was measured, and what were main two findings?
Firstly measured - at which point in the total change/multiple stage design, each age group struggled/could not progress to, also measured how many trials each group took to learn each stage.
Main finding was that frontal lobe lesion group struggled the most, mainly at shifting from IDS to EDS, took many trials. Old age group struggled the second most. Suggest that frontal lobe lesion group and elders struggle with cognitive flexibility task the msot
In a study by Sahakian et al (1991), what was found when testing attentional set shift task in:
- Moderate alzehimers patients
-unmedicated Parkinson’s disease patients?
Alzheimer’s group struggled the most, even with basic cognitive functions such as compound discriminations, Could not even progress to IDS or further.
NMed Parkinson’s struggled second most, with some basic cognitive functions, however the main drop off in performance was going from IDS to EDS, unable to shift cognitive set to new dimension
The primates ___________PFC is considered equivalent to the rodents ___________ __________ ___________.
Human DLPFC equivalent to rodents medial frontal cortex
What is the preferred way to cause accurate and localised lesions in the rodent, ensuring only the desired region is damaged?
Excitotoxic injections to preferred area
In the study by Dias et al (1996), where lesions were performed on ___________ brains, and then carried out an attentional set shift task, it was found that lesions to the _____________ PFC caused deficits in Extra dimensional shift, whereas lesions to the _________ caused deficits in reversal learning.
Accurate lesions in Marmoset brains revealed
Lesions to lateral PFC caused deficits in Extra deimensional shifting, intact reversal learning
Lesions to orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) caused deficits in reversal learning, intact IDS and EDS
What design did Birrel and Brown (2000) use to study effect selective PFC lesions in rodents on attentional set shift task, and what was found?
Total change design, where odour and texture were used to create a compound stimulus.
It was found that medial PFC lesions (equivalent to human lateral) lead to deficits in EDS, with IDS and reversal learning intact.
In the study by McAlonan and Brown, lesions to the OFC lead to deficits in what stage of the attentional set shift task?
A IDS
B Reversal learning
C EDS
D All of the above
B Reversal learning
What are the 4 main criticisms of research into attentional set shifting and particularly its links to PFC function?
1 Criticisms over localisation of ASST tasks just to PFC
2 It is quite general to different pathological diseases
3 Founding exepriements lack counterbalancing, minor design flaw
4 Issue of task fatigue, therefore functions later in ASST always worse than ones at the start i.e (IDS>EDS).
Oswald et al showed that animals with entorhinal lesions had ____________________ when shifting from _____ to _____, whereas health participants always show some ______________________.
No drop off in performance when shifting from IDS to EDS, whereas healthy participants always show some drop off. Perhaps showing memory involvement in ASST
There are some criticisms of older reseearch into attentional set shift task designs. Firstly, initial research such as Mackintosh’s failed to use ______________ design, and therefore results may just show _______________ ________________ rather than attention mechanisms. Also, many designs such as total change, test ___ much later than ____ therefore reductions in performance may be due to ___________ or __________, and trouble sustaining _________.
One main criticism is that some designs fail to use counterbalancing - results may just show stimulus generalisation rather than IDS/EDS attentional mechanisms
Some designs contain multiple stages, and often test EDS several trials after IDS, therefore drop off in performance may be due to boredom and fatigue, and difficulties sustaining attention.
