L7 + L8 - Attention

Question 1

Define visual attention

Answer 1

The process of selecting from sensory information to observe certain material and ignore others

Question 2

What is attention?

Answer 2

Directing perception to certain parts of sensory input

Question 3

What are the known attention phenomena?

Answer 3

Limited capacity
automatic orienting
intentional selection
overt/covert

Question 4

What are the neuronal bases for attention?

Answer 4

Arousal
selective attention
divided attention
spatial neglect

Question 5

Outline Triesman’s feature integration model

Answer 5

Input is split into colour, orientation, size and stereoscopic distance. The required traits are then highlighted and integrated by an attentional filter. This is then given a place, time and relationship and stored in the recognition network

Question 6

What are the types of attentive processes?

Answer 6

Arousal alertness
pre-attentive processing
attentive processes

Question 7

What is arousal alertness?

Answer 7

Regulates the state of sleep and awakeness like a continuous scale

Question 8

What level of arousal are we normally at?

Answer 8

Normally we are at a medium level of arousal in which we are fully awake and can process all sensory information

Question 9

What are the states of arousal?

Answer 9

Asleep - Deep Sleep and Light Sleep

Awake - Low, Medium and High

Question 10

What is pre-attentive processing?

Answer 10

Processing which does not require the directing of attention

Question 11

Describe a test for pre-attentive processing

Answer 11

The pop out test in which the observor is asked to find the red A. In the pop out screen there will only be one red letter, in the conjunction screen there will be many.

Question 12

What are attentive processes?

Answer 12

Processes which require focus, are selective and we only have a limited capacity for these.

Thse can be flexible and vigilant

Question 13

What are the research problems regarding attention?

Answer 13

How does the brain select among stimuli?
Where is the bottleneck localised?
What mechanisms control automatic shifts of attention?
Which processes are parallel and which are serial?
Which brain mechanisms are involved in the control of attention?

Question 14

Outline the filter model of broadbent

Answer 14

Relevant stimuli and irrelevant stimuli –> sensory processes -> STM processes –> selective filters –> Neglected or Limited capacity processes –> reception of the selected stimuli

Question 15

Outline an experiment that tests selective acoustic attention

Answer 15

the subject has headphones, they should ignore one ear and attend the other. Afterwards they can only remember the content of the attended ear, suggesting a limited capacity system.

Question 16

What is the cocktail party effect, moray 1959?

Answer 16

That you will hear your name when mentioned in a room full of chatter

Question 17

Which elements of information presented to the ignored ear interupt the process in the selected ear?

Answer 17

Familiar foreign language - a bit
Spoken foreign language -a little
Different semantic content - a medium amount
similar semantic content - alot

Question 18

What is the attenuation model?

Answer 18

It states that the ignored channel is not turned off merely attenuated

Question 19

What is the late selection model?

Answer 19

The ignored channel is filtered out after short term memory

Question 20

Outline a demonstration of the Possner paradigm (spatial cueing)

Answer 20

A subject is looking at a screen, upon which a cue is flashed up for ms then an object appears. The cue is either valid, invalid or neutral. It’s found that the arrows substantially altered response time, to locating the object. So the attention is shifted to the cued location

Question 21

Outline another Possner experiment which uses different types of cues

Answer 21

After finding that attention shifts to the cued location, Possner experimented with different styles of cues.
Exogenous cues - where the spatial position is indicated by a sudden onset cue, such as a plus in the box. This is fast, automatic bottom up attention
Endogenous cues - symbolic cue indicates position, e.g. arrows. This is slow, intentional, top-down cueing

Question 22

What is the Stroop effect?

Answer 22

When you ask people to name the colour of the word, they often read the colour that is printed. It takes much longer for them to identify the colour of the word, if the word itself is another colour.

Question 23

What is the Flanker-Paradigm?

Answer 23

Where subjects were asked to respond depending upon the middle letter, so A and O responded with left hand and E and U responded with right hand. It was found that when the letters were incompatible, e.g. EAE, response time increased

Question 24

What does performance in dual tasks depend upon?

Answer 24

Similarity between tasks
Practice
Difficulty

Question 25

Outline an experiment which tests psychological refractory periods

Answer 25

Stimulus 1 = tone
Button Press
Stimulus 2 - letter O vs V
Speak

When varying the time between the tone and the letter it was found that the response time for the second stimulus was dependent upon the stimulus onset asynchrony

Question 26

Outline an experiment which tests attentional blinking

Answer 26

There are 2 target letters. the subject is shown 7-15 pre-target items and 8 post-target items, any of which could be the 2nd target. An attentional blink occurs, in the second set in which most people miss the second target

Question 27

What is an attentional blink?

Answer 27

A period were people simply can’t process a 2nd stimulus

Question 28

What are the attentional problems that brain damaged patients report?

Answer 28

Difficulty in concentration
tiredness
diffciulty in following conversation in a noisy setting
difficulty in doing 2 or moer things at once
Difficulty in following complex conversation
difficulty in daily tasks which used to be automatic

Question 29

What do right hemispheric parietal lesions cause?

Answer 29

Neglect of objects in the left visual field, regardless of orientation

Question 30

What are the physiological attention systems?

Answer 30

Ascending reticular activating system
anterior attention system
posterior attention system

Question 31

Outline the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS)

Answer 31

For arousal

stimulates the reticular activating system and the thalamus

Question 32

Outline the anterior attention system

Answer 32

Dopaminergic projections from the ventral tegmentum to the prefrontal cortex

Question 33

Outline the posterior attention system

Answer 33

Noradrenergic, locus coeruleus and perietal cortex

Question 34

What are the mechanisms of sustained attention?

Answer 34

ARAS
Thalamocortical projections
Sleep-waking rhythm