Lecture 4 Attention 2

Question 1

Posner cueing paradigm

Answer 1

space-based attention; attention can be allocated to spatial locations independent of eye movements

Question 2

peripheral cueing

Answer 2

valid cue –> brightening box; invalid cue –> wrong box brightens before; task: press a key when a dot appears in one of the boxes

Question 3

central cueing

Answer 3

valid cue –> letter that appears corresponds to which box to choose; invalid cue –> letter that appears does not correspond which box to choose; task: press a key when a dot appears in one of the boxes

Question 4

a

Answer 4

a

Question 5

exogenous (reflexive)

Answer 5

1 of 2 orienting mechanisms; engaged by peripheral cues; fast (~100 ms); occurs even with uninformative cues

Question 6

endogenous (voluntary)

Answer 6

1 of 2 orientating mechanisms; engaged by central cues (e.g., words); slower (~300 ms); occurs only with informative cues

Question 7

object-based attention

Answer 7

sometimes attention appears to select an entire object, rather than a specific region of space; attentional shifting is affected by object structure (e.g., spreading of attention along an object); dividing attention between two properties is easier when they belong to the same object than different objects (e.g., boxes with gap on L or R, dashed or dotted line, and short or tall height); comparison between two properties is easier when they belong to the same object

Question 8

behavioral evidence for object-based attention

Answer 8

attention spreads along an obejct; it’s easier to split attention among multiple properties of the same rather than different objects

Question 9

neuropsychological evidence for object-based attention

Answer 9

neglect patients: due to damage in the right parietal lobe, patients fail to perceive or respond to stimuli in their left visual field; has striking practical consequences: patients fail to dress left side of their body, ignore food on the left side of their dinner plate, etc.

following the acute stage of the brain damage, a right-parietal patient may start to show “extinction”, a milder form of “neglect”
-symptom: can see a stimulus presented on either the left or the right visual field; however, when presented with 2 stimuli simultaneously, they fail to notice one further to the left

connecting two objects into one reduces or eliminates neglect

• neglect patients neglects the left side of each object
• their attention spreads along an object
• spatial neglect is mediated by object structure

Question 10

a

Answer 10

a

Question 11

infant development evidence of object-based attention

Answer 11

young infants have basic concepts about objects; have basic concepts about what an object should act like

very young infants know:

• things that move together are parts of the same object (cohesion)
• solid objects cannot pass through each other (solidity)
• hidden objects continue to exist (permanence)
• an object cannot move from one point to another without passing through the points between (continuity)

Question 12

pariteal cortex

Answer 12

part of the brain important for spatial attention; unilateral parietal damage = neglect (later = extinction); bilateral parietal damage = Balint’s syndrome (simultagnosia)