Lecture 5 - Attention Flashcards
(reading):
Papageorgiou, K. A., Farroni, T., Johnson, M. H., Smith, T. J., & Ronald, A. (2015). Individual differences in newborn visual attention associate with temperament and behavioral difficulties in later childhood. Scientific reports, 5, 11264.
Posner, M. I., Rothbart, M. K., Sheese, B. E., & Voelker, P. (2014). Developing attention: behavioral and brain mechanisms. Advances in Neuroscience, 2014.
(reading):
(lecture summary):
This lecture introduces basic processes of attention, the methods used to assess them, and the brain structures involved. It stresses the importance of developmental changes in attentional processes, and the role that attention plays in shaping visual experience.
(lecture summary):
This lecture introduces basic processes of attention, the methods used to assess them, and the brain structures involved. It stresses the importance of developmental changes in attentional processes, and the role that attention plays in shaping visual experience.
(lecture study question):
Evaluate the claim that infants are capable of engaging and disengaging attention from birth.
(lecture study question):
(lecture):
Define the orienting attention system in infants.
(lecture):
Orienting:
- Drawing attention to a region
- Early-emerging and most primitive
- Fully operational in infancy and little subsequent change
- Involves cortical brain regions (superior parietal lobes and frontal eye fields) and subcortical regions (superior colliculus and pulvinar nucleus)
(lecture):
What are some early improvements in attention in infants?
(lecture):
Early improvements in attention:
- Saccadic movements (subcortical control) emerge before smooth pursuit
- Obligatory/”sticky” attention is common @ 1 month
- Between 2-6 months: increase in smooth pursuit and ability to anticipate movements rather than lagging behind (Johnson & DeHaan, 2015)
> E.g., by 3 months, infants can make predictions based on expectations of spatiotemporal associations (Canfield & Haith, 1991)
(lecture):
How do can you test orienting in infants?
(lecture):
Orienting tasks.
E.g.
(study spoken about around 6 mins in the lecture recording)
(lecture slides 7-10)
(important and easy to understand!!)
(lecture):
Define the alerting attention system in infants.
(lecture):
- Arousing the attentional system through a cue that indicates both that a stimulus is about to occur and includes some information about target
- Present in infancy but undergoes refinement through early primary years (e.g., response times to cues improve through 10 years)
- More prominent in left hemisphere, especially in frontal and parietal areas and in thalamus
Associated with norepinephrine
(lecture):
How do can you test alerting in infants?
(lecture):
Alerting tasks.
E.g.
(study spoken about around 12 mins in the lecture recording)
(lecture slide 13)
(important and easy to understand!!)
(lecture):
Define the executive attention/executive functioning system in infants.
(lecture):
- Executive Function: collection of cognitive activities involved in goal-directed tasks and problem-solving
- Includes inhibitory control, error correcting/shifting, working memory
(lecture):
How do can you test executive attention/executive functioning in young children?
(lecture):
- Attentional control tasks. (wouldn’t usually do it on infants because they can’t say left or right as easily)
- Child Stroop Task
- Inhibitory Control
E.g.
(study spoken about around 16 mins in the lecture recording)
(lecture slide 16-19)
(important and easy to understand!!)
(lecture):
Describe the attention network test. What is it used to test?
(lecture):
(lecture recording around 32 mins)
(lecture slides 21-22)
Do factors that tell us about an infants temperament at a certain age predict their executive function etc. at that age? - (not sure if this is always what its used for but this was the example she gave)
(lecture):
Describe info about Newborn Visual Attention & Subsequent Temperament.
(lecture):
see lecture slide 23-25, watch lecture recording around 42 mins
(lecture):
Define the joint attention system in infants.
(lecture) :
- Attention is joint or shared when a person coordinates attention between an object or event and another person
- This is also called triadic attention > Multiple behaviours rather than just one > Intersubjectivity > Social referencing > Following attention > Directing attention
(see slide 28 for photo)
(lecture):
Define intersubjectivity.
(lecture):
Mutual understanding that people share during communication
> Often operationalised as turn-taking, such as peek-a-boo
(lecture):
Define social referencing.
(lecture):
Tendency to look to social partners for guidance about how to respond to unfamiliar or threatening events.
