Lecture 9

Question 1

active attention

Answer 1

when directing your attention to something

Question 2

passive attention

Answer 2

when something grabs your attention

Question 3

how is attention related to other mental states and capacities

Answer 3

• to perception, because attention selects from input
• to memory, because attention passes on information for other tasks
• to action, because we can control attention and use it as guidance
• to consciousness (which is essential for the folk conception) because attention could explain that some information is conscious

Question 4

two metaphors that show the folk conception of attention

Answer 4

• spotlight (spatial) metaphor
• experiential highlight metaphor

Question 5

spotlight (spatial) metaphor

Answer 5

• linked to the theater of mind
• illustrates attention as bright light which falls over the object of attention
• this object starts to appear very bright in my stream of consciousness
• in this way attention structures our experience because the attended object is put at the foreground of our mind and everything else goes into the background

Question 6

experiential highlight metaphor

Answer 6

• compliments the spotlight metaphor because it emphasizes the experiential change towards the attended object
• when we focus our attention on an object, there is a change in its qualitative features - the object starts to appear more vivid, brighter, etc

Question 7

elements of the folk conception

Answer 7

• attention is dynamic because it could be either active or passive
• attention is contrastive because it structures our experience
• attention is selective because it changes our experience in making some objects appear more vivid

Question 8

challenges to the folk conception of attention

Answer 8

• pre-conscious and non-conscious attention
• inattentional blindness (non-conscious)
• change blindness (non-conscious)
• involuntary saccadic movements (pre-conscious)
• cortical blindness and smooth pursuit (non-conscious)
• attention priming effect (non-conscious)

Question 9

pre-conscious and non-conscious attention

Answer 9

show us cases in which there is a dissociation between attention and consciousness, more specifically, they show us that sometimes we are not aware that our attention is being involved

Question 10

the 2 neural mechanisms that support voluntary and involuntary attention

Answer 10

• the ventral system
• the dorsal system

Question 11

the ventral system

Answer 11

is the ‘what’ system and involved top-down processing
- it is at play in involuntary attention because it does detection work
- represents what an object looks like

Question 12

the dorsal system

Answer 12

the ‘where’ and ‘how’ system which is related to action control and involves bottom-up processing
- it is at play in voluntary attention because it controls selection of stimuli

Question 13

the biased competition model of attention

Answer 13

states that many things in our environment are competing for control and the information that is relevant for our current behavior wins the competition
- higher-level cognitive processes (goals, expectations, emotional states) are biasing attention in making it select the relvant information
- in this way we link attention to motor control and behavior

Question 14

the working memory model of attention

Answer 14

broadcasting information for working memory which makes said information available for future usage
- attention is necessary for consciousness because if something is not attended, it is not part of our conscious experience
- attention is sufficient because whatever is attended appears in our consciousness
- this means that consciousness depends on attention

Question 15

non-reductionism about attention

Answer 15

proposes that we need to take all forms of attention and how it feels - this goes back to the folk conception of attention
- we should identify attention with a certain neural mechanism

Question 16

the structuring view of attention

Answer 16

draws on the contrastive element of attention
- attention structures and puts order on how we perceive things by placing some things in the foreground or in the background

Question 17

the rational access view of attention

Answer 17

tries to capture the role of attention and how it feels
- its role is to select information for action planning, decision making, or goal-directed behavior
- draws on the distinction between phenomenal and access consciousness
- tells us that consciousness is necessary for attention, and it is not possible to have attention without consciousness

Question 18

eliminativism

Answer 18

proposes that we get rid of attention, which makes it the most serious illusionist view of attention - how attention feels and relates to consciousness is an illuison
- faces the problem that we cannot think of consciousness without attention