Lesson 5: Attention - what is it?

Question 1

Advertising and Attention

Answer 1

Techniques used in advertisements to capture attention against the viewer’s will for financial or persuasive gains.

Question 2

Attention

Answer 2

The process of selecting certain information for focus while ignoring others, allowing humans to process the current situation effectively.

Question 3

Autopilot Mode

Answer 3

A state where individuals operate without active attention, often missing details or changes.

Question 4

Bottleneck

Answer 4

A limitation in the brain’s capacity to process all incoming information at once, resulting in selective attention to prioritize certain inputs.

Question 5

Change Blindness

Answer 5

A failure to notice significant changes in the environment when not explicitly focusing on them.

Question 6

Congruent Stimuli

Answer 6

When distracting information aligns with the required response, leading to faster processing.

Question 7

Covert Attention

Answer 7

Paying attention without moving the eyes toward the object of focus. Reaction times can infer the journey of covert attention.

Question 8

Distraction

Answer 8

Irrelevant information or stimuli capturing attention and interfering with task performance.

Question 9

Divided Attention

Answer 9

The ability to distribute attention across multiple tasks, though it reduces capacity for each task.

Question 10

Eye Movements in Attention

Answer 10

A method to study visual attention by tracking what individuals are looking at during a task.

Question 11

Feature Integration

Answer 11

The brain’s ability to integrate different types of sensory information into a coherent perception during attention tasks.

Question 12

Focused Attention

Answer 12

Prioritizing a single task or input, maintaining attention for a longer duration. Often associated with sustained concentration.

Question 13

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Answer 13

A neuroimaging technique to measure brain activity during attention tasks, showing increased activity in specific areas based on focus (e.g., FFA for faces, PPA for places).

Question 14

Incongruent Stimuli

Answer 14

When distracting information conflicts with the required response, leading to slower processing.

Question 15

Invalid Cue

Answer 15

A directional indicator misaligned with the correct target location, leading to slower response times.

Question 16

Mind Wandering

Answer 16

The phenomenon of attention drifting from the task at hand, measured using subjective self-reports or interruptions during tasks

Question 17

Neutral Stimuli

Answer 17

Information unrelated to the response task, often used as a baseline in attention studies.

Question 18

Objective Measures

Answer 18

Performance-based tools (e.g., reaction time tasks) used to infer attention and distraction levels.

Question 19

Reaction Time

Answer 19

A measure used to study attention shifts. Faster responses indicate attention alignment with a valid cue, while slower responses occur with an invalid cue.

Question 20

Response Competition

Answer 20

Distraction caused by conflicting information that slows down the response to a primary task.

Question 21

Selective Attention

Answer 21

The act of focusing on specific information while ignoring other stimuli.

Question 22

Subjective Measures

Answer 22

Tools like self-reports used to assess attention and mind wandering, correlating with objective measures like task performance.

Question 23

Sustained Attention

Answer 23

The ability to maintain focus on a task or stimulus over an extended period without lapses in concentration.

Question 24

Valid Cue

Answer 24

A directional indicator aligning with the correct target location, resulting in faster response times.

Question 25

Visual Attention

Answer 25

The ability to focus on specific visual stimuli. Can be measured through eye movements.