Module 3

Question 1

Attention

Answer 1

Concentrating mental effort to facilitate processing; goal driven selection of what to process and what to ignore

Question 2

Exogenous attention

Answer 2

Attention is controlled by salient external stimuli

Question 3

Endogenous attention

Answer 3

Goal driven, internal focus on important info and/or previous knowledge

Question 4

Overt attention

Answer 4

Paying attention by looking at something; visibly attending from another person’s POV

Question 5

Covert attention

Answer 5

Attending something without being obvious about it, other POVs would not notice you paying attention

Question 6

Automatic attention

Answer 6

Little attention is needed to complete a task, fast, parallel, once it starts it cannot be changed

Question 7

Controlled attention

Answer 7

Lots of attention is needed to complete a task, slow, serial, can be altered once started

Question 8

Factors that drive attention

Answer 8

Salience (something that stands out or is novel) and goal attainment

Question 9

Change blindness

Answer 9

Not perceiving a change in a scene or environment due to lack of attention/distraction

Question 10

Inattentional blindness

Answer 10

Not conscious of something we are not actively attending

Question 11

Consciousness and attention

Answer 11

If we are not attending something, it is not passed to the consciousness and not percieved

Question 12

Selective attention theory

Answer 12

Attention acts as a filter/funnel that only lets some stimulus through to the consciousness

Question 13

Broadbent’s Early Selection Filter Model

Answer 13

Theory: input -> sensory memory -> attentional filter (selects goal oriented stimulus) -> detector (cognitive system) -> long term memory; only basic sensory input is processed without attention
Issues: Cannot explain cocktail party effect or results of Triesman’s dichotic listening task

Question 14

Late selection filter model

Answer 14

Proposes that basic meaning of unattended stimulus is processed alongside attended stimulus

Question 15

Cherry’s Dichotic Listening Task

Answer 15

Different audio is played to each ear, participants focus on one ear only and shadow repeat what they hear. Could not remember meaning of stimulus to unattended ear

Question 16

Triesman’s Dichotic Listening Task

Answer 16

Stimulus message switches ears, but participants are only paying attention to one ear. Participants can follow the meaning of the message, proved they can process unattended stimuli

Question 17

Triesman’s Attentional Model

Answer 17

Theory: input -> attenuator (dampens non-goal related input) -> dictionary unit (if input passes set threshold it moves past unit) -> memory
Pros: can account for unattended stimuli passing into memory, can explain cocktail party effect (thresholds can change and info important to you will always have a high level to pass it)

Question 18

Divided/capacity attention theory

Answer 18

There is a set pool of attention that we can divide among tasks. Must balance resource with cognitive load to successfully complete tasks. Argues capacity is 4 (+/- 1) items

Question 19

Cognitive Load

Answer 19

The amount of attentional resources used to complete a task

Question 20

Flanker Compatibility task

Answer 20

Press button when stimulus is located; high and low cognitive load conditions. Flanker only acts as a distraction in low cognitive load conditions. Suggests that there is attention left to ‘spill over’ to other tasks

Question 21

Attentional spotlight theory

Answer 21

We can shift our attention to covertly select a location and attend to it
Issues: Impossible to separate object from place; people can attend btw two stimuli in the same location

Question 22

Stroop task

Answer 22

Read ink color instead of word. Slow response time. Caused by pitting automatic and controlled attention against each other

Question 23

Posner task

Answer 23

With eyes fixated on a cross, press a button corresponding to location of stimulus. Location cues flash, either correct or incorrectly cue the participant. Done with single stimuli and object-related stimuli. Supports location and object basis for attention

Question 24

Binding problem

Answer 24

How do we bring separate features into a whole object? How do brain structures create phenomenological experience?

Question 25

Triesman’s feature integration theory

Answer 25

Theory: the job of attention is to bind features together; object sensation -> preattentive stage (analyze features) -> focused attention stage (combines features) -> perception
Support: feature searches and conjunction searches

Question 26

Feature search vs conjunction search

Answer 26

Feature searches are fast because you can scan one feature and use less attention. Conjunction searches take more time because they require binding features of each item.

Question 27

Multitasking theory

Answer 27

Quickly switching attention between tasks rather than dividing it

Question 28

Vigilance

Answer 28

Maintaining attention while waiting for a stimulus