Module 4: Attention and Consciousness

Question 1

we actively process a limited amount of information from the enormous amount of information available through our senses, our stored memories, and our other cognitive processes.

Answer 1

Attention

Question 2

Four main functions of Attention:

Answer 2

1. Signal Detection vigilance
2. Search
3. Selective attention
4. Divided Attention

Question 2

both the feeling of awareness and the content of awareness,

Answer 2

Consciousness

Question 3

We choose to attend to some stimuli and ignore others.

Answer 3

Selective attention

Question 3

we prudently allocate our available attentional resources to coordinate our performance of more than one task at a time

Answer 3

4. Divided Attention

Question 3

We try to find a signal amidst distractors

Answer 3

Search

Question 4

We try to detect the appearance of a particular stimulus

Answer 4

Signal Detection vigilance

Question 5

framework to explain how people pick out the few important stimuli when they are embedded in a wealth of irrelevant, distracting stimuli

Answer 5

Signal Detection Theory (SDT)

Question 6

refers to a person’s ability to attend to a field of stimulation over a prolonged period, during which the person seeks to detect the appearance of a particular target stimulus of interest

Answer 6

Vigilance

Question 7

nontarget stimuli that divert our attention away from the target stimulus

Answer 7

Distracters

Question 7

refers to a scan of the environment for particular features

Answer 7

Search

Question 8

process of tracking one conversation in the face of the distraction of other conversations

Answer 8

Cocktail party problem

Question 9

you listen to 2 different messages. You are required to repeat back only one of the messages (follow one message and ignore the other)

Answer 9

Shadowing

Question 10

presenting a separate message to each ear

Answer 10

Dichotic presentation

Question 11

Factors that Influence our Ability to Pay Attention (4)

Answer 11

o Anxiety
o Arousal
o Task difficulty
o Skills

Question 12

3 subfunctions of
attention

Answer 12

1. Alerting
2. Orienting
3. Executive attention

Question 13

Model)—Intelligence consists of an assortment of functional units that are the basis for specific actions

Answer 13

Planning, Attention, and Simultaneous- Successive Process Model of Human Cognition (PASS Model)

Question 13

inability to detect changes in objects or scenes that are being viewed

Answer 13

Change blindness and inattentional blindness

Question 13

not being able to see things that are actually there

Answer 13

Inattentional blindness

Question 14

attentional dysfunction where people ignore half of their visual field that is contralateral to the
hemisphere of the brain that has a lesion

Answer 14

-Spatial neglect

Question 14

becoming accustomed to a stimulus so we pay less attention to it

Answer 14

habituation

Question 15

tasks start off as controlled become automatic as a result of practice.

Answer 15

Automatization