Module 5

Question 1

Spatial neglect

Answer 1

-it’s an attention deficit: the person cannot attend to info in space contralateral to brain damage.
-comes from damage to partietal lobe
-often following right hemisphere damage (right hemisphere is specialized for spatial processing)

Ex. Ask a patient to copy a star. Will completely ignore the left side
-not just vision, occurs with other sensory modalities: read only words on the right side, eat one side of the plate, can only describe half of imagination and memories

Question 2

What do the networks in prefrontal cortex and parietal cortical regions do for attention

Answer 2

Will help to orient processes around place of the brain needed. Directs processing for attended-to task. Controls which portions of the brain are paying attention

Question 3

What are intraparietal sulcus (IPS) + frontal eye field (FEF) for

Answer 3

Top-down attention. Preparing to focus on something. For example, focusing on lecture

Question 4

What are Temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) and ventro frontal cortex (VFC) for

Answer 4

Bottom up attentional orienting. Exogenous attention. Like when something grabs your attention (dog barks)

Question 5

Change blindness

Answer 5

The failure to detect changes in stimuli in an attended zone

Question 6

Broadbent’s early selection filter model

Answer 6

We filter at the level of perception, before information is processed for meaning. We block almost all surrounding info out. Only info that is physically different (louder) than the attended to info gets noticed

So information is hold in the sensory buffer for a very short amount of time and then we select what information will be further processed for meaning.

Then study showed that switch to listen to unattended info if they hear their names. This introduced the late filter models: filter is after meaning

Question 7

Problems with early selection filter models

Answer 7

Looks like we can respond even to unattended ear.

Ex.Participants presented with a word paired with an electric shock. When hear shocked word in unattended ear, increased skin conductance.

Ex 2. At a party you can attend to on conversation but still hear your name in a non-attended to conversation.

Meaning: something must be processed

Question 8

Attenuator model of attention (Treisman)

Answer 8

Compromise between early and late selection models. Some aspects of unattended material is processed for meaning. Filter is not an all or none.

Think of a filter that allows some in, and blocks some. Unattended stimuli is processed but at a reduced level relative to attended stimuli

High priority word/expected items

Question 9

Late selection filter model

Answer 9

We process input to the level of the meaning and then select what we want to process further based on relevance to the task. Does it fit semantically??

Ex. In stroop task or identifying the color of the ink when its written a name of a color too. You process whats written first (attended info) and youre tended to say that color but then you put your attention on the ink color (unattended info) and and you can say it. Takes more time

Question 10

Stroop effect

Answer 10

Delay in reaction time between congruent and incongruent stimulis

Ex. Mixmatch between name of color and the ink that is used. When ask to name the color of the word it takes longer and is more prone to errors when the color of the ink does not match the name of the color

Question 11

The load theory

Answer 11

Attentional filtering can occur at different points depending on how much resources are required for your currently attended-to task

Low load: process non attended info to a later stage
High load: process non attended info only to an early stage

Ex:
-difficult task with a high load: we process at the level of perception, we dont need to process the meaning of every information that comes to us, we process early so that we focus our attention
-easy task with a low load: we process all info to the level of meaning. We have more place to process info, so we can process even irrelevant info for meaning

Ex. If you are doing a high load task, need a lot of concentration you have less resources to analyse whats going on outside of what youre doing. Less chance of seeing the elephant than in a low load condition

Question 12

Multiple resource capacity

Answer 12

Attentional capacity is reached sooner if relevant and irrelevant info are from same modality.

Ex. Driving, need directions. Will have more problem paying attention if viewing directions on phone compared to listening to them. Because using same resource

Question 13

Inattentional blindness

Answer 13

Not noticing something new. Something added. Like blue star in lecture slide. Or deer jumping in front of car.

Question 14

Inhibition of return

Answer 14

Attention is inhibited from going to a recently attended space after a long duration between space cue and target

Cue presented for short amount of time: fast response when target is rlly there and longer response when target is on the other side

Cue presented for long amount of time: brain is like ok target isnt there lets look somewhere else. Real fast if target is on the opposite side. Slower response if the target is rlly on the side of the cue

Question 15

Feature search

Answer 15

Search for an object that is different from the distractors based on one feature. Bottom-up and automatic processing.

Ex. Un point rouge parmi une tonne de points verts

Question 16

Conjunction search

Answer 16

Search for an object that is different from the distractors across many features. Requires top-down processing. Carré rouge parmi cercles rouges et carrés verts

Question 17

Pop out effect

Answer 17

The time needed to find a target that is different by one feature from distractors is independent of the number of distractors. Because processed automaticaly.

Ex. Green cat in painting of all white, black and orange cats

Question 18

Overt visual attention

Answer 18

Attending to something with your eye movements

Question 19

Covert visual attention

Answer 19

Attending to something withour eye movement.

Usually prior to overt attention. Shifting attention without moving eyes

Question 20

Switch cost

Answer 20

Decline in performance (reaction time, accuracy) after switching tasks. Attentional system must be reset to engage the next task

Question 21

Go no go trials. Go = when green signal, indicate if line is on the left or right. No go = when red signal, press neutral button.

What if signal is on a human face?

Answer 21

The presence of human faces slowed down attentional processes for the go-no go task because they capture attention

Question 22

Spatial neglect shows that attention is a brain mechanism

Question 23

Sustained vs divided vs selective attention

Answer 23

Sustained: maintain focus on one input for a long period of time (vigilance)

Divided: shifting attentional focus betweeen tasks (multi-tasking)

Selective attention: focus on one input and ignore other info (driving)

Question 24

Flicker technique paradigm

Answer 24

One way to introduce change blindness is by alternating an original and a modified version of an image with a brief blank or mask between each presentation.

People usually dont see the change

Question 25

Study supporting the early selection filter model

Answer 25

Dichotix listening tasks: two simultaneous messages in each ear, participants are better able to recall info ear by ear than the simultaneous message. + do not remember content of unattended ear but can recognize sensory features.

Meaning: if you do not pay attention to one ear you wont understand it bc filter happens before perception. But you can be aware of sensory features like the sound it makes (ex male vs female)

Question 26

2 ways to define load: central resource capacity view vs multiple resource capacity view

Answer 26

Central resource capacity: one resource pool from which all attention resources are allocated

Multiple resource capacity view: multiple pools. Ex. You have a capacity for hearing, one for viewing… so if youre driving, will be easier to listen to street directions than view them on your phone. Better to use different resources

Question 27

Posner task what does it show

Answer 27

People are faster and more accurate at responding to a target stimulus on trials with valid directional cues compared to invalid cues

Question 28

What is a disorder that can appear when an individual has less frontoparietal network activation

Answer 28

ADHD

Question 29

In the posner cuing task, what does SOA refers to

Answer 29

Stimuli onset asynchrony. The duration between the cue and target.

For short SOA: valid trials (cue=target) have a shorter response time than invalid trials

For long SOA: valid trials (cue=target) have HIGHER response time than invalid trials. That’s because of the inhibition of return (IOR). After a while looking at one place, attention is inhibited (theres nothing there ill look somewhere else)

Question 30

What types of stimuli capture our attention

Answer 30

Personally relevant stimuli, addictive stimuli (ex. Cigarettes for smokers), fearful stimuli

Question 31

Impact of faces in attentional processed for the go/no go task

Answer 31

Slowed down the attention on other task because they capture attention

Question 32

Balint’s syndrome

Answer 32

Neurological disorder typically resulting from damage to both parietal lobes that carries several attentional deficits including occulomotor apraxia abd simultanagnosia

Question 33

Simultanagnosia

Answer 33

The Inability to identify or use more than one object or property in a scene at a time

Ex. Painting of fruits and vegetables that create portrait. People with simultanagnosia struggle to see the larger image of a man and focus on the individual pieces of fruit

Question 34

Area MT

Answer 34

Responds to detection of motion

Question 35

Occulomotor apraxia

Answer 35

The inability to execute visually guided movements