Paying Attention

Question 1

Overt Attention

Answer 1

• Spatial visual selection through overt eye movements
• Foveal information tends to be processed more deeply than peripheral information

Question 2

Covert Attention

Answer 2

Changes in attention without eye movements

Question 3

Measuring Bottom-Up Covert Attention

Answer 3

• Cue is a salient stimulus event
• Cue is not predictive of target location (50/50), so it should be ignored
• Endogenous (top-down) vs. exogenous (bottom-attention)

Question 4

Endogenous Control of Attention

Answer 4

A mechanism through which a person chooses (often, on the basis of some meaningful signal) where to focus attention

Question 5

Exogenous Control of Attention

Answer 5

A mechanism through which attention is automatically directed, essentially as a reflex response to some “attention-grabbing” input

Question 6

Inhibition of Return

Answer 6

Slower responses at the cued location for long cue/target stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs), suggesting location is inhibited

Question 7

Divided Attention

Answer 7

Our complex environment often demands that we perform multiple tasks simultaneously

Question 8

Executive Control

Answer 8

The mental resources and processes that are used to set goals, choose task priorities, and avoid conflict among competing habits or responses

Question 9

Conductor of the Mind: Prefrontal Cortex

Answer 9

• Control one’s thoughts
• Keep goals in mind
• Organize mental steps
• Shift plans and change strategy
• Inhibit automatic responses
• Working memory

Question 10

Feature Integration Theory

Answer 10

A proposal about the function of attention in “gluing” together elements and features that are in view

Question 11

Selective Attention

Answer 11

The skill through which a person focuses on one input or one task while ignoring other stimuli that are on the scene

Question 12

Biased Competition Theory

Answer 12

A proposal that attention functions by shifting neurons’ priorities, so that the neurons are more responsive to inputs that have properties associated with the desired or relevant input

Question 13

Dichotic Listening

Answer 13

A task in which research participants hear two simultaneous verbal messages; one presented via headphones to the left ear and a second one presented to the right ear. In typical experiments, participants are asked to pay attention to one of these inputs (the attended channel) and are urged to ignore the other (the unattended channel)

Question 14

Spatial Attention

Answer 14

The mechanism through which people allocate processing resources to particular positions in space, so that they more efficiently process any inputs from that region in space