Paying Attention

Question 1

What is selective attention?

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What is dichotic listening?

Answer 2

When participants wear headphones and hear one input in the left ear and a different input in the right ear

Question 3

What are the attended and unattended channels?

Answer 3

Attended: the input participants pay attention to
Unattended: the input participants ignore

Question 4

What is shadowing?

Answer 4

When participants repeat back what they are hearing from the attended channel

Question 5

What does it mean when someone filters distractors?

Answer 5

Non-desired information (the unattended channel) is filtered out, while the desired information (the attended channel) receives further processing

Question 6

What is a fixation target?

Answer 6

A target in the center of a computer screen (usually a plus sign) used in studies related to inattentional blindness

Question 7

What is inattentional blindness?

Answer 7

When people fail to see an unexpected prominent stimulus despite it being right in front of them (similar to inattentional numbness and inattentional deafness)

Question 8

What is change blindness?

Answer 8

Observers’ inability to detect changes in scenes they’re directly looking at

Question 9

What is the early selection hypothesis?

Answer 9

The unattended input receives little analysis and is never perceived, only the attended input is analyzed and perceived

Question 10

What is the late selection hypothesis?

Answer 10

All inputs receive relatively equal analysis, selection occurs after analysis (may occur before consciousness or after)

Question 11

What is the biased competition theory?

Answer 11

Attention creates a temporary bias in neuron sensitivity (more responsive to inputs w/ desired properties → receive further analysis)

Question 12

What is spatial attention?

Answer 12

The ability to focus on a specific location in space

Question 13

How is priming a limited-capacity system?

Answer 13

Being prepared for one target makes you less prepared for other targets (i.e. priming the “Q” detector takes away priming resources from other detectors)

Question 14

What quantity of mental resources does selective attention require?

Answer 14

Limited mental resources (some process or capacity required for performance, but in limited supply)

Question 15

How is attention similar to a spotlight?

Answer 15

Wherever we direct the “beam” is the area of the visual field for which we are prepared → information in that area is processed more efficiently
Movement of attention, not eyes!

Question 16

What is endogenous control of attention?

Answer 16

When someone consciously decides what they are paying attention to

Question 17

What is exogenous control of attention?

Answer 17

When someone’s attention is “seized” whether they want it to or not

Question 18

Do we attend to objects or attend to positions?

Answer 18

Attention can be directed to a target or a position in space (i.e. unilateral neglect syndrome - patients typically only see one half of a word but can follow a circle regardless of the side it’s on)

Question 19

What is feature integration theory?

Answer 19

Features of a stimulus are registered early and automatically, while objects are identified separately and at a different stage of processing

Question 20

What is divided attention?

Answer 20

Attending to multiple inputs all at the same time

Question 21

Why is the specificity of resources important when it comes to divided attention?

Answer 21

If two tasks require the use of the same skill (i.e. listening to a lecture and reading a novel - language), it will be harder to utilize divided attention than if two tasks require the use of different skills (i.e. listening to a lecture and knitting)

Question 22

Why is the generality of resources important when it comes to divided attention?

Answer 22

Some tasks utilizing different skills still interfere with each other (i.e. talking on the phone and driving) because they both require a lot of mental resources (which is why there are fewer accidents when a driver is speaking to a passenger - the passenger typically slows conversation when driving becomes more complex)

Question 23

What is executive control?

Answer 23

The mechanisms that allow you to control your own thoughts, keep current goals in mind, organize mental steps into the correct sequence, and shift plans if necessary

Question 24

What is perseveration error?

Answer 24

A tendency to produce the same response over and over even when it’s plain that the task requires a change in the response

Question 25

What is goal neglect?

Answer 25

Failing to organize one’s behavior in a way that moves them towards their goals

Question 26

How does practice diminish resource demand?

Answer 26

When a task is new, executive control is necessary all of the time due to a lack of habits, but once habits are created, the demand for executive control lessens

Question 27

What is automaticity?

Answer 27

When task performance can go forward with no executive control due to practice

Question 28

What is the Stroop interference?

Answer 28

When an automatic habit interferes with the performance of a different task (i.e. reading color names aloud when one is meant to read the color of the font)

Question 29

What limits are there on divided attention?

Answer 29

Depends on the tasks (whether they require the same resources, whether they involve similar stimuli, etc.)