Perception and Attention

Question 1

What is attention

Answer 1

behavioural and cognitive process of selectively concentrating on a discrete stimulus while ignoring other perceivable stimuli

Question 2

What is a behavioural measure of studying attention

Answer 2

1. eye tracking - look at their preferential looking. can measure pupil size

Question 3

What are 2 neuroscientific measures of studying attention

Answer 3

1. ERPs - event related potentials. use an EEG. non invasive and reflect cognitive processes
2. fNIRs - brain activity.

Question 4

What visual capacities are present at birth

Answer 4

can track slow moving objects
limited colour vision
have poor visual acuity

Question 5

How do infants look at faces

Answer 5

1 month old - focus on outer contours e.g hairline, chin
2 months old - start to focus on inner facial features

prefer to look at faces vs non faces at 2 months
prefer to look at mothers face than stranger face

Question 6

What did Adler & Orprecio 2006 find to do with visual attention

Answer 6

3 month old infants display visual popout - a unique target can be detected among many distractors that are the same

Question 7

Why did J. Dittrichová; V. Lapáčková 1964 state infants prefer to look at faces

Answer 7

only awake for a small portion of the day and when they are awake they mainly see faces. so prefer to look at them

Question 8

What can newborns hear at birth

Answer 8

low frequencies - need to be loud

middle frequencies - same as adults

high frequencies - better than adults

Question 9

What did Vouloumanos and Werker find to do with auditory attention

Answer 9

sucker more when listening to speech words than when listening to non speech words

Question 10

What is joint attention

Answer 10

two people sharing attention to an event and monitoring each others attention to it

Question 11

What did Bakeman and Anderson (1984) do and find to do with joint attention

Answer 11

looked at infants freeplay with mother or another infant.

found as infants get older they spend more time in joint attention - around 9-12 months

Question 12

How is joint attention linked to autism

Answer 12

Lack of joint attention can be an early sign of autism

respond less to opportunites for joint attention

Question 13

What does gaze following and joint attention promote

Answer 13

language learning - children who followed gaze and held it longer knew more words by 24 months