Perception & Attention

Question 1

Define sensation

Answer 1

The stimulus detection system by which our sense organs respond to and translate environmental stimuli into nerve impulses that are sent to the brain

Question 2

Define perception

Answer 2

The active process of organising the stimulus output and giving it meaning

Question 3

Describe top-down perception

Answer 3

Processing in light of existing knowledge
Motives, expectations, experiences, culture
E.g. ‘backmasking’
concepts, grammar -> expectations

Question 4

Describe bottom-up perception

Answer 4

Individual elements are combined to make a unified perception
vibration of the tympanic membrane + activation in the auditory cortex

Question 5

Which factors affect perception

Answer 5

Attention 
Poor experiences
Current drive state e.g. arousal
Emotions 
Individual values and expectations 
Environment 
Cultural backgrounds

Question 6

Give examples of Gestalt laws

Answer 6

Figure-ground relations
Continuity
Proximity
Closure

Question 7

What are figure-ground relations

Answer 7

our tendency to organise stimuli into central or foreground and a background. Focus of attention becomes the figure, all else is background

Question 8

What is continuity

Answer 8

When the eye is compelled to move through one object and continue to another object

Question 9

What is the gestalt law of proximity

Answer 9

Object near each other are grouped together

Question 10

What is the gestalt law of closure

Answer 10

Things are grouped together if they seem to complete some entity.

Question 11

Describe visual agnosia

Answer 11

Primary visual cortex can be mostly intact
Patient not blind
Knowledgeable about information from other senses (e.g. if they touch an object then naming is typically simple)
Associated with bilateral lesions to the occipital, occiptotemporal, or occipitoparietal lobes.

Question 12

What is apperceptive agnosia

Answer 12

A failure to integrate the perceptual elements of the stimulus.

Question 13

Describe apperceptive agnosia

Answer 13

Individual elements perceived normally
May be able to indicate discrete awareness of parts of a printed word but cannot organised into a whole
Damage to lower level occipital regions

Question 14

What is associative agnosia

Answer 14

A failure of retrieval of semantic information

Question 15

Describe associative agnosia

Answer 15

Shape, colour, texture can all be perceived normally
Typically sensory specific e.g. if object touched, then recognised
Damage to higher order occipital regions

Question 16

What are the steps of object recognition (Humphreys & Riddoch (2001))

Answer 16

1. Visual perceptual analysis
2. Viewer centred representation
3. Visual object recognition system
4. Semantic system
5. Name retrieval

Question 17

What is attention

Answer 17

The process of focusing conscious awareness, providing heightened sensitivity to a limited range of experience requiring more intensive processing

Question 18

What are the 2 processes involved in attention

Answer 18

Focus on a certain aspect

Filter out other information

Question 19

What are the components of attention

Answer 19

Focused attention 
Divided attention (paying attention to more than one thing at once)

Question 20

Which stimulus factors affect attention

Answer 20

Intensity 
Novelty
Movement 
Contrast
Repetition

Question 21

Which personal factors affect attention

Answer 21

Motives
Interests
Threats
Mood
Arousal

Question 22

Describe the cocktail party effect

Answer 22

We can focus our attention on one person’s voice in spite of all the other conversations
But, what happens when someone says your name in another conversation nearby?

Question 23

Describe the attention in clinical skills development

Answer 23

Development of mental resources Learning requires explicit instruction through teaching from an ‘expert’, demonstration, and self-observation.
An effective motor programme has been developed to carry out the broad skill but lacks ability to perform finer subtasks with fluency
The skill is largely automatic Rely on implicit knowledge and motor co-ordination, rather than instruction

Question 24

Whats the consequence of a task being increasingly automatic

Answer 24

Less conscious control available
High levels of stress and anxiety can impact performance
Over half of patient deaths were due to unconscious errors that could be the direct consequence of automatic behaviour
Checks needed to reduce errors