Problem 4 Flashcards
Attention
Refers to the prioritized processing of some inputs from a larger set of selectable items
Attention mechanisms
Refer to mechanisms that determine which items are selected
Attention phenomena
Demonstrate
a) Limitations
b) Constraints
c) Failures of attentional mechanism
Inattentional blindness
Describes the phenomenon that people can miss obvious changes in their situation simply because they paid attention to something else
Name the criteria for inattention blindness
- Failure to notice a visual object/event
- Object was fully visible
- Object was easily identified under circumstances in which its is consciously perceived
Change blindness
Occurs when a change in visual stimulus is not noticed by the observer
ex.: image that slowly changes, 2 images where the second has a minimal difference
Attentional blink
Occurs when the 2nd of 2 targets is not detected when it appears close in time after the first
e.g.: presenting a series of letters rapidly one after another, then asking the participant to report the letters in red
Why does reportability in the attentional blink task only work, when the following letter is presented 400ms later and not when presented even earlier ?
Because, once the first letter grabs ones attentions, the attentional system does not work for a small period
–> specifically approx. 400ms
Cocktail party effect
Endogenous attention
Refers to the ability to voluntarily focus on what we choose to perceive + process
–> filtering out competing + distracting surrounding convos
Lunch-line effect
Occurs when the pronunciation of your name in another conversation manages to pull your attention away from whatever you were currently paying attention to
Endogenous (top-down) attention
Refers to the voluntary focus of attention where one actively selects ones input to prioritize and process it, which makes reaction times shorter
–> suggests that higher brain regions are involved
e.g.: Frontal + parietal cortex
Exogenous (bottom-up) attention
Refers to the involuntary focus of attention, whereby attention shifts not by choice but by the salience of stimuli in our environment
Posner task
Instructs participants to fixate on a central cross then pointing an arrow (left or right) according to which direction a target-stimulus appears on the screen
–> before the target fully appears a brief cue is presented
Valid cue vs Invalid cue
- Valid cue (Benefit)
- -> the target appears in the location the cue was previously presented - Invalid cue (Cost)
- -> the target appears on the other side
BUT: since the cue is most often valid, the participant will allocate his attention to the cues visual location
Divided attention/
Multi-tasking
Refers to the ability to focus on multiple things at the same time
BUT: when doing this, one performs less adequately thant performing them one by one
Overt attention
Refers to the allocation of attention accompanied by a shift in eye movement
–> covert attention = w/o eye movement
Spatial (space-based) attention
Allows humans to selectively process visual info by prioritizing an area within the visual field
Feature-based attention
Refers to the ability to pay attention to particular features of a stimulus
e.g.: color, orientation, intensitiy
Visual search task
Participants are asked to quickly locate a visual target in an array of distractors, where certain features will be more salient than others
–> assesses feature-based attention
Object attention experiment
Egly
4 possible cue + target locations are positioned in a square formation
NACHFRAGEN
Object attention
Involves attention to one object rather than another
ex.: 2 images might be superimposed (house + face) + subjects are asked to selectively focus on either object
Temporal attention
Involves directing attention to a specific instant in time
Filter model
Refers to a theory of attention that suggests that
- Attended/Unattended messages enter the sensory store
- A selective filter selects inputs based on physical properties
- -> pitch, loudness, directions - Unattended messages are completely blocked
- Inputs that made it through bottleneck go through higher level processing to reach WM
Spotlight theory
Suggests that attention operate as a spotlight
–> useful for understanding spatial + visual search tasks
Feature-integration theory
Suggests that when perceiving a stimulus, its features are registered early while the objects themselves are identified separately
Name the 3 stages of the feature-integration theory
- Pre-attentive stage
- -> certain features are analyzed - Focused attention stage
- -> features are combined into objects - Illusory conjunction
- -> determining which features go together
Ressource theory
Focuses on t
Single resource theory
Suggests that people have one common pool of attention to be distributed amongst multiple tasks
–> it is limited, explaining divided attention problems
Multiple resource theory
Suggests that people have several resources of attention
–> explains how some tasks combine better than others
Selective attention
Refers to the ability to prioritize + attend to some things while ignoring others
Top down control vs bottom-up control
- Top down control
- -> attending to stimuli that are relevant to current behavior + goals - Bottom up control
- -> reflexively shifting ones attention
Name the subcortical + cortical NWs that interact to enable us to selectively process info.
- Superior colliculus + Pulvinar
- -> damage here can lead to deficits in the ability to orient - a) Frontal cortex
b) PPC
c) ACC + PCC
d) Insula
- -> cortical structures
Unilateral spatial neglect
Occurs when the brains attention NW is damaged in only one hemisphere
–> results in
a) reduced arousal + processing speeds
b) attention bias in direction of the lesion
e.g.: due to stroke
Line cancellation test
Patient are given a sheet of paper containing many horizontal lines
–> then asked to bisect lines precisely in the middle by drawing a vertical line
When having a lesion in the right hemisphere, patients results of the “line cancellation test” may result in 2 different ways.
Name them.
- Neglect at level of object representation
- -> vertical lines are to the right of the midline - Neglect at level of visual scene
- -> completely miss lines on the left side of the paper
Balints syndrome
Refers to a severe disturbance of visual attention caused by bilateral damage to regions of the PPC + occipital cortex
e.g.: seeing one small subset of objects, while failing to notice them altogether
Patients suffering from the Balint syndrome demonstrate 3 main deficits.
Name them.
- Simultanagnosia
- -> deficit perceiving visual field as a whole scene - Ocular apraxia
- -> inability to guide eye movement voluntarily - Optic ataxia
- -> deficit making visually guided hand movements
Attention is controlled by 3 interacting NWs.
Name them.
- Goal-directed DAS
- -> control of spatial attention + saliency of objects - Stimulus-driven VAS
- -> detecting unexpected/changing stimuli - Subcortical NW
- -> arousal, eye movements, shifting + orienting of attention
