PSYD13 Delkurs 1 - Consciousness Flashcards
Visual agnosia?
An inability to visually recognise objects
Define consciousness
Our moment-to-moment awareness of ourselves and our environment
What is selective attention?
The process that focuses awareness on some stimuli to the exclusion of others
Controlled processes?
The conscious use of attention and effort, has limited capacity, require attention, ex driving
Automatic processes?
Can be performed without conscious awareness or effort, no capacity limitation, very hard to modify when learned, for example walking
Divided attention?
The ability to respons, seemingly simultaneously to multiple tasks or demands, i.e. multitasking
What is blindsight?
A condition where people are blind in a part of their visual field yet in special tests respond to stimuli in that field despite reporting that they cannot see those stimuli
What is consciousness as global workspace?
Consciousness is a global workspace that represents the unified activity of multiple modules in different areas of the brain
Define attention
The process of concentrating on some feature(s) of the environment to the possible exclusion of others
What is the Cocktail Party phenomenon? (Collin Cherry)
The phenomenon refers to both our ability to focus our attention on one conversation out of many, but especially describes the phenomenon of switching our attention when you hear you name
What is Broadbent’s Filter Model?
Broadbent meant that there is a filter at the entrance of the information processing system. He meant that selection is based on the physical characteristics of the stimulus, that selection is made before the meaning of the stimuli is processed
What are the parts of Broadbent’s Filter Model?
Sensory memory = hold information for a fraction of a second and then transfer it to filter
Filter = based on physical characteristic filters information and sends it to the detector
Detector = processes the information, processes meaning, output of detector is sent to STM
What is Treisman’s Attenuation Model?
A critique of Broadbent’s model that stated that some words are more important than others:
If someone all of a sudden says “Amelia” at a party my attentions shifts - meaning that some words “stick out” more than others. Treisman meant that the activation threshold is lower for some words compared to others, meaning that for example my name has a lower threshold compared to “book” (mental dictionary)
What is Deutsch & Deutsch Late Selection Model?
This model states that you process everything and then attend to it, that you process the meaning and then select. According to this model information is selected based on its relevance at the time.
Define selective attention
Maintaining a focus on attention on a specific item even when faced with alternatives and distractions
What is feature integration theory?
- Parallel processing/simple feature search = Find the white square among the black circles
- Serial Processing/conjunction search = Find the white square among the white circles and black squares
What is automaticity?
Automaticity is when a controlled process, through practice, becomes automatic
What is a factor that influences once abaility for divided attention?
Similarity - it’s hard to do two tasks at the same time that are similar
What is endogenous control?
Endogenous attention = voluntary attention
What is exogenous control?
Exogenous attention = reflexive attention
Inattentional blindness?
When our attentions is focused on a sequence of events, that we miss another event, incapability to detect an unexpected object
Example: Gorilla in our midst
Change blindness?
Failure to detect changes in the visual environment.
Example: Experimenter switch in the middle of pedestrian giving directions
Circadian rhythms?
Daily biological cycles
Suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN)?
Nuclei that regulate most circadian rhythms
