Selective attention

Question 1

Selective attention: __

Answer 1

Cognitive processes that enable organisms to process relevant inputs, thoughts or actions while ignoring irrelevant or distracting ones

Question 2

Selective attention is divided into:

• Voluntary: __
• Reflexive: __

Answer 2

Top-down, goal directed influence. Our ability to intentionally attend to something;
Bottom-up, stimulus driven. When a sensory event captures our attention

Question 3

Cognitive neuroscience research on selective attention has three aims:

1. Understand how attention enables and influences the
2. To describe the computational processes and mechanisms that enable these effects
3. To uncover how these mechanisms are __

Answer 3

detection, perception and
encoding of stimulus events;
implemented in the brain circuits and systems

Question 4

The study of attention, neglected because of behaviourism until the 1950s, is the study of __

Answer 4

the constraints and limitations in how information is processed

Question 5

Because attention has a capacity limitation, the system must make decisions about what __ and what __.

Answer 5

is selected for extended processing;

gains access to awareness

Question 6

The selection, or filtering, of inputs permits high priority information to gain access
and pass processing __.

Answer 6

bottlenecks

Question 7

The early selection bottleneck theory is the idea that:

Answer 7

a stimulus need not be completely perceptually analysed before it can be selected for further processing or rejected as irrelevant

Question 8

The late selection bottleneck theory is the idea that:

Answer 8

attended and ignored inputs are processed equivalently by the perceptual system, with the bottleneck occurring at higher levels
prior to entering awareness or further attentional processing.

Question 9

The Posner Cueing Task is a measure of endogenous attention because __

Answer 9

the orienting of attention to the cue is driven by the subject’s goals, rather than merely its physical features

Question 10

In voluntary cueing studies the time taken between the presentation of the attention-directing cue and the presentation of the subsequent target varies from study to study, generally from __ to __.

Answer 10

100ms;

1500ms

Question 11

In voluntary cueing studies, reaction times to valid trials are significantly faster than neutral or invalid, and this benefit increases with __.

Answer 11

cue period length

Question 12

Despite attending centrally to the cue, and maintaining fixation (often checked
with eye tracking), the benefits of the valid cue are argued to result from __.

Answer 12

an internal shift in covert attention (a mental ‘spotlight’) to the cued visual field

Question 13

Neural mechanisms underlying voluntary spatial attention have been investigated since the 70’s with __

Answer 13

event-related potentials (ERPs)

Question 14

The P1 ERP component is seen on EEG over the occipital lobe 70-90ms after __.

Answer 14

a visual stimulus is presented

Question 15

When a visual stimulus appears at a cued location is a Posner cueing type paradigm, the
P1 ERP is significantly larger in amplitude than when __.

Answer 15

the same stimulus appears at the same location but attention is focused elsewhere

Question 16

The early effects of selective spatial attention on ERPs are not found when __ is based on other stimulus features, such as colour, spatial frequency, orientation, or higher order features such as object
properties (e.g., attend to chairs but ignore tables). These attentional effects will be seen in later ERPs.

Answer 16

attentional selection

Question 17

fMRI allows you to examine how activity in visual processing areas is influenced by selective spatial attention.
In essence, sensory processing of visual stimuli is more robust when __

Answer 17

either covert or overt attention is applied to the stimulus

Question 18

Reflexive attention is exogenous because __

Answer 18

the orienting of attention to the cue is driven by the low-level physical features of external stimuli and not by internal voluntary control

Question 19

Reflexive attention to a location will be short-lived, stops you getting stuck at a location for too long (usually less than __)
You also get inhibition of return: __

Answer 19

300ms;
Recently reflexively attended locations become inhibited over time, such that responses to stimuli in those locations are slowed

Question 20

Short-lived nature of reflexive attention is necessary for coping with our dynamic environment, otherwise we’d be __

Answer 20

constantly distracted during complex tasks such as driving a car

Question 21

Voluntary, goal-directed attention involves a dorsal pathway or network, that includes the __

Answer 21

intraparietal cortex and superior frontal cortex

Question 22

Reflexive attention, which is bottom-up, is ventral network largely lateralised to the right hemisphere and includes the __.
Specialised for detecting __, acts a circuit breaker for the dorsal stream

Answer 22

temproparietal cortex and inferior frontal cortex;

behaviourally relevant stimuli (salient)

Question 23

Balint’s syndrome is __.
It is caused by __.
Most often diagnosed after __

Answer 23

a severe disturbance of visual attention and awareness;
bilateral damage to posterior parietal and occipital cortex;
stroke/CVA

Question 24

In Balint’s syndrome, only one or a small subset of available objects are __.
Also mislocalised in space.

Answer 24

perceived at any one time

Question 25

Simultagnosia: __

Answer 25

Difficulty perceiving the visual field as a whole scene

Question 26

Ocular apraxia: __

Answer 26

Deficit in making eye movements to scan the visual field

Question 27

Optic ataxia:__

Answer 27

Difficulty making visually guided hand movements

E.g., reaching for the objects the clinician is holding

Question 28

In Balint’s syndrome, bilateral occipitotemporal lesions

lead to the inability to __, necessary for scene perception.

Answer 28

perceive multiple objects in space

Question 29

Sustained attention involves __

Answer 29

selection, orientation and alertness

Question 30

Sustained attention, or vigilance, is the least studied aspect of attention, partly due to the difficulty in __.
Even in patients with TBI, marginal deficits are found.
Generally need to engage participants on a task for __ before seeing any decrement.

Answer 30

identifying less than ceiling performance in healthy observers;
30mins plus

Question 31

Sustained attention is defined by __.

Answer 31

the state of readiness to respond to rarely and unpredictably occurring signals

Question 32

Sustained attention is the ability to self-sustain mindful, conscious processing of stimuli __

Answer 32

whose repetitive, non-arousing qualities would otherwise lead to habituation and distraction to other stimuli

Question 33

Sustained attention is very much a basic attentional function that determines the efficacy of __.

Answer 33

selective attention

Question 34

Neural network of sustained attention is thought to be a __.
Evidence to support this included:
• Increased activity of __ across the duration of a
vigilance task
• Data from the very earliest imaging studies, many using __

Answer 34

right fronto-parietal network;
right frontal and parietal regions;
PET

Question 35

Sustained attention may be particularly compromised in TBI because TBI typically affects the __.

Answer 35

frontal lobes and white matter

Question 36

Sustained attention: Diffuse axonal injury in TBI thought to disrupt the reticular activating system:
• White matter damage has been shown to particularly affect __
• As have frontal lobe lesions of __ hemisphere

Answer 36

sustained attention;

right

Question 37

Sustained attention performance decrements in TBI patients is mixed. Using continuous performance measures requires the monitoring of __ and respond on detecting infrequent targets
• Such paradigms are highly vulnerable to __, where limited attention of any type is required to successfully perform the task
• Newer paradigms such as the Sustained Attention to Response Task, and Test
of Everyday Attention (Children) instead require patients to __

Answer 37

long sequences of stimuli;
rapid automatisation;
inhibit their ongoing behaviour in the context of a rare target

Question 38

Control participants rarely make mistakes on the
SART, whereas TBI patients typically have errors
rates at __ or above, despite there being an __.

Answer 38

25%;

entirely predictable sequence

Question 39

The inability of some TBI patients to withhold on the SART is argued to result from __.
When vigilance is poor, the __ response is
made.

Answer 39

the inability to maintain a sufficient level of sustained
attention to the task goal (don’t respond to 3);
automatic

Question 40

The distinction between sustained attention and

inhibitory control rests on __

Answer 40

whether the vigilant attention for the task must be generated endogenously, rather than exogenously (e.g. the stop signal)

Question 41

In TBI patients, SART failures are associated with decreased activity in __

Answer 41

physiological measures of arousal (e.g. SCR or electrodermal activity and alpha band activity)

Question 42

In ADHD, sustained attention is routinely found to be compromised. Variation in __ to tasks is also significantly greater in ADHD.

Answer 42

response time

Question 43

The variation in response time to tasks in ADHD is taken as an indirect measure of their inability to __.
Increased response variability is associated with decreased activity
in __.
Giving mehtylphenidate to children with ADHD increases activity in __.
Also significantly improves __.

Answer 43

sustain attention to task;
a right fronto-parietal network;
this right fronto-parietal network;
sustained attention (SART) and decreases response time variation.

Question 44

Sustained attention in TBI is routinely found to be compromised.
Variation in __ is also significantly greater in TBI.

Answer 44

response time to tasks

Question 45

Giving methylphenidate (MPH) to children or adults with TBI significantly improves \_\_ 
Trials of MPH in TBI are well supported by the available evidence, both as a \_\_, and more generally to \_\_.

Answer 45

sustained attention performance;
specific benefit to attention;
the cognitive complaints following TBI