Sensation & Perception - Lecture 7

Question 1

Attention

Answer 1

The brain employs numerous selective processes to handle the overwhelming amount of input it receives. These mechanisms prioritize specific stimuli, locations, concepts, or timeframes to manage the influx of information.

Question 2

Selective attention

Answer 2

The form of attention involved when processing is restricted to a subset of the possible stimuli.

Question 3

Reaction time RT

Answer 3

A measure of the time from the onset of a stimulus to a response.

Question 4

Cue

Answer 4

A stimulus that might indicate where a subsequent stimulus will be. Cues can be valid, invalid, or neutral.

Question 5

Exogenous cue

Answer 5

In directing attention, a cue that is located out at the desired final location of attention.

Question 6

Endogenous cue

Answer 6

In directing attention, a cue that is located in or near the current location of attention.

Question 7

stimulus onset asynchrony

Answer 7

The time between the onset of one stimulus and the onset of another.

Question 8

Inhibition of return

Answer 8

The relative difficulty in getting attention to move back to a recently attended location.

Question 9

Visual search

Answer 9

A search for a target in a display containing distracting elements.

Question 10

Target

Answer 10

The goal of a visual search

Question 11

Distractor

Answer 11

In a visual search, any stimulus other than the target.

Question 12

Set size

Answer 12

The number of items in an visual display.

Question 13

Feature search

Answer 13

Visual search for a target defined by a single attribute, such as a salient color or orientation.

Question 14

Salience

Answer 14

The vividness of a stimulus relative to its neighbors.

Question 15

Parallel search

Answer 15

Visual search in which multiple stimuli are processed at the same time.

Question 16

Serial self-terminating search

Answer 16

A search from item to item, ending when a target is found.

Question 17

Guided search

Answer 17

Search in which attention can restricted to a subset of possible items on the basis of information about the target item’s basis features.

Question 18

Conjunction search

Answer 18

Search for a target defined by the presence of two or more attributes.

Question 19

Prime

Answer 19

A stimulus that might make it easier or faster to respond to a subsequent stimulus.

Question 20

Scene-based guidance

Answer 20

Information in our understanding of scenes that helps us find specific objects in scenes.

Question 21

Anchor objects

Answer 21

Typically a relatively big object that provides information about the location of other objects.

Question 22

Binding problem

Answer 22

The challenge of tying different attributes of visual stimuli, which are handled by different brain circuits, ti the appropriate object so that we perceive a unified object.

Question 23

Feature integration theory

Answer 23

Limited set of basic features can be processed in parallel preattentively, but other properties, including the correct binding of features to objects, require attention.

Question 24

Preattentively stage

Answer 24

The processing of a stimulus that occurs before selective attention is deployed to that stimulus.

Question 25

Illusory conjunction

Answer 25

An erroneous combination of two features in a visual scene.

Question 26

Priority map

Answer 26

A hypothetical neural representation of visual space in which the activity at each point reflects how much that location will attract attention.

Question 27

Lateral interparietal area LIP

Answer 27

A brain region, present in both parietal lobes, that serves an important role in the control of visual attention.

Question 28

Frontal eye field FEF

Answer 28

Brain regions in both frontal lobes that help to coordinate visual selective attention with the movements of the eye.

Question 29

Superior colliculus CS

Answer 29

A structure in the midbrain that is important in initiating and guiding eye movements.

Question 30

Fusiform face area FFA

Answer 30

A region of extrastriate visual cortex in humans that is specifically and reliably activated by human faces.

Question 31

Parahippocampal place area PPA

Answer 31

A region of extrastriate visual cortex in humans that is specifically and reliably activated more by images of places than by other stimuli.

Question 32

Visual-field defect

Answer 32

A portion of the visual field with no vision or with abnormal vision.

Question 33

Parietal lobe

Answer 33

In each cerebral hemisphere, a lobe that lies toward the top of the brain between the frontal and occipital lobes.

Question 34

Neglect

Answer 34

In reference to a neurological symptom, in visual attention:
1. The inability to attend or respond to stimuli in the contralesional vision field.
2. Ignoring half to the body or half of an object.

Question 35

Contralesional field

Answer 35

The visual field on the side opposite a brain lesion.

Question 36

Extinction

Answer 36

In reference to visual attention, the inability to perceive a stimulus to one side of the point of fixation in the presence of another stimulus

Question 37

Ipsilesional field

Answer 37

The visual field on the same side as a brain lesion.

Question 38

Peripersonal space

Answer 38

That part of the world that is near your body.

Question 39

Ensemble statistics

Answer 39

The average and distribution of properties like orientation or color over a set of objects or over a region in a scene.

Question 40

Proto-object

Answer 40

A term used to refer to objectlike stimuli before they are attended and recognized.

Question 41

Spatial layout

Answer 41

The description of the structure of a scene without reference to the identity of specific objects in the scene

Question 42

Gist

Answer 42

The essential or primary character of a scene. In vision, gist typically refers to information that can be gleaned in a very brief glimpse, without voluntary eye movements.

Question 43

Change blindness

Answer 43

When one scene is replaced by another version of the same scene, observers may be unable to report what changed between the two versions.

Question 44

Inattentional blindness

Answer 44

A failure to notice a stimulus that would be easily reportable if it were attended.