Sensory Memory

Question 1

Meditation effects on Attentional Blink

Answer 1

• less attentional capture (less resources devoted to processing context)
• More resources left for detection of task2
• only an acute effect
• may not see when context is more important (more processing required)

Question 2

Span of Apprehension Task

Answer 2

• 50ms flash of items (like letters, digits)
• Asked to report everything can identify (whole report)
• Intended to measure how much could be “taken in” in a single glance
• 4-5 items typically reported

Question 3

Partial Report Task

Answer 3

• brief display of items
• short delay
• cued to report only portion of display
• Logic: can’t plan ahead. If you get most of the items in a row, means must’ve been able to get most of the items in any row.
• Total amt. info available= 3x info reported for a typical row

Question 4

Partial report: know 4.5 items in row selected at random, should be able to report ___ of those on average.

Answer 4

1/3

1.5 items

Question 5

With partial report, after a short delay ____ items are reported on average

Answer 5

3.5 (decline)

Question 6

With partial report, after a long delay ____ items are reported on average

Answer 6

1. 5

- >”Partial Report Superiority” advantage decreases as length of cue delay increases

Question 7

How did Sperling interpret data from partial report?

Answer 7

• Must be high-capacity, short-lived memory for display
• Thought of as a fading image
• Later termed “iconic” memory
• Items were “read out” from iconic memory when cue came quickly enough.
• If wait too long, fading image in iconic memory is gone and you cannot do the task sufficiently.

Question 8

Visual Persistence

Answer 8

• What is really going on w/ partial report (not iconic memory)
• Visual information proceeds through sequence of levels in brain
• Neurons and neural structures take time to start and stop firing
• Consequently, activity persists at all levels of visual system, not just the “icon”
• Each kind of persistence has some varying properties

Question 9

3 Types of visual persistence

Answer 9

1) Neural persistence
2) Visible persistence
3) Schematic persistence

Question 10

Neural Persistence

Answer 10

• Positive afterimage
• Probably retinal or low levels of visual system
• Duration of persistence increases with flash energy stronger the flash, the longer the duration
• short period of time
• best way to demonstrate= a bright flash of light once dark adapted
• if long enough retinal persistence, moves w/ eye

Question 11

Visible Persistence

Answer 11

• Stimulus remains visible after offset
• Past retina, but not too high: Early visual system
• Decreases with display duration
• Measured with the dot matrix task (best way to measure)

Question 12

Dot Matrix Task

Answer 12

• 5x5 matrix of dots with one missing; report its location
• Present one display of 12 dots followed by another of 12
• Task is easy if 1st and 2nd display simultaneously visible; impossible if not

Question 13

Schematic Persistence

Answer 13

• Information that is no longer visible is still available for some tasks
• Measured with partial report and variations
• Still have some idea of what and where items were, even though not visible
• Contrary to visible and neural persistence, little effect of stimulus duration
• High-level visual processing