textbook chapter 5 Flashcards
what is unilateral neglect syndrome
damage to the parietal cortex, and patients ignore all input coming from one side of the body
what is selective attention
the skill through which a person focuses on one input or one task while ignoring stimuli that are on scene
what is dichotic listening
participants wore headphones and heard one input in their left ear and another through their right. participants were instructed to pay attention to one input only
what is the attended channel
the side the participant is paying attention too
what is the unattended channel
the side the participant is ignoring
what is shadowing
participants were required to repeat back what they heard, word for word so that as they listened, they were simply echoing what they needed from the attending
what can be heard through the unattended channel
physical attributes,
what is the cocktail party effect
you block out other conversations behind you, but once your name is said somewhere in the room you find yourself listening to that conversation
what do you do unattended input
you somehow block the processing of inputs you’re not interested in
what is a filter
shields them from potential distractors
- it lies in the nervous systems ability to inhibit certain responses
what is inattentional blindness
a pattern in which people fail to see a prominent stimulus even though they’re staring straight at it
what is a fixation target
a visual mark at which research participants point their eyes or fixate. fixation target helps research participants to control their eye position
what is inattentional deafness
participants fail to her prominent stimuli if they arent expecting them
what is inattentional numbness
participants fail to feel stimuli if the inputs are not expected
what is effected in the abscene of attention
your normal ability to see whats around you, and to make use of what you see is drastically diminished
what is change blindness
observers inability to detect changes in scenes they’re look directly at
what are the two ways to think about how people are often oblivious to stimuli directly in front of them
- genuine limits on perception, so that oarticipants literally don’t see these stimuli
- limits on memory so that participants do see the stimuli but immediately forget what they’ve just experienced
what is early selection
the attended input is privileged from the start so that the unattended input receives little analysis therefore is never perceived
what is late selection
all input is received relatively complete analysis, and selection occurs after the analysis is finished
what might happen during early/late selection
- selection occurs just before the stimuli reaches consciousness, so that we become aware only of the attended input
- selection occurs later l=still so that all the input makes it briefly into consciousness, but then selection occurs so that only the attended input is remembered
how can attention influence activity levels in the LGN
attention is changing the flow of signals within the nervous system even before the signal reaches the brain
can you chose what is primed
yes, by selecting detectors that you can deliberately activate that will help you when priming
what is the biased competition theory
neurons in the visual cortex often receive inputs from multiple stimuli
how is attention involved in the biased competition theory
by adjusting the neuron’s priorities, so they are more responsive to inputs that have the desired properties
what do you need to do to be able to prime
allocate some effort and resources, as the resources have limited supplies
what is spatial awareness
your ability to focus attention on a specific location in space
what are elements of spatial awareness
- perception is facilitated by the priming of relevant detectors, and the absence of priming, perception may not happen
- the priming is sometimes stimulus-driven this is repetition priming
- another sort of priming is expectation driven and under your control
what is repetition priming
produced by a prior encounter with the stimulus
- takes no effort or resources
what is expectation driven and under control
deliberatley prime detectors for inputs you think are upcoming, so that youre ready for those inputs when they arrive
how do expectation driven and under control priming and repetition priming differ
expectation driven and under control priming depends on your expectations for whats to come next and not just on the stimulus you’ve encountered in the past
what happens when you prime the wrong detector
you take something away from another detector. this happens because you were getting prepared for one target so you have less time/resources to prepare for another target
what is the limited capacity system
group of processes in which mental resources are limited so that extra resources supplied to one process must be balanced by a withdrawal of resources somewhere else
what are mental resources
some process or capacity needed for performance, but in limited supply
what is the alerting system
alerts the brain so it is ready for upcoming events
what is orientating attention
youre focused on this position or that, on one target or another
what is the ultra rare effect
a pattern in which rare items are often overlooked
what is endogenous control of attention
a mechanism through which a person chooses where to focus attention
what is exogenous control of attention
a mechanism through which attention is automatically directed, essentially as a reflex response, to some attention-grabbing moment
what happens if individuals neglect a region of space
they should now be more sensitive to the intial side they were previous sensitive too
what kind if attention is present if the stimuli are both in the same place
it can not be space based, so it must be object based
what is feature integration theory
a proposal about the function of attention in ‘glueing’ together elements and features that are in view
what is the prevattentive stage
efficient but it puts you in a position related to that of the observer
what is the subsequent focused attention stage
relies on mechanisms like expectation-based priming because it allows you to prepare the detectors for just one location, and this creates a processing advantage for stimuli location
what is multitasking
deal with multiple inputs, all at the same time
what is divided attention
a skill of performing multiple tasks simultaneously
what are tasks like
perceiving, which has a limited supply.
when are tasks possible
if you have the necessary resources.
when can divided attention fail
only if you have the needed resources for both, if the two tasks are combined, and require more resources then you’ve got
when can divided attention be difficult
when tasks have similar resources because these resources will likely overlap and try to compete with one another
how do task vary in loads
the greater the task the greater the inference with other tasks
- when drivers ask if they are able to fit in a tight space between two other cars they focus most of their attention on parking and don’t notice the pedestrian
what is preservation error
a tendency to produce the same response over and over, even when it’s plain that the task requires a change in response
what is executive control
the mechanisms that allow you to control your own thoughts, and these mechanisms have multiple functions
- help keep current goals in mind that guide your actions
what is goal neglect
failing to organize their behaviour in ways that move them towards their goals
when will tasks interfere with each other
when their combined demand for a resource is greater than the amount available, if the demand exceeds the supply
