unit 3: attention

Question 1

Attention

Answer 1

The means by which we actively process a limited amount of information & ignore other information

Question 2

Characteristics of attention

Answer 2

-limited capacity
spotlight vision for vision
gateway metaphor for audition
-we flexibly shift attention from one thing to another
-we have voluntary control (intentional)
-can be active (driven by goals, knowledge, expectations) or passive (stimulus-driven)

Question 3

Active Visual Attention

Answer 3

space-based attention: particular location
object-based attention

Question 4

Attentional capture

Answer 4

Attention involuntarily drawn to something (unintentional, automatic)

Question 5

Inattentional blindness

Answer 5

Failure to notice obvious objects, events, or changes because attention is elsewhere

Question 6

Change blindness

Answer 6

Failures to notice changes

Question 7

Selective attention

Answer 7

focus on one input and ignore others; quality at the expense of quantity of input

Question 8

Divided attention

Answer 8

focus on multiple inputs simultaneously; quantity at the expense of quality

Question 9

Dichotic listening task

Answer 9

-Two messages are presented simultaneously
-Selective attention to only one
-Goal: to see what info gets processed

Question 10

Speech shadowing

Answer 10

-echo or repeat one of the messages (attended)
-ignore the other message (unattended)
-from the unattended ear, participants could tell human voice or noise and gender of the voice but not content/meaning

Question 11

Early selection theory

Answer 11

-All info reaches sensory memory
pre-categorical (not yet processed for meaning)
-Only attended info reaches working memory
processed for meaning
-Selection occurs while info is still in sensory store
attended ear: processed for meaning
unattended ear: processed for sensory info

Question 12

Late selection theory

Answer 12

-All info reaches sensory memory
-All info is processed for meaning
-All info gets identified, but it may not reach phenomenal consciousness
-All information can influence a response
-the response stage is where bottleneck occurs

Question 13

Challenges to early selection

Answer 13

-cocktail party phenomenon
-dichotic listening task (name and curse words)
-city names and shocking
-mid-sentence switch

Question 14

Multimode theory

Answer 14

Attentional mode as a strategic, flexible choice
early-selection mode: unattended information filtered at a early stage of processing
late selection mode: unattended info filtered at a later stage of processing

Question 15

Early filtering costs

Answer 15

less demanding
but may miss out on processing of some important current info

Question 16

Late filtering costs

Answer 16

requires more mental effort
may hinder quick processing of info that continues to come into the sensory system

Question 17

Attention as a Capacity

Answer 17

-Attention is a limited resource
allocated based on demands
-there are costs involved (attending to one thing at the expense of another)
-two (or more) tasks can be done simultaneously (dividing attention) if they don’t empty the pool

Question 18

What’s a major criticism of the capacity explanation of attention?

Answer 18

Capacity is more descriptive than explanatory
Beware of circular reasoning:
using a concept (capacity, i.e., having limited resources) to explain a phenomenon (difficulty with divided attention).
and also using the phenomenon (difficulty w/ dividing attention) as evidence of the concept (capacity).

Question 19

What are the characteristics of automaticity?

Answer 19

-attentionally efficient (less attentional capacity required)
-less intentional, less able to consciously control

Question 20

What is meant by automaticity?

Answer 20

The ability to perform a task with little or no attention

Question 21

What’s the basic idea behind the Increased Speed account of automaticity?

Answer 21

a quantitative account
automatic and non-automatic processes are the same, but automatic has become a lot faster

241 x 7 =

Question 22

What’s the basic idea behind the Instance-based account of automaticity?

Answer 22

a qualitative account
with practice, shift from using algorithm to retrieval-based solutions

A + 4 = C (t/f?)

Question 23

What is the Stroop effect? How does it demonstrate automaticity?

Answer 23

-the tendency to take longer to name the color of a word when it’s written in a different color than the word’s meaning
-there is interference with automatic reading process and naming the color

Question 24

What are action slips? When are action slips most likely to occur?

Answer 24

absentminded actions that are often the result of automatic processing

Occur when you have low levels of conscious monitoring
when you’re tired, stressed, or doing many things at once

Question 25

capture error

Answer 25

a well-practiced (but unintended) action takes over because the initial sequence is similar

Question 26

associative activation error

Answer 26

a related (but incorrect) automatic process is activated

Question 27

data-driven error

Answer 27

external events trigger an automatic response

Question 28

loss-of-activation error

Answer 28

forgetting what you wanted to do

Question 29

description error

Answer 29

doing the right action, but with the wrong object