W4_lec1 Flashcards
Briefly describe the 3 varieties of attention
a) selective attention= the idea of selectivity focusing on a certain aspect while ignoring all other distractors
b) attention as a resource = the idea that attention is finite and is only spent when its needed
c) control vs automaticity = the idea that we can have consious control over what we think as well as perform certain tasks with little to no attention being paid attention to
ANS the following wrt the dichotic listening task
a) which type of attention does it relate to (selective, resource or control vs atomicity)
b) What does it test?
c) describe two ways that would make the task easier. Why does it make it easier?
d) how does the subject show their results?
a) selective attention
b) it tests ones ability to selectively focus on side of information, specifically auditory info when provided in the left and right ear
c) either making the two sides a different persons voice or by making the two conversations of totally different topics. It is easier to distinguish b/w two different stimuli compared to two similar stimuli
d) they show how well they can focus on one of the stimuli by repeating exactly what is being said by the target side
During the dichotic listening task we have the subject repeating exactly what is being said in one ear but what happens to the information in the other side? What would be the response for the following views
a) early selection
b) late selection
a) in this view the selective attention would filter out the information at the meaning stage thus the subject would not get any meaning from the site that they are not focusing on
b) in this view the selective attention would be filtered before the awareness thus the subject would get the meaning from both ears however they would only be aware of the one that they selectively focused on
Is this a diagram of the early or late selection of attention? How do you know?
Early selection b/c it shows the attentional filter before the meaning period which shows that selective attention will make it where you only get the meaning of the stimuli that you are focusing on
Is this a diagram of the early or late selection of attention? How do you know?
late selection b/c it shows the attentional filter after the meaning period which shows that selective attention will process the meaning of both stimuli but the subject will only be aware of the once that they were focusing on
Which of the following has more evidence wrt selective attention. Provide the two kinds of evidence
a) late selection
b) early selection
a)
1. we don’t pay attention to everything that is happening in a room however if someone across the room says your name you are likely to react. This means you must be taking in the meaning of what you are sensing but you are only aware when it is information that is significant to you
2. When doing the dichotic listening task some participants will start to say out loud the message in the ear that they were supposed to ignore when the meaning b/w the two ears is similar. This shows that they were taking in the meaning of both messages and thus got confused when told to focus on one side
They say that selection can be space-based what does this mean? Provide 2 examples.
it means that we can select certain aspects/regions to focus on internally
1. minds eye where we focus on a certain region visually even without looking at it directly w/ out eyes
2. when listening you can choose to listen to the meaning of the words or the sound of the words such as the case for music where one may know the lyrics but not know what the song is about
Describe the following wrt the Posner Cueing paradigm
a) exogenous orienting
b) endogenous orienting
a) this involves reflexively grabbing ones attention by making one of the 2 boxes light up while the participant stares at the cross in the middle.
b) this involves telling the participant to attend to a certain box willingly while still directly staring at the cross in the middle
Describe the Posner cueing paradigm. What does it measure wrt selective attention?
a) it involves a participant directly staring at a cross while actually paying attention to either the right or left box. Then they must indicate when they see the star in the right or left box. (do not need to indicate the location just need to indicate when they see it)
b) it is a reaction test that measures how fast one is able to indicate the correct box that the star lies when being told/pulled to one of the boxes
a) This is an example of what type of Posner cueing paradigm?
b) What did the results show wrt rxn time?
c) How often was the cued target shown compared to the uncued target? Why?
a) exogenous orienting - attention is pulled
b) rxn time was faster for the cued location for the shorter SOA (time b/w the cue and the target presented). However for longer SOA the uncued target rxn time was faster
c) 50-50 for both - to make sure subject is not guessing where the next cue will be
Describe SOA
stimulus onset asynchrony = the time in which two stimuli are presented wrt each other
a) This is an example of what type of Posner cueing paradigm?
b) What did the results show wrt rxn time?
c) How often was the cued target shown compared to the uncued target? Why?
a) endogenous orienting - pushes attention
b) rxn time was faster in all cases for the cued target compared to the uncued target
c) 80% cued vs 20% uncued - encouraged the subject to following the arrow
a) How does this image demonstrate that selected attention can be object-based?
b) What may lean us towards a certain image?
a) It means that we can selectively look at certain shapes in order to identify an object even if the shapes are intermingled. For instance in this image we can choose to see a face or a house depending on the shapes you choose to focus on
b) top-down perception = we may find the once of the images more familiar and thus focus more on that image compared to the unfamiliar image
a) What is happening in this experiment?
b) What is this experiment measuring?
c) What were the results found in this experiment? What does this mean?
a) someone is directly staring at the cue that it is pulled to while another target is popping up in different areas
b) its is measuring reaction time of the cues when the target is in the same obj compared to the other object (equidistant)
c) they found a faster rxn time for targets that popped up in the same obj compared to the other obj. This means that the shape of the cued space plays an important role in selective attention. (causes tunnel vision towards the obj being focused on)
Here is two types of visual search ANS the following question regarding them
a) What is the name of each
b) Which one do ppl use parallel search for? why?
c) which one do ppl use serial search for? Why?
d) Describe how the number of distractors influence/not influence the amount of time it takes to find the target
a) left = pop-out search, right = conjunctive search
b) left b/c all the distractors are homologous thus you can look at the whole image at once
c) right b/c all the distractors are different thus you needs to look at each letter indiv and decide if it is the target or not
d) left = no influence, right = more distractors means it takes longer to find the target
Describe conjunction errors wrt to illusory conjunction of selective attention. Provide an example - 2
the errors someone makes when they think how features are associated. For instance you might look at this image for a second and thing T is pink but it is actually blue
How does this image show inattentional blindness?
This is an experiment in which the participant must try to determine which of the 2 lines are longer. While they do this a black box will pop in and out. Then the participant is asked if they saw it or not. This shows inattentional blindness by showing that focusing on the lines causes the participant to be unintentionally blind to the black box.
a) describe the temporal relation of selective attention
b) What experiment is used to study this?
c) Describe the study
d) which target is being measured? why?
e) Describe when the attentional blink will occur
f) what is the usual performance (exclude attentional blink)
a) ones selective attention over time
b) RSVP = rapid serial visual presentation
c) you are shown cards with a letter on it in quick consesion and told to tap whenever you see a red letter (target)
d) the second target (T2) b/c we are measuring how fast you are able to detect T2 after a certain period of lag from T1
e) the attentional blink is the period in which both T1 and T2 are w/in the Processing window thus they are both detected
f) the longer the delay the more likely the participant will be able to detect T2
In the RSVP study what would make it easier to detect T2 even in a short SOA? provide an example
if T2 was more salient for instance if it was a word that aroused ppl such as rape or fuck
