WEEK 2 - Attention

Question 1

Dichotic listening tasks

Answer 1

participants were given 2 diff audio stimuli in both ears, asked to attend to one

Question 2

cocktail party effect

Answer 2

s the phenomenon of the brain’s ability to focus one’s auditory attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli, as when a partygoer can focus on a single conversation in a noisy room

Question 3

Inattentional blindness

Answer 3

The event in which an individual fails to perceive an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight

Question 4

Change blindness

Answer 4

When people fail to see a change in the scene they are looking at

Question 5

Early Selection

Answer 5

suggests that the input we want to attend our focus on is referenced right from the beginning ,only the attended input reaches consciousness, the unattended does not get processed at all

Question 6

Late selection

Answer 6

oth the attended and unattended input are processed to some extent, so nothing is selected early for preferential processing, attended process is only selected for further analysis after both are assessed, then the attended input reaches the consciousness

Question 7

Priming

Answer 7

The process through which an input or cue prepares you for an upcoming input or cue. Priming occurs due to expectation, as well as the expectation of an upcoming event

Question 8

Stimulus based priming

Answer 8

repetition priming is based off the presentation of previous

Question 9

Expectation priming

Answer 9

is when multiple of the same event occur one after another, you develop an expectation for a result

Question 10

Objects vs positions

Answer 10

attention on the most prominent objects in the visual picture. Position refers ti the central position of your visual field

Question 11

Unilateral neglect

Answer 11

An attention disorder usually occurring due to injury where the visual field of one side of the brain becomes inactive

Question 12

Automaticity

Answer 12

is the ability to do things without occupying the mind with the low-level details required, allowing it to become an automatic response pattern or habit. It is usually the result of learning, repetition, and practice

Question 13

Controlled tasks

Answer 13

an intentionally-initiated sequence of cognitive activities, consciously aware and control.

Question 14

Automatic tasks

Answer 14

an unintentionally-initiated sequence of cognitive activities

Question 15

What can dichotomous listening (& shadowing) tasks reveal about attention?

Answer 15

How we employ selective attention and when the selection takes place

Question 16

What are the two differing theories about when selective attention takes place?

Answer 16

Early vs late.
Early (before analysis) : attended input is privileged from the start, unattended input is never analyzed.
Late (after analysis) : all inputs received complete analysis, selection takes place after anaylsis

Question 17

What is an example of evidence for early selective attention?

Answer 17

When you don’t understand the meaning of the story in an unattended ear during a shadowing exercise

Question 18

What is an example of evidence for late selective attention?

Answer 18

The attenuation model in a shadowing task. When listening to two conversations, one in each ear, and told to shadow only one, participants would not consciously process meaning of unattended channel but would pick up on significant changes in unattended channel. Also whole/partial reports where you process more than you can consciously report

Question 19

What are two ways you can be primed?

Answer 19

1) by stimuli you’ve encountered recently 2) by stimuli you’re expecting

Question 20

What are the consequences of a limited capacity system?

Answer 20

Multi-tasking (using similar brain functions) doesn’t work!!

Question 21

What are the interactions between space and attention?

Answer 21

We can orient our attention to a spatial area and thus reduce response time

Question 22

What is an example of when spatial attention fails?

Answer 22

Unilateral Neglect Syndrome - people who only attend to one half of stimulus

Question 23

What is the effect of automaticity on attention? Any drawbacks?

Answer 23

When an action is practiced frequently enough it takes less attention to perform which also means it is harder to prevent

Question 24

What are the three steps the brain must take to attend to a stimulus?

Answer 24

1) disengage attention from previous focus
2) move attention to new location
3) enhance processing in new location

Question 25

What are two different types of attention?

Answer 25

1) Concentration/ Selective attention

2) Monitoring (spreading focus across many things, generally, in a search for one object)

Question 26

What do whole/partial report experiments reveal about attention? Do they support late or early selective processing?

Answer 26

You process more than you can report. Late selective processing!

Question 27

According to capacity theories of attention, what causes a decrease in performance of attention?

Answer 27

When demand for attention is greater than supply

Question 28

Controlled task

Answer 28

an intentionally-initiated sequence of cognitive activities

Question 29

automatic tasks

Answer 29

an unintentionally-initiated sequence of cognitive activities