Week 2: Attention and Spatial Attention in Focus Flashcards
Are all possible stimuli in a visual scene processed? Why not, and what does attention do?
No, limit on capacity of brain. Attention acts as triage on which info to process
Which theoretical model of attention says that unattended stimuli are only processed at a sensory level?
Early selection model
Which theoretical model of attention says that unattended stimuli are processed to a semantic level?
Late selection model
What is the cocktail party effect?
Name/relevant info breaks through noise and shift attention (consistent with late selection model)
What are the two core ways that humans can control or change their spatial attention?
Attentional breadth or attentional shift in location. Covert attentional shifts typically occur first as they’re faster and require less cognitive load
When looking for my car keys, I look under the stack of papers on my desk because I often find them there. What type of attentional orienting is this akin to?
Endogenous attentional orienting e.g. searching for keys in usual spot
I am driving and I look at a salient, brightly-coloured billboard without deliberately intending to and despite wanting to focus on the road instead. What type of attentional orienting does this refer to?
Exogenous attentional orienting e.g. bright billboard while driving
Why is RT used as a measure of cueing rather than eye movements?
Eye-tracking can’t measure covert shifts – RT can
In a cueing paradigm, if RTs are significantly faster on valid trials compared with invalid trials, then what is this pattern taken to indicate?
Cue has shifted attention
In a cueing paradigm, what pattern of RTs would be consistent with no shift of attention having occurred?
Equal RTs for both valid and invalid trials
If RTs are faster on invalid than valid trials, what is this called and why does it occur?
Inhibition of Return – occurs with big intervals between target and cue – caused by attentional focus travelling away from target
If a cueing paradigm was used where a square appeared in the centre of the screen that was either orange or purple, and orange indicated that the target was more likely than chance to be on the left, while purple indicated that the target was more likely than chance to be on the right, what type of attentional orienting is being measured? Why?
Endogenous – using cues, predictive
If a cueing paradigm was used where the cue was the one purple stimulus amongst multiple orange distractors, what type of attentional orienting is being measured?
Exogenous – purple stimulus grabs attention when surrounded by orange
Conceptual cueing: Do positive concepts (e.g., words like happiness, joy) shift attention upward? Do negative concepts (e.g., words like sadness, negative) shift attention downward? Design a paradigm with RT as the dependent variable that could test this, modelling off the logic of the Posner cueing paradigm. Determine what stimuli would need to be shown, and under what conditions should RT need to be compared. What pattern of results would be consistent with conceptual cueing? What pattern of results would not be consistent with conceptual cueing?
Cue = word presented on screen (positive of negative)
Target = at top of bottom of screen
Valid trial = positive word with target at top or negative word with target at bottom
Invalid trial = positive word with target at bottom or negative word with target at top
Measure through RT or eye-tracking
Valid should have faster RT
Eye-tracking – show path/movement of eyes
Pattern consistent w/ conceptual cueing paradigm = faster RTs in valid trial and eye-tracking following movement of cue word
Pattern inconsistent w = RTs same in both valid and invalid trials
According to Navon (1977), are people more likely to process the forest or the trees first?
Forest first – global precedent effect
