Week 3: Attention Flashcards
Why do we have attention?
Focus on important information, suppress distracting information (selective attention), navigate through complex environments
What is attention
State of consciousness, what we focus on, processing information without being aware of it
Top-down attention
Voluntary, goal-driven, endogenous, controlled, directed.
Bottom-up attention
Involuntary, stimulus-driven, exogenous, automatic, captures.
Covert attention
Some attention that is paid to the periphery, without moving the eyes
Overt attention
Foveate attention, by moving the eyes
Posner paradigm (experiment)
Cues are given either endogenous or exogenous
Inhibition of return
Posner paradigm exogenous cues, if time delay between cue and target is >300ms, then responses are quicker for invalidly cued trials
Stroop task
Name colour of the ink, not of the word’s meaning. Top-down attention is conflicting with bottom-up attention
Feature search
Focusing on one feature is easy and happens during early visual processing
Conjunction search
Focusing on more than one feature requires more attention and later processing of the stimuli
Cocktail party effect
Selective attention
Selectively focus on one conversation, but we still process surrounding voices and their gender
Do not process content or language of voices
Dichotic listening task
Simultaneously sending different message to left and right ear
Early or late selection of attention
Depends on the perceptual load the brain is currently dealing with.
Selection of attention (process)
Perceptual processing, semantic processing, response/memory
Selective attention
Attention as a spotlight on certain bits of information, enhances the neural response to certain stimuli
Selective attention (brain regions)
Activation of the MT, FEF, IPS is stronger for attending a direction than for passively viewing the direction
Top-down (brain regions)
More dorsal, FEF, IPS, SPL
Bottom-up (brain regions)
More ventral, TPJ, VFC
Difference between attention and awareness
Awareness requires a combination of attention and salience
Attentional blink
The probability of getting a second target correct decreases if the number of frames between the targets is low
Neglect
Ignorance of one contralateral visual field due to lateral brain damage
Colour swap experiment
Target and distractor colour swapped from trial to trial according to a reward
Intertemporal choice
Choosing between an amount of money now, or slightly more money later in time
Drift diffusion model (DDM)
Model of comparison between value and cost when making a choice
Modelling intertemporal choice
Attribute-wise model, option-wise model
Results of the Posner paradigm endogenous task?
RT is faster for validly cued trials (benefits) and slower for invalidly cued trials (costs).
RT depends on predictability of the cue.
Results of the Posner paradigm exogenous task?
RT is faster for validly cued trials and slower for invalidly cued trials.
Inhibition of return, RT does not depend on predictability of the cue
What is the difference between exogenous and endogenous cueing task in the Posner paradigm?
In the exogenous cueing task, the RT does not depend on the predictability of the cue.
How does perceptual load relate to the process of selective attention?
More distractors, higher perceptual load, need for filtering, attention is selected earlier
What is top-down attention influenced by?
Strength of goal, incentive, stakes, predictability, familiarity of the environment
What is bottom-down attention influenced by?
Colour, movement, size, threat, emotional value.
