Week 7 MC - Attending to Sensory Information

Question 1

What is attention?

Answer 1

Taking possession by the mind, in clear & vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others;

**Attention is the cognitive process of selectively focusing on specific information or stimuli while disregarding others, enabling effective processing of relevant information essential for learning and performance.
**
It also is:
1. limited - often more stimuli than we can process
2. Selectively focused - identifying and prioritising among multiple stimuli
3. Modulated - Selection inhibits processing of stimuli –> can chose to ignore some
4. Vigilant - can be somewaht sustained voluntary over time –> choose how much you sustain your attention to it

Question 2

What are the types of attention?

Answer 2

Voluntary
- under your control
- goal directed and can be focused on externally or internally

Involuntary
- Stimulus driven external cues into consious awareness
- usually ocurs as a response to a loud noise or bright light etc

Question 3

Types of Voluntary attention

Answer 3

Internal
- Short term working memory (current tasks)
- Long term working memory (recalling tasks)
- Response and movement selection (consiously aware)

External
- Sensory modality
- Temporal switching
- Features and objects

Question 4

Major Characteristics of limited attention

Answer 4

Activation state & Effort depletion
- attention can be acutely activated or less effective over time
- effort depletion leads to loss in self-regulator attentional control

Selective Orientation
- Generalised external attentional visual searching less informative.
- Specific, primed, external, anticipated attention more effective for optimised movement
responses in dynamic situations.
- ‘Quiet eye’ stable attention assists closed-task, accuracy-demanding-tasks.

Limited Information Capacity
- Attention has a limited capacity, meaning we can only process a certain amount of information at once. When too many stimuli compete for attention, our performance on tasks may decline