Week 7 - Mental Imagery, Attention & Performance

Question 1

Representation of information

Answer 1

For the mind to process information, it has to be presented in a way the mind can manipulate it

Question 2

visual vs verbal imagery

Answer 2

mental representations of visual and verbal information
- processing of visual (or visuospatial) and verbal information exhibits different properties

Question 3

visual imagery (geometric)

Answer 3

same configuration has a quicker response time than linear configuration

Question 4

verbal imagery (words)

Answer 4

linear configuration has a quicker response time than same configuration

Question 5

change blindness

Answer 5

inability to notice changes in a visual scene

Question 6

Standing (1973) study

Answer 6

after studying 10000 pictures participants accurately recognised 8300 of them

Question 7

Boundary extension

Answer 7

when we memorise a visual scene, a wider-angle view of the scene tends to be stored in memory

Question 8

rejection rates of changes of visual information (Mandler and Ritchey, 1977)

Answer 8

• when the changed object did not affect the meaning of the scene: 60%
• when the changed object altered the meaning of the scene: 94%

Question 9

two types of representation when perceiving a visual scene

Answer 9

• representation of the meaning of the scene
• representation of surface properties of the scene (visual details, colour, etc)

the meaning of the scene is very well represented but the surface properties are not

Question 10

what is attention

Answer 10

• we often receive more information than we can process simultaneously
• in order to use our neural and cognitive resources effectively, it is necessary to select important piece of information for further processing
• this selection is called attention

Question 11

when does attentional selection occur?

Answer 11

There should be a point in the path from sensation to action at which people cannot process all the information in parallel (attentional bottleneck)

Question 12

early-selection theory 1: filter theory

Answer 12

• sensory information has to pass through some bottleneck
• only some of the sensory information is selected for further processing
• some semantic info can also pass through a bottleneck without attention

Question 13

Dichotic listening task

Answer 13

individual is presented with different audio streams to each ear. they are asked to focus on and respond to only of of the messages (attended message) and ignore the other (unattended message)
- some information from unattended message is processed (non-semantic aspects)

Question 14

cocktail party effect

Answer 14

you can hear your name mentioned in a crowded bar even when you are talking with someone else

Question 15

Early-selection theory 2: the attenuation theory

Answer 15

salience of unattended stimuli is reduced, but they are not filtered out entirely

Question 16

Late-selection theories

Answer 16

The filter occurs after the perceptual stimulus has undergone analysis for its semantic content

Question 17

Treisman and Geffen’s (1967) study

Answer 17

• participants had to shadow one message from one ear
• at the same time, they had to detect a target word, which was heard by either ear

Question 18

predictions of Treisman and Geffen’s (1967) study

Answer 18

• the attenuation theory: the target will be less frequently detected in an unshadowed ear
• late-selection theories: the target will be detected equally well in either ear

Question 19

Results (detection accuracy) of Treisman and Geffen’s (1967) study

Answer 19

shadowed ear: 87%
unshadowed ear: 8%
supports attenuation theory

Question 20

voluntary attention

Answer 20

• top-down, goal directed
• focus of attention is usually the same as the focus of the eyes
• but not always (Posner’s cueing paradigm)

Question 21

reflexive attention

Answer 21

• bottom-up, stimulus-driven
• similar processing enhancement is observed when reflexive cues are used (only when target appears soon after the flash, 50-200ms)
• when more time passes between a reflexive cue and a target, response to target is slower
• reflexive attention system has built-in mechanisms to prevent relexively directed attention from being stuck at a location for too long (inhibition of return)

Question 22

feature integration theory

Answer 22

• people must focus attention on a stimulus before they can synthesise its features into a pattern
• in essence, attention works as a glue with which various features are combined into an object

Question 23

dual-task performance

Answer 23

being able to do two or more things simultaneously without having any interference, depends on the degree to which tasks involved require attention