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PSYCH 258 > Chapter 4: Attention > Flashcards

Chapter 4: Attention Flashcards

1
Q

Attention

A

focusing on specific features, objects, or locations or on certain thoughts or activities

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2
Q

Selective Attention

A

the ability to focus on one message and ignore all others

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3
Q

Distraction

A

occurs when one stimulus infers with attention to or the processing of another stimuli

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4
Q

Divided Attention

A

the ability to pay attention to, or carry out, two or more difficult tasks simultaneously

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5
Q

Attentional Capture

A

a rapid shifting of attentions, usually caused by a stimulus such as a loud noise, bright light or sudden movement

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6
Q

Visual Scanning

A

movement of the eyes from one location or object to another

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7
Q

Filter Model of Attention

A

model of attention that proposes a falter that lets attended stimuli through and blocks some or all of the unattended stimuli

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8
Q

Dichotic Listening

A

the procedure of presenting one message to the left ear and a different message to the right ear

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9
Q

Shadowing

A

the procedure of repeating a message out loud as it is heard, shadowing is commonly used in conjunction with studies of selective attention that use the dichotic listening procedure

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10
Q

Cocktail Party Effect

A

the ability to focus on one stimulus while filtering out other stimuli, especially at a party where there are a lot of simultaneous conversations

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11
Q

Filter

A

in Broadbent’s model of attention, the filter identifies the message that is being attended to based on it’s physical characteristics (things like the speaker’s tone of voice, pitch, speed of talking, and accent), and lets only this attended message pass through to the detector in the next stage

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12
Q

Detector

A

in Broadbent’s model of attention, the detector processes the information from the attended message to determine higher-level characteristics of the message, such as its meaning

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13
Q

Early Selection Model

A

model of attention that explains selective attention by early filtering out of the unattended message

in Broadbent’s early selection model, the filtering step occurs before the message is analyzed to determine its meaning

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14
Q

Attenuator

A

in Treisman’s model of selective attention, the attenuator analyzes the incoming message in terms of physical characteristics, language, and meaning

attended messages pass through the attenuator at full strength, and unattended messages pass through with reduced strength

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15
Q

Attentuation Model of Attention

A

Anne Treisman’s model of selective attention that proposes that selection occurs in two stages; in the first stage, an attenuator analyzes the incoming message and lets through the attended message, and also the unattended message, but at a lower (attenuated) strength

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16
Q

Dictionary Unit

A

a component of Treisman’s attenuation model of attention

this processing unit contains stored words and thresholds for activating the words

helps explain why we can sometimes hear a familiar word, such as our name, in an unattended

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17
Q

Late Selection Models of Attention

A

a model of selective attention that proposes that selection of stimuli for final processing does not occur until after the information in the message has been analyzed for meaning

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18
Q

Processing Capacity

A

the amount of information input that a person can handle, this sets a limit on the person’s ability to process information

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19
Q

Perceptual Load

A

related to the difficulty of a task, low-load tasks use only a small amount of a person’s processing capacity, high-load tasks use more of the processing capacity

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20
Q

Low-Load Tasks

A

a task that uses few resources, leaving some capacity to handle other tasks

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21
Q

High-Load Tasks

A

a task that uses most or all of a person’s resources and so leaves little capacity to handle other tasks

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22
Q

Load Theory of Attention

A

proposal that the ability to ignore task irrelevant stimuli depends on the load of the task the person is carrying out

high-load tasks result in less distraction

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23
Q

Stroop Effect

A

an effect originally studied by J.R. Stroop

using a task in which a person is instructed to respond to one aspect of a stimulus, such as the colour of ink that a word is printed in, and ignore another aspect, such as the color that the word names

the Stroop effect refers to the fact that people find this task difficult when, for example, the word “Red” is printed in blue ink

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24
Q

Fixation

A

in problem solving, people tendency to focus on a specific characteristic of the problem that keeps them from arriving at a solution

in perception and attention, a pausing of the eyes on places of interest while observing a scene

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25
Q

Overt Attention

A

shifting of attention by moving the eyes

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26
Q

Stimulus Salience

A

bottom-up factors that determine attention to elements of a scene

examples are color, contrast, and orientation

the meaningfulness of the images, which is a top-down factor, does not contribute to stimulus salience

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27
Q

Saliency Map

A

map of a scene that indicates the stimulus salience of areas and objects in the scene

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28
Q

Covert Attention

A

occurs when attention is shifted without moving the eyes

commonly referred to as seeing something “out of the corner of one’s eye”

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29
Q

Precueing

A

a procedure in which participants are given a cue that will usually help them carry out a subsequent task

this procedure has been used in visual attention experiments in which participants are presented with a cue that tell them where to direct their attention

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30
Q

Same-Object Advantage

A

occurs when the enhancing effect of attention spreads throughout an object, so that attention to one place on an object results in facilitation of processing at other places on the objects

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31
Q

Attentional Warping

A

occurs when the map of categories on the brain changes to make more space for categories that are being searched for as a person attends a scene

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32
Q

Automatic Processing

A

processing that occurs automatically without the person’s intending to do it, and that also uses few cognitive resources, automatic processing is associated with easy or well-practiced tasks

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33
Q

Experience Sampling

A

a procedure that was developed to answer the question; “what percentage of the time during the day are people engaged in a specific behavior?”

one way this has been achieved is by having people report what they are doing when they receive signals at random times during the day

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34
Q

Mind Wandering

A

thoughts that come from within a person, often unintentionally, in early research this was called daydreaming

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35
Q

Inattentional Blindness

A

not noticing something even though it is in clear view, usually caused by failure to pay attention to the object or the place where the object is located

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36
Q

Visual Search

A

occurs when a person is looking for one stimulus or object among a number of other stimuli or objects

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37
Q

Inattentional Deafness

A

occurs when inattention causes a person to miss an auditory stimulus

for example, experiments have shown that it is more difficult to detect a tone when engaged in a difficult visual search task

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38
Q

Change Detection

A

detecting differences between pictures or displays that are presented one after another

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39
Q

Change Blindness

A

difficulty in detecting changes in similar, but slightly different, scenes that are presented one after another, the changes are often easy to see once attention is directed to them but are usually undetected in the absence of appropriate attention

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40
Q

Continuity Errors

A

in film, changes that occur from one scene to another that do not match, such as when a character reaches for a croissant in one shot, which turns into a pancake in the next shot

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41
Q

Binding

A

process by which features such as color, form, motion, and location are combined to create perception of a coherent object

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42
Q

Binding Problem

A

the problem of explaining how an object’s individual features become bound together

43
Q

Feature Integration Theory

A

an approach to object perception, developed by Anne Treismann, that proposes a sequence of stages in which features are first analyzed and then combined to result in perception of an object

44
Q

Pre-attentive Stage

A

the first stage of Treismann’s feature integration theory, in which an object is analyzed into its features

45
Q

Focused Attention Stage

A

the second stage of Treismann’s feature integration theory, according to the theory attention causes the combination of features into perception of an objects

46
Q

Illusory Conjunctions

A

a situation, demonstrated in experiments by Anne Treismann, in which features from different objects are inappropriately combined

47
Q

Balient’s Syndrome

A

a condition caused by brain damage in which a person has difficulty focusing attention on individual objects

48
Q

Conjunction Search

A

searching among distractors for a target that involves two or more features, such as “horizontal” and “green”

49
Q

Feature Search

A

searching among distractors for a target item that involves detecting one feature, such as “horizontal”

50
Q

Ventral Attention Network

A

a network that controls attention based on stimulus salience

51
Q

Dorsal Attention Network

A

a network that controls attention based in top-down processing

52
Q

Effective Connectivity

A

how easily activity can travel along a particular pathway between two structures

53
Q

Synchronization

A

occurs when neural responses become synchronized in time, so positive and negative responses occur at the same time and with similar amplitudes

it has been proposed that synchronization is a mechanism responsible for enhanced effective connectivity and enhanced communication between two areas that accompany shifts of attention

54
Q

Executive Functions

A

a number of processes that involve controlling attention and dealing with conflicting responses

55
Q

Cognitive Control

A

a mechanism involved in dealing with conflicting stimuli

related to executive function, inhibitory control, and willpower

56
Q

Inhibitory Control

A

a mechanism involved in dealing with conflicting stimuli

related to executive function, inhibitory control, and willpower

57
Q

Willpower

A

a mechanism involved in dealing with conflicting stimuli, related to executive function, inhibitory control, and cognitive control

58
Q

What is attention?

A

the ability to focus on specific stimuli or locations in our environment

59
Q

What is selective attention?

A

attending to one thing while ignoring others

we do not attend to a large fraction of the information in the environment

we filter out some information and promote other information for further processing

60
Q

What is divided attention?

A

paying attention to more than one thing at a time

61
Q

What is the research method of dichotic listening?

A

one message is presented to the left ear and another to the right ear

participant “shadows” one message to ensure he is attending to that message

can we completely filter out the message to the unattended ear and attend only to the shadowed message?

62
Q

What are the results of dichotic listening?

A

participants could not report the content of the message un unattended (overshadowed) ear, knew that there was a message, knew the gender of the speaker

however unattended ear is being processed at some level: cocktail party effect, change in gender is noticed, change to a tone is noticed

63
Q

What are the models of selective attention?

A

early selection model

intermediate selection model

late selection model

64
Q

What is the early-selection model?

A

filters message before incoming information is analyzed for meaning

65
Q

What is sensory memory?

A

holds all incoming information for a fraction of a second

transfers all information to next stage

66
Q

What is a filter?

A

identifies attended message based on physical characteristics (e.g. pitch of the speaker’s voice)

only attended message is passed on to the next stage

67
Q

What is a detector?

A

processes all attended information to determine higher-level characteristics of the message

68
Q

What is short-term memory?

A

received output of detector

holds information for 10-15 seconds and may transfer it to long-term memory

69
Q

What are some things that Broadbent’s model could not explain?

A

participant’s name gets through (cocktail party phenomenon)

participants can shadow meaningful messages that switch from one ear to another

effects of practice on detecting information in unattended ear (you can’t be trained to detect in unattended ear, based on the meaning of the message)

70
Q

What is the immediate-selection model?

A

attended messages can be separated from unattended message early in the information-processing system

selection can also occur

71
Q

What is an attenuator?

A

analyzes incoming messages in terms of physical characteristics, language, and meaning

72
Q

What is Treisman’s Attenuation Theory?

A

attended to message is let through the attenuator at full strength

unattended message is let through at a much weaker strength

73
Q

What is a dictionary unit?

A

contains words, each of which have thresholds for being activated

words that are common or important have low thresholds

uncommon words have high thresholds

74
Q

What is the late-selection model?

A

selection of stimuli for final processing does not occur until after information has been analyzed for meaning

75
Q

What was the McKay (1973) experiment demonstrating late selection models?

A

in attending ear, participants heard ambiguous sentences, “they were throwing stones at the bank”

in unattended ear, participants heard either “river” or “money”

the participants had to choose if the word “bank” in the sentence referred to a river bank or a money bank

the meaning of the biasing word affected participants’ choice

participants were unaware of the presentation of the biasing words

76
Q

What is processing capacity?

A

how much information a person can handle at any given moment

77
Q

What is perceptual load?

A

the difficulty of a given task

78
Q

What are high-load perceptual tasks?

A

use higher amounts of processing capacity

79
Q

What are low-load perceptual tasks?

A

use lower amounts of processing capacity

80
Q

What is the Stroop task?

A

not only the load but also the property of the irrelevant stimulus or dimension

name of the word interferes with the ability to name the ink color

cannot avoid paying attention to the meanings of the words

81
Q

What is an explanation of the Stroop effect?

A

observers (especially college undergraduate) have automatized the process of reading

thus, the color names of the words are always processed very quickly, regardless of the color of the ink

on the other hand, identifying colors is not a task that observers have to report on very often and, because it is not automatized, it is slower

the fast and automatic processing of the color name of the word interferes with the reporting of the ink color

82
Q

What is overt attention?

A

eye movements, attention, and perception

saccades: rapid movements of the eyes from one place to another

fixations: short pauses on points of interest

studied by using an eye tracker

83
Q

What is stimulus salience?

A

areas that stand out and capture attention

bottom-up processes

depends on characteristics of the stimulus

color and motion are highly salient

84
Q

What are scene schemas?

A

knowledge about what is contained in typical scenes

help guide fixations from one area of a scene to another

85
Q

What is precueing?

A

directing attention without moving the eyes

participants respond faster to a light at an expected location than at an unexpected location

even when eyes kept fixed

86
Q

What are attentional cues?

A

focus visual attention to an area by using a cue, “spotlight” or “zoom lens”

measure time to identify target item when: observer does not know where item will appear, and the observer does know where item will appear

cue is briefly presented arrow indicate where the item will appear

87
Q

What are exogenous cues?

A

outside generating

low-level “reflexes”

sudden changes (e.g. flash or movement)

draws attention automatically

bottom-up control of attention

based on what’s actually happening in the environment

88
Q

What are endogenous cues?

A

inside generating

high-level control

instruction (via some kind of visual sign or pattern)

sends attention to requested location

top-down control of attention

based on what observer believes

89
Q

What is location-based visual attention?

A

moving attention from one place to another

90
Q

What is object-based attention?

A

attention being directed to one place on an object

91
Q

What was the Egly et al. (1994) study on object-based visual attention?

A

participants saw two side-by-side rectangles, followed by a target cue

reaction time fastest when target appeared where indicated

reaction time was faster when the target appeared in the same rectangle

92
Q

How can attention be based on the environment?

A

static scenes or scenes with few objects

93
Q

How can attention be based on a specific object?

A

dynamic events

94
Q

What is divided attention?

A

practice enables people to simultaneously do two things that were difficult at first

automatic processing occurs without intention and only uses some of a person’s cognitive resources

95
Q

What is inattentional blindness?

A

a stimulus that is not attended is not perceived, even though a person might be looking directly at it

96
Q

What is change blindness?

A

if shown two version of a picture, differences between them are not immediately apparent

task to identify differences requires concentrated attention and search

97
Q

What is the explanation of why change blindness occurs?

A

attention is need to see change because without it, observers are “change blind”

the impression we have of rich sensory representations us illusory, actual sensory representations are sparse, little is retained over time

98
Q

What is binding?

A

the process by which features such as color, form, motion, and location are combined to create our perception of a coherent object

99
Q

What is the preattentive stage?

A

automatic
no effort or attention
unaware of process
object analyzes into features

100
Q

What is focused attention stage?

A

attention plays key role
features are combined

101
Q

What is Balient’s syndrome?

A

inability to focus attention on individual objects

high number of illusory conjunctions reported

102
Q

What is the physiology of attention?

A

attention enhances neural responding

attentional processing is distributed across a large number of areas in the brain

103
Q

How is attention processing distributed across the cortex?

A

using fMRI to detect cortical activity during a search task

attention to an expected direction of motion caused brain activity to increase in a number of brain areas

104
Q

What was studied in the attentional blink Coglab?

A

if visual search reflexes the spatial properties of our attention, attentional blink reflexes the temporal properties of our attention

by looking at recognition of the second target as a function of separation between the two targets, we can estimate the time required to focus and break attention for stimuli

PSYCH 258 (13 decks)

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