LECTURE 7 Flashcards
Attention
It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and
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.
Limited Capacity
We can only attend to or be consciously aware and processing of a small amount of information at any given time.
The notion that humans have limited mental resources that can be used at a given time.
sustained attention or vigilance
When watching for a rare event, it is easy to allow concentration to lag. Attention in the context of this type of search task
Divided Attention
Allow us to determine how well individuals can
attend to many sources of information at once.
The ability to flexibly allocate attentional resources between two or more concurrent tasks.
Spatial attention
how we focus on one part of our environment and how we move attention to other locations in the
environment.
Selective attention
The ability to select certain stimuli in the environment to process, while ignoring distracting information. Some information is attended to while other information is intentionally blocked out
Dichotic listening and shadowing
The situation when two messages are
presented simultaneously to an individual, with one message in each ear. In order to control which message the person attends to, the individual is asked to repeat back or “shadow” one of the messages as he hears it.
An experimental task in which two messages are presented to different ears.
Shadowing
A task in which the individual is asked to repeat an auditory message as it is presented.
Subliminal perception
Stimuli presented below the threshold for
awareness can influence thoughts, feelings, or actions.
The ability to process information for meaning when the individual is not consciously aware of that information.
divided attention tasks
Each task is evaluated separately, in order to determine baseline performance when the individual can allocate as many cognitive resources as necessary to one
task at a time. Then performance is evaluated when the two tasks are performed simultaneously.
DISTRACTION FOR DRIVING (by using phone)
Cognitive distractions such as cell phone conversations can produce inattentional blindness, or a lack of awareness of what is right before your eyes
Inattentional blindness
The failure to notice a fully visible object when attention is devoted to something else.
