Attention and Consciousness

Question 1

What are the four different types of attention?

Answer 1

signal detection and vigilance, search, selective attention and divided attention

Question 2

The means by which we actively process a limited amount of information from the enormous amount of information available through our senses, our stored memories, and our other cognitive processes:

Answer 2

Attention

Question 3

more directly concerned with awareness - it includes both the feeling of awareness and the content of awareness, some of which may be under the focus of attention:

Answer 3

consciousness

Question 4

We try to detect the appearance of a particular stimulus. Air traffic controllers, for example, keep an eye on all traffic near and over the airport:

Answer 4

signal detection and vigilance

Question 5

We try to find a signal amidst distracters, for example, when we are looking for our lost cell phone on an autumn leaf-filled hiking path.

Answer 5

search

Question 6

We choose to attend to some stimuli and ignore others, as when we are involved in a conversation at a party:

Answer 6

selective attention

Question 7

We prudently allocate our available attentional resources to coordinate our performance of more than one task at a time, as when we are cooking and engaged in a phone conversation at the same time:

Answer 7

divided attention

Question 8

nontarget stimuli that divert our attention away from the target stimulus

Answer 8

distractors

Question 9

Scan the environment for a specific feature:

Answer 9

feature search

Question 10

Look for a particular combination of features:

Answer 10

conjunction search

Question 11

Target is defined by a single feature, according to this theory the target should also “pop out”, no attention required, parallel search:

Answer 11

Treisman’s feature integration theory

Question 12

Physical similarity between targets and distractors makes search harder:

Answer 12

similarity theory

Question 13

This theory has 2 consecutive stages: activation of all target features (parallel) and then evaluate each of activated elements (serial)

Answer 13

Guided search theory

Question 14

According to what theory of selective attention do we filter information right after we notice it at the sensory level?

Answer 14

Broadbent theory of attention

Question 15

According to what theory of selective attention do we instead of blocking stimuli out, the filter weakens the strength of stimuli other than the target stimulus?

Answer 15

Treisman’s attenuation model of attention

Question 16

According to what theory of selective attention are all stimuli processed to the level of meaning, but relevance determines further processing and action?

Answer 16

Deutsch & Deutsch late-filter model

Question 17

automatic processes are rapid and occur in parallel. They can be used to notice only physical sensory characteristics of the unattended message. But they do not discern meaning or relationships:

Answer 17

pre-attentive processes

Question 18

These processes occur later. They are executed serially and and consume time and attentional resources, such as working memory. Can also be used to observe relationships among features. Serve to synthesise fragments into a mental representation of an object:

Answer 18

attentive, controlled processes.

Question 19

Being prepared to attend to some incoming event, and maintaining this attention:

Answer 19

alerting

Question 20

The selection of stimuli to attend to

Answer 20

orienting

Question 21

Processes for monitoring and resolving conflicts that arise among internal processes. These processes include thoughts, feelings, and responses:

Answer 21

Executive attention

Question 22

an inability to detect changes in objects or scenes that are being viewed:

Answer 22

change blindness

Question 23

An attentional dysfunction in which people ignore half of their visual field that is contralateral to (on the opposite side of) the hemisphere of the brain that has a lesion:

Answer 23

spatial neglect/ hemi-neglect

Question 24

becoming accustomed to a stimulus so that we gradually pay less and less attention to it:

Answer 24

habituation

Question 25

a change in a familiar stimulus prompts us to start noticing the stimulus again:

Answer 25

dishabituation

Question 26

A lessening of attention to a stimulus that is not subject to conscious control:

Answer 26

sensory adaptation

Question 27

a degree of physiological excitation, responsively, and readiness for action, relative to a baseline:

Answer 27

arousal

Question 28

Many tasks that start off as controlled process eventually become automatic ones as a result of practise, this is knows as?

Answer 28

automatisation (proceduralisation)

Question 29

errors in choosing an objective or in specifying a means of achieving it. Involves errors in intuitional, controlled processes:

Answer 29

mistakes

Question 30

erors in carrying out an intended means for reaching an objective. Often involve errors in automatic processes:

Answer 30

slips

Question 31

Failure to deviate from a well known routine (driving a familiar route)

Answer 31

capture errors

Question 32

Interruption evokes skipping steps in a process (phone rings while cooking, forget to add ingredient)

Answer 32

omissions

Question 33

Failure to terminate a process due to repeating some of it (start the car, get distracted, turn the ignition again)

Answer 33

perseverations

Question 34

Intended action carried out on wrong object (when putting away groceries, put ice-cream in cupboard and soup in freezer)

Answer 34

description errors

Question 35

Incoming sensory information over-ride (lout conversation next to you, say a name or a word unintended)

Answer 35

data-driven errors

Question 36

Strong associations may trigger the wrong automatic routine (expecting someone to arrive at the door and phone rings, say “come in”)

Answer 36

Associative-activation errors

Question 37

Insufficient activation to complete a sequence (going to another room and forgetting why you’re there)

Answer 37

loss-of-activation errors

Question 38

What is the name of the phenomenon where something is stuck at the preconscious level. Can sometimes know the first letter or number of syllables:

Answer 38

Tip of the tongue phenomenon

Question 39

Abnormality - knowing where something is without conscious ability to see it:

Answer 39

blindsight

Question 40

Target stimuli are processed faster if preceded by a related word:

Answer 40

facilitative priming

Question 41

Target stimuli is processed slower if preceded by a word related to target’s alternate meaning:

Answer 41

negative priming effect