Attention

Question 1

Name 3 key words relating to attention

Answer 1

Focalisation
trains of thought
concentration

Question 2

give two things that the inattentional blindness activity demonstrates:

Answer 2

• demonstrates we have selective attention

- attention has a limited capacity

Question 3

What is change blindness

Answer 3

e.g just because we are looking at something does not mean we are selectively attending to it

Question 4

How is selective attention multisensory?

Answer 4

because we can selectively attend to three types of stimuli:

visual
auditory
tactile (touch)

Question 5

What are the findings from Cherry’s experiment?

Answer 5

Subjects could not identify the language, meaning and context of the conversation they have been asked to ignore

The subjects could however identify the gender of the voice and physical attributes

Question 6

What does Cherry’s experiment suggest in terms of when attention is processed?

Answer 6

This experiment shows that attention operates at an early stage in processing

Question 7

Describe what an early selection diagram looks like

Answer 7

Attention occurs after ‘physical analysis’ and before ‘awarness and response;

Question 8

Describe what a late selection theory lookms like

Answer 8

attention occurs at the ‘awarness and response stage’

Question 9

Outline the spotlight model of attention by Posner 1980

Answer 9

when we see a cue, we orientate our visual attention towards this cue.

This enhances the visual processing of that particular cue

Question 10

What are the two types of cues we orientate to, according to the spotlight model of attention by Posner 1980

Answer 10

• Endogenous: cue presented in the centre

- Exogenous: cue is on the outside.

Question 11

Goal-driven attention

Answer 11

Endogenous

Question 12

Stimulus driven attention

Answer 12

Exogenous

Question 13

Both Cherry and Posner believe that attention occurs——- in the visual processing system

Answer 13

early

Question 14

early attention theories believe that attention occurs ——— semantic processing, and late attention theories believe that attention occurs ——– semantic processing

Answer 14

1) Before

2) After

Question 15

how can early selection theories be challenged?

Answer 15

BUT does not apply when we hear our name - we have not attended to this info previously yet we still attend

Question 16

Give the methodology for MacKay’s (1973) experiment and what does it challenge?

Answer 16

Subjects took part in 2 streams simultaneously. In attended stream given sentence ‘they were throwing stones at the bank’ . in unattended stream either given the word ‘river’ or ‘money.’

This study challenges early selection theories- even if you don’t attend certain info, your brain still processes it

Question 17

What was found in MacKay’s (1973) study? (the river/money study)

Answer 17

the word used in the unattended stream affected participants’ interpretation of the sentence.

This suggests that the ‘percieved unattended info’ was actually attended to

Question 18

Why is an object-based selection challenging evidence for early selection theories?

Answer 18

attention may not operate over regions of space

Question 19

what was the purpose of Egly et al’s (1994) study?

Answer 19

To distinguish spatial location from object location

it showed that attention occurs at regions of objects rather than regions of space

Question 20

What are the findings of Egly et al’s (1994) study?

Answer 20

Subjects had slower reaction time when had to identify different object at different location

Question 21

Why does Egly et al’s study contradict Posner’s spotlight theory?

Answer 21

Because Egly et al’s study suggests that attention operates within the objects location , whereas Posner’s theory suggests that attention operates within regions of location

Question 22

Does the inhibition of return support location or object-based attention?

Answer 22

supports object based attention

Question 23

What does the Load Theory state? (by Nillie Lavie)

Answer 23

States that the level of perceptual load determines the efficiency of selective attention

Question 24

In Nillie Lavie’s load theory experiment, where was the faster reaction time observed?

Answer 24

Faster reaction time in congruent trials - when target and distractor are the same letter

Question 25

In the load theory study, what does the high perceptual load condition support?

Answer 25

Supports early selection (attention taken up early)
this is because a lot of capacity is taken up for focusing on the target, therefore less attention is given on the distractor.

Question 26

In the load theory study, what does the low perceptual load condition support?

Answer 26

supports late selection

as not all capacity is being used up, more attention is starting to play a role in the distractor.