attention

Question 1

attention

Answer 1

focusing awareness on specific stimuli
- effort
- perception
- act as a filter

Question 2

vigilance

Answer 2

• a global level of alertness of the individual.
  ex: scanning the environment, ready to attend to something new or relevant

Question 3

selective attention

Answer 3

process by which we select or focus on one or mores
stimuli for enhanced processing and analysis

Question 4

overt attention

Answer 4

** attention in which the focus coincides with sensory orientation
- attending to what you are looking at
ex: glancing at phone when it buzzes

Question 5

covert attention

Answer 5

** attention in which the focus can be directed independently of sensory orientation
- attending to one thing while looking at something else
ex: listening to a convo behind you without turning around

Question 6

cocktail party effect

Answer 6

** selective enhancement of attention in order to filter out distractors
- like in a noisy restaurant or party

Question 7

attentional bottleneck

Answer 7

attention acts as filter so our resources are directed to what is MOST important

Question 8

early selection models

Answer 8

** unattended information is filtered out right away, at the level of sensory input.
- the meaning is not yet processed and the filter only lets through information based on physical characteristics of
the information
- unattended information not available in consciousness

Question 9

late selection models

Answer 9

** all incoming stimuli are processed for meaning before any selection occurs for attention
- no feature-based filtering occurs

Question 10

inattentional blindness

Answer 10

the failure to perceive stimuli that are not actively being attended to

Question 10

shadowing experiments

Answer 10

** participants focus their attention to one of two streams of stimuli
- dichotic listening- focus on one ear and repeat the message

Question 11

change blindness

Answer 11

a visual perception phenomenon where people fail to notice a change in a visual scene

Question 12

divided attention

Answer 12

** the act of processing two or more stimuli at the same time
attention acts as a spotlight
- helps focus our cognitive resources
- helps direct our behavior
- tunes out extraneous information

Question 13

perceptual load

Answer 13

** processing demands imposed by the task
- easy task: resources left over to process task-irrelevant stimuli
- difficult/complex task: no more resources to spare. extra stimuli excluded immediately

Question 14

sustained attention

Answer 14

** stimulus or location is held in the attentional spotlight for a prolonged period of time.
- measures basic attentional abilities
ex: working to solve a problem

Question 15

voluntary attention

Answer 15

** voluntary; conscious, top-down; in line with goals
- endogenous

Question 16

reflexive attention

Answer 16

** involuntary; bottom-up process; mediated by lower levels of the nervous system
- exogenous

Question 17

feature search

Answer 17

search for a target based on a unique attribute

Question 18

conjunction search

Answer 18

search for a target on the basis of a combination of features

Question 19

why are conjunction searches harder?

Answer 19

they require more cognitive effort; take longer
- binding problem

Question 20

binding problem

Answer 20

question of how the brain understands which individual attributes blend together into a single object, when these different features are processed by different regions in the brain

Question 21

how to measure brain activity?

Answer 21

EEG

Question 22

brain regions responsible for shifts in attention

Answer 22

• superior colliculus
• pulvinar nucleus

Question 22

event-related potential (ERPs)

Answer 22

averaged EEG recordings measuring brain responses to repeated presentations of a stimulus

Question 23

attention shift - superior colliculus

Answer 23

- controls eye movement toward objects of attention - helps direct covert attention

Question 24

attention shift - pulvinar nucleus

Answer 24

** posterior region of the thalamus - important for orienting, shifting attention, orientation in covert attention, and stimulus inhibition - more distractors, greater activation of this region

Question 25

two major pathways to select and shift attention

Answer 25

dorsal frontoparietal - top-down , voluntary attention right temporoparietal - bottom-up reflexive attention

Question 26

dorsal frontoparietal

Answer 26

intraparietal sulcus (IPS) - increased rate of firing of neurons when attention is directed to specific stimuli ◦ can be visual or auditory stimuli ◦ important for steering attention ◦ damage - voluntary shifts of attention are difficult frontal eye field (FEF) ◦ important for gaze being directed at stimuli according to cognitive goals (top down process) ◦ damage - cannot ignore distractors in periphery

Question 27

right temporoparietal

Answer 27

temporoparietal junction (TPJ) ◦ meeting of the temporal and parietal lobes in right hemisphere ◦ directs attention toward new or unexpected stimuli ◦ flashes, color change, etc. ◦ stimuli will elicit a spike in the neural activity of this region regardless of location of stimulus in the environment (right vs left visual field) ◦ direct input from visual cortex

Question 28

bálint’s syndrome

Answer 28

- characterized by bilateral parietal lobe damage ◦ cculomotor apraxia: unable to appropriately direct visual gaze horizontally. ◦ optic ataxia: cannot reach for objects using visual cues ◦ simultagnosia: only one object or feature consciously observed at a time

Question 29

hemispatial neglect

Answer 29

individuals ignore stimuli on the left side of their midline. ◦ these individuals usually have normal vision ◦ may ignore people and objects ◦ lesions in the frontoparietal attention network

Question 30

what is consciousness?

Answer 30

the state of being aware that we are conscious and that we can perceive what is going on in our minds and around us

Question 31

brain regions involved in consciousness

Answer 31

- default mode network: circuit of brain regions active during quiet introspective thought ◦ frontal, parietal, and temporal regions - claustrum: sheet of neurons in the forebrain (lateral to the basal ganglia)

Question 32

elements of consciousness

Answer 32

◦ theory of mind: understanding other have their own beliefs, knowledge, and desires. ◦ mirror recognition: ability to recognize the self as depicted in a mirror ◦ imitation: ability to copy the actions of others; may be important for empathy and self awareness ◦ empathy & emotion: the ability to imagine the feelings of other individuals. ◦ tool use: ability to employ objects to achieve goals ◦ language: use of a system of arbitrary symbols, with specific meanings and strict grammar, to convey information to other individuals. ◦ metacognition: the ability to “think about thinking.”

Question 33

executive functions

Answer 33

** is the higher-level cognitive processes that control and organize our thoughts, behaviors, and feelings. ◦ like a supervisory system ◦ task switching, working memory, inhibition of thoughts/behaviors, thought suppression, and monitoring of ongoing performance. ◦ ex) delay of gratification ◦ important brain region - prefrontal cortex - working memory and task switching