Attention

Question 1

What is referred to when talking about detection?

Answer 1

Either spotlight or object-based attention

Question 2

What is referred to when talking about filtering and selection?

Answer 2

Selective attention: being able to focus on a task at hand and ignore task irrelevant stimuli

Question 3

What is referred to when talking about cognitive load?

Answer 3

how many cognitive resources you need to use to complete a task

Question 4

What is referred to when talking about information search?

Answer 4

feature search and conjunction search

Question 5

What is referred to when talking about divided attention?

Answer 5

Change blindness and inattentional blindness

Question 6

What is referred to when talking about change blindness?

Answer 6

failure of attention: when an observer does not detect a change in a visual stimulus typically when there has been some visual disruption (grey screen)

Question 7

What is referred to when talking about inattentional blindness?

Answer 7

failure of attention: he event in which an individual fails to recognise an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight (the gorilla experiment)

Question 8

What are the differences between change blindness and inattentional blindness?

Answer 8

change blindness requires comparison to memory but in-attentional blindness does not, instead it simply is not seeing something that’s there

Question 9

What is meant by attention?

Answer 9

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

Question 10

What are two theories that attempt to explain filtering and selection (selective attention)?

Answer 10

Broadbent’s filter theory/ model

Attenuation theory / model

Question 11

What are 4 types of attention?

Answer 11

covert (looking out side of eye)
divided (more than one thing)
selective (focusing on one thing)
overt (moving eyes to look at something)

Question 12

When talking about detection, what are the 2 ways of focusing attention?

Answer 12

Spotlight attention

Object-based attention

Question 13

What evidence was suggested for the theory of spotlight attention?

Answer 13

When directed to focus on one area, attention improved on a task

Question 14

What evidence was suggested for the theory of object-based attention?

Answer 14

When directed to focus on one area, attention was best when in that area OR secondly when on the same object (the same object advantage)

Question 15

When should you use spotlight attention?

Answer 15

for static scenes with few objects

Question 16

When should you use object based attention?

Answer 16

in dynamic moving environments

Question 17

What are the stages of Broadbent’s filter model of processing?

Answer 17

sensory memory
selective filter
decision of response (higher levels of processing)
LTM

Question 18

What’s the difference between Broadbent’s filter theory and the attenuation theory?

Answer 18

Broadbent’s has a selective filter that stops/ blocks irrelevant information (information isn’t processed AT ALL from the inattentive ear)
Attenuation theory: filter is replaced by an attenuator- eg. nothing is ‘blocked’ but not everything is attended to equally (threshold- cocktail party effect of hearing your name)

Question 19

What happened in the Dichotic listening task?

Answer 19

Only the attended speech was remembered except 1/3 of participants heard their own name in the unattended ear

Question 20

What have late selection models found about unattended messages?

Answer 20

Although they may not be attended to they do influence the meaning of the attended message

Question 21

What is the difference between cognitive resources and cognitive load?

Answer 21

Cognitive resources are what you have but cognitive load is how much of those resources you need to use.

Question 22

When does late selection occur?

Answer 22

When there is less cognitive load and more resources to attend to irrelevant information.

Question 23

When does early selection occur?

Answer 23

When there is more cognitive load and less resources to attend to irrelevant information.

Question 24

What are the 2 theories that argue for or against multiple pools of cognitive resources?

Answer 24

Kahneman’s Central Capacity theory (single pool e.g. central executive functions)
Wicken’s Multiple resource theory (separate pools for visual and auditory modalities)

Question 25

What is Automatic processing?

Answer 25

processing that occurs without attention, and uses only a small amount of cognitive resources

Question 26

What experiment demonstrated the effects of automatic processing?

Answer 26

consistent mapping condition (participants didn’t have to pay very close attention when it was automatic)

Question 27

What experiment demonstrated the effects of controlled processing?

Answer 27

varied mapping condition (participants had to pay very close attention)

Question 28

What was the conclusion of the varied vs consistent mapping task (automatic vs controlled processing)?

Answer 28

practice can only automatise some tasks

Question 29

What are saccades?

Answer 29

rapid shifts of the eyes

Question 30

What are fixations?

Answer 30

short pauses on points of interest

Question 31

What are exogenous factors?

Answer 31

bottom-up

Question 32

What are 2 examples of exogenous factors?

Answer 32

stimulus salience (areas that stand out)
gist (overall view of scene)

Question 33

What are endogenous factors?

Answer 33

top-down

Question 34

What are 2 examples of endogenous factors?

Answer 34

scene schema (what we think we should see- what fits)
goal-directed (what we are looking for)

Question 35

What are 2 types of information searches?

Answer 35

feature searches (automatic)
conjunction searches (top-down, controlled & conscious)

Question 36

What are 7 factors that influence our ability to pay attention?

Answer 36

task difficulty (cognitive load)
anxiety 
arousal 
task type (modalities) 
skills (experience)
search strategy 
processing strategy

Question 37

What are dictionary units?

Answer 37

The triggers that when gone through Treisman’s attenuation model of attention, ‘ping’ your attention and lower the threshold to allow them further into your short term memory

Question 38

What does LGN stand for?

Answer 38

lateral geniculate nucleus

Question 39

What is the LGN?

Answer 39

The relay centre in the thalamus for the visual pathway:

takes input from the optic nerve to the occipital lobe