Attention Characteristics and theories Flashcards
Cognitive neuroscience (249 cards)
1
Q
What is the definition of attention according to William James?
A
A: “Everyone knows what attention is. 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. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others.”
Involves election
Has a limited capacity
2
Q
Q: What is attention in the context of cognitive neuroscience?
A
A: Attention is the cognitive process of selectively focusing on certain stimuli while ignoring others, allowing for efficient processing of relevant information.
3
Q
Q: What are the main types of attention?
A
Selective attention – Focusing on one stimulus while ignoring others.
Divided attention – Splitting attention between multiple tasks.
Sustained attention – Maintaining focus over a prolonged period.
Executive attention – Regulating thoughts and behaviors in complex tasks.
4
Q
Q: What is the difference between top-down and bottom-up attention?
A
Top-down attention is goal-directed, guided by prior knowledge and expectations.
Bottom-up attention is stimulus-driven, automatically captured by salient features in the environment.
5
Q
Q: What is the spotlight model of attention?
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A; A theory that describes attention as a “spotlight” that moves to highlight certain areas of sensory input, enhancing processing in that region.
6
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Q: What is the bottleneck theory of attention?
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A: A theory that suggests there is a limited capacity to process information, so attention acts as a bottleneck, filtering out less relevant stimuli.
7
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Q: What is the role of the parietal lobe in attention?
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A: The parietal lobe, particularly the posterior parietal cortex, is involved in spatial attention and the ability to shift attention between different stimuli.
8
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Q: What brain networks are associated with attention?
A
Dorsal Attention Network (DAN) – Controls voluntary, goal-directed attention.
Ventral Attention Network (VAN) – Detects unexpected or novel stimuli.
9
Q
Q: What is inattentional blindness?
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A: The failure to perceive an unexpected stimulus in plain sight because attention is engaged elsewhere.
10
Q
Q: What is change blindness?
A
A: A phenomenon where large changes in a visual scene go unnoticed due to limitations in attention.
11
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Q: What is Limited Capacity in attention?
A
A: Our cognitive resources are limited, meaning we can only attend to a small number of things at a time. Focusing on one thing comes at the expense of ignoring others. ⚖️
12
Q
Q: What is Modulation in Attention?
A
A: The brain’s ability to enhance or suppress neural responses to attended stimuli. This influences both perception and cognitive processing, making certain information more prominent. 🔄
13
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Q: What is Vigilance in Attention?
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A: The ability to sustain attention over an extended period, which is crucial for tasks that require continuous focus, like driving or monitoring a system. ⏳
14
Q
Q: What is an example of limited capacity in attention?
A
A: In a crowded, noisy environment, you must focus on your friend’s voice while ignoring background noise. This demonstrates the brain’s limited ability to process multiple stimuli at once. 🎧
15
Q
Q: How does selective attention help in social interactions?
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A: It allows you to focus on your friend’s face and expressions while filtering out other visual and auditory distractions in the environment. 👀🔇
16
Q
Q: Why is selective attention considered computationally complex?
A
A: While humans can effortlessly filter relevant vs. irrelevant stimuli, artificial intelligence and computer vision systems still struggle to replicate these attentional mechanisms. 🤖🧠
17
Q
Q: What challenges do people with cochlear implants face regarding attention?
A
A: Individuals who were born deaf and later receive cochlear implants often struggle with filtering background noise. This suggests that attentional mechanisms develop early in life and are difficult to regain later. 🎵❌
18
Q
Q: What does attention allow us to do in a sensory environment?
A
A: It helps us enhance important stimuli (like a conversation) while suppressing distractions (background noise, other people talking). 🎯
19
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Q: Why is attention considered computationally complex?
A
Even though attention feels effortless, it requires significant neural processing to select, track, and filter information. AI struggles to replicate this ability. 🧠💻
20
Q
Q: What is the Multiple Object Tracking (MOT) Paradigm?
A
A: A task where participants track four moving dots on a screen while ignoring others. It tests the brain’s limited ability to attend to multiple objects at once. 🎯🔵🔵🔵🔵
21
Q
Q: What is the limit of human multiple object tracking?
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A: Most people can track up to four objects. Performance drops sharply when more objects are added due to limited attentional resources. 🚦
22
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Q: Why does tracking multiple objects become difficult?
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A: Even though we see all the objects moving, we can only keep track of a small subset at any given time due to attentional constraints. 👀🔄
23
Q
Q: What does the Multiple Object Tracking paradigm tell us about attention?
A
A: It highlights that sensory perception is broad, but selective attention is limited—we cannot consciously track everything we see. 🔍
24
Q
Q: Why do we have difficulty tracking multiple objects at once?
A
A: Our brain has limited attentional capacity, meaning we can only focus on a small subset of available stimuli while filtering out others. 🎯
25
Q: What is selection in attention?
The process by which the brain chooses specific stimuli to focus on while ignoring distractions, allowing for efficient information processing. ✅🚫
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Q: Why does the brain need selection mechanisms?
A: Because we cannot process everything at once, the brain prioritizes important stimuli at the expense of less relevant information. 🔄⚖️
27
Q: What is an example of attentional selection in daily life?
A: In a loud room, you focus on your friend’s voice while ignoring background noise. This is known as the cocktail party effect. 🍸👂
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Q: How does selection in attention relate to cognitive load?
A: The more distractions present, the harder it is to focus. The brain must filter out irrelevant data to avoid cognitive overload. 🔍💡
29
Q: What is inattentional blindness?
A: A psychological phenomenon where people fail to see unexpected objects because their attention is focused on something else. 🧠👀
30
Q: What is the Gorilla Experiment?
A: A study where participants were asked to count basketball passes between players in white shirts, often failing to notice a gorilla walking through the scene. 🏀🦍
31
Q: What does the Gorilla Experiment demonstrate about attention?
A: It shows how attention is selective—we focus on certain features (e.g., white shirts) while suppressing others (e.g., the gorilla). 🔍🎭
32
Q: Why do many people not see the gorilla in the experiment?
A: Their attention is focused on tracking passes between white-shirted players, causing them to ignore other visual information. 🚦👕
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Q: How does this relate to everyday life?
A: In real life, we often miss important details because we're focused on something specific—like texting while walking or driving. 📵🚗
34
Q: What does the experiment tell us about selective attention?
A: Our brain filters the overwhelming sensory input by prioritizing specific features while ignoring others. 🧩🚪
35
What happens in the brain when we pay attention to something?
A: Attention enhances the neural representation of the object we focus on while suppressing the representations of other competing stimuli. Modeling and enhancing the visual representation🧠✨
36
Q: How does attention affect perception in contrast-based experiments?
A: Attention can enhance the perceived contrast of an attended stimulus, making it appear more distinct than it actually is. 🎯👀
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Q: What is an example of attention modulating perception?
A: In experiments where subjects judge contrast, a peripheral cue can capture attention, making the attended stimulus appear to have higher contrast than it physically does. ⚡🔳🔲
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Q: What is the role of peripheral cues in attention experiments?
A: Peripheral cues capture attention, causing modulation of visual perception—leading subjects to perceive changes in contrast or brightness. ✨👁️
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Q: How does attention affect perceived contrast?
A: Attention enhances the perceived contrast of an attended stimulus, making it appear more distinct than it actually is. 🎯👀
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Q: What is a peripheral cue in attention experiments?
A: A sudden flash or stimulus that captures attention and modulates perception, leading to biased responses. ⚡🔳
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Q: How do subjects respond to identical contrast stimuli when attention is involved?
A: Even when two stimuli have the same contrast, the one that captures attention is perceived as having higher contrast. 🔄🖤⚪
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Q: What is the analogy between attention and contrast perception?
A: If attention is drawn to a stimulus, the internal experience of its contrast is exaggerated—similar to how a dim image might appear brighter when focused on. 🔍✨
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Q: How does contrast perception work in the brain?
A: The brain processes contrast by emphasizing differences in brightness, sometimes making separate shades appear distinct or continuous. 🔳🔲
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Q: How does attention affect contrast perception?
A: Attention can enhance contrast, making an attended area appear sharper or more distinct than it really is. 🎯👀
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Q: Is contrast perception always dependent on attention?
A: No, some contrast illusions occur independently of attention, as the brain naturally prioritizes processing edges and differences over uniform areas. ⚡🖤⚪
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Q: Why does the brain prefer processing contrast over uniform regions?
A: The visual system is optimized to detect changes in an image (e.g., edges, boundaries) rather than areas that don’t change. 🏞️👁️
47
Q: What is vigilance in attention?
A: Vigilance is a sustained form of attention, allowing a person to stay focused on a task for an extended period. ⏳🎯
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Q: How is vigilance different from short-term attention?
A: Short-term attention involves momentary focus (e.g., noticing a sudden event), while vigilance requires continuous monitoring over time. 🔍🕰️
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Q: What cognitive resources does vigilance require?
A: Vigilance relies on working memory, sustained attention, and mental endurance, which can decline over time due to fatigue. 🧠⚡
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Q: Why is vigilance important?
A: It is crucial for tasks requiring long-term focus, such as air traffic control, studying, or security monitoring. ✈️📖🛑
51
Q: What is attention in cognitive neuroscience?
A: Attention is the brain's process of selecting a subset of competing sensory representations to focus on while ignoring others. 🎯🧠
52
Q: Why is attention necessary?
A: The brain processes a lot of sensory information at once. Attention helps filter what is important and modulates perception accordingly. 🔍👀
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Q: How does attention affect perception?
A: Attention modulates sensory representations, altering how we experience stimuli and enhancing what we focus on. ✨👂👁️
54
Q: Is attention limited to vision?
A: No! Attention occurs across all sensory modalities (sight, sound, touch) and even in higher-level cognitive processes. 🔊🖐️📝
55
Q: What is a key feature of attention in the brain?
A: Attention is ubiquitous, meaning it happens throughout different brain regions and is essential for many cognitive functions. 🌍🧠
56
Q: What is the primary function of attention?
A: Attention selects important information from competing stimuli, prioritizing what gets processed and perceived. 🎯👁️
57
Q: How does attention alter neural activity?
A: It enhances responses to attended stimuli and weakens responses to ignored stimuli, shaping perception. ⚡🧠
58
Q: In what brain regions does attention operate?
A: Attention occurs across many cortical areas, including sensory, motor, and higher cognitive regions. 🌍🧠
59
Q: How does attention control perception?
A: It acts as a filter, determining what information is processed and what is ignored. 🏗️👀
60
Q: What are the two main control mechanisms of attention?
Top-down attention – Goal-directed, controlled by expectations.
Bottom-up attention – Stimulus-driven, based on sudden changes in the environment. 🔄🎯
61
Q: How does attention influence motor processes?
A: It prepares and prioritizes motor actions by focusing on relevant stimuli, optimizing reaction time and accuracy. 🎮⚡
62
Q: What is the relationship between attention and working memory?
A: Attention helps store and update information in working memory by focusing on relevant details while ignoring distractions. 📚🧠
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Q: What does attention do with competing representations?
A: It selects one (or a few) from many competing sensory inputs for prioritized processing. 🎯
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Q: How does attention affect perception?
A: It controls what information is processed, shaping how we experience the world. 👀🧠
65
Q: How does attention affect neural activity?
A: It enhances responses to attended information while weakening responses to ignored information. ⚡🔄
66
Q: In which brain regions does attention operate?
A: Attention occurs across sensory, motor, and higher cognitive regions, influencing multiple brain functions. 🏗️🧠
67
Q: What is the early vs. late selection debate in attention?
A: It is a debate about where in the sensory processing stream attention selects information—early (during low-level processing) or late (after meaning has been extracted). 🎯🔄
68
Q: What is early selection in attention?
A: The idea that attention filters out irrelevant sensory information at the early stages of processing before meaning is extracted. 🚦👂
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Q: What is an example of early selection?
A: When listening to a friend in a noisy environment, the brain filters out background noise at the sensory level before processing meaning. 🔇👂
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Q: What is late selection in attention?
A: The idea that all sensory information is fully processed up to the level of meaning, and only then does attention determine what is acted upon. 🧠🔍
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Q: What is an example of late selection?
A: If you hear your name in a conversation across the room even when you weren’t paying attention, this suggests all speech was processed for meaning before attention selected relevant info. 🎤👀
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Q: How does late selection differ from early selection?
Early selection: Filters before meaning is processed.
Late selection: Filters after meaning is processed.
Early → Sensory filtering, Late → Semantic filtering. 🚦🆚📖
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Q: In early selection, when does attention filter information?
A: Before semantic processing, at the sensory registration stage, filtering out irrelevant stimuli early. 🚦👂
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Q: In late selection, when does attention filter information?
A: After sensory processing, at the semantic processing stage, meaning is extracted before selection occurs. 📖🧠
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Q: What is the main idea behind early selection?
A: Limited capacity forces the brain to process only a subset of stimuli at the sensory level. ⚡🔍
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Q: What is the main idea behind late selection?
A: The brain fully processes all stimuli, and selection occurs later based on meaning and relevance. 🔄📖
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Q: What is a real-world example of early selection?
A: Ignoring background noise while focusing on a friend’s voice in a loud room (Cocktail Party Effect). 🍸👂
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Q: What is a real-world example of late selection?
A: Hearing your name in a conversation you weren’t paying attention to, suggesting post-processing selection. 🎤👀
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Q: What key question does the early vs. late selection debate try to answer?
A: It asks where in the sensory-to-cognition processing stream attention filters information—early (sensory) or late (semantic). 🧠🔍
80
Q: What was an early experimental paradigm used to study attentional filtering?
A: The dichotic listening task, where participants listened to two different audio streams, one in each ear. 🎧🔉
81
Q: What did researchers try to find using dichotic listening tasks?
A: Whether people could detect semantic meaning from unattended audio, indicating late selection. 🎤🧠
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Q: What would support early selection in the dichotic listening task?
A: If participants could not report the meaning of unattended speech, suggesting filtering happened before semantic processing. ⛔📖
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Q: What would support late selection in the dichotic listening task?
A: If participants noticed meaningful information (like their name) in the unattended stream, suggesting semantic processing occurred before filtering. 🎯📢
84
Q: What is the dichotic listening task?
A: An attention experiment where a participant hears two audio streams, one in each ear, and is asked to attend to and repeat only one. 🎧👂👂
85
Q: What does the dichotic listening task test?
A: It tests whether unattended information is processed, helping to determine if attention filters early (before meaning) or late (after meaning). 🧠🎯
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Q: How does the dichotic listening task support early selection?
A: If participants cannot report the meaning of the ignored message, it suggests attention filters info before semantic processing. 🚫📖
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Q: What makes the dichotic listening task difficult?
A: It requires strong attentional control to focus on one audio stream and suppress the other, despite both being heard simultaneously. 🔇🧠
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Q: Why is the dichotic listening task important in attention research?
A: It provided early evidence for how and when the brain filters incoming information using attention. 🔍🎓
89
Q: What kind of changes were made to the unattended stream in the dichotic listening task?
A: Researchers changed high-level semantic features like language or word content, while keeping sensory features (e.g., speaker voice) the same. 🗣️🔁🌐
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Q: What did participants typically notice during these semantic changes in the unattended stream?
A: They did not notice changes in meaning (e.g., a language switch), suggesting those features were not processed. 🚫📖
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Q: What does failure to detect semantic changes suggest about attention?
A: It provides evidence for early selection, meaning attention filters information before it reaches semantic (meaning-level) processing. 🎧⛔📚
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Q: Why is unnoticed language switching important in attention research?
A: It shows that semantic-level content of unattended stimuli may be filtered out early, supporting the early selection model. 🌍🔇
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According to early selection theory, why don’t people notice semantic changes in unattended streams?
A: Because the brain filters input at a sensory level, preventing semantic processing of ignored information. 🚫👂➡️📖
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Q: What was the main question in Cherry’s (1953) study on attention?
A: What kind of information breaks through from the unattended audio stream? 🎧❓
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Q: What types of changes in the unattended message did participants notice?
A: Participants noticed sensory changes such as:
The message became a pure tone
The speaker’s gender switched 🔊👤
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Q: What type of information successfully breaks through from the unattended stream?
Sensory information, not meaning. 🧠🚫
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Q: What types of changes in the unattended message did participants not notice?
They did not notice semantic changes, like:
The message switched languages
The message was played backwards 🔁🌍
98
Q: What do Cherry’s findings suggest about attention?
A: They support early selection, where attention filters out semantic content before it is processed. 🛑📖
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Q: What does it suggest if a person fails to notice a semantic change in an unattended message?
It suggests that attentional filtering occurs early, based on sensory characteristics, before semantic content is processed.
100
In Cherry’s early selection model, how far is unattended information processed?
A: Only up to the sensory buffer; it is filtered before reaching semantic (meaning-based) processing. 🔇📖
101
Q: What determines what gets through the filter in early selection?
A: Physical characteristics like voice pitch, loudness, or location—not meaning. 📢👂
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Q: What happens to information that is filtered out in early selection?
A: It is no longer processed and does not enter short-term memory or semantic understanding. 🧠⛔
103
Q: Where is meaning extracted in the early selection model?
A: Only after the filtering stage, for the attended input that passes through. ✅📖
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Q: What is the N100 in attention research?
A: The N100 is a negative voltage change that occurs about 100 ms after stimulus onset, often used to study early attentional processes. ⚡🧠
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Q: When does the N100 response occur?
A: Around 100 milliseconds after a stimulus is presented—before semantic processing has begun. ⏱️👁️
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Q: Why is the N100 considered evidence for early selection?
A: Because it occurs too quickly (within 100 ms) for semantic interpretation, it suggests attention acts before meaning is processed. 🛑📖
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Q: What does a stronger N100 response indicate?
A: It indicates that the stimulus captured attention, showing early neural modulation based on sensory characteristics. 🎯🧠
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Q: How long does semantic processing typically take?
A: Semantic interpretation usually begins around 300–400 ms after a stimulus appears. 📚⏳
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🌩️ What is the N100?
The N100 (also called N1) is a very fast brain response that happens around 100 milliseconds (1/10th of a second) after you see or hear something. It's called "N" for negative because it's a small dip in electrical voltage in the brain, and "100" refers to the time it occurs.
🧠 It’s measured using EEG (electroencephalography), which records your brain's electrical activity through sensors on the scalp.
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🧠 What Does It Have to Do with Attention?
Researchers found that the N100 becomes bigger when you're paying attention to something — for example, if you're focused on a certain image or sound.
This means that your brain starts reacting differently almost immediately when you decide to pay attention to something — even before you’ve had time to understand what it is.
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⏱️ Why Is It Important?
Because the N100 happens so quickly (at ~100 ms), it shows that attention can affect the brain at a very early stage, while it's still processing the basic sensory features (like brightness, pitch, color, etc.).
This supports early selection theory — the idea that attention filters information before your brain has processed what it means (its semantics).
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What is an example?
If you're shown a sequence of images, and suddenly something surprising pops up (like a flashing shape), your brain will have a stronger N100 response to that surprise — even if you don't yet know what it is. That means your brain already marked it as important before fully interpreting it.
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Q: What is the Cocktail Party Effect?
A: The ability to focus on one conversation in a noisy environment, but still notice meaningful information (like your name) from the background. 🥂🧠
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Q: What type of attention does the Cocktail Party Effect support?
A: It provides evidence for late selection, suggesting that semantic information (like your name) is processed even when unattended. 📖🔊
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Q: What breaks through the attentional filter in the Cocktail Party Effect?
A: Semantically meaningful information, such as your name, can break through even when your attention is elsewhere. 🗣️👂
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Q: Why does the Cocktail Party Effect challenge early selection theory?
A: Because it shows that some semantic processing must occur even for unattended information, which early selection doesn’t allow. ❌⛔📚
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Q: Is attention always fully focused during conversation?
A: No. Attention can shift if something relevant (like your name) is detected in the background, showing flexibility in attentional control. 🔄👥
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Q: What is the Cocktail Party Effect in attention?
A: The ability to focus on one conversation in a noisy environment while still noticing personally meaningful information like your name from the background. 🎉👂
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Q: What does the Cocktail Party Effect suggest about semantic processing?
A: It shows that the brain processes some unattended information up to the semantic level, supporting late selection. 🧠📖
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Q: How is the Cocktail Party Effect tested experimentally?
A: Subjects filter out background conversations but reliably detect their name, even when not attending to those streams. 🧪🔊
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Q: Why does hearing your name in the background matter in attention research?
A: It proves that some unattended stimuli are semantically processed, meaning the filter doesn’t block all meanings. 💡📢
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Q: Can attention shift away from the main conversation in a cocktail party scenario?
A: Yes—depending on curiosity, context, or relevance, attention may shift to background noise, especially if it involves you. 🔄👥
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What is the Stroop effect?
A task where people must name the color of the font a word is written in, while the word itself may name a conflicting color (e.g., the word “blue” printed in red ink). 🔴🔵🧠
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Q: What does the Stroop effect demonstrate about attention?
It shows that semantic information (the meaning of the word) is automatically processed and can interfere with the task, supporting late selection. 📖🎯
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Q: Why is the Stroop task difficult when the word and font color conflict?
A: Because the semantic processing of the word happens involuntarily, even though you're trying to focus only on the visual color. ❌🎨📚
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Q: How does the Stroop effect support late selection theory?
A: It shows that meaning is processed even when it's irrelevant, and that attention can't fully filter out semantic content at early stages. ⏱️📖
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Q: Is attention purely early or late selection?
A: No—attention is dynamic and can involve both early and late selection, depending on the situation. 🔄🧠
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Q: What is attentional load?
A: The amount of cognitive demand a task places on attention. It influences whether early or late selection is used. ⚖️🎯
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Q: When is late selection more likely to occur?
A: During low-load tasks (e.g., watching TV), where there is spare attentional capacity, allowing more semantic processing. 📺🧘♀️
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Q: When is early selection more likely to occur?
A: During high-load tasks (e.g., taking an exam), where attention is focused early to filter out distractions at the sensory level. 📚🚫
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Q: How does task difficulty affect attention?
A: Harder tasks increase attentional load, pushing the system to rely more on early selection to avoid overload. 🧠🔥
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Q: What is the Posner Cuing Task used to study?
A: It is used to study spatial attention, especially how cues affect reaction time to visual targets. 🎯👁️
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Q: What is covert attention?
A: Shifting attention without moving your eyes—you mentally focus on a location while maintaining eye fixation. 🧠🚫👀
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Q: What is overt attention?
A: Shifting attention by moving your eyes to look directly at the object or location of interest. 👀➡️🎯
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Q: In a valid trial of the Posner task, what happens?
A: The cue correctly predicts where the target will appear—reaction times are typically faster. ✅⚡
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Q: In an invalid trial, what happens?
A: The cue misleads the subject—attention is in the wrong place, and reaction time is slower. ❌🐌
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Q: What happens in a neutral trial?
A: Cues do not provide information about the target location—reaction time is intermediate. ↔️⏱️
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Q: What type of selection is used in low attentional load situations (e.g., watching TV)?
A: Late selection is more likely, allowing semantic processing of more stimuli. 📺📖
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Q: What type of selection is used in high attentional load situations (e.g., taking an exam)?
A: Early selection is used to filter out distractions and conserve cognitive resources. 🧠📚
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Q: What is the Posner cuing task used to study?
A: It's used to study spatial attention and how cues affect the allocation of attention without eye movement. 🎯👁️
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Q: In the Posner task, what is a valid cue?
A: A cue that points to the correct location of the upcoming target—leading to faster reaction times. ✅⚡
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Q: What is an invalid cue in the Posner task?
A: A cue that points to the wrong location of the target—causing slower responses. ❌🐌
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Q: What is a neutral cue in the Posner task?
A: A cue that points in both directions or gives no location info—resulting in average reaction time. ↔️⏱️
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Q: What is covert attention?
A: Shifting attention without moving your eyes—you keep your eyes fixed but mentally attend elsewhere. 🧠👁️
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Q: What is overt attention?
A: Directing attention by moving your eyes to focus on something—your gaze and attention are aligned. 👀➡️🎯
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Q: Can attention be allocated to a place you're not looking at?
A: Yes, as shown in the Posner task, people can attend to locations without eye movements (covert attention). 👀🚫🧠
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Q: What is overt attention?
A: Overt attention involves moving your eyes to directly look at and attend to something. 👀➡️🎯
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Q: What is a real-life example of overt attention?
A: Turning your head or eyes to look at someone who’s speaking at a party. 🧑🤝🧑👁️
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Q: What is covert attention?
A: Covert attention is when you focus mentally on something without moving your eyes—you keep your gaze steady but shift your attention. 🧠🚫👀
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Q: What is a real-life example of covert attention?
A: At a party, while talking to someone, you keep looking at them but mentally attend to the door waiting for someone to arrive. 🗣️🚪
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Q: In the Posner cuing task, what does a valid cue do?
A: It pulls attention to the correct location where the target will appear, resulting in faster reaction times. ✅⚡
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Q: What does an invalid cue do in the Posner task?
A: It pulls attention to the wrong side of the screen, slowing down the reaction time to the actual target. ❌🐢
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Q: What does the Posner cuing task reveal about attention?
A: That attention can be independent of eye movement, proving the existence of covert attention. 👁️🧠
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Q: How does attention affect visual processing in space?
A: When attention is directed to a location, stimuli in that spot are recognized faster, even if you’re not looking at it. 🎯⏱️
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Q: What is endogenous attention?
A: It is goal-directed attention that originates internally—you consciously choose what to attend to. 🧠🎯
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Q: What is a real-world example of endogenous attention?
A: Reading a textbook and focusing on the words, even when there's background noise. 📖🙇♀️
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Q: What is exogenous attention?
A: It is stimulus-driven attention triggered by something external that captures your focus automatically. ⚡👀
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Q: What is a real-world example of exogenous attention?
A: A sudden loud noise causing you to look away from what you're doing. 🔊😳
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Q: How do endogenous and exogenous attention differ?
A: Endogenous is voluntary and top-down, while exogenous is automatic and bottom-up. 🧠 vs. 🌍
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Q: What is exogenous attention also known as?
A: Stimulus-driven, reflexive, and bottom-up attention. ⚡👀
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Q: What is endogenous attention also known as?
A: Goal-directed, voluntary, and top-down attention. 🧠🎯
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Q: How does exogenous (bottom-up) attention operate in visual scenes?
A: Attention is captured by salient features like color or sudden movement (e.g., seeing red in a grayscale image). 🔴🐞
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Q: How does endogenous (top-down) attention operate in visual scenes?
A: You search based on internal goals or expectations (e.g., “find the bird” by looking for feathers or beaks). 🐦🔍
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Q: In the image, which part of the visual search is bottom-up?
A: Detecting features like red color, wings, or motion that draw attention to the butterfly. 🦋❤️
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Q: In the image, which part of the visual search is top-down?
A: Looking for specific bird-related features (feathers, head, beak) to find the bird. 🐤📋
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Q: What triggers exogenous attention?
A: It is triggered by external stimuli (e.g., a red object suddenly appearing), and captures attention automatically. ⚡🔴
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Q: Is exogenous attention voluntary or reflexive?
A: Reflexive—it is stimulus-driven and does not require conscious decision-making. 🧠🚨
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Q: What brain mechanism supports exogenous attention?
A: Bottom-up processes that respond to sudden or salient stimuli in the environment. 👁️⬆️
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Q: What is an example of exogenous attention in a visual scene?
A: Noticing a red object that stands out in an otherwise grayscale image. 🟥👀
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Q: What triggers endogenous attention?
A: It is triggered by internal goals or decisions—you choose what to attend to. 🧠🎯
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Q: What is an example of endogenous attention?
A: Searching an image for a bird by looking for specific features like feathers or beaks. 🐦🔍
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Q: What brain mechanism supports endogenous attention?
A: Top-down control from brain areas involved in planning and goal setting. 🧠⬇️
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Q: Do endogenous and exogenous attention rely on the same neural systems?
A: No, they involve different brain mechanisms and circuits. 🔀🧠
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Q: Why is the distinction between endogenous and exogenous attention important?
A: Because they rely on different brain mechanisms, as shown in neuroimaging studies. 🧠🔍
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Q: What did early neuroimaging studies reveal about attention?
A: They showed a dissociation between brain activity during endogenous vs. exogenous attention tasks. 🧠📊
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Q: How is endogenous attention cued in a Posner task?
A: With a symbolic cue (like an arrow) that requires interpretation and a goal-driven shift in attention. ➡️🧠
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Q: What makes a cue in an attention task endogenous and valid?
A: It points to the correct location, and the subject must decide to shift attention there. ✅🎯
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Q: What makes a cue endogenous and invalid?
A: The cue points to the wrong side, so attention is directed away from where the target actually appears. ❌↔️
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Q: What is an example of an exogenous cue in an attention task?
A: A sudden flash or change on one side of the screen that automatically grabs attention. ✨👀
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Q: What is the key difference in how endogenous vs. exogenous attention is cued?
A: Endogenous requires interpretation and intention, while exogenous is automatic and reflexive. 🧠 vs. ⚡
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Q: What brain region is heavily involved in visual attention?
A: The parietal lobe, particularly in spatial attention and orienting. 🧠🗺️
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Q: What disorder illustrates the importance of the parietal lobe in attention?
A: Visual spatial neglect—patients may ignore or be unaware of one side of space. 🚫👁️
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Q: What causes visual spatial neglect?
A: Often damage to the right parietal lobe, affecting attention to the left side of space. 🧠↔️
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Q: Is visual neglect a sensory or attentional problem?
A: It is an attentional deficit, not a problem with vision itself. 🙈🔍
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Q: What type of attention is affected in visual neglect?
A: Primarily spatial attention—the ability to attend to or be aware of stimuli in a specific part of space. 🗺️⚠️
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Q: What brain region shows increased activity during covert attention in monkeys?
A: The parietal cortex. 🧠👁️
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Q: In the monkey experiment, what happened when the monkey was not attending to a stimulus on the side of the screen?
A: Parietal neurons showed baseline activity—no increase in firing. 💤📉
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Q: What happened when the monkey was trained to covertly attend to a stimulus without moving its eyes?
A: The parietal neurons increased their firing, indicating attentional engagement. ⚡🧠
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Q: What does this experiment show about attention and sensory stimuli?
A: Attention modulates neural activity—a stimulus alone doesn't increase firing without attention. 👀➡️🔥
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Q: Why is this monkey experiment important for understanding attention?
A: It provides direct evidence that attention, not just visual input, drives neural responses in the parietal cortex. 📊🐒
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Q: Do parietal neurons respond to a visual stimulus alone?
A: No. If the monkey isn't paying attention, the stimulus does not increase neural firing above baseline. 🚫👁️📉
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Q: What causes increased firing in parietal neurons?
A: Attention to the stimulus—whether it's covert (no eye movement) or overt (eye movement)—increases firing. 🧠⚡
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Q: Can parietal neurons respond to covert attention?
A: Yes. Even when the monkey keeps its eyes fixed but attends to a location, neural activity increases. 👀🚫➡️🔥
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Q: How did researchers know the monkey was paying attention without moving its eyes?
A: The monkey made a hand movement to indicate it detected the light flash, proving covert attention. ✋✨
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Q: What does this experiment show about the role of the parietal cortex?
A: It shows the parietal cortex responds to attention itself, not just to visual input or motor movement. 🎯🧠
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A: It shows the parietal cortex responds to attention itself, not just to visual input or motor movement. 🎯🧠
A: Attention is a neural process, not just behavioral—it modulates brain activity even without eye or body movement. 💡🧠👁️
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Q: What is attention in this context more abstract than?
It is more abstract than the stimulus itself or specific muscle movements—it’s about attending to a location in space. 🌌🧠
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Q: What does the parietal cortex contribute to attention?
A: It plays a critical role by modulating attention, beyond just responding to physical stimuli or movement. 🧠🎯
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Q: What do parietal neurons appear to do in the attention system?
A: They modulate the activity of neurons in other brain regions, especially in the visual system. 🔄👁️
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Q: Where does the influence of attention-related parietal activity extend to?
A: It extends to sensory regions, enhancing the representation of the object or location being attended to. 🧠➡️👁️✨
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Q: What brain area did researchers record from to study attention's effect on visual processing?
A: Area V4, a mid-level region of the ventral visual stream. 👁️🧠
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Q: What is a receptive field in visual neurons like those in V4?
A: The specific region in visual space where a stimulus causes the neuron to fire. 🟦📍
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Q: What did the experiment reveal about attention’s effect on V4 neuron activity?
A: Covert attention to a preferred stimulus (e.g., blue vertical bar) increased the neuron’s firing rate. 📈👀
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Q: How did attention to a non-preferred stimulus (e.g., white horizontal bar) affect V4 firing?
A: It caused a decrease or weaker neural response in that V4 neuron. 📉👁️
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Q: What does this experiment show about attention’s role in sensory regions?
A: Attention modulates sensory representations—enhancing attended stimuli and suppressing irrelevant ones. 🎯👁️🧠
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Q: Was eye movement necessary to change neural responses in V4 during this experiment?
A: No. The monkey used covert attention, keeping its eyes fixed while attention shifted. 🧠👁️🚫
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Q: What happens in V4 when a monkey covertly attends to a preferred stimulus (e.g., blue)?
A: Neural activity increases for that stimulus, even though the display remains unchanged. 📈🎯
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Q: What happens in V4 when the monkey attends to a non-preferred stimulus (e.g., white)?
A: The neuron’s activity is reduced, despite identical visual input. 📉👁️
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Q: What does this show about the influence of attention on sensory neurons?
A: Attention can enhance or suppress neural responses within early sensory areas, depending on what is attended. 🧠🔄👁️
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Q: Did the visual display change across attention conditions in the V4 study?
A: No — the visual input remained identical; only the attentional focus changed. 🔁👀
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Q: What is the significance of attentional modulation in early visual areas like V4?
A: It shows that even early sensory processing is selectively altered by attention. 👁️⚙️
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Q: How does this experiment help explain the “gorilla effect” (inattentional blindness)?
A: Because attention enhances what we focus on and suppresses what we ignore, we can completely miss visible stimuli (like a gorilla) if we’re not attending to them. 🙈🎥
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Q: What are the two main types of attention discussed?
A: Endogenous attention (goal-directed) and exogenous attention (stimulus-driven). 🧠⚡
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Q: What type of attention is activated when interpreting a symbolic cue (like an arrow)?
A: Endogenous attention—it requires top-down processing and intention. 🎯➡️
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Q: What task was used to study attention types in an fMRI scanner?
A: A version of the Posner cueing task with valid and invalid trials. 🧪👁️
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Q: What brain region is activated during endogenous attention in fMRI studies?
A: The intraparietal sulcus and superior parietal lobule. 📍🧠
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Q: When is endogenous attention most active in the brain during a cueing task?
A: During the cue period, when interpreting and voluntarily shifting attention. 🔄🧠
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Q: Which brain region supports endogenous, goal-directed attention during the cue period?
A: The intraparietal sulcus and superior parietal lobule show increased activation during endogenous cueing.
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Q: Which brain region is associated with exogenous (stimulus-driven) attention?
A: The temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL) are activated during exogenous attention, especially during target detection.
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Q: When is exogenous attention most active in the brain?
A: During the target period, especially when the target appears unexpectedly (i.e., in invalid trials).
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Q: What does the BOLD signal graph show about activation in the right IPL?
A: There is stronger activation during invalid trials compared to valid trials, indicating that unexpected targets trigger exogenous attentional shifts.
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Q: What does this neural activation pattern support?
A: It supports a parietal dissociation between endogenous (goal-directed) and exogenous (stimulus-driven) attention, with each relying on different brain regions and occurring during different task periods (cue vs. target).
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Q: When is endogenous attention most active in the brain?
During the cue period, especially when subjects interpret a directional cue and voluntarily orient their attention.
🧠 Activated region: Intraparietal sulcus (IPS) / Superior parietal lobule
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What happens during an invalid cue trial in the Posner cueing task?
The cue violates expectations, causing surprise and triggering exogenous (stimulus-driven) attention.
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Q: What brain area shows strong activation during invalid trials?
A: Temporoparietal junction (TPJ), just below the IPS, responds strongly when attention is captured by unexpected stimuli (invalid cues).
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Q: What do red lines in the BOLD signal graph represent?
A: Invalid trials – they show greater hemodynamic response than valid trials due to the surprise element engaging exogenous attention.
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Q: How do the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and temporoparietal junction (TPJ) differ in attention processing?
IPS/Superior Parietal Lobule = Endogenous, voluntary attention (cue-driven)
TPJ/Inferior Parietal Lobule = Exogenous, stimulus-driven attention (surprise/target-driven)
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Q: What are the two attention networks in the brain and what do they do?
Dorsal Attention Network:
Function: Helps orient attention in a goal-directed manner.
Type: Endogenous attention (voluntary, top-down).
Regions: IPS/SPL (Intraparietal Sulcus/Superior Parietal Lobule), FEF (Frontal Eye Fields).
Ventral Attention Network:
Function: Detects salient stimuli and triggers reorienting.
Type: Exogenous attention (reflexive, bottom-up).
Regions: TPJ (Temporoparietal Junction), VFC (Ventral Frontal Cortex: IFG/MFG).
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Q1: What are the two main types of attention, and how do they differ?
Endogenous attention: Goal-directed, voluntary, top-down. You choose what to attend to.
Exogenous attention: Stimulus-driven, automatic, bottom-up. Triggered by surprising external events.
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Q2: What are the neural systems associated with endogenous and exogenous attention?
Endogenous (Dorsal Attention Network): Intraparietal Sulcus (IPS), Superior Parietal Lobule (SPL), Frontal Eye Fields (FEF)
Exogenous (Ventral Attention Network): Temporoparietal Junction (TPJ), Inferior Parietal Lobule (IPL), Ventral Frontal Cortex (VFC)
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What is the dual-network theory of attention?
theory that suggests attention is supported by two brain systems:
The dorsal system for goal-driven attention (endogenous)
The ventral system for stimulus-driven attention (exogenous)
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4: What does the Posner cueing task reveal about spatial attention?
It shows that covert attention (without eye movement) can be directed to different parts of the visual field, speeding up target detection when cues are valid and slowing it down when cues are invalid.
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Q5: What was the object-based attention variation of the Posner task, and what did it show?
Participants were faster when a cue and a target appeared on the same object, even if spatially distant.
This shows that attention spreads across an object, not just a location.
Object-based attention is a real phenomenon.
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Q6: What does the cue-validity experiment with same-object vs. different-object targets demonstrate?
That reaction time is faster when the target is on the same object as the cue, even if spatially equidistant from a different object, indicating object-based spreading of attention.
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Q7: How does attention modulate neural activity in early visual areas?
Attention enhances neural firing for attended stimuli and suppresses it for unattended ones.
Example: In V4, even with the same visual input, neurons fire more if attention is focused on a preferred stimulus.
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What did the monkey experiment in V4 demonstrate?
If a monkey covertly attends to a blue bar (preferred stimulus), neural firing increases.
If it attends to a white bar, response decreases.
The display stays the same—only attention shifts, proving top-down modulation of sensory input.
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What phenomenon explains why someone might miss a visible event like a gorilla in a video?
A: Inattentional blindnes
Anattentional blindness – due to attention being focused elsewhere, the brain suppresses other inputs, even fully visible ones.
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What is simultanagnosia and how is it related to attention?
A disorder (often from parietal damage) where individuals can only attend to one object at a time.
They cannot perceive multiple objects even if visual perception is intact.
Called attentional tunnel vision or simultaneous agnosia.
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What does simultanagnosia teach us about attention?
Atention is object-based, and high-level attentional processing is necessary for perceiving more than one object.
Even with intact sensory systems, patients can’t shift or divide attention across objects.
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How can merging two objects into one help patients with simultanagnosia?
When two items are perceived as a single object (e.g., connected by a line), patients can compare parts.
But when presented as separate objects, they fixate on one and cannot see the other.
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Q13: What happens in the brain during valid vs. invalid cue trials?
Valid cue (expected location): Activates dorsal regions (IPS/SPL) during the cue period (endogenous attention).
Invalid cue (unexpected location): Activates TPJ/IPL during the target period (exogenous attention).
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What does the fMRI BOLD signal reveal in these tasks?
Greater activation in TPJ during invalid trials, reflecting surprise and exogenous attentional reorienting.
Valid trials trigger less TPJ activity but more dorsal network activation earlier on.
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How are endogenous and exogenous systems spatially organized in the brain?
A:
Endogenous (dorsal) regions are more superior/posterior
Exogenous (ventral) regions are more inferior/anterior — i.e., TPJ is located just below IPS.
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Q: What is the dorsal attention network, and what does it do?
The Dorsal Attention Network (DAN) is involved in goal-directed (endogenous) attention. It helps us voluntarily focus attention based on our goals and intentions, such as looking for a specific object or scanning the environment in a controlled way.
🧭 Function: Top-down control of attention (e.g., "I choose to focus here")
🧠 Brain areas involved:
Intraparietal Sulcus (IPS)
Superior Parietal Lobule (SPL)
Frontal Eye Fields (FEF)
📌 It activates during the cue period of tasks like the Posner cueing task, when you're preparing to shift attention voluntarily.
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Q: What does the object-based attention paradigm reveal about how we attend to visual stimuli?
Object-based attention shows that attention spreads across the entire object, not just a specific spatial location.
📍 Key finding:
When a cue appears on one part of an object, reaction times (RT) are faster for targets that appear elsewhere on the same object compared to targets on a different object, even if the spatial distance is the same.
📊 Conditions:
Valid cue (fastest RT)
Invalid, same object (moderate RT)
Invalid, different object (slowest RT)
📌 This demonstrates the same-object benefit, suggesting that objects—not just space—serve as units of attention.
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What is Balint’s Syndrome and what are its key characteristics?
Balint’s Syndrome is an object-based attention deficit resulting from damage to both parietal lobes.
🧩 Key Features:
Can only see one object at a time → also known as simultaneous agnosia
Known as “attentional tunnel vision”
Typically temporary
Despite the attention deficit, individuals often have normal:
Visual acuity
Depth perception
Motion perception
Object recognition
📌 Clinical Insight: It demonstrates a dissociation between attentional control and basic sensory processing—patients can see but cannot attend to more than one object simultaneously.
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