chapter 14: attention

Question 1

define:

overt attention

Answer 1

Attention in which the focus coincides with sensory orientation (e.g., you’re attending to the same thing you’re looking at).

Question 2

define:

covert attention

Answer 2

Attention in which the focus can be directed independently of sensory orientation (e.g., you’re attending to one sensory stimulus while looking at another)

Question 3

define

cocktail party effect

Answer 3

The selective enhancement of attention in order to filter out distracters, as you might do while listening to one person talking in the midst of a noisy party.

Question 4

define:

Shadowing

Answer 4

A task in which the participant is asked to focus attention on one ear or the other while different stimuli are being presented to the two ears, and to repeat aloud the material presented to the attended ear.

Question 5

define:

inattentional blindness

Answer 5

The failure to perceive nonattended stimuli that seem so obvious as to be impossible to miss

Question 6

define:

divided attention tasks

Answer 6

A task in which the participant is asked to focus attention on two or more stimuli simultaneously.

Question 7

define:

attentional spotlight

Answer 7

The steerable focus of our selective attention, used to select stimuli for enhanced processing.

Question 8

define:

attentional bottleneck

Answer 8

A filter created by the limits intrinsic to our attentional processes, whose effect is that only the most important stimuli are selected for special processing.

Question 9

define:

perceptual load

Answer 9

The immediate processing demands presented by a stimulus

Question 10

define:

voluntary attention

Answer 10

Also called endogenous attention. The voluntary direction of attention toward specific aspects of the environment, in accordance with our interests and goals.

Question 11

define:

reflexive attention

Answer 11

Also called exogenous attention. The involuntary reorienting of attention toward a specific stimulus source, cued by an unexpected object or event.

bottom up

Question 12

define:

inhibition to return

Answer 12

takes longer to look back at the original spot

Question 13

define:

feature search

Answer 13

A search for an item in which the target pops out right away, no matter how many distracters are present, because it possesses a unique attribute.

Question 14

define:

conjunction search

Answer 14

A search for an item that is based on two or more features (e.g., size and color) that together distinguish the target from distracters that may share some of the same attributes.

Question 15

define:

blinding problem

Answer 15

The 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 16

define:

temporal resolution

Answer 16

The ability to track changes in the brain that occur very quickly.

Question 17

define:

spatial resolution

Answer 17

The ability to observe the detailed structure of the brain.

Question 18

answer:

Limits intrinsic to our attentional processes can have the effect that only the most important stimuli are selected for special processing. What is this type of filter called?

Answer 18

Attentional bottleneck

Question 19

Answer:

what technique for testing voluntary attention in which a visual stimulus is presented and participants are asked to respond as soon as the stimulus appears on a screen?

Answer 19

symbolic cuing

Question 20

define:

event-related potential

Answer 20

Averaged EEG recordings measuring brain responses to repeated presentations of a stimulus. Components of the ERP tend to be reliable because the background noise of the cortex has been averaged out.

Question 21

define:

auditory N1 effect

Answer 21

A negative deflection of the event-related potential, occurring about 100 milliseconds after stimulus presentation, that is enhanced for selectively attended auditory input compared with ignored input.

Question 22

Define:

P1

Answer 22

initial positive going wave