Chapter 4 Chapter Summary

Question 1

Selective attention

Answer 1

The ability to focus on one message while ignoring all others

Question 2

What is one procedure used to demonstrate selective attention?

Answer 2

Dichotic listening

Question 3

Broadbent’s model proposes that…

Answer 3

The attended message is separated from the incoming signal early in the analysis of the signal

Question 4

Treisman’s model proposes…

Answer 4

Later separation and adds a dictionary unit to explain how the unattended message and sometimes get through

Question 5

Late selection models propose that…

Answer 5

Selection doesn’t occur until messages are processed enough to determine their meaning

Question 6

Lavie proposes that…

Answer 6

Our ability to ignore distracting stimuli can be explained by considering processing capacity and perceptual load

Question 7

Lavie’s Load Theory of Attention

Answer 7

States that distraction is less likely for high-load tasks because no capacity remains to process potential distracting stimuli

Question 8

The Stroop Effect demonstrates…

Answer 8

How a powerful task-irrelevant stimulus, such as meaningful words that result in a response that competes with the observer’s task, can capture attention

Question 9

Overt attention

Answer 9

Shifting attention by making eye movements; determined by bottom-up processes such as stimulus salience and by top-down processes such as scene schemas and task demands, which influence how eye movement are directed to parts of a scene

Question 10

Covert attention

Answer 10

Shifting attention without making eye movements; visual attention can be directed to different places in a scene without making eye movements

Question 11

The effect of covert attention has been demonstrated by…

Answer 11

precueing experiments, which have shown that covert attention to a location enhances processing at that location

Question 12

Eagly’s experiment demonstrates that…

Answer 12

Responding is faster for cued locations on an object and that this effect spreads throughout an object, an effect called the same-object advantage

Question 13

Attended objects are perceived to be __________ than non attended objects

Answer 13

• Bigger
• Faster
• More richly colored
• Higher in contrast

Question 14

Covert attention to a location causes…

Answer 14

An increase in activity at the place on the brain that corresponds to that location

Question 15

Attentional warping

Answer 15

The idea that attention to specific categories of objects increases the area of the brain devoted to the attended category

Question 16

Divided attention is possible…

Answer 16

For easy tasks or for highly practiced difficult tasks

Question 17

One explanation for frequent cell-phone checking…

Answer 17

Involves principles of operant conditioning

Question 18

Mind wandering has been associated with…

Answer 18

Disruption of ongoing tasks that require focused attention and activity of the default mode network

Question 19

Inattentional blindness experiments…

Answer 19

Provide evidence that without attention we may fail to perceive things that are clearly visible in the field of view

Question 20

Inattential deafness can occur when…

Answer 20

Attention to a high-load visual search task impairs the ability to detect sounds

Question 21

Change blindness

Answer 21

The inability to detect changes in a scene; another example of how inattention can affect perception

Question 22

Binding

Answer 22

The process by which object features are combined to create perception of a coherent object

Question 23

Feature integration theory

Answer 23

Explains how binding occurs by proposing two stages of processing: preattentive processing and focused attention

Question 24

Basic idea of feature integration theory

Answer 24

Objects are analyzed into their features and that attention is necessary to combine these features to create perception of an object

Question 25

What types of experiments support feature integration theory?

Answer 25

Illusory conjunction, visual search, and neuropsychology experiments

Question 26

The ventral attention network controls attention based on…

Answer 26

Salience

Question 27

The dorsal attention network controls attention based on…

Answer 27

Top-down processes

Question 28

The executive attention network controls attention that…

Answer 28

Involves dealing with conflicting responses

Question 29

The mechanism of synchronization helps…

Answer 29

Achieve effective connectivity between different areas in a network