Cognition_FlashcardsChapter04

Question 1

Term

Answer 1

Description

Question 2

Dichotic listening

Answer 2

A task in which research participants hear two simultaneous verbal messages – one presented via headphones to the left ear, a second presented to the right ear. In typical experiments, participants are asked to pay attention to one of these inputs (the attended channel) and urged to ignore the other. (page 119)

Question 3

Attended channel

Answer 3

In selective attention experiments, research participants are exposed to simultaneous inputs and instructed to ignore all of these except one. The attended channel is the input to which participants are instructed to pay attention. Often contrasted with unattended channel. (page 119)

Question 4

Unattended channel

Answer 4

A stimulus (or group of stimuli) that a person is not trying to perceive. Ordinarily, little information is understood or remembered from the unattended channel. Often contrasted with attended channel. (page 119)

Question 5

Shadowing

Answer 5

A task in which research participants are required to repeat back a verbal input, word for word, as they hear it. (page 119)

Question 6

Cocktail party effect

Answer 6

A term often used to describe a pattern in which a person seems to ‘tune out” all conversations reaching his or her ears except for the conversation he or she wishes to pay attention to; however, if some salient stimulus (such as the person’s name) appears in one of the other conversations, the person is reasonably likely to detect this stimulus. (page 121)

Question 7

Filter

Answer 7

A hypothetical mechanism that would block potential distractors from further processing. (page 121)

Question 8

Fixation target

Answer 8

A visual mark (such as a dot or a plus sign) at which one points one’s eyes (or ‘fixates”). Fixation targets are used to help people control their eye position. (page 122)

Question 9

Inattentional blindness

Answer 9

A pattern in which perceivers seem literally not to see stimuli right in front of their eyes; this pattern is caused by the participants’ attending to some other stimulus and not expecting the target to appear. (page 123)

Question 10

Change blindness

Answer 10

A pattern in which perceivers do not see, or take a long time to see, large-scale changes in a visual stimulus. This pattern reveals how little people perceive, even from stimuli in plain view, if they are not specifically attending to the target information. (page 125)

Question 11

Early selection

Answer 11

A proposal that selective attention operates at an early stage of processing, so that the unattended inputs receive little analysis. (page 128)

Question 12

Late selection

Answer 12

A proposal that selective attention operates at a late stage of processing, so that the unattended inputs receive considerable analysis. (page 128)

Question 13

Response time

Answer 13

The amount of time (usually measured in milliseconds) needed for a person to respond to a particular event (such as a question or a cue to press a specific button). (page 130)

Question 14

Limited-capacity system

Answer 14

A group of processes in which resources are limited so that extra resources supplied to one process must be balanced by a withdrawal of resources somewhere else, with the result that the total resources expended do not exceed some limit. (page 134)

Question 15

Spatial attention

Answer 15

The mechanism through which you allocate processing resources to particular positions in space, so that you more efficiently process any inputs from that region in space. (page 134)

Question 16

Unilateral neglect syndrome

Answer 16

A pattern of symptoms in which patients ignore all inputs coming from one side of space. Patients with this syndrome put only one of their arms into their jackets, eat food from only half of their plates, read only half of words (e.g., they might read ‘blouse” as ‘use”), and so on. (page 139)

Question 17

Divided attention

Answer 17

The skill of performing multiple tasks simultaneously. (page 145)

Question 18

Response selector

Answer 18

A (hypothesized) mental resource needed for the selection and initiation of a wide range of responses, including overt responses (e.g., moving in a particular way) and covert responses (e.g., initiating a memory search). (page 149)

Question 19

Perseveration error

Answer 19

A pattern of responding in which you produce the same response over and over, even though you know that the task requires a change in response. This pattern is often observed in patients with brain damage in the frontal lobe. (page 150)

Question 20

Goal neglect

Answer 20

A pattern of behavior in which you fail to keep your goal in mind, so that (for example) you rely on habitual responses even if those responses will not move you toward the goal. (page 150)

Question 21

Automaticity

Answer 21

A state achieved by some tasks and some forms of processing, in which the task can be performed with little or no attention. Automatized actions can, in many cases, be combined with other activities without interference. Automatized actions are also often difficult to control, leading many to refer to them as ‘mental reflexes.” (page 155)

Question 22

Controlled tasks

Answer 22

Tasks that are novel or that require flexibility in one’s approach; these tasks usually require attention, so they cannot be carried out if the person is also busy with some other task. Usually contrasted with automatic tasks. (page 155)

Question 23

Automatic tasks

Answer 23

Tasks that are well practiced and that do not require flexibility; these tasks usually require little or no attention, and they can be carried out if the person is also busy with some other task. Usually contrasted with controlled tasks. (page 155)

Question 24

Stroop interference

Answer 24

A classic demonstration of automaticity in which people are asked to name the color of ink used to print a word, and the word itself is a different color name. For example, research participants might see the word ‘yellow” printed in blue ink and be required to say ‘blue.” Considerable interference is observed in this task, with participants apparently unable to ignore the word’s content, even though it is irrelevant to their task. (page 155)