Example Q's

Question 1

a)
b)
c)
d)

Question 2

Describe evidence attention spreads across objects

Wk6: Attention

Answer 2

• Bailents Syndrome/ Simultagnosia
• Those with this disorder can only attend to one stimuli at a time.
• If presented with a stimuli including red and green dots and asked their colour, they only say either red or green.
• If these dots are then connected via a line, they are able to identify the dots as both red and green

Question 3

What is not a key function of attention?
Selecting, forgetting, shifting, or dividing?

Wk6: Attention

Answer 3

• Forgetting is not a key function of attention
• We select attentional objects
• We can shift and divide attention

Question 4

How would you test early or late selection?

Wk6: Attention

Answer 4

Px must identify whether the target (always on the middle) is a Z or an X
There are distractors in the background
These distractors may be compatible (Z for Z, X for X), incompatible (X for Z, Z for X), or neutral (P).
Measure the reaction time
If there is a difference in compatible and non-compatible reaction time, it is late selection (processing of distractor letters despite not being attended to)
If there is no notable difference, it is early selection (no processing of distractor letters)

If the reaction time for the compatible over incompatible condition is faster, there is some attention to the whole image, where the non-attended letters are processed.

Question 5

Broadbent’s filter theory.
a) is structural,
b) predicts meaning information being available from unattended stimuli
c) predicts early selection
d) both a and c

Wk6: Attention

Answer 5

d) both a and c
Broadbent’s filter theory (a) is structural and (c) predicts early selection

Question 6

If an attentional blink task has a more difficult T1:
a) Increases the AB size
b) Decreases the AB size
c) Has no effect on AB size
d) Makes T2 identification more likely

Wk7: Attentional Control/ Working Memory

Answer 6

a) Increases the AB
A more difficult T1 increases the AB, demonstrating that the attentional load factors into

Question 7

Evidence for the endogenous component in task switching costs includes
a) Practice effects
b) Preparation time effects
c) Inter-trial effects
d) None of the above

Wk7: Attentional Control/ Working Memory

Answer 7

b) Preparation time effects
* Giving notice reduces TS costs
* Giving time and no notice does not reduce TS costs
* Practice of tasks does not reduce TS costs

Question 8

How do you test for automaticity?

Wk7: Attentional Control/ Working Memory

Answer 8

• Increase load
• The most automatic things are unaffected by load
• Learning a language, you think about the translation - not automatic, can’t do other tasks simultaneously
• Fluently speaking, you can simultaneously do origami - much automaticity

Question 9

Using an example, describe primacy and recency effects in the serial position curve and the memory store each reflects.

Wk8: LTM

Answer 9

Give the px a verbal list of items, each one second apart, and ask the px to recall them.
Repeat the task, and have the px count down from 100 simultaneously. Again do recall task.
The first condition shows items from the beginning (primacy) and end (recency) of the list are remembered more than other items (serial position). These demonstrate both WM and LTM.
The second condition loaded WM, thus only demonstrated LTM. The second condition only showed the primacy effect, meaning the primacy effect is attributed to LTM, and the recency effect - which disappeared with the increase in WM load - is attributed to WM.