Introduction to attention

Question 1

What is attention?

Answer 1

Selecting perceptual information that is salient or relevant in terms of our goals and intentions

Question 2

What are lay concepts?

Answer 2

A physiological commodity that is applied to enhance the sensation or awareness of particular events. Process of selection is usually attributed to attention. Titchner suggested attention operated by increasing the clarity of perceptual events

Question 3

What are some cognitive theories?

Answer 3

Emerged during the cognitive revolution in 1950s. Based on information processing perspective. Early experiments based on dual task paradigm

Question 4

What is the locus of selection?

Answer 4

Flexible and determined by the perceptual properties of the stimulus, their relevance to individual or task and cognitive load on the task

Question 5

What is selective visual attention?

Answer 5

Attention can be oriented to spatial location exogenously or endogenously, suggested by data.

Question 6

What is reflective attention?

Answer 6

Focusses on resources on salient stimuli to facilitate fast responses to potentially threatening information

Question 7

What is exogenous attention?

Answer 7

Reflexive, fast acting and produces biphasic modulation of target processing at the cued location

Question 8

What is endogenous attention?

Answer 8

Slower acting, requires effort and doesn’t lead to inhibition of return - focusses on goal-relevant stimuli

Question 9

What is the stroop task?

Answer 9

Illustrates inhibitory control during selective attention to orthographic information

Question 10

What are analogies for selection

Answer 10

A filter or spotlight

Question 11

What does selection lead to?

Answer 11

Measurable changes in behaviour and brain activity

Question 12

What 2 ways can attention be orientated?

Answer 12

Exogenously and endogenously

Question 13

How can selection be used?

Answer 13

Prioritise information at different levels of description