module 5 part 1

Question 1

how is attention best understood?

Answer 1

In terms of what it does - that is, it allows us to focus and tune out distractions

Question 2

spatial (unilateral) neglect

Answer 2

damage to parietal lobes, which direct attention

results in an inability to notice information in the space contralateral to the damage (contralesional space) - for example, damage to the the parietal lobe in the right hemisphere would result in neglect of left sensory modalitites - vision, hearing etc

Question 3

how does attentional processing take place in the brain

Answer 3

attentional processing is a brain mechanisms - emerges from activation in difference networks of parietal cortical regions and prefrontal cortex - different areas get activated depending on the form of attention

Question 4

top down attention

Answer 4

voluntary, intentional attention

• activates the intraparietal sulcus and the frontal eye fields

Question 5

bottom up attention

Answer 5

unintentional, automatic attentional capture

• activates the temporal parietal junctional and the ventral frontal cortex

Question 6

what are the three types of attentional processes

Answer 6

top down - observer guided, intentional, uses frontal parietal brain regions

bottom up-
stimulus guided, reflexive uses temporal parietal junction and ventral frontal cortex

arousal -
general alertness/awareness, being physically present, uses reticular activating system

Question 7

what are the three types of top down attention?

Answer 7

sustained attention:
- maintaining focus on one input for a long period of time
- vigilance
- example watching for a lion on safari

divided attention:
-Shifting attentional focus between tasks
-multitasking
-looking at phone and watching a lecture

selective attention
- focusing on one input and ignoring other information
- ignoring distractions nearby and focusing on watching tv

Question 8

why do we need selective attention

Answer 8

• we have limited resources
  -must prioritize what we process in order to act effectively

Question 9

spatial attention

Answer 9

selective attention on a specific space
- in attention tests it corresponds to cues like above or below

Question 10

feature attention

Answer 10

selective attention on specific features of the environment
-in attention tests it corresponds to cues like black, red, dog, cat

Question 11

congruent trials vs inconvenient trials

Answer 11

in tests that measure stimuli detection - congruent trials are when the stimulus matches the cue and inconvenient trials are when the stimulus doesn’t - we are faster at detecting stimuli in congruent trials

Question 12

change blindness

Answer 12

failure to detect changes in stimuli in an attended zone

Question 13

flicker technique paradigm

Answer 13

a way to measure change blindness

two very similar visual images are presented with an interstimulus mask (grey screen) so that they flicker - sometimes there are small changes in the images

most people are often unable to notivce the changes

Question 14

early selection model (broadbent’s filter model)

Answer 14

we can’t pay attention to all the information we receive, so we filter out information early on in the processing process

all information enters a sensory buffer and is then filtered out at the level of perception, before it is processed for meaning (semantic analysis) - goes througha. ‘detector’ that processes meaning

the information that makes its way through is then processed for meaning, enters awareness, and leads to a response

filtered out information quickly decays in the sensory buffer

Question 15

dichotic listening tasks

Answer 15

two simultaneous messages presented to each ear - people are better at recalling information ear by ear - trying to remember all the information that was presented in order, rather than remembering the simultaneous message - this is because accessing the simultaneous message requires accessing the sensory buffers in each ear one after the other in order to retrieve each piece of information - switching between the two takes longer and information decays

shows that information is selected for attention, at perception

Question 16

shadowing tasks

Answer 16

two simultaneous messages in each ear, but people are only asked to attend to one ear

people cannot remember the content of the unattended ear, but can notice sensory features, like gender of speaker, new noises

shows that unattended info is not processed for meaning

Question 17

critiques of early selection filter models

Answer 17

un attended info can break through

studies have shown that parts of us still attend to the unattended ear - skin conductance goes up in ps who hear words they associate with a painful shock in their unattended ear

Question 18

treisman’s attenuator model

Answer 18

not all information gets filtered out, the influence of unattended information is just dialed down - some aspects of unattended information are still processed for meaning

Question 19

late selection filter models

Answer 19

we process input at the level of meaning, and then select what we want to process further - means that both attended and unattended info is processed

Question 20

stroop task

Answer 20

it is more difficult to name the color of the ink a color name is written in when the name of the color does not line up with the ink that it is written in

suggests that we process both the written color name(unattended - not the goal) and the ink color(attended) and that these two pieces of information confuse us, and impair our performance

Question 21

controlled vs automatic tasks

Answer 21

controlled - tasks that require effort and voluntary top down attention - naming the color of the ink

automatic - highly familiar and well practiced tasks that do not require voluntary top down attention - reading color names

Question 22

support for late selection filter models

Answer 22

english speakers were hypnotized to think that the color names in the stroop test were in a language they didn’t speak - when tested, they had no trouble identifying ink colors - means that automatic processing removed, and interference effect gone

Question 23

load theory

Answer 23

attentional filtering occurs at different points depending on how much we need to pay attention to the task at hand

Question 24

low load task

Answer 24

a task that is easy and doesn’t require a lot of resources - means that we can process non attended information at a later stage - to the level of meaning

Question 25

high load task

Answer 25

a task that is difficult and requires a lot of attentional resources - non attended information gets processed out at early stages in the pipeline - level of perception

Question 26

central resource capacity definition of load

Answer 26

we have one resource pool from which all attention resources (across sensory modalities) are stored
- explains why things like auditory distractions (radio) can distract from visual tasks (driving)

Question 27

multiple resource capacity view

Answer 27

we have different resource pools for every sensory modality - the load depends on whether the relevant and irrelevant information from the same pool (sensory modality)

why reading directions (visual) is more distracting than hearing directions while driving (visual)

Question 28

inattentional blindness

Answer 28

inability to perceive information outside of the attentional spotlight - what we are focusing on

Question 29

bottleneck problem of attention

Answer 29

we receive too much information, so the brain has to choose what to focus on

Question 30

cocktail party effect

Answer 30

ability to pay attention to a conversation in a loud and crowded environment

Question 31

Erikson Flanker task

Answer 31

when trying to search for a target letter among distractors, the difficulty varies by what is flanking, or distracting, for the target item - irrelevant distractors make the task easier, whereas, congruent distractors (similar) make the task harder

evidence for late processing/attentional load- ps can’t help but process the flankers, and when they are similar to what they are searching for, it makes the task more difficult

Question 32

load version of the flanker task

Answer 32

incompatible flankers only caused a slower reaction time - distraction in lower load conditions of a task because there is left over attention to spend whereas in the high load task, ps have to be more focused and are less easily distracted

Question 33

attention span in gamers

Answer 33

gamers are able to better distribute their attention out a central task, and process flankers in both low and high load conditions