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psyc*2650 > PSYC*2650 Chapter 5: Paying Attention > Flashcards

PSYC*2650 Chapter 5: Paying Attention Flashcards

1
Q

What is selective attention?

A

The skill through which a person focuses on one input or task while ignoring other stimuli also on the scene

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2
Q

What is the difference between overt attention and covert attention?

A
  • Overt: Spatial visual selection through overt eye movements
  • Covert: changes in attention without eye movements
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3
Q

What occurs during a dichotic listening task?

A

Participants hear two different verbal messages simultaneously, with one being presented to each ear

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4
Q

In a dichotic listening task, what is the attended channel?

A

The stimulus the participant was told to pay attention to/ the one they are trying to perceive

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5
Q

In a dichotic listening task, what is the unattended channel?

A

The stimulus the participant was told to ignore/ the one they are not trying to perceive

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6
Q

During a dichotic listening task, how did researchers ensure participants were paying attention to the correct input?

A

Participants had to perform a task called shadowing

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7
Q

What is shadowing?

A

A task in which participants repeat back a verbal input, word for word, as they hear it

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8
Q

During a dichotic listening task, were participants better at describing the physical attributes or the semantic content of the unattended channel?

A

Physical attributes

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9
Q

What is inattentional blindness?

A

A pattern in which people fail to see a prominent stimulus, even if they’re staring right at it

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10
Q

What occurs during an inattentional blindness study?

A

Participants are instructed to point their eyes at a dot and make judgments about a “+” shown off to the side, and during that time, the dot briefly changes shapes

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11
Q

During an inattentional blindness study, were participants able to detect the shape change of the fixation target if they weren’t warned about it?

A

No

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12
Q

What is a fixation target?

A

A visual mark at which participants point their eyes, or fixate on during experimental procedures

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13
Q

What is inattentional deafness?

A

A pattern in which people fail to hear prominent stimuli if they are unexpected

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14
Q

What is inattentional numbness?

A

A pattern in which people fail to feel stimuli if the inputs are unexpected

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15
Q

What are the two contracting theories behind inattentional blindness, deafness, and numbness?

A
  • People fail to notice the stimuli
  • People do notice the stimuli, but forgot that it occurred
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16
Q

What is change blindness?

A

A pattern in which perceivers either don’t see or take a long time to notice large scale changes in visual stimulus

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17
Q

What occurs during a change blindness study?

A

Participants are shown pairs of pictures that differ slightly and separated by a brief blank interval and must determine what about the images is different

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18
Q

What is the premise of the late stage hypothesis?

A

Selective attention operates at a late stage of processing, so all inputs make it briefly into consciousness, then selection occurs and only the attended input is remembered

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19
Q

How is attention proposed to influence the lateral geniculate nucleus ?

A

Attention changes the flow of signals within the nervous system before they reach the brain, thus changes in attention affect activity in the lateral geniculate nucleus

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20
Q

What does the biased competition theory propose about attention?

A

That attention functions by shifting the priorities of neurons, so they are more responsive to certain inputs

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21
Q

What are the two ways detectors in the visual system can be primed?

A
  • By activating detectors so they’re more sensitive
  • By biasing detectors so they’re more likely to respond to the desired input
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22
Q

What is spatial attention?

A

The ability to allocate processing resources to, or focus attention on, a specific location in space

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23
Q

What is a limited-capacity system?

A

A system in which mental resources are limited, so extra resources supplied to one process results in withdrawal of resources from another

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24
Q

T or F: Perceiving inputs does not involve mental resources.

A

False

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25
Q

In terms of a limited-capacity system, why are people unable to listen to two messages at the same time?

A

Because it requires more resources than are available

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26
Q

Priming of what type of attention seems to influence very early processing stages in the visual system?

A

Spatial attention

27
Q

T or F: Movements of attention occur after movements of the eyes.

A

False. Movements of attention occur prior to eye movements.

28
Q

Moving attention requires a network of sites in which cortical regions?

A

The frontal and parietal cortex

29
Q

Which three brain systems form the “control system” for attention?

A
  • The orienting system
  • The alerting system
  • The executive system
30
Q

What is the orienting system?

A

A cluster of brain sites needed to disengage attention from one target, shift it to a new one, and engage attention on the new target

31
Q

What is the alerting system?

A

A cluster of brain sites that is responsible for maintaining an alert state in the brain

32
Q

What is the executive system?

A

A cluster of brain sites that control voluntary actions

33
Q

The anterior cingulate gyrus and prefrontal area are crucial sites for the functioning of which control process/system?

A

The executive system

34
Q

The frontal area, posterior area, and thalamus are crucial sites for the functioning of which control process/system?

A

The alerting system

35
Q

The frontal eye field, superior parietal lobe, temporal junction, pulvinar, and superior colliculus are crucial sites for the functioning of which control process/system?

A

The orienting system

36
Q

T or F: People pay more attention to aspects of a scene that are either predicable, or totally unexpected

A

False. They are unlikely to focus on these aspects.

37
Q

What is the ultra-rare item effect?

A

A pattern in which rare items are often overlooked

38
Q

What is the difference between endogenous and exogenous control of attention?

A
  • Endogenous control of attention: the person chooses where to focus their attention
  • Exogenous control of attention: the person’s attention is automatically directed to an input
39
Q

What is inhibition of return?

A

A pattern in which people are faster to process a target when it appears where it was expected to appear

40
Q

What does the pattern of inhibition return suggest about processing of visual stimuli?

A

That when a person is expecting a visual stimulus in a specific location, processing in the unexpected location is inhibited

41
Q

What are the two theories about how people pay attention to things?

A
  • Attention is defined purely in spacial terms
  • Attention is given to objects rather than positions in space
42
Q

T or F: Without a limited mental capacity, attention would be focused too broadly.

A

True

43
Q

What is the trade-off for focusing attention broadly when searching for a target?

A

Since multiple inputs are being taken in at once, it may be difficult to know which feature belongs with which

44
Q

What is the trade-off for focusing attention narrowly when searching for a target?

A

The process is slower

45
Q

When attempting to identify a target with multiple features, is it better to focus attention broadly or narrowly?

A

Narrowly because it allows the perceiver to bind features of each object together

46
Q

What is the feature integration theory?

A

A proposal about the function of attention in “gluing” together elements and features in view

47
Q

What are the two proposed stages of attention?

A
  • The preattentive stage
  • The focused attention stage
48
Q

What occurs during the preattentive stage?

A

The early evaluation of input that involves parallel processing of the entire display

49
Q

What occurs during the focused attention stage?

A

Mechanisms like expectation-based priming allow for the preparation of detectors and the creation of a processing advantage

50
Q

What is divided attention?

A

The skill of performing multiple tasks simultaneously

51
Q

Concurrent tasks can only be performed when what is available?

A

When the resources needed for both are available

52
Q

What will happen if two tasks, when combined, require more mental resources than available?

A

Divided attention will fail

53
Q

T or F: Divided attention will be easier if the simultaneous tasks are similar.

A

False

54
Q

Why is it easier to divide attention between tasks that are very different?

A

Because the two tasks have distinct resource requirements

55
Q

How many tasks can the executive control handle at once?

A

One

56
Q

What is a preservation error?

A

A pattern of responding in which a person produces the same response repeatedly, even if they are aware that the task requires it to change

57
Q

What is goal neglect?

A

A pattern of behaviour in which people fail to keep their goals in mind, so they fall back into habitual responses, even if those responses don’t help achieve the goal

58
Q

T or F: Practice has no effect on the resource demand for a task.

A

False. Practice diminishes resource demand.

59
Q

When is automaticity achieved?

A

When a task can be performed with little to no attention/ control

60
Q

What process is demonstrated using the stroop interference task?

A

Automaticity

61
Q

What is the procedure involved in the stroop interference task?

A

Participants are asked to name the colour of the ink used to print the name of a different colour

62
Q

Is attention a skill/mechanism or an achievement?

A

An achievement

63
Q

T or F: It is possible to gain new resources or find new ways to accomplish a task to avoid the down-falls of limited mental resources.

A

True

psyc*2650 (14 decks)

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