Quiz 4: Attention and Consciousness

Question 1

The means by which we actively select and process a limited amount of information from all of the information captured by our senses, our stored memories, and our other cognitive processes; includes both conscious and unconscious processes.

Answer 1

Attention

Question 2

Includes both feeling of awareness and the content of awareness, which may be under the focus of attention.

Answer 2

Consciousness

Question 3

4 main functions of attention.

Answer 3

Signal detection and Vigilance
Search
Selective Attention
Divided Attention

Question 4

We try to detect the appearance of a particular stimulus.

Answer 4

Signal detection and Vigilance

Question 5

People pick out the important stimuli embedded in a wealth of irrelevant, distracting stimuli; often used to measure sensitivity to target’s presence.

Answer 5

Signal detection theory

Question 6

4 possible outcomes of signal detection.

Answer 6

Hits - “true positives”
False alarms- “false positives”
Misses-“false negatives”
Correct rejections -“true negatives”

Question 7

Ability to attend a field of stimulation over a prolonged period; watchfully waits to detect a signal stimulus that may appear at an unknown time; needed in setting in which a given stimulus occurs rarely but requires immediate attention as soon it occurs.

Answer 7

Vigilance

Question 8

Refers to a scan of the environment for particular features—actively looking for something when you are not sure where it will appear; involves using our attentional resources to actively and often skillfully seek out a target.

Answer 8

Search

Question 9

Nontarget stimuli that divert our attention away from the target stimulus.

Answer 9

Distracters

Question 10

2 different kinds of search.

Answer 10

Feature search
Conjunction search

Question 11

We look for just one feature that makes our search object different from all others (ex. color, shape, size).

Answer 11

Feature search

Question 12

We have to combine two or more features to find the stimulus we’re looking for.

Answer 12

Conjunction search

Question 13

A theory that explains why it is relatively easy to conduct feature searches and relatively difficult to conduct conjunction searches.

Answer 13

Feature integration theory

Question 14

Who proposed the feature integration theory?

Answer 14

Anne Treisman (1986)

Question 15

2 stages when we perceive objects.

Answer 15

Color and size
Connecting 2 or more features with some “mental glue”.

Question 16

A stage when we perceive objects that is automatic and does not need for cognitive processing.

Answer 16

Color and size

Question 17

A stage when we perceive objects that requires conscious attention; have to combine the features we are searching one by one.

Answer 17

Connecting 2 or more features with some “mental glue”.

Question 18

A theory which states that the more similar target and distracter are, the more difficult it is to find the target; the difficulty of search tasks depends on how different distracters are from each other, but it does not depend on the number of features to be integrated.

Answer 18

Similarity theory

Question 19

We choose to attend to some stimuli and ignore others.

Answer 19

Selective attention

Question 20

The process of tracking one conversation while distracted by other conversation.

Answer 20

Cocktail party problem

Question 21

Presenting a separate message to each ear.

Answer 21

Dichotic Presentation

Question 22

3 filter models.

Answer 22

Early filter model
Selective filter model
Late filter model

Question 23

We filter information right after we notice it at the sensory level; all the incoming information is being perceived and stored in sensory memory; sensory memory only stores the information for a split second and then forwards it to a filter that allows only one message to move forward to be processed in more detail.

Answer 23

Early filter model

Question 24

The filter blocks out most information at the sensory level but some personally important
messages are so powerful that they burst through the filtering mechanism.

Answer 24

Selective filter model

Question 25

Instead of blocking out stimuli, the filter merely weakens the strength of all stimuli other than the target stimulus.

Answer 25

Attenuation model

Question 26

Stimuli are filtered out only after they have been analyzed for both their physical properties and their meaning; would allow people to recognize information entering the unattended ear.

Answer 26

Late filter model

Question 27

We engage in more than one task at a time, and we shift our attentional resources to allocate them as needed.

Answer 27

Divided attention

Question 28

When you shift your focus from one thing to another, a tiny gap in attention is created; psychological refractory period (PRP) effect.

Answer 28

Attentional blink

Question 29

4 factors that affect our ability to pay attention.

Answer 29

Anxiety Arousal Task difficulty Skills

Question 30

A factor where being anxious by nature or by situation, places constraints on attention.

Answer 30

Anxiety

Question 31

Being anxious by nature.

Answer 31

Trait-based anxiety

Question 32

Being anxious by situation.

Answer 32

State-based anxiety

Question 33

A factor where its overall state affects attention; you may be tired, drowsy, or drugged, which may limit attention; being excited sometimes enhances attention.

Answer 33

Arousal

Question 34

A factor where working on task that is difficult or novel needs more attentional resources than when you work on an easy or highly familiar task.

Answer 34

Task difficulty

Question 35

A factor where the more practiced and skilled you are in performing a task, the more your attention is enhanced.

Answer 35

Skill

Question 36

Being “prepared” to attend to some incoming event, and maintaining this attention.

Answer 36

Alerting

Question 37

The selection of stimuli to attend to; this kind of attention is needed when we perform a visual search.

Answer 37

Orienting

Question 38

Includes processes for monitoring and resolving conflicts that arise among internal processes.

Answer 38

Executive attention

Question 39

2 things we acquire when our attention fails us.

Answer 39

ADHD Change/Inattentional blindness

Question 40

3 primary symptoms of ADHD.

Answer 40

Inattention Hyperactivity Impulsiveness

Question 41

An inability to detect changes in objects or scenes that are being viewed.

Answer 41

Change blindness

Question 42

A phenomenon in which people are not able to see things that are actually there.

Answer 42

Inattentional blindness

Question 43

An attentional dysfunction in which participants ignore the half of their visual field that is contralateral to the hemisphere of the brain that has a lesion.

Answer 43

Spatial neglect (hemineglect)

Question 44

When stimuli are present in both sides of the visual field, people with hemi-neglect suddenly ignore the stimuli that are contralateral to their lesion.

Answer 44

Extinction

Question 45

Performed without conscious awareness; require little or no intention or effort; multiple automatic processes may occur at once, or at least quickly, and in no particular sequence; also termed as parallel processes.

Answer 45

Automatic processes

Question 46

Accessible to conscious control and even require it; performed serially; occur sequentially, one step at a time; take a relatively long time to execute.

Answer 46

Controlled processes

Question 47

Tasks that start off as controlled processes eventually become automatic ones as a result of practice.

Answer 47

Automatization (proceduralization)

Question 48

A theory which suggested that automatization occurs because we gradually accumulate knowledge about specific responses to specific stimuli.

Answer 48

Instance theory

Question 49

Who proposed instance theory?

Answer 49

Gordon Logan (1988)

Question 50

A phenomenon that demonstrates the psychological difficulty in selectively attending to the color of the ink and trying to ignore the word that is printed with the ink of that color.

Answer 50

Stroop effect

Question 51

Who proposed the stroop effect?

Answer 51

John Ridley Stroop

Question 52

Are errors in choosing an objective or in specifying a means of achieving it.

Answer 52

Mistakes

Question 53

Are errors in carrying out an intended means for reaching an objective.

Answer 53

Slips

Question 54

Information that is available for cognitive processing but that currently lies outside conscious awareness.

Answer 54

Preconscious processing

Question 55

Occurs when recognition of certain stimuli is affected by prior presentation of the same or similar stimuli; participants are presented with a first stimulus, and then they are presented with a second stimulus and make judgement.

Answer 55

Priming

Question 56

In which you try to remember something that is stored in memory but that cannot readily be retrieve.

Answer 56

Tip of the tongue phenomenon

Question 57

Traces of visual perceptual ability in blind areas.

Answer 57

Blindsight

Question 58

Two forms that partially overlapping sets.

Answer 58

Attention & Consciousness