Task 5 Flashcards
(29 cards)
What is the definition of awareness in Koch (2012)?
Awareness refers to the contents of conscious experience.
How do most researchers view the relationship between attention and awareness?
They believe attention and awareness always occur together—attending to an object means becoming conscious of it.
What is an alternative view of the relationship between attention and awareness?
Some argue that one can attend to an object without being conscious of it.
What did fMRI studies show about the relationship between attention and visibility?
Paying attention to a target increases brain activity in V1, even if the target is invisible.
What do afterimages suggest about attention and consciousness?
They indicate that visual attention and consciousness rely on distinct neuronal mechanisms.
What happens to visual awareness in backward masking experiments?
The first stimulus remains invisible due to suppressed recurrent processing, even though it activates visual areas.
How do change blindness (CB) and inattentional blindness (IB) challenge our assumptions about perception?
They show that our conscious perception is limited and selective, even when we think we see everything.
How does cueing affect CB and IB?
Cueing the relevant item before a change can prevent CB and IB, suggesting attention directs conscious perception.
What does Lamme (2003) propose about the stages of processing?
Visual inputs can be unconscious, unattended, or attended—only the last category reaches awareness.
What does the model suggest about attention’s role in awareness?
Attention does not determine if stimuli become conscious; instead, it allows for reporting and memory storage.
What is the distinction between phenomenal and access awareness?
Phenomenal awareness is raw sensory experience, while access awareness involves selection for memory and behavior.
What is the feedforward sweep (FFS)?
The rapid activation of successive brain areas in the visual hierarchy, starting from V1.
How does recurrent processing (RP) differ from FFS?
RP involves feedback loops between neurons and is necessary for conscious perception.
What role does the frontal cortex play in visual attention?
It helps direct attention and integrate sensory information with memory and goals.
What were the key findings of Watanabe (2011) regarding V1 activity?
Attention, but not awareness, significantly modulated brain activity in V1 during binocular suppression.
How was attention manipulated in the Watanabe study?
Participants switched between attending to a target stimulus or a letter detection task
What does Watanabe’s study suggest about top-down attention?
Attention can influence neural processing even when the attended stimulus is invisible.
What is the “bottleneck” model of attention?
A theory that suggests attention filters sensory input, allowing only selected information to reach consciousness.
How does the “biased competition theory” explain attention?
It suggests that different stimuli compete for neural processing, and attention biases the competition toward goal-relevant information.
What is the “attention schema theory”?
A theory proposing that the brain creates a simplified internal model of attention to regulate cognitive processes efficiently.
What is the difference between endogenous and exogenous attention?
Endogenous attention is voluntary and goal-driven, while exogenous attention is automatic and stimulus-driven.
How does attention influence memory formation?
Attention selects information for deeper processing, allowing it to be transferred from short-term to long-term memory.
What is the role of the pulvinar nucleus in attention?
It helps filter distractions and coordinate selective attention between different brain regions.
What happens during binocular rivalry?
When different images are presented to each eye, perception alternates between them rather than merging the two.
