6. Attention

Question 1

What is gaze contingency crowding? (ccc attention)

Answer 1

• Participant looks at ‘x’ in the middle of the screen
• Small image in the peripheral of the ‘x’
• Participant can still see it
• Many small images around the ‘x’
• Participant cannot work out which is there

Question 2

What is binocular rivalry? (ccc attention)

Answer 2

Different images shown to each eye. You see one and then a few seconds later you see the other. Stronger/colourful images hold attention for longer

Question 3

How was the continuous flash suppression paradigm investigated? (ccc attention)

Answer 3

• Binocular rivalry
• One image was a naked lady
• Other image was the naked lady in a scrambled way
• Reaction time from the central dot was recorded

Question 4

What is selective attention? (ccc attention)

Answer 4

The ability to preferentially process a subset of all available information

Question 5

What is sustained attention? (ccc attention)

Answer 5

The ability to maintain a state of high alertness

Question 6

What two ways can attention be a process? (ccc attention)

Answer 6

• selective attention

- sustained attention

Question 7

How can attention be seen as a resource? (ccc attention)

Answer 7

• Divided attention

- A set of limited resources for cognitive processing

Question 8

What is divided attention? (ccc attention)

Answer 8

Our ability to distribute attention over a range of competing inputs

Question 9

What is dichotic listening also known as? (ccc attention)

Answer 9

Cocktail party phenomenon

Question 10

What is dichotic listening? (ccc attention)

Answer 10

The idea that in loud situations, you focus on one person to talk to and the rest becomes a hub of noise. Yet when someone says your name from across the room, you can hear it perfectly

Question 11

What method has been used to investigate dichotic listening and how does it work? (ccc attention)

Answer 11

• Shadowing technique
• P’s given headphones (one ear is a sentence that needs to be repeated and the other is information)
• Findings showed p’s were unable to recognise the language or if it was in reverse
• Could tell if it was voice/noise and male/female

Question 12

What is the model for selective auditory attention? (ccc attention)

Answer 12

Broadbent filter model

Question 13

What does the Broadbent filter model suggest? (ccc attention)

Answer 13

The filter selects information on the basis of its gross physical properties e.g pitch

Question 14

What does the Broadbent filter model not account for? (ccc attention)

Answer 14

Dichotic listening

Question 15

What is the Triesman’s attenuation model? (ccc attention)

Answer 15

Information bound the ‘physical’ is being processed

Question 16

How was the Triesman’s attenuation model tested? (ccc attention)

Answer 16

• p’s showed SCR’s to chock associated work despite not having heard the word
• when the word was heard, SCR raised
• even attributed to the semantic word

Question 17

What does the cueing paradigm demonstrate? (ccc attention)

Answer 17

Attentional enhancements without eye movement e.g p’s press a button as soon as a ‘target’ moves

Question 18

What is divided attention? (ccc attention)

Answer 18

Doing more than one thing at once

Question 19

What affects divided attention? (ccc attention)

Answer 19

• How similar the tasks are
• How practiced the task is
• How difficult the task is