PSYC 213 > Attention > Flashcards

Attention Flashcards

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1
Q

How is attention defined?

A

Opposite sate of distraction

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2
Q

What is endogenous attention?

A

Top-down: observer guided controlled attention
Conscious attention that is activated when we want it to
Driven by goals and intentions

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3
Q

What is exogenous attention?

A

Bottom-up: stimuli guided automatic attention
Stimuli grabs our attention
Driven by stimuli

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4
Q

What is arousal?

A

How alert and aware you are, an automatic feeling

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5
Q

What is the Yerkes-Dodson Law?

A

The best for focus is when we have a middle level of arousal - too much/too little = can’t focus

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6
Q

What regions of the brain are linked to top-down attention?

A

Frontal eye fields (FEF) and intraparietal lobule (IPL)

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7
Q

What regions of the brain are linked to bottom-up attention?

A

Temporoparietal junction (TPJ) and ventral frontal cortex (VFC)

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8
Q

What is spatial neglect?

A

Special case where there are deficits in spatial attention and egocentric representation in contralateral field of view

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9
Q

What is spatial neglect caused by?

A

Damage to right hemisphere, central parietal cortex

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10
Q

What are the symptoms of spatial neglect?

A

Left side of world is out of awareness (think of flowers with all petals on right)
Can only describe half of imaginations and memories

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11
Q

What are the categories top-down attention can be divided into?

A

Sustained attention, divided attention, and selective attention

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12
Q

What is sustained attention?

A

Maintained focus on one input

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13
Q

What is divided attention?

A

Shifting attentional focus between tasks

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14
Q

What is selective attention?

A

Focus on one input and ignoring other info

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15
Q

What is the flow of attention?

A

BOTTLENECK that restricts flow of info: sensory buffer -> perceptual analysis -> semantic analysis (short-term mem) -> responses

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16
Q

What is Broadbent’s early selection filter model?

A

Attention filters between sensory buffer and perceptual analysis - filter out what we want BEFORE semantic analysis

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17
Q

What are the two ways we test Broadbent’s early selection filter model?

A

Dichotic listening tasks and shadowing tasks

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18
Q

How are dichotic listening tasks performed?

A

Present two simultaneous messages to each ear
Results: better at focusing ear by ear than pair by pair - difficulty moving selective attention to different ears

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19
Q

How are shadowing tasks performed?

A

Ask participant to focus on info from one ear
Results: we don’t process info for meaning from unattended ear BUT still process for perception

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20
Q

What is the counter against early selection?

A

We can catch unattended info (we hear our name in a convo we’re not in)
During shadowing tasks, an unattended word would be pairs with a shock -> more likely to remember the word

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21
Q

What is the attenuator model?

A

We filter at the perceptual level BUT not all or none - works as a shifter that can be dialed up/down for different situations

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22
Q

What is the late selection filter model?

A

We process input at the meaning level - we select what we want to process for attention

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23
Q

What task is performed to test late selection filter models?

A

Stroop task (names of colors written in different color)

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24
Q

What are the controlled and automatic tasks of the stroop task?

A

Controlled: reading color of ink
Automatic: reading the color names

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25
What is the load theory?
Attentional filtering occurs at different points of processing
26
What does placement of the load theory depend on?
How much resources are required for current task
27
When is non-attended info process if resource load is low?
Process non-attended info to a later stage
28
When is non-attended info process if resource load is high?
Process non-attended info at an early stage
29
At what level do we process info when we have a difficult task with a high load?
Process all info only at the level of perception - early filter
30
At what level do we process info when we have an easy task with a low load?
Process all info at the level of meaning - late filter
31
What are the two views of resource capacity?
Central resource capacity view and multiple resource capacity view
32
What is central resource capacity view?
One resource pool from which all attention resources are allocated - all sensory inputs grabs from this pool
33
What is the multiple resource capacity view?
Multiple resources from which attention resources are allocated - we are more distracted by two things that are similar than two things that are distinctly different
34
What do stroop variations tell us?
That we process things automatically for meaning
35
What is an example of stroop variations?
Emotional stroop task - slower reaction time reading words written in color with emotion (e.g., table vs. kill)
36
What happens to the surplus of resource according to load theory?
It is what is used to attend to task-irrelevant things
37
What is the experimental support for central resource capacity view?
Driving with no radio (low load) -> more accuracy vs. driving with radio (high load) -> less accuracy detecting unexpected objects
38
What is the experimental support for multiple resources capacity view?
Listening to people speak in a scanner Low load: determine if words are spoken in a loud/quiet voice High load: listen for two syllable words among mono- and tri-syllabic words Also presented visual distractors No difference between two loads
39
What is change blindness?
Failure to detect changes in our environment - typically happens when there is a brief distraction E.g., continuity errors in movies
40
How is change blindness measured?
Flicker technique paradigm: two similar images flashed to participant separated by brief mask
41
What is inattentional blindness?
Inability to perceive new information because attention is focused elsewhere E.g., Where's Waldo?
42
What is the difference between change and inattentional blindness?
Change: failure to notice large change Inattentional: failure to perceive an obvious unexpected item - attention is directed elsewhere
43
How is inattentional blindness tested?
Measured through having participants focus on one stimuli and while another unexpected target is flashed in another location
44
What does inattentional blindness tell us about perception?
Things we process explicitly impacts our perception
45
What is the spotlight theory?
Attention is focused on a specific region of space and disengaged from other areas
46
What is pre-activation?
Our system is prepared before our attention is shifted
47
What does the Posner cueing task consist of?
- Fixate on center of screen - Cue display: space cue that directs attention to an area - Target display: detect the target with reaction time measured
48
What does a valid trial within the Posner cueing task consist of? What was the result?
Target appears in same location as the cue -> faster reaction time, but only when stimuli onset asynchrony (SOA) - time between cue and target
49
What does an invalid trial within the Posner cueing task consist of? What was the result?
Target appears in different location as the cue
50
Typically, are valid or invalid trials slower?
Invalid
51
When do valid trials become slower than invalid?
When SOA is ~300 ms -> our attention is disengaged
52
What inhibition of return (IOR)?
Attention is inhibited from going to recently attended space after long SOA
53
What are integrating features necessary for?
Forming a coherent image
54
What is feature-based attention evident during?
Visual search tasks
55
What are the two types of attention phases?
Pre-attention phase: bottom-up processing (automatic) Focused attention phase: top-down processing (voluntary)
56
What are the two types of searches under integrating features?
Feature search and conjunction search
57
What is feature search?
Search for an object that differs from distractors based on one feature Bottom-up automatic attention
58
What is the pop-out effect?
The feature that differs is the only one/independent of distractors - only occurs for features that are automatically processed by the primary visual cortex
59
What is conjunction search?
Search for an object that differs from distractors across many features Top-down voluntary attention
60
What is the embodied theories of attention?
Eye movements detect visual attentional goals
61
What are the two types of visual attention under embodied theories of attention?
Overt visual attention and cover visual attention
62
What is over visual attention?
Attending to something with your eye movements
63
What is covert visual attention?
Attending to something without eye movements
64
What do eye movements suggest?
Where we're paying attention to - used to study cultural differences based on tracking attention
65
What is sustained attention/vigilance/concentration?
Ability to focus on one task
66
What is task switching?
Controlled switching attention to allow active focus - not automatic and require a change of mental set
67
What is switch cost?
Drop in performance after switching tasks - takes cognitive resources to switch mental streams
68
What are things that capture our attention?
The following stimuli: fearful, personally relevant, addictive, threatening
69
What are go/no-go trials?
Faces capture our attention and we automatically process
PSYC 213
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