Attention

Question 1

What is attention?

Answer 1

Psychological processes that select from among all the information available to us at any given moment.

Question 2

Do we recognize or remember most of what we perceive?

Answer 2

NO

Question 3

What is selective attention?

Answer 3

• processes a subset of the available attention

- Focuses on some information and ignores the rest.

Question 4

What is reaction time?

Answer 4

• a measure of the time from the onset of a stimulus to a response.

Question 5

How does attention effect RT?

Answer 5

• if attention is in the right place, RT will decrease (faster)
• if attention is not in the right place, RT will increase (slower)

Question 6

What is a cue?

Answer 6

• a stimulus that might indicate where (or what) a subsequent stimulus will be

Question 7

What are different aspects of a cue?

Answer 7

it can be:

• Valid (correct)
• Invalid (incorrect)
• Neutral (uninformative)

Question 8

What is stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA)

Answer 8

• the time between the onset of one stimulus and the onset of another

Question 9

What does the Posner cuing task tell us?

Answer 9

Response times are:

• fastest on valid trials
• middle on neutral cues
• slowest on invalid trials

Question 10

What is the spotlight model?

Answer 10

attention is in one region of space
moves from one point to the next
areas in the spotlight get extra processing

Question 11

What is the zoom lens model?

Answer 11

same as the spotlight model except that attended region can grow or shrink.

Question 12

What is a visual search task?

Answer 12

Look for a target in a display containing distracting elements

Question 13

What are components in a visual search task?

Answer 13

target: what you’re looking for
distractor: any other stimulus
set size: the number of items through which you must search

Question 14

What are the three types of search tasks?

Answer 14

orientation- easy
color- easy
conjunction- harder

Question 15

What is search efficiency?

Answer 15

• RT as a function of set size
• search slope in milliseconds/item
• The larger the search slope (more ms/item), the less efficient the search

Question 16

What do the slopes tell us about search efficiency?

Answer 16

Some searches are efficient- small slopes

Some searches are inefficient- large slopes

Question 17

What is a feature search?

Answer 17

Search for a target defined by a single attribute such as a salient color or orientation

Question 18

What is parallel processing?

Answer 18

processing multiple stimuli at the same time (all-at-once)

Question 19

What is a serial search?

Answer 19

Searching items one-at-a-time.

Question 20

What is a conjunction search?

Answer 20

: A search for a target defined by the presence of two or more attributes
No single feature defines the target

Question 21

What is a guided search?

Answer 21

Search by restricting attention to a subset of items.

Question 22

How can you restrict a guided search?

Answer 22

color
size
shape
(about 10–20 other types of features)

Question 23

What is the binding problem?

Answer 23

combining a multiple properties of and object together- look at slide.

Question 24

What is the feature integration theory?

Answer 24

Theory of visual attention:

• Attention is not required for certain basic object features.
• Attention is required for other features, and for binding features together

Question 25

What is preattentive processing?

Answer 25

- Before attention - Parallel (all-at-once) - Only basic features can be identified

Question 26

What it attentive processing?

Answer 26

- Uses attention - Serial (one-at-a-time) - Complex features and feature combinations

Question 27

What is the prediction of pre attentive processing?

Answer 27

That preattentive processing only provide features without binding them together.

Question 28

What is an illusory conjunction?

Answer 28

Incorrect combination of two features in a visual scene.

Question 29

What is anne trainman take on feature integration theory?

Answer 29

Preattentive processing- based on individual features (color, shape, orientation) Attentive processing- attention binds features together into a single, whole object. ( green square tilted to the left)** look at slides.

Question 30

How do binding and attention work together?

Answer 30

- we do not see an object as a whole object until we attend to it. - without attention, we perceive just a loose collection of features (or parts)

Question 31

What is Rapid Serial Visual Presentation(RSVP)

Answer 31

An experimental procedure in which stimuli appear one after the other in rapid succession. Used to study the the timing of attention.

Question 32

What is the attentional bling?

Answer 32

We often miss the 2nd target if it appears 200–500 ms after the 1st target.

Question 33

What does attention do to regions of space in the brain?

Answer 33

Attention to a region of space changes activity of neurons in V1.

Question 34

What does attention do to types of objects?

Answer 34

Attention enhances the processing of a specific type of stimulus.

Question 35

What is the fusiform face area of the brain?

Answer 35

Responds strongly to faces and less to other kinds of objects

Question 36

What is the Parahippocampal place area of the brain

Answer 36

Responds strongly to scenes (a.k.a., “places”, like a house, room, street corner, or landscape).

Question 37

What does attention have to do with Neural processing

Answer 37

Attention can affect which areas of the brain are active. | The areas relevant to whatever is attended become increasingly active.

Question 38

What components go into the physiology of attention?

Answer 38

``` Enhancement Strengthen neural responses. Sharper tuning More focused neural tuning functions. Altered tuning Shift neural tuning functions. ```

Question 39

What is a visual field defect?

Answer 39

Brain injury that leads to loss of vision in part of the visual field Usually from damage to optic nerve, optic tract, or primary visual cortex

Question 40

What is neglect?

Answer 40

Brain injury that leads to no loss of vision, but to a loss of attention to part of the visual field Often results from damage to the parietal lobe

Question 41

What does contralesional field mean?

Answer 41

the visual field on the side opposite a brain lesion

Question 42

What does Ipsilesional field mean?

Answer 42

the visual field on the same side as the brain lesion.

Question 43

What is object based neglect?

Answer 43

Some neglect patients neglect one side of an object rather than one side of the visual field.

Question 44

What is extinction?

Answer 44

When a patient with neglect attends to a stimulus on his/her “good” side, he/she cannot attend to a stimulus on the other side.