Attention - Space and Time

Question 1

what is visual search paradigm

Answer 1

ask if there is a particular letter present amongst a different amount of distractors, as amount of distractors go up, so too does time to find stimulus

Question 2

T or F, mean RT to identify feature targets does not increase with display size?

Answer 2

True

Question 3

what is parallel search?

Answer 3

comparing contents of each display location with mental representations of target at the same time

Question 4

what targets do not pop out?

Answer 4

conjunction targets you need two definitions to identify target

Question 5

there is a 2:1 ratio on target absent v target present trials, what does this mean

Answer 5

that it takes twice as long to search for an absent conjunction target as it does for a present conjunction target and that both increase as display size increases

Question 6

what is serial search?

Answer 6

the need to focus attention on item to detect it, thus have to focus attention on each item in turn to to compare

Question 7

what is self terminating serial search?

Answer 7

you stop when you find the stimulus

on average, people search half the display on target present trials and all of the display on target absent trials

Question 8

what is the pop out effect characterised by?

Answer 8

when targets can be identified by a single feature

Question 9

what is the idea behind treisman’s feature of integration theory ?

Answer 9

aims to uncover the role of spatial attention

argues that reason for spatial attention is to bind features together into coherent perceptual compounds

Question 10

how does the feature of integration theory work?

Answer 10

• features are represented independently in maps
• you can carry out parallel search of individual features by determining if there is activity in the map
• but when targets are only defined by conjunctionary features, you have to shine spotlight of attention on it to glue different features of the target together

Question 11

what are ideas processes behind guided search theory

Answer 11

• 2 stage theory
• parallel search provides candidate list
• serial search checks candidate list for targets
• there is not a dichotomy of serial and parallel search but rather a continuum that is based on how similar the distractors are
• eg, similar targets lead to large candidate list and this inefficient search of this list

Question 12

what are the characteristics of an automatic process? (automaticity)

Answer 12

fast, parallel, effortless, pre-attentive (don’t require capacity)

Question 13

describe consistent mapping and varied mapping in shiffrin and schneider’s 1977 study on controlled and automatic processing

Answer 13

CM: target and distractor sets were distinct
VM: targets on some trials were distractors on others

Question 14

what are the findings from shiffrin and schneider’s 1977 study? re automaticity
what is the key take away then?

Answer 14

People who engaged in consistent mapping were able to obtain automaticity, but those in varied mapping were never able to
thus, practice is necessary to achieve automaticity, but it isn’t everything and rather you need consistent mapping (you need to be practicing the same thing)

Question 15

what did eriksen’s flanker task show re attention?

Answer 15

• provided estimate of the size of focus of attention (spotlight) 2-3 degrees of visual angle
• stimuli falling within spotlight are processed automatically… that even though people know they need to ignore stimuli surrounding the target, they can’t help but notice the distractors
• implies some parallel processing of conjunction stimuli

Question 16

what is the attentional blink?

Answer 16

that for a brief moment in time after you identify a target you process that you have identified it and are unable to process a target that immediately follows
- suppressed awareness

Question 17

what is the RSVP task?

Answer 17

rapid, serial visual presentation task

Question 18

what is lag 1 sparring?

Answer 18

that the worst performance in the attentional blink is not actually in the letter that follows immediately, but some time later, eg 2 or 3 letters later