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Brain and Cognition
Attention
The mental process of concentrating effort on a stimulus or a mental event.
Executive attention
Involves being able to block out distractions and focus on a specific task.
Input attention
Getting sensory information into the cognitive system.
Why we need arousal to get sensory information into the cognitive system (input attention)?
The nervous system must be aroused to be able to interact with the environment.
Why we need alertness to get sensory information into the cognitive system (input attention)?
We need to be able to monitor the environment for relevant events.
Vigilance / sustained attention
Maintenance of attention for infrequent events over long periods of time.
Explicit processing
Involve conscious awareness that a task is being performed, and usually conscious awareness of the outcome.
Implicit processing
Processing with no necessary involvement of conscious awareness.
Word-stem completion
Orienting reflex
The reflexive redirection of attention toward the unexpected stimulus.
Attention capture
Spontaneous redirection of attention to stimuli in the world based on physical characteristics.
Habituation
A gradual reduction of the orienting response back to the baseline. (For example, getting used to a bad smell, becoming less sensitive to it)
Spotlight attention
Mental attention-focusing mechanism that prepares you to encode stimulus information, without having to move the head or eyes
Benefit / facilitation
A faster-than-baseline response resulting from useful advance information.
Cost
A response slower than baseline because of having a misleading cue.
Visual research
Research relying on artistic media to produce and represent knowledge. (For example, where is Waldo)
Feature research
Type of visual research. Is a specific feature present or not?
Conjunction search
Type of visual research. Is a combination of features present or not?
