Psych 251 Midterm 2 Review (Attention)

Attention

Mechanisms that select, modulate and sustain focus on information most relevant for behaviour

What are the 3 ways that one can categorize attention?

1. Source

2. Target

3. Type

Source of attention

The cause for directing one's attention

Exogenous attention source

In the environment, reflexive, automatic, bottom-up

e.g. a salient stimulus, such as a loud clap

Endogenous attention source

In the mind, voluntary, intentional, top-down

e.g. a desire or goal

Target of attention

What one is attending to

External target of attention

Sensory information in the enviornement

Internal target of attention

Mental representation in the mind

Type of attention

The form of attention

What are the three different types of attention?

1. Overt/covert

2. Transient/sustained

3. Selective/divided

Overt attention

Involves actual movement of the sensory surface (moving eyes)

Covert attention

Does not involve actual movement (looking out the corner of your eye)

Transient attention

Momentary focus on something (a glance at a stranger)

Sustained attention

Prolonged focus on something (standing watch at a door for several hours)

Selective attention

Focus on one thing to the exclusion of others (looking on your phone and failing to notice when someone is talking to you)

Divided attention

Try to focus on multiple things simultaneously (talking on cellphone while driving)

Cocktail party effect

Ability to focus on a single conversation while ignoring others

When does attentional selection occur?

As sensory input is transformed into percepts

Dichotic listening

A task in which people wearing headphones hear different messages presented to each ear

Describe the source target and type of attention involved with dichotic listening

Source - endogenous

Target - external

Type - covert, sustained, selective

T or F: We can only report the existence of the unattended message during dichotic listening

F, both the existence and gender could be reported, could not report content

Broadbent's Filter model

Early-selection model, filters message before incoming information is analyzed for meaning

What could not be reported during the Dichotic listening cocktail party effect study?

A word that was repeated 35 times, the change in gender and pitch were noticed, as well as someones own name

Triesman's attenuation theory

When we are exposed to multiple stimuli, we don’t completely block out irrelevant information, but instead, we attenuate or weaken the signal of the unattended stimuli.

T or F: During dichotic listening sometimes information in the unattended ear can influence subsequent memory or behaviour

T

T or F: Attention is a controllable process that can be implemented at different levels

T: early vs late selection is chose based on situation and approach

Event related potentials (ERPS)

Averaged EEG recordings measuring brain responses to repeated presentations of a stimulus

Brainstem evoked response

The lowest valley (most positive point) that is generated in the brainstem within 10 ms time period

Midlatency response

Auditory tone is generated in primary auditory cortex over 50 ms, begins with rapid change before becoming large valleys/peaks

Late latency response

Auditory tone is generated in secondary and tertiary auditory cortex, has extremely big wavelengths

Attentional stream (oddball) paradigm

Subjects wear headphones with audio coming in each ear, told to attend to audio in one ear, hear collection of beeps and oddball boop

Does attention have any effect on auditory processing in the brainstem during an attentional stream paradigm?

No, meaning brain is still attending to information in both ears without conscious awareness

Does attention have any effect on auditory processing in the primary auditory cortex during an attentional stream paradigm?

Yes, between a 20-50 ms differences, the attended stimulus generates a larger wave

Does attention have any effect on auditory processing in the secondary and tertiary auditory cortexes during an attentional stream paradigm?

Yes, it is extremely noticeable with around 100 ms latency

Mismatch negativity

The distinct ERP component that indicates that one's brain is detecting unattended changes during the oddball paradigm

What causes mismatch negativity?

The expectation that one will hear a beep but instead hears a boop

Posner's orientation task

Individual is asked to focus on the central fixation cross, will be cued to where a target will appear they need to covertly attend to and react to when it appears by pressing the right direction

What are the 3 types of cues in Posner's orientation task?

1. Valid - cue points to correct location

2. Neutral - cue points to both sides equally

3. Invalid - cue points to the incorrect side

Endogenous cue

Signal that directs attention based on internal goals, requires conscious control and is considered top down

What causes faster response during valid trials and slower response during invalid trials?

One is already attending to the cued area, making reaction easier/harder

Exogenous cue

A stimulus driven signal that automatically captures attention, consider a bottom up process

Inhibition of return (IOR)

Detection of stimuli at cued locations takes longer when there is a longer cue to target interval

Why does IOR occur during exogenous cueing?

Because the time between the cue and presentation of stimulus is too long, causes the brain to view the cue as a distraction and makes you no longer direct your attention

What is the major difference between endogenous and exogenous cues?

Endogenous cues are voluntary while exogenous cues are involuntary

What was found regarding Posner's task with rectangular objects as stimuli?

That if the cue was on the same object, even if it was not valid would still improve reaction time when compared to a completely invalid cue

Visual attentional stream paradigm

Similar to spatial cueing but with sustained attention, subject asked to focus on cross and then covertly focus on one side of the screen and then a cue will appear on either attended or unattended side

Why does a positive and a negative peak occur during the visual attentional stream paradigm?

V1 occurs because the information is received, N1 occurs because of feedforward processing (reentrant/looping)

Regarding neurons in V4 what will happen if one of these neurons sees a stimuli that it is tuned to?

The neuron will fire when looking at the selective stimuli, will still fire (less so) if not attending to the selective stimuli but it is still in the visual field

At the neuronal level what 3 things does attention do?

1. Enhances/suppresses firing rate of neurons

2. Sharpens tuning of cortical neurons

3. Improves signal to noise ratio

Fusiform face area (FFA)

An area in the temporal lobe that contains many neurons that respond selectively to faces

Binding problem

Question of how features in the brain are integrated into a unified perception

What is a solution to the binding problem?

Synchronize firing of neurons, allows for many different brain areas to be activated at once allowing for information to be pieced together

T or F: Attention enhances synchronization

T, within pairs and populations of neurons attention improves information processing

Unilateral neglect

A deficit in perceiving and responding to stimulation contralateral to damaged hemisphere

What side does unilateral regret typically manifest and why?

Manifests on the left side, typically because damage from a stroke or trauma to the right parietal lobe

What was important about the Piazza del Duoma Experiment?

Demonstrated that unilateral neglect can still affect one's perception of something even if they have a memory of seeing the neglected side

What is spatial neglect?

Neglect on the left side of space, based on location based attention

What is object-based neglect?

Neglect of the left side of objects, based on object based attention

What are the 3 forms of treatment for unilateral neglect?

1. Prism adaptation therapy

2. Visual scanning training

3. Limb activation therapy

Prism adaptation therapy

Patients wear prism goggles that shifts their attention towards the left side and are trained so that wearing these goggles feels normal

Visual scanning training

Patient wears something that will cue them systematically to scan towards the left side

Limb activation therapy

Individual is encouraged to move affected limb(s) by binding of the non-neglected limb(s)

What are the 5 areas of the attentional control network?

1. Frontal eye fields

2. Intraparietal sulcus

3. Tempoparietal junction

4. Supplementary motor area

5. Anterior cingulate cortex

What is the role of the frontal eye fields in the attentional control network?

Involved in voluntary attention control, gaze in accordance with cognitive goals and saccades

Saccades

Micro eye movements that allow one to continue to focus on an area

What happens if the frontal eye fields are damaged?

Individual has difficulty maintain attention on a particular object and goal directed behaviour is impaired

What is the role of the intraparietal sulcus in the attentional control network?

Involved in voluntary attention control, creating a priority map to focus on the most important information, and enabling covert shifts in attention.

What happens if the IPS is damaged?

One's ability to shift their attention between targets is affected

What is the role of the temporparietal junction in the attentional control network?

Involved in bottom-up, reflexive attention shifts, acts as a circuit breaker, overrides current focus if something novel happens

What happens if the tempoporietal junction is damaged?

A lack of reflexive action will occur, problems detecting novelty and shifting attention to unexpected stimuli

What is the role of the supplementary motor area in the attentional control network?

Involved in endogenous attention, causes internally guided, sustained attention

What is the role of the anterior cingulate cortex in the attentional control network?

Involved with executive control of attention by ensuring that attention is maintained on relevant stimuli

Change blindness

Failing to notice changes in the environment

Flicker paradigm

Way to test change blindness, subject views a picture, then there is a mask, then there is a slightly different photo, asked to detect image over 60s period