Lesson 4: Attention & Consciousness

Arousal

refers to a state of being alert and mentally and physically awake. It is the level of activation or energy in the body and brain.

Attention

is the mental process of focusing on specific stimuli while ignoring others. It allows us to concentrate on important information.

Automatic processes

are tasks or actions that occur with little or no conscious thought because they have been practiced or learned.

Automatization

is the process by which a task becomes automatic through repetition and practice.

Blindsight

is the ability of people who are visually impaired to respond to visual stimuli without consciously seeing them.

Change blindness

is the failure to notice large changes in a visual scene when those changes occur during a visual disruption.

Cocktail Party Problem

is the difficulty in focusing on one conversation while other conversations are happening around you.

Conjunction search

involves finding a target in a visual display with multiple distractors that share common features with the target.

Consciousness

is the state of being aware of and able to think about one’s own existence, thoughts, and environment.

Controlled processes

require conscious effort and attention, often used for complex or unfamiliar tasks.

Dichotic presentation

is when different auditory messages are played in each ear simultaneously.

Distracters

are irrelevant stimuli that divert attention away from the task at hand.

Divided attention

refers to the ability to focus on more than one task or stimulus at the same time.

Executive attention

is the ability to manage and control attention resources, especially in complex tasks requiring planning or problem-solving.

Feature-integration theory

suggests that individual features (like color or shape) are first processed independently and then combined to form a cohesive perception.

Feature search

involves finding a target based on a single, distinct feature that makes it stand out from distracters.

Inattentional blindness

occurs when you fail to notice something obvious in your environment because your attention is focused elsewhere.

Priming

is the process by which exposure to one stimulus influences how you respond to a subsequent, related stimulus.

Search

involves looking for a specific target among a set of distractors.

Selective attention

is the ability to focus on a specific stimulus while ignoring irrelevant stimuli.

Signal

is any stimulus that is intended to convey information and requires a response.

Signal detection

is the ability to discern between information-bearing patterns and random patterns that distract from the information.

Signal-detection Theory

explains how we detect signals under uncertain conditions, balancing between hits, misses, false alarms, and correct rejections.

Stroop effect

is the delay in reaction time when the color of a word doesn't match the name of the color.

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

occurs when you are unable to recall a word or name, even though you feel you know it.

Vigilance

is the ability to maintain focused attention over prolonged periods, especially when monitoring for infrequent events.