behav cog module 3

what is attention

taking possession by mind of one out of what seems several simultaneouslt possible objects or trains of thought

is attention voluntary or involuntary

both

what is arousal

global brain state

what is selective attention

allocation of attention to something while simultaneously ignoring irrelevant or distracting others

what we focus on is the product of what

interaction between cortical & subcortical networks

what is goal driven attention

voluntary, dorsal stream, shaped by experience

example of goal driven attention

if you were hungry & searching for parking spot in restaurant parking lot

stimulus driven attention definition

reflexive, ventral stream, shaped by evolution but less goal driven

example of stimulus driven attention

car suddenly veers into your lane so you swerve to avoid it

overt attention definition

when you orient towards thing you are attending to & moving eyes in that direction

covert attention definition

when attending to something but do not orient toward things you attending to nor move eyes in that direction

cocktail party effect

phenomenon where you can focus on specific thing (like conversation at party) even though there’s loud activity all around

dichotic listening (shadowing) experiment

person capable of separating attention if 2 different auditory inputs are coming into each ear → attending only to one

early selection (filter) experiment

information filtered out during sensation & perception stages

late selection model

all information fully sensed & perceived after which unattended information is discarded

salience

unattended information that is “important” is more likely to make it through the early filter

adhd

attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

ADHD characterized by

inattention, impulsivity & sometimes hyperactivity

ADHD brain effects

variation in white matter of prefrontal cortex → can impact impulsivity & learning, focus, getting started, regulating emotions & memory

psychostimulants

first line of treatment for ADHD

children with ADHD

respond atypically to reinforcers, less able to delay gratification, find it more difficult to modify their behaviors compared to others

examples of executive function troubles for ADHD

managing time, setting priorities, managing emotions, planning, paying attention and remembering things

ADHD medication effectiveness

around 80% effective

risk with adderall

addictive potential

balint’s syndrome

bilateral damage to posterior parietal & occipital cortex, problems seeing objects “together” in space

triad of symptoms for balint’s syndrome

simultanagnosia, ocular apraxia, optic ataxia

simultanagnosia

difficulty processing visual field as whole scene

ocular apraxia

deficit making saccades to scan visual field

optic ataxia

problem making visually-guided hand movements

sensory memory

echoic & iconic memory

echoic memory

auditory memory lasting up to 10 sec

iconic memory

visual memory lasting 300-500 milliseconds

priming

change in response to stimulus after prior exposure

amnesia types

retrograde & anterograde

retrograde amnesia

loss of memories formed before trauma such as accident or surgery

anterograde amnesia

inability to form new memories after onset of disorder

HM’s amnesia

remembered everything prior to surgery

episodic memory

any life events

semantic memory

ability to learn new facts about world

HM effect on episodic & semantic memory

episodic: couldn’t remember any moments from life & semantic: could not learn any new facts about world

forms of memory that were intact for HM

working memory & procedural/skill memory

patients with Alzheimer’s disease

neurodegeneration starts in hippocampus

morris water maze purpose

test spatial memory

place cells

hippocampal cells that only fire when animal is in specific location in local environment

place field

location where place cells are fired

grid cells

fire in multiple positions creating hexagonal firing pattern tessellating area explored by animal

engram

physical trace of memory, means by which memories formed & stored

hebbian theory

memory resides in cell assemblies formed through strengthening synaptic connections between cells

neurons that fire together wire together

groups of neurons that tend to fire together form a cell assembly whose activity can persist after triggering event & serves to represent it

karl lashley

failed to find engrams → skepticism

hippocampal anatomy

hippo means horse & kampos means sea monster, tri-synaptic circuit

hebbian learning

strengthening of synaptic connections that result when weak input & strong input act on cell at same time

implicit memory

cannot be expressed verbally, don’t have conscious access to this type of memory

procedural memory

ability to form habits

non-declarative memory

associative learning, habituation

classical conditioning

neutral stimulus becomes conditioned stimulus through repeated pairing with biologically-relevant unconditioned stimulus that elicits unconditioned response

habituation

diminishing of physiological response to repeated stimulus