Lecture 4: Attention

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts from Lecture 4 on Attention to help with exam preparation.

Attention

The cognitive process that allows us to focus on specific stimuli while ignoring others, increasing perceptual sensitivity and processing speed.

Spatial Attention: Exogenous Cue

A stimulus that triggers reflexive attention automatically based on its physical properties.

Spatial Attention: Endogenous Cue

A symbol, such as an arrow, that triggers voluntary attention by requiring the observer to process its meaning to direct focus.

Valid vs. Invalid Cues

________ Cues: Align with expectations, leading to faster processing.

____________ Cues: Do not align with expectations, leading to slower processing.

External and Internal Attention

___________ attention refers to attending to sensory stimuli in the environment, while ______________attention refers to focusing on internal thoughts, memories, or mental states.

Feature-based Attention & Tuning

The ability to focus on specific features (color, shape, motion); feature-based tuning occurs when neurons sensitive to those specific features are enhanced.

Temporal Attention: Attentional Blink

The phenomenon where detecting a second target is much more difficult if it appears shortly after a first target in a continuous stream.

Object-based Attention: Spatial Neglect

A condition often caused by a right parietal lobe lesion where an individual cannot process or attend to information in the left visual hemifield.

Attentional Modulation

The way attention changes perception:

1. increases perceptual sensitivity

2. increases perceptual processing speed

3. alters perceptual appearance: object higher in contrast when it is being attended

Early Selection Model

Selection occurs early based on physical features; we only focus on relevant features and filter out the rest before high-level processing.

Late Selection Model

The theory that every stimulus is processed for meaning before a selection is made based on whether it matches target features.

Parallel Processing

A "pops out" situation where multiple items or features are processed all at once.

Serial Processing

A search process where items are processed one after another in a sequence.

Feature Integration Theory

A theory suggesting we identify features first and then use attention to bind those features together to see if the object matches what we are looking for.

Broadbent’s Filter Model

A model suggesting we filter out info that does not match specific features early on, followed by higher-level processing for the attended information.

Treisman’s Attenuator Model

An extension of Broadbent's model where unattended information is not completely filtered but rather turned down (attenuated), allowing some processing.

Binding Problem

The cognitive challenge of how the brain reconciles and combines individual features (like color and shape) into a single, coherent object perception.

Inattentional Blindness

Looking without seeing; for example, failing to notice a gorilla in a room because focus is directed elsewhere. Often linked to overt attention failures.

Change Blindness

A failure to notice a major change in a visual scene (e.g., a different person giving directions) because attention is focused on other context or details.