Unit 4

attention hypothesis of automatization

The theory that tasks begin as controlled processes requiring focused attention, but with sufficient practice they become automatic and no longer demand attentional resources.

attenuation theory

Treisman's theory of selective attention proposing that unattended information is not completely blocked but is weakened (attenuated), so it can still reach awareness if it is personally significant (e.g., your own name).

automatic processing

A type of cognitive processing that is fast, effortless, unconscious, and not limited by attentional capacity; typically developed through extensive practice.

controlled processing

A type of cognitive processing that is slow, effortful, conscious, and requires attentional resources; used for novel or complex tasks.

dichotic listening task

An experimental procedure in which different auditory messages are presented simultaneously to each ear through headphones; participants are typically asked to shadow (repeat aloud) one message, used to study selective attention.

divided attention

The ability to allocate attentional resources to more than one task or stimulus at the same time; performance typically suffers when tasks compete for the same limited resources.

dual-task performance

A research paradigm in which participants must perform two tasks simultaneously, used to assess how attention is divided and whether tasks compete for the same cognitive resources.

event-related potential (ERP)

A measure of brain electrical activity (derived from EEG) that is time-locked to a specific sensory, cognitive, or motor event; used to study the timing of attentional and cognitive processes.

feature integration theory

Treisman's theory proposing that basic features (color, shape, orientation) are processed automatically and in parallel across a scene, but combining features into objects requires focused attention.

filter theory

Broadbent's early-selection theory of attention proposing that a bottleneck filter selects information for further processing based on physical characteristics before meaning is analyzed, blocking out unattended messages entirely.

inattentional blindness

The failure to perceive an unexpected stimulus that appears in plain sight when attention is directed elsewhere, demonstrating that conscious perception requires focused attention.

late-selection theory

A theory of attention proposing that all incoming stimuli are processed for meaning before one is selected for conscious awareness; selection occurs after semantic analysis rather than at an early perceptual stage.

priming

A phenomenon in which prior exposure to a stimulus (the prime) influences the speed or accuracy of processing a subsequent related stimulus (the target), often without conscious awareness.

psychological refractory period (PRP)

The delay in responding to a second stimulus that occurs when it is presented shortly after a first stimulus, because the cognitive system is still processing the first task and cannot fully attend to the second.

selective attention

The ability to focus cognitive resources on one stimulus or task while ignoring other competing stimuli or tasks in the environment.

spatial cue

A signal that directs attention to a particular location in space before a target appears, used in experiments to study how location-based attention affects perception and reaction time.

Stroop effect

The finding that people are slower and more error-prone when naming the ink color of a color word that is printed in a different color (e.g., the word RED in blue ink), demonstrating interference between automatic and controlled processing.

visual search

A task in which participants scan a visual display to detect a target item among distractors; used to study how attention operates across a scene and whether features are processed in parallel or serially.