4.5 Understanding Attention in Sensation and Perception

These flashcards cover key concepts of attention in sensation and perception, including types of attention, multitasking impacts, and important phenomena such as inattentional blindness.

What is attention described as in the context of sensation and perception?

Attention is the gateway to our experience, necessary for something to enter our conscious awareness.

What is selective attention?

Selective attention is when we devote our attention to one particular thing or task.

What is divided attention?

Divided attention is when we try to split our attention between multiple tasks or activities.

When might we likely use selective attention?

When engaging in an unfamiliar task or learning something new, like dribbling a basketball for the first time.

What happens to our performance when we try to multitask?

Our performance on each task generally suffers when we try to multitask.

What was the main finding from the study on high and low multitaskers?

High multitaskers performed worse on tests of attention, memory, and problem-solving compared to low multitaskers.

What is inattentional blindness?

Inattentional blindness is the phenomenon where we miss obvious things in our environment because our attention is focused on something else.

What example illustrates inattentional blindness?

The gorilla experiment where participants counting basketball passes missed the gorilla walking through.

How does distracted driving relate to attention?

Distracted driving involves dividing attention between driving and another task, which negatively impacts performance on both.

Why might hands-free devices not solve the problem of distracted driving?

Hands-free devices can still distract drivers, and users may feel overly safe and let their guard down.