When we say that attention is capacity-limited, this means

we are limited in the kind of information we can comprehend. incorrect

we can only process a certain amount of information within our lifetime. incorrect

we are limited in how much we information we can select at any one time. correct

we can only store a limited amount of information in memory. incorrect

Feedback: In almost any given moment, our senses receive more information than we can attend to.
Section reference: 4.1 What Is Attention?

2. Evidence from eye-tracking has revealed that

people always direct their eyes towards the focus of their visual attention. incorrect

people often experience inattentional blindness for things that they are looking directly at. correct

the attentional blink occurs because people literally blink their eyes after detecting the first target. incorrect

people missed the gorilla in the famous demonstration of inattentional blindness because they didn't actually look at it. incorrect

people often experience inattentional blindness for things that they are looking directly at.
Feedback: By using eye-tracking within inattentional blindness experiments, researchers have shown that people often miss seeing things that they are looking directly at.
Section reference: 4.1 What Is Attention?

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3. Which of the following is characteristic of reflexive shifts of attention?

They tend to be involuntary. incorrect

They tend to originate exogenously. incorrect

They tend to be transient. incorrect

All of the above correct

Feedback: Compared to voluntary shifts of attention, reflexive shifts occur involuntarily, are typically drawn by some physical feature of the attended stimulus (exogenous), and are short-lived (transient).
Section reference: 4.2 Selection: A Core Function of Attention

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4. Findings that stimuli within the same receptive field compete to drive activity in the visual system, with attention resolving the competition, support notions of

biased competition. correct

object-based attention. incorrect

temporal competition. incorrect

feature-based attention. incorrect

Feedback: The biased competition model of attention accounts for findings that stimuli falling within the same receptive field compete to drive the associated neural response. Attention to a stimulus can bring the neural response in line with what it might be if the attended stimulus had appeared alone.
Section reference: 4.2 Selection: A Core Function of Attention

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5. When looking for bananas in a supermarket, which of the following would be an example of using feature-based attention?

Repeating the word banana while you look for it incorrect

Looking through each of the fruit section's stalls in sequence incorrect

Looking for a sign that says bananas incorrect

Looking for yellow objects correct

Feedback: We can direct attention in multiple ways. Whereas spatial attention refers to attending to locations, feature-based attention involves tuning attention to prioritize certain physical features (e.g., color) over others.
Section reference: 4.2 Selection: A Core Function of Attention

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6. The dichotic listening task revealed that

participants were often unaware of what was said on the ignored channel. correct

if participants intensely focused their attention to listening with both ears, they could accurately repeat the input from both channels. incorrect

participants were able to repeat what was said in both channels equally well without effort. incorrect

because attention was diffused, participants were unable to repeat what was said on either channel. incorrect

Feedback: In classic dichotic listening tasks, people wore headphones while a different message was played to each ear. Typically, people attending to the message played to one ear were unable to say what had been played to the other ear.
Section reference: 4.3 Processing Before Selection versus After Selection

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7. According to the attenuator model of attention, some information can reach awareness even when it is in an unattended channel. This includes information that is

communicated slowly. incorrect

personally meaningful. correct

more useful. incorrect

new to us. incorrect

Feedback: According to Anne Treisman's attenuator model of attention, ignored information is dampened but not completely blocked out, meaning that information needs to cross a higher threshold in order to be perceived. Particularly meaningful stimuli such as our own names are more likely to rise above that threshold.
Section reference: 4.3 Processing Before Selection versus After Selection

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8. Attention to a stimulus can alter how we see its properties. This might best be an example of attentional

adaptation. incorrect

vigilance. incorrect

modulation. correct

selection. incorrect

Feedback: Attending to an object can change the perceived spatial resolution as well as temporal, motion, and contrast properties of the stimulus.
Section reference: 4.4 Modulation and Vigilance

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9. The importance of vigilance for particular real-world occupations can be demonstrated by the fact that

lapses in attention may cause overreactions when rare events occur. incorrect

attention is less likely to be captured by exogenous cues. incorrect

attention is more likely to be captured by exogenous cues. incorrect

lapses in attention may cause rare but dangerous events to be missed. correct

Feedback: Attentional vigilance encompasses the ability to remain focused and "on task", and vigilance can wane over long stretches of time or when the target of our search is very rare. This can be a concern for security personnel who monitor for threats (e.g., baggage screens at an airport).
Section reference: 4.4 Modulation and Vigilance

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10. The attentional network task was developed to measure three different aspects of attention within same experimental session. Which of the following is not one of the aspects it measures?

Shifting of attention from location to location incorrect

Resolving interference between conflicting information incorrect

Sensitivity to visual contrast correct

Vigilance in anticipation of a target incorrect

Feedback: In the attentional network task (ANT), participants quickly respond to an arrow that can be flanked by other arrows that either point in the same or opposite direction. A spatially informative cue sometimes indicates to probable location of the upcoming target, and a temporally informative cue sometimes indicates that the target is imminent without indicating its spatial location. By comparing response times between different conditions, this task yield indices thought to reflect spatial orienting, alertness, and executive attention.
Section reference: 4.4 Modulation and Vigilance

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11. Inattentional blindness is

when a person is blind, but there is no physical reason such as brain trauma). incorrect

when a person refuses to see or understand something because of a preexisting bias. incorrect

the failure to see something you are looking right at because your attention is otherwise preoccupied. correct

the inability to pay attention because of some physical reason (e.g., brain trauma). incorrect

Feedback: An object or event may escape a person's notice, because his/her attention is highly focused on something else in the same scene.
Section reference: 4.5 Attention and Awareness

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12. Which of the following is an example of change blindness?

You do not notice that the waiter who brings you your food is a different person than the waiter who took your order. correct

A baggage screener fails to notice a weapon. incorrect

You don't notice a person who walks past the window you are looking out of. incorrect

You are the only one at a costume party who is not wearing a costume, but no one notices. incorrect

Feedback: People tend to be bad at noticing even obvious changes. In one famous change blindness experiment, people didn't even notice when the stranger they were talking to was replaced by a different stranger after a brief visual interruption.
Section reference: 4.5 Attention and Awareness

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13. Inattentional blindness, change blindness, and the attentional blink all can be considered to be measures of _______ attention.

explicit correct

implicit incorrect

both explicit and implicit incorrect

neither explicit nor implicit incorrect

Feedback: Measures of attention that don't rely on conscious report (e.g., changes in response time) can be considered to be measures of "implicit" attention, whereas inattentional blindness, change blindness, and the attentional blink can be regarded as measuring "explicit" attention because they rely on conscious report. In some cases, researchers have documented implicit shifts of attention that do not result in awareness.
Section reference: 4.5 Attention and Awareness

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14. The concept of "saliency maps" was developed to explain why _______ cues attract attention equally.

all endogenous incorrect

not all endogenous incorrect

all exogenous incorrect

not all exogenous correct

Feedback: Not all stimuli are equally likely to capture attention without a person's volition (i.e., "exogenously" or "reflexively"). According to the notion of saliency maps, the visual system computes the relative featural differences between elements of a visual scene. Those elements computed to be particularly distinctive are said to be salient and will be more likely to capture attention.
Section reference: 4.6 Are We in Control of Our Attention?

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15. Anxious participants (compared to non-anxious participants) have been found to be _______ to have their attention captured by threatening stimuli.

less likely incorrect

more likely correct

equally likely incorrect

slower incorrect

Feedback: Research at the intersection of cognitive psychology and clinical psychology has sought to understand how information is processed differently by people who do and don't struggle with anxiety. One finding is that people who are highly anxious are more likely to have their attention captured by threatening stimuli.
Section reference: 4.6 Are We in Control of Our Attention?