Benjafield Cognition Ch. 4

Front 1

Dichotic listening

Back 1

an experimental procedure in which participants listen to two distinct, simultaneous audio streams. Shows that we can only effectively concentrate on one verbal stream at a time.

Front 2

Selective attention

***WHY***

Back 2

The ability to attend to relevant info and ignore irrelevant info.

Front 3

Cocktail party phenomenon

Back 3

The ability to attend to only one conversation in a crowded room, even though many are going on. Suggests that we can use auditory positional cues and visual cues to aid in filtering irrelevant info.

Front 4

Shadowing task

Back 4

An experimental procedure where a subject is exposed to two messages simultaneously while repeating one of them. Results suggest we filter irrelevant information.

Front 5

Filter

Back 5

A stage of info processing that admits some info, but not all. Was the original model suggested for how attention acts.

Front 6

Stroop task

Back 6

An experimental procedure where subjects name the color of the text of a list of color names. Results suggest filtration comes after perception.

Front 7

Selective looking

Back 7

The ability to attend to only one visual event, even though there are two occurring. Results suggest that filtration comes before perception.

Front 8

Early selection

Back 8

The hypothesis that attention prevents perceptual processing of distractors. Accounts for how we can not perceive things right in front of us (dancing gorilla)

Front 9

Late selection

Back 9

the hypothesis that filtering occurs after perception and that we have to actively ignore irrelevant stimuli. Accounts for results of Stroop task.

Front 10

Controlled process
***WHY***

Back 10

a process we must pay attention to in order to execute properly.

Front 11

automatic process

Back 11

a process that runs itself (ie we don't have to pay attention for it to run properly). aka bottom up processes.

Front 12

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)

Back 12

An area of the brain that may exert a top-down bias. May play a role in controlled processes

Front 13

Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)

Back 13

An area of the brain that may detect conflicting response tendencies. May help decide whether a process can proceed automatically or whether it should be controlled.

Front 14

Attention capture

Back 14

The power of some stimuli on some occasions to elicit attention even though we do not intend to attend to them. Suggests that we are tuned to pick up useful information even when our attention is directed elsewhere.

Front 15

Inattentional blindness

Back 15

Our inability to attend to events that we might be expected to notice. Suggests early filtering.

Front 16

Flanker task

Back 16

an experimental procedure in which participants may be influenced by an irrelevant stimulus beside the target. Results suggest we always process certain stimuli such as faces.

Front 17

Domain-specific modules

Back 17

the hypothesis that parts of the brain may be specialized for particular tasks. Helps explain the results of flanker tasks.

Front 18

Capacity model

Back 18

The hypothesis that there is a fixed amount of attentional energy we can spend at any given time. May help explain why doing many goal oriented tasks at once is so hard.

Front 19

Structural limits

Back 19

The hypothesis that attentional tasks interfere with one another to the extent that they share similar activities. May help explain why concentrating on similar tasks simultaneously is so hard (eg reading and listening)

Front 20

Central bottleneck

Back 20

The hypothesis that only one path through which relevant information can pass. Suggests that we can only pay attention to one thing at a time.

Front 21

Divided attention

Back 21

The ability to attend to more than one thing at a time. Provides an alternative to the central bottleneck to explain studies that appear to be contrary to it.

Front 22

Set

Back 22

Temporary, top-down organizations that facilitate some responses, while inhibiting others. Helps explain why we are ready to perceive some information, and unready to perceive other information.

Front 23

Task switching

Back 23

The act of changing which process one is working on in favor of another. Helps explain why it seems like we can process many things at once if there is a central bottleneck.

Front 24

Switch cost

**WHY**

Back 24

The finding that performance declines immediately upon switching tasks.

Front 25

Encoding

Back 25

The process of transforming information from one form to another.It has been suggested that we automatically encode all incoming info.

Front 26

Limen

Back 26

Threshold. Even subliminal information may be encoded, and it may thus effect our perception.

Front 27

Backward masking

**WHY**

Back 27

An experimental procedure where a subject is presented a target, and then it is covered with another.

Front 28

Stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA)
****WHY***

Back 28

The time difference b/w the first stimulus and a masking stimulus.

Front 29

Priming

***WHY****

Back 29

The tendency for some initial stimuli to make subsequent responses more likely.

Front 30

Dissociation paradigm

Back 30

An experimental strategy that attempts to show that perception can occur without awareness. Can be used to support the idea of late selection.

Front 31

Perception without awareness

Back 31

The idea that a stimulus has an effect even when it is below the participant's subjective threshold of awareness.

Front 32

Objective vs. subjective threshold.

Back 32

The point at which a stimulus can be detected vs the point at which a participant will say he is aware of a stimulus. Says that perception without awareness and subliminal perception are distinct phenomena.

Front 33

Direct vs indirect measures of attention.

***WHY***

Back 33

Two experimental procedures, the first when a participant indicates when they have perceived a stimulus, the second, when a subsequent task indicates whether the stimulus has been perceived.

Front 34

Process dissociation procedure

Back 34

An experimental technique that requires participants not to respond with items they have observed previously. A method to investigate the relative contributions of conscious and unconscious effects.

Front 35

Implicit perception

***DEF***
***WHY***

Back 35

0_o

Front 36

Attentional blink
***DEF***
***WHY***

Back 36

(>_<)

Front 37

Ecologically valid

Back 37

Describes a study that generalizes to conditions of the real world. A study that is more ecologically valid may provide more relevant information about how cognition works in everyday life.

Front 38

Embodied

Back 38

To be within a body. Attention can be seen as an embodied entity, meaning that it is dependent on physical limitations, not just those of the mind.

Front 39

Overt attention

Back 39

Attending to something with eye movements. Can be directly studied in order to learn about what we pay attention to.

Front 40

Covert attention

Back 40

Attending to something without eye movements. Occurs before overt attention, suggesting that studies of eye position may show a lag in what we actually are attending.

Front 41

Sequential attention hypothesis

Back 41

A hypothesis that posits that covert attention leads and overt attention follows. Suggests that studies of eye position may show a lag in what we actually are attending.

Front 42

Saccade

Back 42

The rapid, jerky eye movements as the eye scans an image. Counters our introspective conception of eyes moving smoothly over an image or writing.

Front 43

Fixation

Back 43

The process of keeping an image on the fovea. Allows us to process a certain part of an image before moving again to another part.

Front 44

Regressions

**WHY**

Back 44

During reading, right to left eye movements to previously read text.

Front 45

Moving window technique

Back 45

An experimental procedure where a reader is precented from seeing information beyond a certain distance from the current fixation. Helps in determining how much visual info can be taken during a fixation.

Front 46

Entry points

**WHY***

Back 46

The locations to which a viewer directs his eyes before starting to read a section in a piece of complex material.

Front 47

Smooth pursuit movements

Back 47

Movements of the eye than enable a object to remain fixed. Counters the idea that eyes only work by fixation and saccades.

Front 48

task-related knowledge

Back 48

An observer;s knowledge of the goals and the task at hand used to guide eyes during a visual task.

Front 49

The 2 main properties of attention

Back 49

Attention is selective,
Attention has limited capacity

Front 50

Broadbent

Back 50

(1958) Info processing model - filtering occurs at perceptual analysis

Front 51

The two things attention can select

Back 51

Space (Posner 'spotlight'; Eriksen 'zoom lense)
Objects

Front 52

Two methods of attention measurement

Back 52

Cuing task,
Visual search