Chapter 7

Front 1

Balint's Syndrome
ba-lint's

Back 1

a disorder following bilateral occipitoparietal stroke, characterized by difficulty in perceiving visual objects. Patients with the disorder can correctly identify objects but have difficulty relating objects to one another. They tend to focus attention on one object to the exclusion of others when the objects are presented simultaneously.

Front 2

bottleneck

Back 2

a stage of processing where not all the inputs can gain access or pass through

Front 3

covert attention

Back 3

the ability to direct attention without overt altercations or changes in sensory receptors- for example, attending to a conversation without turning the eyes and head towards the speaker
-direct senesce with mind rather than the body

Front 4

dichotic listening
di-cho-tic

Back 4

an experimental technique in which subjects listen to a different message in each ear at the same time

Front 5

early selection

Back 5

the theoretical model positing that attention can select (partially or completely) incoming information prior to complete perceptual analysis and its encoding as categorical or semantic information

Front 6

endogenous cuing
endo-gen-ous

Back 6

the control of attention by internal stimuli under voluntary control

-you direct your senses using not external stimuli but your own thoughts

Front 7

exogenous cuing
exo-gen-ous

Back 7

also reflexive cuing; the control of attention by external stimuli and not by internal voluntary control

Front 8

extinction

Back 8

the failure to perceive or respond to a stimulus contralateral to a lesion (contralesional) when presented with a simultaneous stimulus ipsilateral to the lesion (ipsilesional)

Front 9

feature integration theory of attention

Back 9

a psychological theory of visual perception based on the idea that the visual system can process in parallel elementary features such as color,shape, and motion, but requires spatial attention to bind the features that define an object.

Front 10

inhibition of return (IOR)

Back 10

a hypothesized process underlying the slowing or motor responses observed over time when attention is reflexively attracted to a location by a sensory event (reflexive cue). As the name implies, inhibition of return is conceptualized as inhibition of recently attended locations such as that attention is inhibited in returning to that location (or object)

Front 11

late selection

Back 11

theoretical model positing that all inputs are equally processed perceptually, but attention acts to differentially filter these inputs at later stages of information processing.

Front 12

limited capacity

Back 12

the concept that the stages of information processing have a finite processing capability, leading to the need for the system to select high-priority information for access to these stages of analysis.

Front 13

neglect

Back 13

see unilateral spatial neglect;

Front 14

overt attention

Back 14

turning one's head to orient towards a stimulus, be it visual, auditory, olfactory, etc.

Front 15

pulvinar
pul-vin-ar

Back 15

a large region of the posterior thalamus comprising many nuclei having interconnections with specific regions of the cortex.
---relay station

Front 16

reflexive attention

Back 16

the automatic orienting of attention induced by bottom-up, or stimulus-driven, effects, such as when a flash of light in the periphery captures one's attention.

Front 17

reflexive cuing

Back 17

see exogenous cuing; this means endogenous cuing is not reflexive but conscious

Front 18

selective attention

Back 18

the ability to focus one's concentration on a subset of sensory inputs, trains of thought, or actions, while simultaneously ignoring others. (to ignore also takes energy). selective attention can be distinguished from nonselective attention,which includes simple behavioral arousal (i.e. being generally more versus less attentive)

Front 19

superior colliculus
colli-culus

Back 19

a subcortical visual structure located in the midbrain. it receives input from the retinal system and is interconnected with the subcortical and cortical systems. It plays a key role in visuomotor processes and may be involved in the inhibitory component of reflexive attentional orienting.

Front 20

thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN)
thal-a-mic

Back 20

a think layer of neurons surrounding the nuclei of the thalamus, which receives inputs from the cortex and subcortical structures and sends projections to the thalamic relay nuclei.

Front 21

unilateral spatial neglect

Back 21

or neglect; a behavioral pattern exhibited by neurological patients with lesions to the forebrain, in which they fail at or slowed in acknowledging that objects or events exist in the hemispace opposite their lesion. Neglect is most closely associated with damage to the right parietal cortex.

Front 22

voluntary attention

Back 22

the volitional, or intentional focusing of attention on a source of input, train of thought, or action.