Psyc 260 T2 - Mt2

Front 1

What is the functional definition of consciousness? Under what circumstances do they not apply

Back 1

Reporting awareness of a stimulus.
Nonverbal humans, non-human animals.

Front 2

Controlled attention

Back 2

Willful redirection of attention; voluntary attention; top-down attention

Front 3

Automatic attention

Back 3

Tendency to direct attention towards eye-catching stimuli; reflexive attention; bottom-up attention

Front 4

Describe the mask-unmask task

Back 4

Unmasked: word flashed between two blank screens
Masked: word flashed between two busy screens

Front 5

Compare and contrast brain activity in the unmasked and masked condition (3)

Back 5

Similar: Both conditions show V1 activation
Differences:
1. Unmasked shows greater V1 activation
2. Unmasked shows PFC and parietal activation
3. Unmasked subjects reported awareness of the word

Front 6

What are the implications of the differences in brain activity between the masked and unmasked conditions on consciousness in general?

Back 6

Consciousness shows greater brain activation
Consciousness depends on amount of brain activity

Front 7

What happens to brain activity as attention is directed towards a specific modality (eg. hearing, listening) (3)

Back 7

1. Brain activity corresponding to the specific sensory region increases before being aware of the stimuli in order to magnify the response.
2. Continues being active while stimuli is perceived.
3. Induces synchrony of responses during pattern recognition

Front 8

What is binocular rivalry? How is brain activity affected?

Back 8

1. Being aware of information from one eye, then the other alternately but not both at once.
2. Each change in perception comes with a change in brain activation. If stimuli is pulsating, activity increases at an identical rhythm

Front 9

Describe threshold theory.

Back 9

Consciousness is all-or-nothing, if neural activation reaches a certain threshold, individual becomes aware, if not, no awareness.

Front 10

What is significant about becoming aware to meaningful stimuli faster than meaningless stimuli in regards to brain processes?

Back 10

To become aware of meaningful stimuli faster means the brain recognizes it holds more meaning without being aware of the stimuli itself.

Front 11

Describe the phi phenomenon and provide an example.

Back 11

New stimuli sometimes changes the awareness of previous stimuli.

If dots are flashed in different locations in quick succession, they are perceived as moving.

Front 12

Inattentional blindness

Back 12

Being unaware of stimuli due to attention being directed elsewhere
No attention means no cognitive processing

Front 13

What is the role of the PFC in attention (2)

Back 13

1. Directing attention
2. Suppressing distraction

Front 14

Change blindness

Back 14

Not noticing a change in visual stimulus

Front 15

Spatial neglect

Back 15

Inability to pay attention to the left side of space

Front 16

Why does neglect occur mostly on the left side of space?

Back 16

Theory of hemispheric attention: left side pays attention to right side, right side pays attention to both sides

Front 17

What are some strategies to increase attention to the neglected field? (4)

Back 17

1. Touch the patient on the neglected side
2. Play a sound on the neglected side
3. Cross arms so that contra-lateral arm is on the non-neglected side
4. Tell the patient to look in the neglected direction

Front 18

Describe how damage to right hemisphere cortical regions affect spatial neglect (3)

Back 18

1. Right inferior parietal damage: inability to pay attention to left side of self
2. Right superior temporal damage: inability to pay attention to left side of objects
3. Superior longitudinal fasiculus damage: all of left side of space

Front 19

What is the superior longitudinal fasiculus?

Back 19

Axon pathway connecting the right posterior parietal cortex to the pre-frontal cortex.

Front 20

What is the role of experience in top-down processing?

Back 20

Experience increases both the attentional capacity and enhances the allocation of spatial attention of subjects.

Front 21

What were the two primary investigations of Green and Bavelier's Video Game study? What were the results?

Back 21

Q1. Do video game players show increased attentional capacity? A1: Yes
Q2. Does video game playing allow for a larger useful field of view? A1: Yes

Front 22

How was attentional capacity investigted in Green and Bavelier's video game study? (2)

Back 22

1. Flanker compatibility task
VGP showed similar RT on easy tasks but faster RT on hard tasks indicating less attentional resource depletion.

2. Enumeration task
VGP showed similar %error on easy tasks but lower error on harder tasks

Front 23

Flanker compatibility task

Back 23

Showing a target stimuli either alone or surrounded by other stimuli then introducing a distractor.
Effect of distractor is greater when task is harder

Front 24

Enumeration task

Back 24

Flashing a screen with varied numbers of blocks on it and asking the participant to identify how many blocks there were.
Higher number of blocks show greater error

Front 25

How was spacial attentional processing investigated in Green and Bavelier's VGP study? (1)

Back 25

Useful field of view task
VGP showed a greater number of stimuli identified correctly at all degrees of eccentricity

Front 26

What is the effect of taking a walk in an urban area vs.taking a walk in a park on attention? How else could you bring about this effect? How fast is the onset?

Back 26

Urban area walkers showed decrease attentional task performance.
Looking at a picture of a city vs a park also shows this effect
A walk of 5 minutes is enough to bring about this effect

Front 27

How is orienting to gaze direction similar to reflexive attention? (2) How is it different? (2)

Back 27

Similar
1. Onset is immediate
2. Works even for non-predictive orientations

Different
1. Works at higher ROAs
2. Works in the middle of view field as well as periphery

Front 28

What were the findings of Driver at al. 1999's gaze orienting study? (2)

Back 28

1. At 300ms SOA, counter-predictive gaze direction showed shorter RT's than predicted location
2. At 700ms SOA, RT's shorter at predicted location but not significantly

Front 29

What were the hypotheses proposed by Friesen et al. gaze orientation study (Exp 1.) to explain the results of Driver et al.'s study? (2)

Back 29

1. When reflexive and voluntary orienting are lead to different places, tension between them abolishes volitional orienting
2. Reflexive and voluntary orienting occur independently and performance at both locations are improved equally

Front 30

How did Friesen et al. study test his hypotheses in Exp 1? (2) What were the results?

Back 30

1. Increase number of SOAs to 150, 600, 1200, 1800ms to have timings of only volitional learning.
2. Increase number of gaze directions to include NP-NC directions as a true control


150, 600ms SOA showed faster RT at cued location when compared to NP-NC
1200, 1800ms SOA showed faster RT at predicted location when compared to NP-NC
600ms showed no significant difference between C and P but both were shorter than NP-NC

Front 31

Which hypothesis was supported in Friesen et al.'s study of gaze orientation? Why?

Back 31

Reflexive and voluntary attention work independently and are improved equally thus showing no difference in RT between them at intermediate SOA's.

At 600ms SOA, both the C and P group were faster than NP-NC showing that both reflexive and voluntary orienting were working. If opposite hypothesis were true, all three groups should show no differences

Front 32

Selective attention

Back 32

Purposely paying attention to relevant stimuli while disregarding all other stimuli

Front 33

How do attended stimuli compare to unattended stimuli with regards to activity. (3)

Back 33

Attended stimuli show:
1. Quicker RT
2. Larger ERP potentials
3. Greater brain activity in visual areas

Front 34

What is the dichotic listening task? What are changes that can be detected and changes that can't be detected in the unattended ear?

Back 34

Listening to two different messages at the same time and focussing attention on one ear.
Changes in gender can be detected but changes in language can not.

Front 35

Describe the early filtering mechanisms proposed (2)

Back 35

1. Broadbent's model
Multiple sensory inputs reach an attentional filter; only relevant ones are sent through, all others are blocked
2. Triesman's model
Irrelevant sensory inputs are attenuated but particularly potent ones can still get through

Front 36

Describe the late filtering mechansim proposed (1) and what lends support to this model/

Back 36

Deutsch's model
Filtering occurs after some perceptual and cognitive analyses - stimuli first perceived then chosen to be ignored
Explains why message in unattended ear can still be understood - attention is focussed on that information once asked but wasn't while listening.

Front 37

Attentional-resource theory

Back 37

Attention is made up of a single pool of resources that can be divided up into many tasks and modalities at once

Front 38

What is divided attention? Why does practice improve your divided attentional performance?

Back 38

Divided attention: doing two or more discrete tasks at once
Practice decreases the amount of attentional resources needed for each task, autonomizing the very familiar.

Front 39

What are the ways to measure mind wandering? (3)

Back 39

1. Experience sampling: asking at random intervals whether or not they were on task
2. Retrospective questionnaires: can also measure MW tendencies
3. Behavioural measures: errors on simple tasks represent mind wandering

Front 40

What are the issues with mind wandering measurements? (2)

Back 40

1. Retrospective contamination
2. Participants that are aware that they are being monitored tend to focus more than they would otherwise

Front 41

What are the factors that affect mind-wandering frequency

Back 41

1. Age - younger MW more
2. Number of ongoing problems - more problems more MW
3. Disphoria (melancholy, mild depression) - more disphoric more MW
4. Nature of the task - monotonous, undemanding tasks show more MW

Front 42

Describe when the default mode network (DMN) is active (3) and when it deactivates (1).

Back 42

1. When not focused on any specific tasks
2. When focused on internal tasks (recall, imagining the future)
3. When performing very practiced external tasks

1. Deactivates when performing a demanding external tasks

Front 43

What brain regions are implicated in the DMN? (5)

Back 43

1. Medial PFC
2. Cingulate
3. Insula
4. Inferior parietal lobule
5. Posterior cingulate cortex

Front 44

How did Mason et al. investigate how the DMN is implicated in mind-wandering?

Back 44

Participants performed a difficult task until they could mind-wander during it. They then performed the trained task with a novel task and activity was measured

DMN regions of the brain found to be more active in the practiced task - when mind wandering was more likely to occur.

Front 45

Sustained Attention Response Task (SART)

Back 45

Monotonous task (push button when you see a square) with intermittent probes asking about attentional state. Activity in the 5 trials before the probe are averaged as a function of mind-wandering reports

Front 46

What were the two primary questions that Christoff et al. investigated? (2) What did they find?

Back 46

1. Does DMN activation occur during the precise moments of mind wandering?
2. Does the executive system play a role during mind-wandering?

1. DMN activation happens during the precise moments of mind wandering with highest activation during periods without meta-awareness
2. Executive network is activated during mind-wandering

Front 47

What DMN (3) and executive network (2) brain regions were found to be activated with meta-awareness in Christoff et al.'s study? Without meta-awareness (6)?

Back 47

With meta-awareness:
DMN - Ventral ACC, precuneus, temporoparietal junction
EN - Dorsal ACC, dorsolateral PFC

Without meta-awareness
Dorsal ACC, Ventral ACC, insula, temporparietal junction, PFC, precuneus

Front 48

What did Killingsworth and Gilbert (2010) find about how thought content, activity, and mood affect mind-wandering?

Back 48

1. Mind wandering occurs frequently no matter what the activity with the exception of sex
2. Mind wandering overall decreases happiness than when non-mind wandering
3. Positive thoughts decreased it a little, neutral a little more, and negative the most

Front 49

What did Franklin et al. 2013 find about the specific types of thoughts and mind-wandering?

Back 49

Mind wandering decreases happiness on average but thoughts with high interest and usefulness show significant increases in happiness vs. no mind wandering while medium - low interest/useful thoughts show decreases in happiness

Front 50

What were the two main investigations of Kam et al. (2011)?

Back 50

1. Does mind-wandering influence sensory response?
2. Does mind-wandering influence cognitive analyses?

Front 51

How did Kam et al. (2011) investigate the effects of MW on sensory and motor responses? What was found?

Back 51

Sensory:
Performed SART with an extra distractor stimuli (noise or picture) and measured brain activity in response to it
Cognitive:
Performed SART without distractor stimuli and measured brain activity

MW subjects showed decreased P1 and N1 ERP peaks towards distractor stimuli and decreased P3 ERP peaks toward target stimuli

Suggests that MW decreases sensory response to task-irrelevant stimuli and also decreases cognitive analyses for task-relevant stimuli

Front 52

What were the hypotheses proposed by Baron et al. (2011) to explain the underlying mechanism for mind wandering (3)

Back 52

1. General failure to resist distractibility
2. Temporary executive network failure
3. Decoupling of consciousness from external environment

Front 53

How did Barron et al. (2011) test their three hypotheses for mind wandering mechanisms?

Back 53

Visual oddball paradigm
Subject asked to watch a screen with a standard/default stimuli with occasional changes to either the target or a distractor stimuli. P3a (Frontal) ERPs and P3b (Parietal) ERPs were taken. TUT tendencies were also measured using the DSSQ

Front 54

What was found from Barron et al. (2011)'s study and which hypothesis did they settle on?

Back 54

P3a for the distractor and P3b for the target ERP activity were both increased in high MW subjects lending support for the decoupling hypothesis

Front 55

How was the relationship between MW and motor response investigated in Kam et al. 2013's study?

Back 55

1. Visuo-motor tracking task
Follow big circle with red dot using joystick, measured error over time
2. Time estimation task
Press a button 1s after a sound plays, will tell you if you were early or late

Front 56

What results were found and what mechanism was proposed for the relationship between MW and motor response in Kam et al. 2013's study.

Back 56

Error was greater during MW periods on VMTT while fERN (frontal-central) ERP was attenuated during MW.

Motor response was impaired and was suggested to be due to decreased performance monitoring during MW

Front 57

What was the relationship between reading comprehension and MW found by Schooler et al. and Risko et al?

Back 57

Increased MW showed decreased reading comprehension during lecture

Front 58

How did Kam et al. 2013 investigate if our attentional systems disengage from the environment during MW?

Back 58

Auditory oddball paradigm
While reading a book, standard and oddball tones were played and attention self-reports were measured
MMN(fronto-central) ERPs measured - active during deviant events
MW increased MMN amplitude - suggests that deviant event detection is enhanced during MW

Front 59

What are the characteristics of compulsive fantasizers? (4)

Back 59

1. Aware that their fantasies aren't real
2. Able to refrain during work and school
3. Unable to refrain when alone
4. Less spontaneous, but once engaged last a long time

Front 60

What are the characteristics of ADHD? (3)

Back 60

1. Inattention and restlessness
2. Unusually active DMN
3. Symptoms may reflect fluctuations between DMN and externally-oriented states

Front 61

Depression characteristics (3)

Back 61

1. Tendency to ruminate in negative thoughts
2. Increased DMN activity
3. More likely to remain in default state

Front 62

Chemobrain

Back 62

Cognitive symptoms that emerge after chemotherapy
Forgetting things, trouble concentrating, tip-of-the-tongue
Report higher levels of MW during task performance

Front 63

What was the main finding of Baird et al. 2012?

Back 63

Mind wandering increases performance on previously encountered creativity tasks suggesting that MW allows for an incubation period of ideas.

Front 64

Mindfullness

Back 64

Paying attention to what is currently happening

Front 65

How is mindfullness studied (4)

Back 65

1. Subject populations
2. Mindfullness manipulations
3. Experimental task
4. Brain change measures

Front 66

What are the definitions of mindfullness? (4)

Back 66

1. Sustained mindfulness: present centered - knowing what is thought about
2. Receptive mindfulness: accepting; all thoughts coming in
3. East: constant and bare presence of mind
4. West: moment-to-moment non-judgmental awareness

Front 67

What are the cognitive processes associated with mindfulness (3)

Back 67

1. Sustained attention
2. Receptive attention - decrease attentional blink, decreased emotional reactivity
3. Introspective awareness - increased somatosensory awareness, increased emotional awareness

Front 68

Rostrolateral PFC

Back 68

Not part of executive network
More part of introspection and spontaneous thought

Front 69

Ventral ACC

Back 69

Supports emotion based processes

Front 70

What was the brain activity in the executive control network during mindfulness training?

Back 70

Novices: Decreased RLPFC and VACC, increased DLPFC and DACC (effortful attentional control)

Practiced: Increased RLPFC, decreased DLPFC and DACC

Front 71

What was the brain activity in the DMN during mindfulness training?

Back 71

Novices: Decreased VMPFC, DMN, increased ECN

Practiced: Increased DMPFC, DMN, ECN

Front 72

What was the brain activity in the salience network during mindfulness training

Back 72

Novices: increased posterior INS, decreased VMPFC

Practiced: anterior INS activation, increased DLPFC