PSY510 - Cognitive Psychology. J.P. Toth.
Spring 2013
Key terms & ideas for Week 4 – Attention
General
- What are the main goals of attention?
- Define selective attention, divided attention (cf. multitasking), & spatial attention?
- What are the main forms of attention described in Posner's 3-network models of attention?
- What is biased competition? In what way is it a general (overarching) model of attention?
How does it incorporate the distinction between bottom-up and top-down processing?
Selective Attention
- What is the cocktail-party effect?
- Explain dichotic listening & shadowing. What is the purpose of shadowing? What factors
allow effective shadowing? How well do people remember unattended info?
- What is the main difference between early- and late-selection theories of attention?
- Briefly explain the following models of selective attention: (a) Broadbent's Filter Model; (b)
Treisman's Attenuation Model; (c) Norman's Late-Selection Model.
- What do neurological (ERP & Neuroimaging) studies tell us about selective attention? That is,
what happens in the brain when we selectively attend to something?
Divided Attention
- Briefly describe Kahneman's Capacity Model of attention.
- How is capacity measured in this model?
- What is the difference between general vs. task-specific resources?
- Define controlled and automatic processes?
- How (under what conditions) do automatic processes develop?
- Describe the Stroop & Simon Tasks. How are these task relevant to the distinction between
controlled and automatic processes?
Spatial Attention
- What is covert attention? How is it studied?
- What is the difference between endogenous vs. exogenous spatial cueing? Which type of
cueing produces attentional capture?
- Describe Treisman's Feature Integration Theory? How does this theory explain illusory
conjunctions? How does it solve the binding problem?
- What is change blindness? Inattentional blindness?
- What is the difference between space-based vs. object-based attention?
- How does the attentional blink task investigate the deployment of attention in time?