Cog. Ch 4

Placing tomatoes, onions, jalapenos, garlic, cilantro, and lime juice into a blender and turning it on to produce salsa is similar to which of the following?

the focused attention stage of feature integration theor

automatic processing

understanding which occurs without intention and while using only some of a person's cognitive resources

The difficulty we have in recognizing even an obvious alteration in a scene is called __________ blindness.

change

Balint's syndrome

condition caused by brain damage whereby a person has difficulty focusing attention on individual objects

When we search a scene, initial fixations are most likely to occur on __________ areas.

high-saliency

The technique where the participant's task is to focus on the message in one ear, called the attended ear, and to repeat what he or she is hearing out loud is known as

dichotic listening.

illusory conjunction

situation in which features from different objects are inappropriately combined

change detection

task where a person has to determine the difference between two pictures

Stroop effect

task where a person has to respond to one aspect of a stimulus and ignore another aspect

Proponents of multitasking would note ________ to support their opinion, whereas opponents of multitasking would point to ________ to justify their perspective.

divided attention; distraction

stimulus salience

bottom-up factors that determine attention to elements of a scene

attentional warping

brain changes to allow more space for what is being searched for

focused attention stage

second step of Treisman's feature integration theory, in which features combine to perceive the object

When Sam listens to his girlfriend Susan in the restaurant and ignores other people's conversations, he is engaged in the process of __________ attention.

selective

Research on the use of cell phones while driving indicates that

the main effect of cell phone use on driving safety can be attributed to the fact that attention is used up by the cognitive task of talking on the phone.

shadowing

procedure of repeating a message out loud as it is heard

precueing

procedure where participants are given a prompt that may help them accomplish a subsequent task

binding

process of combining features to create the perception of a coherent object

attenuator

process that analyzes the incoming message in terms of physical characteristics, language, and meaning

load theory of attention

proposal that the ability to ignore task-irrelevant stimuli depends on how much the person is doing

same-object advantage

quickened response that occurs when enhancement spreads throughout an item

Attentional capture

rapid shifting of focus usually caused by a stimulus, such as a loud noise

Saccadic eye movement is a ______________.

rapid, jerky movement from one fixation to the next

With the Stroop effect, you would expect to find longest response times when

the color and the name differed.

feature integration theory

idea that attributes are first analyzed and then combined, resulting in perception of an object

A high threshold in Treisman's model of attention implies that

it takes a strong signal to cause activation.

Which of the following illustrates how we can miss things even if they are clearly visible?

Inattentional blindness

Which stage in Treisman's attenuation model has a threshold component?

The dictionary unit

According to Treisman's attenuation model, which of the following would you expect to have the highest threshold for most people?

The word "platypus"

Which of the following attention model components produces two levels of output?

Treisman's attenuator

early selection model

idea that a filter eliminates unattended information at the beginning of the flow of information

feature search

looking among distractors for a target item that involves detecting one attribute

dictionary unit

part of processing that contains stored words and thresholds for activating the words

saliency map

picture of a scene that indicates physical properties of areas and objects in the scene

dichotic listening

presenting one message to the left ear and a different message to the right ear

The notion that faster responding occurs when enhancement spreads within an object is called

same-object advantage.

covert attention

shifting observation without moving the eyes

filter model of attention

theory that stimuli are selected to be attended to during processing

Selective attention

ability to focus on one message and ignore all others

conjunction search

looking among distractors for a target that involves two or more features

Which of the following is an experimental procedure used to study how attention affects the processing of competing stimuli?

Dichotic listening

How does perceptual load differ from processing capacity?

Perceptual load is individual and processing capacity is universal.

cocktail party effect

ability to focus on one stimulus while filtering out other stimuli

Divided attention

ability to focus on, or carry out, two or more different tasks simultaneously

processing capacity

amount of information input that a person can handle

change blindness

difficulty detecting differences in similar, but slightly altered, scenes that are presented one after another

If you are folding towels while watching television, you may find that you don't have to pay much attention to the act of folding while keeping up with the storyline on the TV show. Folding the towels would be an example of a(n) ________ task.

low-load

The Stroop effect demonstrates people's inability to ignore the __________ of words.

meaning

detector

mechanism which processes information to determine higher-level characteristics of the message, such as its meaning

__________ is the process by which features such as color, form, motion, and location are combined to create our perception of a coherent object.

Binding

continuity error

film error where one aspect of the scene changes from one shot to the next

preattentive stage

first step of Treisman's feature integration theory, in which an object is analyzed into features

Suppose twin teenagers are vying for their mother's attention. The mother is trying to pay attention to one of her daughters, though both girls are talking (one about her boyfriend, one about a school project). According to the operating characteristics of Treisman's attenuator, it is most likely the attenuator is analyzing the incoming messages in terms of

meaning

inattentional blindness

not noticing something even though it is in clear view

Distraction

occurs when one stimulus interferes with attention to or the processing of another stimulus