cog ch4

e. you have only about a 50% chance of noticing the switch.

A person approaches you on the street and asks for directions. While you are talking, two people carry a door between you and the person to whom you are speaking. While the door is passing, the person you are talking to is replaced by a different person. If you are like the people in studies by Simons and Levin, a. you will immediately notice the change. b. you will only notice if the two people are of different heights. c. you will only notice if the two people are wearing different clothing. d. you will only notice if the two people have noticeably different voices. e. you have only about a 50% chance of noticing the switch.

a. words like your own name have permanently lowered thresholds for recognition.

According to Treisman's attenuation theory, the cocktail party effect occurs because: a. words like your own name have permanently lowered thresholds for recognition. b. your name is primed by the context of the conversation. c. perception of expected information is easier than perception of unexpected information. d. its physical characteristics make it "stand out" from surrounding conversation. e. none of these—Treisman's theory cannot explain the cocktail party effect.

d. only as much as is necessary to separate the attended from the unattended message.

According to Treisman, people tend to process: a. only to the level of physical characteristics. b. only to the level of linguistic characteristics, separating it into words. c. at a semantic level, analyzing for meaning most of the time. d. only as much as is necessary to separate the attended from the unattended message. e. at the highest possible level given the amount of background distraction.

a. schema

According to ____ theory, we never actually acquire unattended material at all. a. schema b. bottleneck c. attenuation d. filter e. capacity

e. attention is needed during practice, and determines both what is learned during practice and what will be remembered from the practice.

According to the attention hypothesis of automatization, a. attention is needed during the practice phase of a task. b. attention determines what gets learned during practice. c. attention determines what will be remembered from the practice. d. attention is needed during practice and determines what is learned during practice. e. attention is needed during practice, and determines both what is learned during practice and what will be remembered from the practice.

d. involves an inability to inhibit an ongoing response such as talking or playing a game.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): a. is more common in girls than in boys. b. affects 10%-15% of the general school-age population. c. involves an inability to be alert. d. involves an inability to inhibit an ongoing response such as talking or playing a game. e. involves an inability to devote mental resources to any task.

b. both messages contained little information.

Broadbent believed that you might be able to attend to two messages at once if: a. you were concentrating very hard. b. both messages contained little information. c. both messages were important to you. d. there was no background noise in the room. e. you were blindfolded.

b. a physical characteristic of the message, such as its location.

Broadbent, in proposing his filter theory of attention, argued that an attentional filter lets some information through and blocks out the rest. This filter is based upon: a. the meaning of the message. b. a physical characteristic of the message, such as its location. c. the importance of the message. d. the language of the message. e. the number of repetitions of the message.

b. attentional capture.

Certain stimuli seem to jump off the page at the viewer, causing an involuntary shift of attention that is referred to as: a. the Stroop effect. b. attentional capture. c. attenuation. d. the cocktail party effect. e. the bottleneck effect.

d. cannot sustain vigilance on repetitive or dull tasks.

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): a. are more likely to be girls than boys. b. cannot devote mental resources to tasks. c. cannot switch attention from one task to another. d. cannot sustain vigilance on repetitive or dull tasks. e. cannot maintain alertness.

d. whether it requires mental filtering.

Cognitive psychologists use all of the following as criteria for determining whether an activity is automatic EXCEPT: a. whether it occurs intentionally. b. whether it gives rise to conscious awareness. c. whether it interferes with other activities. d. whether it requires mental filtering. e. whether it operates in parallel.

a. lower working memory spans than those who do not.

Conway and colleagues discovered that research participants who detect their own names in an unattended message are likely to have: a. lower working memory spans than those who do not. b. higher working memory spans than those who do not. c. lower IQ scores than those who do not. d. higher IQ scores than those who do not. e. higher working memory and IQ scores than those who do not.

e. cell phone use increases reaction time and the probability of missing a red light.

Driving simulator studies suggest that: a. cell phone use increases the probability of missing a red light. b. cell phone use increases reaction time to red lights. c. listening to the radio increases the probability of missing a red light. d. both cell phone use and listening to the radio increase reaction time. e. cell phone use increases reaction time and the probability of missing a red light.

b. illusory conjunction.

Glancing out your window, you notice a woman in a blue coat walking with a child in a red coat. Later, you recall seeing a child in a blue coat. You have fallen victim to the phenomenon known as: a. the Stroop effect. b. illusory conjunction. c. automatic processing. d. the bottleneck effect. e. the cocktail party phenomenon.

b. tasks that require resource-limited processing.

Greater effort or concentration results in better performance on: a. all tasks. b. tasks that require resource-limited processing. c. tasks that are data-limited. d. tasks that require vigilance. e. no tasks.

a. the length of time each array was displayed

In Schneider and Shiffrin's classic study of visual search for targets, which of the following variables DID have an effect on processing in the consistent-mapping condition? a. the length of time each array was displayed b. the number of distracters in the array c. the number of targets the subject was asked to find d. both the number of distracters and the number of targets e. the number of distracters and targets AND the length of time the array was displayed

e. memory set size, frame size, and frame time

In Schneider and Shiffrin's classic study of visual search for targets, which of the following variables DID have an effect on processing in the varied-mapping condition? a. memory set size b. frame size c. frame time d. both frame size and frame time e. memory set size, frame size, and frame time

e. Many participants switched ears and repeated a few words from the unattended ear without realizing that the messages had been switched.

In Treisman's (1960) classic experiment, participants were asked to shadow a message in one ear. At a certain point in the middle of the messages, the content of the first message and the second message were switched. What happened to shadowing performance? a. Nothing—participants completed the task as instructed. b. Participants became confused and were unable to continue shadowing. c. Many participants switched ears and repeated a few words from the unattended ear, then caught themselves and consciously switched back to the correct ear. d. Participants reported hearing both messages and asked which one they were supposed to shadow. e. Many participants switched ears and repeated a few words from the unattended ear without realizing that the messages had been switched.

a. an S among T's and X's.

In Treisman's experiments on feature integration, the number of distracters did not matter when participants were asked to spot: a. an S among T's and X's. b. a green X among green O's and pink X's. c. a pink T among blue T's and pink X's. d. a blue T among blue X's and green T's. e. any stimulus that was presented in pink.

b. dichotic listening

In a _______ task, a person listens to an audiotape and hears two separate messages presented simultaneously to the left and right ears. a. filter b. dichotic listening c. bionic listening d. sustained attention e. stereophonic listening

e. overall, 46% of the participants failed to notice the woman at all.

In a study of inattentional blindness, Daniel Simons and colleagues presented an unexpected event, such as a woman with an umbrella crossing the room from left to right, to a group of participants who were trying to monitor the number of passes that a particular basketball team made in a film. When questioned later about "anything unexpected" that happened in the film, a. almost all participants noticed the woman with the umbrella. b. only participants with an easier pass-monitoring task noticed the woman. c. only participants with a more difficult pass-counting task noticed the woman. d. only participants monitoring the black team (as opposed to the white team) noticed the woman. e. overall, 46% of the participants failed to notice the woman at all.

c. the word names a color which is not the ink color.

In the Stroop effect, participants have difficulty correctly naming the color of ink that a word is written in when: a. the word is unrelated to the topic of color. b. the word names the color of ink. c. the word names a color which is not the ink color. d. the "word" is not a word at all, but a pronounceable nonsense syllable. e. the "word" is not a word at all, but an unpronounceable sequence of consonants without vowels.

b. we combine features into unified objects.

In the second stage of feature integration theory, a. we register features of objects such as their shape or color. b. we combine features into unified objects. c. we break unified objects down into identifiable features. d. we switch from serial to parallel processing. e. we notice the background of objects.

c. bottleneck; spotlight

More recent research has suggested a move from a _____ to a ______ metaphor to explain the basic nature of attention. a. bottleneck; filter b. filter; bottleneck c. bottleneck; spotlight d. headlight; spotlight e. apple tree; spotlight

b. do not pay attention to objects on the left side of visual space.

Neuropsychological studies have indicated that patients with damage to the right parietal lobe: a. cannot perceive objects on the left side of visual space. b. do not pay attention to objects on the left side of visual space. c. perceive and pay attention to objects on the left side of visual space, but cannot reproduce them in a drawing. d. can neither perceive nor pay attention to objects on the left side of visual space. e. can neither perceive nor pay attention to objects on the right side of visual space.

a. disengaging attention from where it was previously focused.

Parts of the frontal, parietal, and subcortical lobes are involved in: a. disengaging attention from where it was previously focused. b. implementing attention when a person has already decided where to focus. c. refocusing attention to a new stimulus. d. generating top-down instructions to the visual system. e. processing newly discovered information.

d. if you think that you are doing two things simultaneously, you are probably really rapidly switching attention back and forth between the two.

Research on divided attention suggests that: a. some people can multitask without any drop in performance. b. there are no limits on the number of things that we can successfully do at once. c. as individual tasks become more demanding, multitasking becomes more efficient. d. if you think that you are doing two things simultaneously, you are probably really rapidly switching attention back and forth between the two. e. the ability to multitask is an essential skill in the 21st century.

c. causes significantly more errors and slows reaction time significantly more than listening to the radio.

Research suggests that talking on a cell phone while driving: a. does not cause errors or slow reaction time. b. does not slow reaction time any more than does listening to the radio. c. causes significantly more errors and slows reaction time significantly more than listening to the radio. d. does not impair driving as long as the driver is using a "hands-free" telephone. e. actually improves driving performance.

a. whether it is speech or simply noise

Results from dichotic listening studies indicate that, while a person is shadowing one message, he/she notices which of the following features of the unattended message? a. whether it is speech or simply noise b. whether it is spoken in English or Japanese c. multiple repetitions of the same words d. both the fact that it is speech and the language that is being spoken e. whether the words being spoken are nonsense or real sentences

c. parietal

Sensory neglect (also called hemineglect) occurs when patients suffer damage to the _______ lobe. a. occipital b. frontal c. parietal d. temporal e. subcortical

d. after 6 weeks of practice, people could simultaneously take dictation accurately and read with normal comprehension.

Spelke, Hirst, and Neisser attempted to teach participants to simultaneously take dictation and read with comprehension. Their results suggests that: a. no amount of practice can teach people to do two things at once without a drop in performance. b. people could eventually reach accurate performance on the dictation task, but reading comprehension still suffered. c. people could eventually reach accuracy in reading comprehension, but in doing so they sacrificed accuracy in dictation. d. after 6 weeks of practice, people could simultaneously take dictation accurately and read with normal comprehension. e. people could simultaneously take dictation accurately and read with normal comprehension, but only after 2 years or more of practice.

b. participants are given more practice at naming colors.

Stroop interference lessens when: a. participants are better readers. b. participants are given more practice at naming colors. c. participants are girls rather than boys. d. participants are encouraged to focus carefully. e. participants are given more practice at reading color names.

b. second or third grade.

Stroop interference peaks at around the age of: a. 3 years old. b. second or third grade. c. 12 years old. d. 20 years old. e. 60 years old.

c. the amplitude of the waveform is larger for the attended ear.

Studies of event-related potentials for attended and unattended tones indicate that: a. ERPs are the same for attended and unattended stimuli, suggesting that the brain processes both types of stimuli at least to some degree. b. the amplitude of the waveform is larger for the right ear than the left, regardless of which ear is being attended to. c. the amplitude of the waveform is larger for the attended ear. d. the time lag of the peak waveforms suggests that the difference occurs in the ears, before the messages get to the brain. e. the amplitude of the waveform is larger for short-duration tones than for long-duration tones.

b. the listener's name

The "cocktail party effect" refers to the fact that shadowing performance is disrupted when _______ is embedded in the unattended message. a. backward speech b. the listener's name c. a section of repeated words d. music e. a switch in language

a. filter

The _______ theory of attention states that there is a very limited amount of information that can be attended to at one time; unattended information is blocked out. a. filter b. attenuation c. schema d. cocktail party e. divided attention

d. is driven by the properties of the stimulus, but can be overridden by top-down processes under certain circumstances.

The phenomenon of attentional capture: a. primarily depends upon the perceiver's goals. b. is driven almost entirely by the properties of the stimulus. c. Can be overridden by top-down processes under certain circumstances. d. is driven by the properties of the stimulus, but can be overridden by top-down processes under certain circumstances. e. normally depends upon the perceiver's goals, but can be overridden by bottom-up processes under certain circumstances.

c. primed

The word "cat" is ______ by the phrase "The dog chased the...." That is, the word cat is especially ready to be recognized or attended to. a. filtered b. attenuated c. primed d. suggested e. selected

a. we perceive objects in two distinct stages.

Treisman's feature integration theory argues that: a. we perceive objects in two distinct stages. b. we can only process one piece of information at a time. c. we have a flexible capacity for processing information. d. controlled processes do not interfere with each other the way automatic processes do. e. "unattended" information is never really processed at any level.

b. attenuated but not entirely blocked

Treisman's theory argues that "unattended" information is actually: a. blocked by a mental filter. b. attenuated but not entirely blocked. c. never acquired in the first place. d. processed to the level of meaning, then repressed. e. captured subconsciously in the frontal lobes.

c. cocktail party effect.

When listening to a conversation, your attention is momentarily diverted when you hear your name spoken in a different conversation across the room. This is an example of the: a. filter effect. b. dichotic listening phenomenon. c. cocktail party effect. d. attenuation effect. e. Stroop effect.

d. the lateness of selection

Which of the following factors does NOT influence the allocation of mental resources in Kahneman's capacity model? a. the state of arousal b. the difficulty of the task c. enduring dispositions d. the lateness of selection e. momentary intentions

e. Most drivers who text only do so while at a stop sign or stop light.

Which of the following is NOT true about distracted driving? a. Having a passenger in the car results in less accident risk than driving alone. b. About one in six fatal vehicle accidents involves distracted driving. c. In 2007, about 6000 fatalities occurred, but Wilson and Simpson's research suggest that 4000 of these would not have occurred if text messaging had not been a factor. d. Seventy percent of undergraduates report sending text messages while driving. e. Most drivers who text only do so while at a stop sign or stop light.

c. It does not interfere with other activities.

Which of the following is a characteristic of an automatic process? a. It only occurs intentionally. b. It gives rise to conscious awareness. c. It does not interfere with other activities. d. It requires mental filtering. e. It does not operate in parallel.

d. sending a telegraph message

Which of the following is an example of a controlled process, for most people? a. driving b. reading c. playing a well-practiced video game d. sending a telegraph message e. finding a number in an array of letters

c. It requires attention.

Which of the following is true regarding controlled processing? a. It is used with routine or familiar tasks. b. It usually operates in parallel. c. It requires attention. d. It is unaffected by massive amounts of practice. e. It is not capacity limited.

d. Participants learned to combine the two specific tasks.

Which of the following provides the most likely explanation for the findings of Spelke, Hirst, and Neisser (in which participants learned to simultaneously take dictation and read with comprehension)? a. Participants learned to alternate between the two tasks. b. The reading task became automatic with practice. c. The dictation task became automatic with practice. d. Participants learned to combine the two specific tasks. e. Both the reading and dictation tasks became automatic with practice.

d. the language that the message was being read in

Which of the following would NOT be a reasonable basis for filtering, according to Broadbent's model? a. whether the message was coming from your right or your left side b. the pitch of the voice reading the message c. the loudness of the voice reading the message d. the language that the message was being read in e. the gender of the person reading the message

d. included more errors that peaked 10 to 20 seconds after the backward message began, for those that did notice the message.

Wood and Cowan switched a passage in participants' unattended ear to backward speech, and reported that performance in shadowing the other ear: a. was unaffected for all participants. b. included more errors for all participants during the time that the backward message was being played. c. included more errors for only the participants who did not notice the backward message. d. included more errors that peaked 10 to 20 seconds after the backward message began, for those that did notice the message. e. actually improved during the 30 seconds that the backward message was being played in the unattended ear.

a. enduring dispositions.

n Kahneman's model of attention, allocation of mental resources is affected by preferences for certain kinds of tasks over others. These preferences are known as: a. enduring dispositions. b. arousal states. c. momentary intentions. d. late selection preferences. e. task difficulty variables.