Cognitive Psychology Chapter 3 Flashcards
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Questions and Answers

What is attention?

Attention is defined as a concentration of mental activity that allows you to take in a limited portion of the vast stream of information available from both your sensory world and your memory.

What is a divided-attention task?

A divided-attention task is a task in which the subject is asked to simultaneously focus attention on two or more stimuli.

What does it mean to multitask?

To multitask means to try to accomplish two or more tasks at the same time.

What is a selective-attention task?

<p>A selective-attention task requires people to pay attention to certain kinds of information while ignoring other ongoing information.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is dichotic listening?

<p>Dichotic listening is a task in which people wearing headphones hear different messages presented to each ear.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What does shadowing the message mean?

<p>Shadowing the message means to listen to a message and repeat it after the speaker.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the cocktail party effect?

<p>The cocktail party effect refers to the phenomenon where you can pay close attention to one conversation while noticing if your name is mentioned in a nearby conversation.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is working memory?

<p>Working memory is the brief, immediate memory for material that we are currently processing.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the Stroop effect?

<p>The Stroop effect is when people take a long time to name the ink color when that color is used in printing an incongruent word.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the emotional Stroop task?

<p>The emotional Stroop task indicates that naming the color takes longer for emotional words, capturing more attentional resources.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is a phobic disorder?

<p>A phobic disorder is characterized by excessive fear of a specific object.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is attentional bias?

<p>Attentional bias describes a situation in which people pay extra attention to some stimuli or features.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the cognitive-behavioral approach?

<p>The cognitive-behavioral approach asserts that psychological problems arise from inappropriate thinking and inappropriate learning.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)?

<p>PTSD is a disorder characterized by chronic physiological arousal, recurrent unwanted thoughts or images of the trauma, and avoidance of stimuli that remind one of the traumatic event.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the magnetoencephalography (MEG) technique?

<p>The MEG technique records magnetic field fluctuations produced by neural activity during the processing of stimuli.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is visual search?

<p>Visual search is when the observer must find a target in a visual display that has numerous distractors.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the isolated-feature/combined-feature effect?

<p>The isolated-feature/combined-feature effect suggests that if a target differs from irrelevant items in a simple feature, it can be detected quickly.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the feature-present/feature-absent effect?

<p>The feature-present/feature-absent effect indicates that people can usually locate a present feature quicker than an absent one.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is a saccadic eye movement?

<p>A saccadic eye movement is a rapid, jerky movement from one fixation to the next.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the fovea?

<p>The fovea is a very small region in the center of the retina.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is fixation in cognitive psychology?

<p>Fixation is when the visual system pauses briefly in order to acquire information.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is perceptual span?

<p>Perceptual span refers to the number of letters and spaces that we perceive during a fixation.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is parafoveal preview?

<p>Parafoveal preview occurs when readers can access information about upcoming words while fixating on a word to the left.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the orienting attention network?

<p>The orienting attention network is generally responsible for the attention required for visual search, shifting focus to various locations.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is a brain lesion?

<p>A brain lesion refers to specific brain damage caused by strokes, accidents, or other traumas.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is unilateral spatial neglect?

<p>Unilateral spatial neglect occurs when a person ignores part of his or her visual field.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is a positron emission tomography (PET) scan?

<p>A PET scan involves injecting individuals with a mildly radioactive substance and monitoring changes in blood flow to different regions of the brain.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the executive attention network?

<p>The executive attention network is responsible for managing attention when a task focuses on conflict.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are Bottleneck theories?

<p>Bottleneck theories propose that a narrow passageway in human information processing limits the quantity of information to which one can pay attention.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is distributed attention?

<p>Distributed attention allows you to register features automatically through parallel processing across the field, registering all features simultaneously.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is feature-integration theory?

<p>Feature-integration theory, developed by Anne Treisman, proposes a sequence of stages in which features are first analyzed and then combined to result in the perception of an object.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is focused attention?

<p>Focused attention is serial processing, in which you identify one object at a time.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is an illusory conjunction?

<p>An illusory conjunction is an inappropriate combination of features, possibly combining one object's shape with a nearby object's color.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the binding problem?

<p>The binding problem occurs when the color and the shape of two objects become switched.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is consciousness?

<p>Consciousness is the awareness that people have about the outside world and their perceptions, images, thoughts, memories, and feelings.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is mindless reading?

<p>Mindless reading is when your eyes may move forward, but you do not process the meaning of the material.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is mind wandering?

<p>Mind wandering is when thoughts shift from the external environment in favor of internal processing.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is thought suppression?

<p>Thought suppression is the attempt to prevent certain thoughts from entering consciousness.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the ironic effects of mental control?

<p>Ironic effects of mental control refer to our efforts that can backfire when we attempt to control the contents of our consciousness.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is blindsight?

<p>Blindsight occurs when an individual with a damaged visual cortex claims not to see an object but can accurately report some characteristics of that object, like its location.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the two components of feature-integration theory?

<p>The two components are (a) distributed attention, which registers single features automatically, and (b) focused attention, which requires slower serial processing for searching combinations of features.</p> Signup and view all the answers

Multitasking is a form of:

<p>Divided attention (C)</p> Signup and view all the answers

Research on dichotic listening shows that:

<p>When people pay attention to one task, they typically notice little about other tasks. (C)</p> Signup and view all the answers

The Stroop effect is related to selective attention because:

<p>People are required to pay selective attention to the color of the stimulus, rather than the name of the stimulus. (D)</p> Signup and view all the answers

The letters Q and O differ only in the presence or absence of a single feature. Based on research on visual search, you would find it:

<p>Easier to detect a Q in an array of Os than to detect an O in an array of Qs. (D)</p> Signup and view all the answers

Suppose that you are looking for a dark-colored car in a row of parked cars. Among them, 11 are light-colored and one is dark-colored. The dark-colored car seems to pop out. In this example:

<p>You are using bottom-up processing. (A)</p> Signup and view all the answers

The neuroscience research on the executive attention network shows that this system:

<p>Primarily activates the prefrontal part of the cortex. (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

Illusory conjunction occurs when:

<p>People are not able to use focused attention. (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

The phrase 'ironic effects of mental control' means that:

<p>When we try to avoid a particular thought, it may be even more likely to enter consciousness. (B)</p> Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is considered to be the best current explanation of the visual condition called 'blindsight'?

<p>Some information from the retina travels to regions of the cortex outside the visual cortex. (A)</p> Signup and view all the answers

Your awareness about both the surrounding world and your cognitive processes is called:

<p>Consciousness. (D)</p> Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Attention and Cognitive Tasks

  • Attention is a concentration of mental activity, enabling intake of limited information from sensory experiences and memory.
  • Divided-attention tasks require simultaneous focus on multiple stimuli.
  • Multitasking involves attempting to perform two or more tasks simultaneously.
  • Selective-attention tasks involve focusing on specific information while ignoring distractions.

Listening and Awareness Phenomena

  • Dichotic listening involves hearing different messages in each ear through headphones.
  • Shadowing is the process of repeating a message immediately after hearing it.
  • The cocktail party effect allows individuals to hear their name mentioned in a background conversation while focused on another.

Memory and Cognitive Effects

  • Working memory is the short-term memory for processing information actively.
  • The Stroop effect demonstrates the difficulty in naming ink colors when they correspond with incongruent words.
  • Emotional Stroop tasks show longer naming times for emotional words, indicating greater attentional resource consumption.

Psychological Disorders and Attention Bias

  • Phobic disorders involve excessive fear of specific objects.
  • Attentional bias refers to the increased focus on certain stimuli or features.
  • Cognitive-behavioral approaches suggest inappropriate thinking leads to psychological problems.

Neuroimaging and Attention Networks

  • Magnetoencephalography (MEG) records brain magnetic field changes during stimulus processing.
  • A visual search task requires finding a target among distractors.
  • The orienting attention network manages the attention for visual searches across spatial locations.
  • The executive attention network is engaged during tasks that require managing conflict and attention switching.

Attention Theories

  • Bottleneck theories propose a limited capacity for processing information simultaneously.
  • Distributed attention involves automatic registration of features, allowing for parallel processing, while focused attention is serial and identifies one object at a time.
  • The feature-integration theory outlines stages of feature analysis leading to object perception, with a binding problem occurring when features are incorrectly combined.

Consciousness and Thought Processes

  • Consciousness is the awareness of the external world and one's internal thoughts and perceptions.
  • Mindless reading happens when eyes move without processing meaning.
  • Mind wandering shifts focus from the external environment to internal thoughts.

Mental Control and Visual Interpretation

  • Thought suppression attempts to keep certain thoughts out of consciousness.
  • Ironic effects of mental control indicate that trying to suppress thoughts can lead to their increased occurrence.
  • Blindsight occurs in individuals with visual cortex damage, allowing them to report attributes of objects they claim not to see.

Key Cognitive Comprehension Tasks

  • Illusory conjunction involves incorrect feature combinations due to lack of focused attention.
  • The visual condition of blindsight can be explained by alternative pathways from the retina to non-visual cortex areas.
  • Awareness of the surrounding environment and cognitive processes is termed consciousness.

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Test your knowledge with these flashcards focused on key terms from Chapter 3 of Cognitive Psychology. Explore concepts like attention and multitasking to enhance your understanding of mental processes. Perfect for students looking to reinforce their learning.

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