Divided Attention and Multitasking Quiz

Divided Attention

• Divided attention is splitting attention across two or more stimuli at one time.
• Divided attention is involved in multitasking.
• Humans are not as good at multitasking as they think.
• Multitasking can make individuals prone to distraction and reduce their understanding of the task.

Multitasking

• Multitasking is inevitable, particularly when individuals feel they must complete two tasks at a time.
• Multitasking is common when juggling a boring task with an interesting task.
• Multitasking is common when actively learning.

Negative Impacts of Multitasking

• Multitasking prevents full potential on any one task.
• Multitasking has negative implications when the task is not easy to resume.
• Multitasking has negative implications when tasks are unrelated or completed on different platforms.
• Multitasking has negative implications when tasks are complex or require full attention.

Selective Attention

• Selective attention involves focusing on a specific stimulus or task while ignoring all other stimuli or tasks.
• Selective attention requires filtering out external stimuli like noise.
• Selective attention requires filtering out internal stimuli like thoughts and emotions.

Sensation and Perception

• Sensation is the process by which sense organs and receptors detect and receive sensory information.
• Sensory information is meaningless until it is sent to the relevant sensory area of the brain.
• Perception is the process of interpreting sensory information.

Top-Down Processing

• Top-down processing involves prior knowledge and expectations influencing perception.
• People use schemas for top-down processing.

Bottom-Up Processing

• Bottom-up processing involves sensory information being processed to form a perception.

Visual Perception

• Visual perception is becoming consciously aware of visual stimuli as a result of interactions between the visual sensory system and the individual's internal and external environment.
• The visual sensory system includes the eyes, brain, and the neural pathways connecting them.

Stages of Visual Perception - Selection

• Only some visual signals are selected for processing.
• The visual selection process is performed by feature detectors.
• Feature detectors select and filter visual signals according to perceptually important features.

Stages of Visual Perception - Organisation

• Visual signals are regrouped and organized to reflect an image of reality.
• Visual perception principles help with this.

Stages of Visual Perception - Interpretation

• The primary visual cortex works with other areas of the brain to interpret visual stimuli.
• Interpretations are influenced by motives, beliefs, and perceptual set.

Gustatory Perception

• Gustatory perception is becoming consciously aware of flavor.
• The tongue is the primary sensory organ for detecting gustatory information.

Tastants

• Tastants are sensory stimuli received in the form of chemical molecules.
• Tastants are broken down by saliva.
• Tastants are received by gustatory receptors located within taste buds.
• Taste buds are clusters of gustatory receptors.

The Brain and Taste

• The brain processes information about the type and intensity of flavor in the primary gustatory cortex in the parietal lobe.

The Five Basic Tastes

• The basic tastes are sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and umami.
• Different foods are associated with different basic tastes.

Myths about Taste

• The tongue is not divided into areas responsible for different tastes.
• Taste buds are dispersed throughout the mouth.
• Taste buds are more sensitive to certain tastes than others.

Perception in Taste

• Olfactory and somatosensory cortexes play a role in taste.

Factors Influencing Visual Perception

• Visual perception is influenced by biological, psychological, and social factors.

Biological Factors

• The eye
• Color blindness
• Short-sightedness
• Depth cues

The Eye

• The eye receives light to enable vision.
• Light enters the eye through the pupil and is focused onto the retina.
• The retina contains photoreceptors which receive light and convert it into neural signals.

Genetics and Taste

• 25% of people are supertasters with an unusually high number of taste receptors.
• 25% of people are non-tasters with an unusually low number of taste receptors.
• The rest of the population are medium-tasters.

Psychological Factors

• Psychological factors that affect taste include perceptual set.
• Perceptual set is influenced by appearance and food packaging.

Perceptual Set

• Taste is often shaped by expectations.
• The appearance of food affects taste expectations.
• The shape of food affects taste expectations.
• Packaging, labeling, and branding affect taste expectations.

Social Factors

• Culture affects gustatory perception.

Spatial Neglect

• Spatial neglect is a neurological disorder where individuals cannot attend to anything on one side of space.
• People with spatial neglect behave as if one side of their world does not exist.
• Spatial neglect is caused by damage to the parietal lobe in the right hemisphere.

Spatial Neglect and Perception

• The problem in spatial neglect is that the patient is unable to pay attention to information received from one side of space, not a problem with sensation.

Test your understanding of divided attention and multitasking concepts. This quiz covers their definitions, implications, and the effects of multitasking on performance. See how well you grasp the nuances of attention in various tasks.