Psychology: Attention Types
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Questions and Answers

What is the primary issue with internal distractions?

  • Difficulty in paying attention to multiple stimuli
  • Inability to maintain attention over extended time frames
  • Inability to control intrusive or irrelevant thoughts (correct)
  • Fatigue resulting in decreased attention span

    • What is the term for the ability to maintain attention over extended time frames?

  • Selective attention
  • Divided attention
  • Sustained attention (correct)
  • Vigilance

    • What is the primary characteristic of divided attention?

  • Ability to maintain attention over extended time frames
  • Ability to pay attention to multiple stimuli simultaneously (correct)
  • Ability to filter out irrelevant information
  • Ability to focus on a single stimulus

    • What is the purpose of alerting cues in assessing attention and arousal?

    <p>To assess an individual's response to sudden or novel stimuli</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test used to assess?

    <p>Executive functions</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary difference between sustained attention and vigilance?

    <p>Sustained attention refers to the ability to maintain attention over extended time frames, while vigilance refers to the ability to detect and respond to rare or unpredictable events</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary characteristic of people who have difficulty with sustained attention?

    <p>They have difficulty maintaining attention over extended time frames</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the purpose of behavioral observation in assessing attention and arousal?

    <p>To observe an individual's behavior and level of engagement in a task</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary difference between attention and arousal?

    <p>Attention refers to the ability to focus on a stimulus, while arousal refers to the ability to maintain alertness</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary consequence of decreased attention span?

    <p>Decreased ability to maintain attention over extended time frames</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Study Notes

    Types of Attention

    • Attention can be divided into three types: Sustained Attention, Selective Attention, and Divided Attention.

    Sustained Attention

    • Baseline for all information processing, including arousal and alertness.
    • Arousal has a physiological basis in the activity of the reticular formation in the brain stem.
    • Moderate levels of arousal are necessary for tasks that use fine motor skills and important decision making.
    • Alertness is a state from wakeful to "prepared for action" state when we respond to stimuli.
    • Vigilance is alertness that is maintained over a period of time to detect any changes in the environment.
    • Attention span is the length of time a person can sustain attention.
    • Examples of tasks that require sustained attention: Invigilating an examination, watching a child playing alone, observing a patient in occupational therapy, and motorway driving.

    Selective Attention

    • Directs attention to particular features of the environment and ignores other stimuli.
    • Involves sensory discrimination (visual or auditory) and spatial processing.
    • Ability to disengage from one selected item, move, and engage attention on another source of information is known as attention shifting.
    • Important in activities that require a conscious focus of attention.
    • Example: Reading a newspaper in a noisy room.

    Divided Attention

    • Ability to do more than one thing at a time.
    • The quality of divided attention can be improved with training on a few tasks.
    • Examples of tasks that require divided attention: Driving a car while having a conversation, and sewing while watching television.

    Attention Demand

    • Demand of attention capacity varies.
    • Mental effort: High mental effort requires high attention capacity.
    • Skill: Skills obtained as a result of repetitive practice reduce the demand of attention.
    • Motivation and arousal: Increase the total capacity available for allocation.

    Concentration vs. Attention

    • Attention is the state of the brain focus.
    • Concentration is intense mental focus.

    Assessment Methods for Attention

    • Arousal: Behavioral observation, such as checking if the individual drifts off to sleep, appears interested in the testing situation, and responds to alerting cues.
    • Comparison of performance on simple vs. complex tasks.
    • Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.

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    Description

    Learn about the different types of attention, including sustained attention, selective attention, and divided attention. Understand the role of arousal and alertness in information processing and decision making.

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