Deck 4: Attention

Question 1

According to Treisman's dictionary unit, the lower the threshold of information, ______.

A) the more likely you are to become confused
B) the less likely the information is attended to
C) the more likely the information is attended to
D) the less likely you are to understand the meaning

Answer 1

the more likely the information is attended to

Question 2

Our attention has been said to involve a ______ that filters out everything except the information we are attending to.

A) bottleneck
B) net
C) switchboard
D) bridge

Answer 2

bottleneck

Question 3

What do the models of attention as a spotlight and attention as a mental resource have in common?

A) Neither model explains the factors that divert someone's attention.
B) Both models contend that attention is subject to a bottleneck.
C) Neither model is taken seriously among modern experts.
D) Both models contend that each person's attention is limited.

Answer 3

Both models contend that each person's attention is limited.

Question 4

Noticing a red flower among a field of purple flowers illustrates ______.

A) the attention capture phenomenon
B) the cocktail party effect
C) the bottleneck of attention
D) a shadowing task

Question 5

You are walking through the park, and you notice two people. You see that they are sitting together on a blanket of some kind. They also have a basket in front of them, and there is food inside it. There is a bottle of juice next to each person, and they appear to be laughing and enjoying the mild weather that you then notice. Combining all of these observations to surmise that this couple is having a picnic on a beautiful day in the park best illustrates ______.

A) the filter model of attention
B) top-down processing
C) the feature-integration theory
D) the capacity model of attention

Question 6

What is useful about the dual-task method of studying attention?

A) The dual-task method is less complicated than the single-task method.
B) It allows researchers to prove that attentional resources have no limits.
C) It allows researchers to pinpoint which of the two tasks received less attention.
D) The dual-task method allows participants to feel successful in at least one task.

Question 7

Talking to your friend during class while you are supposed to be listening to your professor's lecture is most similar to ______.

A) salience
B) a shadowing task
C) the cocktail party effect
D) the dual-task method

Question 8

In a study, participants had to complete two tasks at once or separately. It was found that when they performed both tasks at the same time, they did not perform as well as when they performed the tasks separately. This experiment employed the ______.

A) dual-task method
B) filter model of attention
C) capacity model of attention
D) single-task method

Question 9

What was LaBerge's (1983) finding on shifting attention?

A) We can attend to more than one thing at a time.
B) Attention shifts very quickly.
C) Attention works like a spotlight.
D) Attention is a form of bottom-up processing.

Question 10

According to the cocktail party effect, you are most likely to hear ______ amid several noisy conversations.

A) your friend's voice
B) the loudest voice
C) discordant music
D) your name

Question 11

You are at a playground with your little brother, and you hear a child yell, "Mom!" You notice a dozen women pause in their conversations, turning their heads to see if it was their child calling for them. This is an example of ______.

A) the cocktail party effect
B) the bottleneck of attention
C) a consistent mapping condition
D) a shadowing task

Question 12

You are a biology major but must take at least one business class to graduate. The fact that you tend to find biology-based courses much more entertaining than the required business class supports ______.

A) Treisman's filter model of attention
B) Kahneman's capacity model of attention
C) Broadbent's theory of attention
D) Treisman's feature-integration theory

Question 13

Which of the following is an analogy your textbook uses to describe attention?

A) a filter of information
B) a key fitting into a lock
C) a light that turns on and off repeatedly
D) a barrier that separates the features of the environment

Question 14

An example of a conjunction target would be a ______.

A) green square among red squares
B) yellow circle among green squares
C) black circle among black triangles
D) purple triangle among blue triangles

Question 15

Treisman's modified filter model of attention suggests that some information passes through, but only after it has been ranked in terms of ______.

A) importance
B) definition
C) difficulty
D) currency

Question 16

Which of the following scenarios best illustrates the notion that our attention is like a spotlight?

A) a woman baking cookies while holding her child and talking with her friend on the phone
B) a student's focus on the 90th level of his video game
C) a professor noting the students who are coming into class late while she gives a lecture
D) a student studying for an exam while browsing social media

Question 17

Which of these is known to influence the cocktail party effect?

A) a person's level of extroversion or introversion
B) the salience of the message
C) a person's intelligence
D) cultural differences in filtering abilities

Question 18

Select the correct order of events in Treisman's feature-integration model of attention.

A) dual task > single task > return to dual task
B) single task > dual task > return to single task
C) conscious, focused attention > automatic feature processing
D) automatic feature processing > conscious, focused attention

Question 19

According to Treisman, if you listen to two competing messages simultaneously, you are more likely to pick up information from the second message if that message ______.

A) is louder
B) includes a spotlight
C) was spoken more slowly
D) relates to the other message

Question 20

Why do psychologists and researchers use so many different analogies to describe attention?

A) They are trying to explain attention in humans and in animals.
B) Few people excel at paying attention, so it is difficult to describe.
C) It is a complex process that is difficult to fully understand.
D) Attention is a common experience that everyone has had.

Question 21

What does the phrase "incompatibilities tax attention" mean?

A) It becomes expensive to pay attention when data are assembled in constantly changing order.
B) It becomes expensive to pay attention when data are assembled in perfect sequence.
C) Completing a task becomes more difficult when automatic processing overtakes focused attention.
D) Completing a task becomes more difficult when information comes from an unexpected direction or location.

Question 22

If you look at an image that is mostly gray, and a yellow star within that image is very noticeable to you, then your reaction is most likely an example of ______.

A) automatic processing
B) controlled processing
C) a Stroop test
D) Kahneman processing

Question 23

In which of these situations would automatic processing most likely take over?

A) A child who has just learned to read words tries to read paragraphs.
B) An actor steps into the spotlight for the first time and reacts to the audience.
C) A commuter tries taking a new route to work and gets caught in traffic.
D) An experienced skier begins a route she has skied five times before.

Question 24

If you had to turn your car wheel left to make a right turn, you would likely get confused. This illustrates ______.

A) change blindness
B) the Simon effect
C) the attention capture phenomenon
D) the theory of unconscious inference

Question 25

Localization of function in the brain is consistent with ______.

A) the dual-task method
B) top-down processing
C) the filter model of attention
D) the feature-integration theory

Question 26

The two mechanisms hypothesized to underlie the Simon effect are ______ and ______.

A) the theory of unconscious inference; the attentional-movement hypothesis
B) the attentional-movement hypothesis; the referential-coding hypothesis
C) the computational approach; the referential-coding hypothesis
D) sensation; perception

Question 27

In Stroop's study (1935) on automatic processing in attention, he found that participants took less time to name colors when the word and color were ______, and more time when they were ______.

A) the same; different
B) different; the same
C) simultaneous; sequential
D) sequential; simultaneous

Question 28

Being able to name the colors of various symbols illustrates ______.

A) change blindness
B) inattentional blindness
C) a Stroop task
D) the Simon effect

Question 29

Participants in Simons and Levin's (1998) study did not notice when a person asking them for directions was switched with another person. This illustrates ______.

A) change blindness
B) selective blindness
C) inattentional blindness
D) bottom-up processing

Question 30

Walking is to ______ as learning a new language is to ______.

A) top-down processing; bottom-up processing
B) controlled processing; automatic processing
C) automatic processing; controlled processing
D) bottom-up processing; top-down processing

Question 31

Perhaps one of the most important ways to turn a controlled task into an automatic one is to ______.

A) practice regularly
B) stop worrying about it
C) try it only once
D) try different ways of completing it

Question 32

Letter targets and distractors in Schneider and Shiffrin's (1977) task is an example of a(n) ______.

A) varied mapping condition
B) consistent mapping condition
C) unconscious variable detection
D) unsuccessful variable detection

Question 33

Letter targets and number distractors in Schneider and Shiffrin's (1977) task is an example of a(n) ______.

A) varied mapping condition
B) consistent mapping condition
C) unconscious variable detection
D) unsuccessful variable detection

Question 34

Participants in Simons and Chabris' (1999) study did not notice when a gorilla walked across a scene. This illustrates ______.

A) inattentional blindness
B) change blindness
C) the Simon effect
D) perceptual blindness

Question 35

Daniel Simons created some studies that indicate ______.

A) eyewitness testimony is generally more reliable than statistical information
B) in a simple scene of mostly one color, a single example of a different color stands out
C) in a complex scene, some important details may elude our attention
D) the capacity for focused attention varies greatly by participant age

Question 36

You are participating in an experiment in which you are told to locate the letter "T" among a field of digits. This is an example of ______.

A) the dual-task method
B) a varied mapping condition
C) a consistent mapping condition
D) the Stroop effect

Question 37

The Simon effect suggests that if study participants see a target on the right, they want to respond ______.

A) in the center
B) on the left
C) on the right
D) on their dominant side

Question 38

Zaretskaya et al. (2013) found activity in the ______ during a task involving a global percept.

A) right parietal cortex
B) left parietal cortex
C) right temporal cortex
D) visual cortex

Question 39

You are a senior in college, and you have driven to school at least three days a week for the past four years. You know your way to and from school well. This is an example of ______.

A) voluntary processing
B) controlled processing
C) the Simon effect
D) automatic processing

Question 40

The concept of attention capture explains that ______.

A) most people have nearly limitless attention if they are truly interested in the task
B) human attention varies so much that it is impossible to generalize about it
C) we automatically notice an object, sound, or scent that differs from the rest
D) we are attracted to those who try to capture our attention

Question 41

Not noticing that your mother changed the curtains in your family room is an example of change blindness.

Question 42

Evidenced by Treisman's filter model of attention, cognitive processes go through revision when new results suggest that the original model is not right.

Question 43

Interference in response due to inconsistency between the response and the stimulus is known as the Stroop effect.

Question 44

Treisman's feature-integration theory hypothesizes that people perceive stimuli as a whole rather than as a combination of features.

Question 45

Discuss Kahneman's (1973) capacity model of attention and give one example.

Question 46

Discuss the Stroop task. How do the results of this task relate to our everyday attentional processing? Propose a variation of a Stroop task, and discuss how you would carry out an experiment to test it.

Question 47

In Simons and Chabris' (1999) study, most people noticed the gorilla walk across the scene.

Question 48

The dual-task method compares performance on two simultaneous tasks to performance on one task at a time to see which scenario produces better results.

Question 49

Attention is an unlimited resource, capable of focusing on an infinite number of bits of information.

Question 50

Discuss the societal and legislative impact of Strayer and Johnston's study (2001) on the cognition of distracted driving.

Question 51

Strayer and Johnston (2001) found that people have a harder time maintaining a conversation on a cell phone while driving than they do listening to the radio while driving.

Question 52

The spotlight theory of attention assumes that our attention focuses on only one thing at a time.

Question 53

Explain the idea of attention as an information filter. Give an example from your own life of how attention can act like a filter.

Question 54

Differentiate between automatic processing and controlled processing. Then provide an example from your own life of how a controlled process became an automatic process.

Question 55

The Stroop task is a measure of the interference in automatic processes such as reading.