Deck 9: Attention and Awareness

Question 1

A typical study of change blindness uses the rapid alternation of two photos, with each presented for about one-quarter of a second and with a brief blank interval after each exposure. How many alternation cycles does an observer require to detect the change in the photos?

A) around 10
B) around 12
C) around 9
D) around 7

Answer 1

B

Question 2

According to Broadbent's filter theory of attention, sensory information is registered as physical signals and that attention selects only some of those signals to be interpreted for meaning and the rest are:

A) processed for other characteristics.
B) directed to different spatial locations.
C) stored for later processing.
D) discarded and unavailable for later recall.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Why did the participants in Raymond et al. (1992) study on attentional blink, have a difficult time identifying the probe when it was placed 2 to 6 letters after the target stimulus?

A) The participants were blinking after the target, so they could not see the probe.
B) The probe was below the threshold level of detection.
C) The target stimulus was of a different color and interfered with the processing of subsequent letters.
D) The participants were focused on identifying the target stimulus and could not attend to the probe.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

_____ attention refers to being acutely aware of only one thing at a time.

A) Focused
B) Overt
C) Divided
D) Covert

Question 5

Which statement regarding the findings on change blindness is NOT true?

A) Observers fail to notice the difference between two scenes, even when their eyes are pointed at the critical object.
B) Observers might pay attention to one feature of an object when the change involves some other feature.
C) Observers fail to notice the differences in two pictures because visual acuity is lower in the periphery of the visual field.
D) Observers require 10 to 20 seconds or more to detect the difference between two scenes.

Question 6

An individual's ability to attend to several things at one time is called:

A) focused attention.
B) attentional blink.
C) divided attention.
D) attentional cueing.

Question 7

Colin Cherry coined the term _____ to describe the challenge of comprehending speech in a real-world noisy environment.

A) attentional blink
B) perceptual bistability
C) binding problem
D) cocktail party problem

Question 8

According to the study of inattentional blindness conducted by Mack and Rock (1998), when the participants were told to ignore the large cross and just report if they saw anything else appear in the display: _____.

A) almost everyone reported that they did not see any other shape.
B) almost everyone reported that they saw the critical stimulus.
C) everyone accurately judged the lengths of the arms.
D) almost everyone reported the content of the message in the unattended ear.

Question 9

According to Broadbent's filter theory of attention, the mechanism that performs the selection of signals for access to a limited-capacity system is attention, which serves as a filter, and the limited-capacity system permits:

A) awareness of and other cognitive responses to stimuli.
B) awareness and the storage of information in memory.
C) the brain to resolve the competition for neural representation.
D) the observer to detect the unique feature.

Question 10

The text defines attention as the selection of some source of sensory stimulation for increased:

A) dynamic cues.
B) cognitive processing.
C) feature search.
D) neural responses.

Question 11

In the context of the critical trial of inattentional blindness conducted by Mack and Rock (1998), the participants who stated which arm of the cross was longer were asked if they had seen anything in the display other than the large cross. Between 60 percent and 80 percent of the participants indicated that they:

A) did not see the critical stimulus.
B) saw a small shape unexpectedly appear at the fixation point.
C) could not accurately judge the lengths of the arms.
D) did not hear the message in the unattended ear.

Question 12

Which statement BEST describes Broadbent's filter theory of attention?

A) Joseph is having difficulty hearing his friend's voice in a noisy room filled with other men talking with similar deep voices.
B) Mary is focusing on what the TV anchor is saying while not hearing the conversation in the next room.
C) John is having a conversation with his friend and then having his attention diverted to an unattended conversation nearby as he notices his own name spoken.
D) Jack is focusing on a conversation with his best friend on the phone and not noticing when his mother calls his name.

Question 13

Which task was designed as a laboratory version of the real-world cocktail party problem?

A) inattentional blindness
B) dichotic listening
C) binding problem
D) rapid serial visual presentation

Question 14

_____ refers to unawareness of stimuli in an attended location if the stimuli occur when we are processing something else.

A) Dichotic listening
B) Inattentional blindness
C) Change blindness
D) Attentional blink

Question 15

The procedure of listening through headphones to two different messages that transmit one spoken message into one ear and a different spoken message into the other ear is called _____ listening.

A) dichotic
B) effective
C) value-driven
D) selective

Question 16

Broadbent's filter theory of attention states that the sensory stimuli are filtered by attention based on:

A) the semantic content of the ignored message.
B) valid cues.
C) the fixation point at the center of the display.
D) physical features.

Question 17

William is reading the instructions of a recipe for dinner and simultaneously listening to a song on the radio. This type of attention is called:

A) focused attention.
B) attentional blink.
C) divided attention.
D) covert attention.

Question 18

Which process involves the listener to repeat one of the two messages as it is being presented in order to ensure that the person is perceiving and understanding the message?

A) shadowing
B) attentional cueing
C) feature integration
D) attentional capture

Question 19

The failure to perceive a fully visible but unattended visual object is called:

A) inattentional blindness.
B) change blindness.
C) attentional blink.
D) covert attention.

Question 20

The inability to quickly detect changes in complex scenes is called:

A) inattentional blindness.
B) change blindness.
C) object-based attention.
D) selective attention.

Question 21

Which type of attentional control is involuntary?

A) top-down
B) bottom-up
C) value-driven
D) feature-directed

Question 22

Chiu and Yantis (2009) directed participants in a study to keep their eyes fixed on the center of a display as they directed their attention to rapidly changing letters and digits on either the left side or the right side of the display. When they used fMRI to measure changes in brain activity, they found that:

A) brain activity was affected only when the eyes moved.
B) brain activity was not related to attention.
C) actual eye movements were not necessary to cause changes in brain activity.
D) brain activity was greater in the left hemisphere when attention was directed to the left.

Question 23

Which feature does NOT describe bottom-up attentional control?

A) voluntary
B) involuntary
C) stimulus-driven
D) a "perceptual reflex"

Question 24

Reynolds et al. (1999) measured the responses of a single neuron in area V4 of a macaque monkey. The monkey was trained to keep its eyes on the fixation point at all times and to direct its attention in various ways while the experimenters presented either an effective stimulus, an ineffective stimulus, or both. When the monkey attended to the effective stimulus, the neuron's response was:

A) enhanced as the effective stimulus was presented alone.
B) suppressed as the ineffective stimulus was presented alone.
C) a compromise due to the presence of both the effective and ineffective stimuli.
D) inconsistent, as it did not match the neuron's tuning function.

Question 25

Which statement states that conjunction search requires more effort than feature search? A. In a conjunction search, a person has to gaze and remain constantly focused at the center of a display consisting of randomly arranged stationary items.
B) In a conjunction search, a person has to look for a feature that differs from all the other items in the display.
C) In a conjunction search, the observer needs to direct attention to one item at a time, sequentially.
D) In a conjunction search, the response time is fast, and it increases as the number of items increases.

Question 26

The difference in speed and efficiency between top-down and bottom-up attentional control was assessed in an experiment conducted by Jonides and Yantis (1988). The experiment examined how the abrupt onset of a visual stimulus captures attention. The research showed that the response time for participants who searched through an array of letters for a target letter increased with the number of letters to be searched when the target:

A) appeared on the side where the eyes were pointed.
B) appeared randomly and equally often on the left or right side of a display.
C) was the abrupt-onset item, regardless of the display size.
D) was either absent from the display, or it was not an abrupt-onset item.

Question 27

In the context of attention to locations, Posner et al. (1978) used a technique with valid, invalid, and neutral cues and found that response time was fastest with valid cues. This technique is called:

A) attentional cuing.
B) attebtional capture.
C) selective attention.
D) shadowing.

Question 28

In the context of attention to objects, the research conducted by Egly et al. (1994), involving a variation of the attentional cueing procedure, illustrated that:

A) people can attend to just a part of an object without perceiving the whole object.
B) people cannot attend to both the object and its features at the same time.
C) people can automatically attend to small objects as a whole but cannot attend to larger objects in parts.
D) people can attend to part of an object while at the same time automatically attending to the object as a whole.

Question 29

In the context of attention to features, when the target feature "pops out" of the display, the participant is conducting:

A) a feature search.
B) a conjunctive search.
C) either a feature or a conjunctive search.
D) an illusory additive search.

Question 30

Jonides and Yantis (1988) showed that response time for a target letter was unrelated to the number of letters to be searched when the target was an abrupt-onset item because the abrupt onset captures the participant's attention. _____ attentional control can produce a quick response to sudden events.

A) Top-down
B) Bottom-up
C) Value-driven
D) Either top-down or bottom-up

Question 31

_____ attentional control involves deliberately paying attention to something in order to get information needed to achieve a goal.

A) Unilateral-visual
B) Top-down
C) Value-driven
D) Bottom-up

Question 32

Laboratory tasks, investigating feature-based attention, show that the response time in conjuction search:

A) is unrelated to the number of features.
B) decreases as the number of features increases.
C) increases as the number of features decreases.
D) increases as the number of features increases.

Question 33

_____ refers to erroneously perceiving objects that consist of the features present in a scene, but in the wrong combinations.

A) Illusory conjunctions
B) Binocular rivalry
C) Biased competition theory
D) Continuity errors

Question 34

Which problems occur when the visual system is faced with determining the visual features that belong to the same object?

A) cocktail party
B) binding
C) attentional cueing
D) unilateral visual neglect

Question 35

The different camera angles are often filmed during different takes, sometimes resulting in _____ -objects in the scene being in different places before and after the cut or appearing or disappearing. The interesting thing about this is not that they occur, but that moviegoers typically fail to notice them; thus, they provide real-world examples of the importance of attention in detecting changes.

A) gaze cues
B) continuity errors
C) shadowing
D) binding problem

Question 36

When we observe a clock on the wall in order to check the time, our focus is on some crucial features of the clock-the numbers running around the circumference and the orientation of the hands pointing out from the center-but our sense is that we are taking in the whole clock while focusing on those features. This is called _____ attention.

A) location-based
B) feature-based
C) object-based
D) illusion-based

Question 37

_____ resolves the binding problem by proposing that attention is directed to one object at a time.

A) William James's selective attention theory
B) Broadbent's filter theory of attention
C) Triesman's feature integration theory
D) Biased competition theory

Question 38

In the context of attention to locations, _____ attention means selectively attending to some information by moving one's eyes.

A) overt
B) covert
C) selective
D) cueing

Question 39

Laboratory tasks investigating feature-based attention show that the response time in feature search:

A) is unrelated to the number of features.
B) decreases as the number of features decreases.
C) increases as the number of features decreases.
D) increases as the number of features increases.

Question 40

According to the feature integration theory, in the preattentive stage:

A) the visual system senses all of the basic visual features in the scene, such as edge orientations, shapes, and colors.
B) the neural responses are all related to the features of a single object at a single location.
C) attention can be directed to different spatial locations and different features of perceptual objects.
D) the spatial location of a person's attention affects the speed with which the person can become aware of something and respond to it.

Question 41

According to an fMRI experiment conducted by Pelphrey et al. (2005), the comparison of the brain activity in neurologically typical individuals and individuals with autism shows that:

A) individuals with autism are able to shift attention from one stimuli to the next in a serial fashion, until the target is found.
B) individuals with autism are able to look intently at the gaze cues, automatically directing their attention in a particular direction.
C) both neurologically typical individuals and individuals with autism are able to make inferences about the intentions of others.
D) neurologically typical people are better able to make inferences about the intentions of others than are individuals with autism.

Question 42

The cases of patients in the text, D. B. and T. N., provide good evidence that the residual vision in blindsight is based on signals that pass from the retina to the superior colliculus, through the thalamus, and on to the visual cortex. However, this pathway CANNOT support:

A) different perceptual experiences.
B) conscious vision.
C) visually guided action.
D) categorization of emotionally charged objects.

Question 43

John, a student, is driving a car. In the context of analyzing a task switch, _____ while driving would impair his driving performance.

A) trying to figure out a complicated math problem
B) remembering the good score on yesterday's biology exam
C) dreaming about a nice vacation with family
D) remembering the face of a childhood friend

Question 44

Strayer and Johnston (2001) investigated the effects of attention on driving performance. In the first task, the driver had to listen to a list of words over the phone and repeat or shadow them back. In the second task, the driver had to listen to a list of words over the phone and had to say a word beginning with the last letter of the word just heard. The results of the study showed that:

A) shadowing words did not impair driving performance.
B) neither shadowing words nor generating words impaired driving performance.
C) shadowing words impaired driving performance significantly more than generating words.
D) generating words impaired performance significantly more than the simple shadowing task.

Question 45

The Necker cube is the BEST known example of:

A) binocular rivalry.
B) motion parallax.
C) perceptual bistability.
D) visual bistability.

Question 46

Rogers and Monsell (1995) conducted a study involving a simplified multitasking situation that aimed at measuring the cost of switching between two simple tasks. The difference in response time, as demonstrated in the trials, can be attributed to:

A) the time required to resume a task after interruption.
B) the task that required the participant to come up with appropriate responses and thereby increased performance significantly.
C) the need to switch attention between two different tasks.
D) the complex task that requires quick response to turn the attention of the participant.

Question 47

David Chalmers (2004) argues that the easy problems of consciousness involve objectively observable data, which he calls "third-person data," and the hard problem involves subjective experiences, which he calls "first-person data." Chalmers claims that scientific progress on the hard problem is possible, and among the projects he advocates is a search for:

A) binocular rivalry.
B) the neural correlates of consciousness.
C) illusory conjunctions.
D) perceptual bistability.

Question 48

Which scenario BEST explains value-driven attentional control?

A) John loves wearing t-shirts. He steps into a store to look for t-shirts, and the store just happens to have t-shirts on display. The display draws John's attention, and he is willing to buy a t-shirt.
B) When Rebecca slams the door of the library, the students turn their attention toward her due to the sudden loud noise.
C) Jerry searches for his favorite hat on the lost-and-found table, where he notices his friend's lost shoe.
D) David sat around a fire roasting sausages on sticks as a kid. Curiosity got the best of him and he burned his finger. He avoided repeating a bad experience.

Question 49

In an fMRI study conducted by Tong et al. (1998), the observers viewed a face-house composite image through red-blue glasses that evoked perceptual bistability. The results of the fMRI measurements of brain activity showed increased PPA activity when the observer:

A) did not wear the red-blue glasses.
B) was instructed to attend to the face only.
C) perceived the house.
D) perceived the face.

Question 50

According to the philosopher David Chalmers, which question refers to "the hard problem" of consciousness?

A) How does the brain process color in a visual scene?
B) How do the neurons in the brain produce an awareness of objects?
C) How do we know one object is farther away than another?
D) How are people able to shift their focus of attention?

Question 51

In an fMRI study conducted by Tong et al. (1998), the observers viewed a face-house composite image through red-blue glasses that evoked perceptual bistability. The results of the fMRI measurements of brain activity showed increased FFA activity when the observer:

A) perceived the house.
B) perceived the face.
C) did not wear the red-blue glasses.
D) was instructed to attend to the house only.

Question 52

Which statement BEST describes perceptual bistability?

A) When we look at the Necker cube, signals pass from the retina to the superior colliculus, through the thalamus, and on to the visual cortex that changes our conscious experience.
B) When we look at the Necker cube, activity in some parts of the visual system corresponds to the unchanging retinal image, while activity in other parts of the visual system corresponds to perceptual experience.
C) When we look at the Neckar cube, the retinal image and our conscious experience changes over time.
D) When we look at the Necker cube, it involves involuntary, unavoidable capture of attention by a salient perceptual stimulus that requires a rapid response.

Question 53

People sometimes suffer brain damage that completely destroys area V1 but leaves the rest of the brain intact, and such people typically report that they can see nothing. This finding alone suggests that area V1 is necessary for:

A) visually guided actions.
B) the control of eye movements.
C) evoking responses to emotionally expressive faces.
D) conscious vision.

Question 54

The ability to point to and sometimes discriminate visual stimuli without any conscious awareness of having seen them is called:

A) binocular rivalry.
B) perceptual bistability.
C) blindsight.
D) change blindness.

Question 55

Tong et al. (1998), in order to evoke perceptual bistability, presented a face-house composite image to observers who viewed it through red-blue glasses. The results of fMRI measurements of brain activity showed that:

A) when the observer was perceiving the face, FFA activity increased while PPA activity decreased.
B) when the observer was perceiving the face, FFA activity decreased while PPA activity increased.
C) when the observer was perceiving the house, FFA activity increased while PPA activity decreased.
D) when the observer was perceiving the house, both FFA and PPA activity increased.

Question 56

Unilateral visual neglect is MOST likely to occur:

A) on the left side of the visual space.
B) on the right side of the visual space.
C) as a result of damage to the left eye.
D) as a result of damage to the right eye.

Question 57

In one of the experiments conducted by Bushnell et al. (1981), the activity of single PPC neurons was recorded as a monkey performed four different types of tasks involving an eye or hand movement and the direction of the monkey's attention. In the saccade task, it was found that the:

A) PPC neuron never increased its firing rate above baseline.
B) PPC neuron's firing rate decreased with the shift of attention, as the monkey waited for the stimulus to dim.
C) PPC neuron continued to fire at its baseline rate throughout the task.
D) PPC neuron's firing rate increased soon after the stimulus appeared, with the shift of attention, even before the eye movement occurred.

Question 58

Tong et al. (1998) used a binocular rivalry task to study neural correlates of consciousness and found that:

A) activity in both the FFA and the PPA correlated with alternating perceptual experiences.
B) neither the activity in the FFA nor the PPA correlated with alternating perceptual experiences.
C) only the activity in the FFA was related to alternating perceptual experiences.
D) only the activity in the PPA was related to alternating perceptual experiences.

Question 59

A phenomenon in which an unchanging visual stimulus leads to repeated alternation between two different perceptual experiences is known as:

A) perceptual bistability.
B) binocular rivalry.
C) blindsight.
D) inattentional blindness.

Question 60

What are the two important sources of attentional control signals in the human brain?

A) the posterior parietal cortex and the frontal eye field
B) the anterior parietal cortex and the frontal eye field
C) the occipital cortex and the frontal eye field
D) the posterior parietal cortex and the anterior parietal cortex

Question 61

Sunny has been living in the same neighborhood for seven years. Last week, a friend pointed out to her that all the street signs around her house are white with black writing. However, the signs become green with white writing starting only two blocks south. How would you explain the fact that Sunny, who frequently drives all around the neighborhood, never realized this about the signage?

Question 62

How would you explain the typical finding that for a conjunction search, the target-absent response times are approximately twice as slow as the target-present response times (i.e., for any given number of display items)?

Question 63

Kim often brings her small tan dog, Seaweed, to the dog park. On Tuesday, Seaweed plays with a number of other small dogs, all of whom are black. On Wednesday, there are some large tan dogs and small black dogs in the park with Seaweed. Describe how Kim's search for Seaweed is different on each day.

Question 64

It has been shown that, if you are speaking to someone at a noisy party, you can generally disregard what is said in nearby conversations, but your attention will be captured if your own name is spoken. What other words or names do you think would have a similar effect? Would the same words work for all people? Why or why not?

Question 65

Explain how the Necker cube can be used to explain perceptual bistability.

Question 66

Ben claims that he can save time by reading his history text while having an online chat with the project team from his marketing class. How would you explain to Ben that not only will he not save time, but he will probably expend more total time overall by multitasking?

Question 67

What were the findings of the study conducted by Pelphrey et al. (2005) on individuals with autism?

Question 68

Could there be any disadvantage for a batter in baseball to look for a pitch in a particular location .

Question 69

Describe the response of a V4 neuron whose receptive field is occupied by an effective and ineffective stimulus when attention is directed to (1) the effective stimulus, (2) the ineffective stimulus, and (3) neither stimulus.

Question 70

Although studies have shown that observers often fail to recognize significant changes in a visual scene, why is change blindness NOT usually an issue in our everyday visual experience?

Question 71

According to a study conducted by Drews et al. (2008), conversation with a passenger in a vehicle impairs driving performance:

A) more than a cell-phone conversation.
B) less than a cell-phone conversation.
C) as much as a cell-phone conversation.
D) as much as being intoxicated.