Deck 4: Paying Attention

Question 1

Moore and Egeth (1997) asked participants to rate which of two lines was longer. Background dots were presented with the lines. On some trials, the dot pattern was a visual illusion, designed to manipulate the perceived length of the lines. Moore and Egeth found that

A) one can be influenced by events one is not conscious of.
B) one cannot have perception without consciousness.
C) attention and perception are necessary for consciousness.
D) attention requires perception.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Studies looking at electrical activity in the brain suggest that the processing steps for attended stimuli and unattended stimuli are

A) indistinguishable.
B) distinguishable for only 1 s after stimuli presentation.
C) distinguishable 60 to 70 ms after stimuli presentation.
D) distinguishable, although the exact time at which these two inputs differ is unknown.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

In a study of visual selection, participants were shown a video of people throwing and catching a ball. Some of the people were wearing white shirts and some were wearing black shirts. Participants were asked to attend only to the group of people wearing white shirts and count the number of times they threw the ball. In this study, participants

A) could not ignore the people wearing black.
B) reported the total number of times the ball changed hands regardless of whether it was thrown by a person wearing a white shirt or a person wearing a black shirt.
C) Correctly reported the number of throws made by the people wearing black shirts 50% of the time.
D) easily completed the task, but in the process failed to notice some other peculiar events that occurred.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The different forms of priming can be distinguished in several ways. For example, the effects of _____ can be observed almost immediately after the relevant cue is provided; in contrast, the effects of _____ require a half second or so to appear after the relevant cue.

A) concept-driven priming; data-driven priming
B) stimulus-based priming; expectation-based priming
C) expectation-based priming; repetition priming
D) semantic priming; repetition priming

Question 5

A late selection view of attention suggests that

A) only the attended input is analyzed; the unattended input receives little analysis.
B) all inputs are fully processed; however, only the attended input reaches consciousness.
C) attention can switch back and forth between attended and unattended inputs.
D) analysis of an unattended input is greater than that of the attended input.

Question 6

Participants are shown a pair of similar pictures separated by a blank interval. The pictures are identical except for a single aspect (e.g., a man is wearing a hat in one scene but not in the other). In these kinds of tasks, participants often find it hard to detect the change. This phenomenon is known as change

A) identification.
B) perception.
C) blindness.
D) unawareness.

Question 7

Attention is necessary for

A) eye movements.
B) perception.
C) conscious perception.
D) working-memory capacity.

Question 8

An experiment participant is asked to shadow a message presented to the left ear while simultaneously ignoring a message presented to the right ear. During the experiment, which of the following statements reflects what the participant is LEAST likely to detect?

A) The right ear's message is initially presented in a high-pitched voice but is then spoken by a low-pitched voice.
B) The participant's name is mentioned three times at various points within the right ear's message.
C) Initially, the right ear's message contains a male voice reading a coherent passage, but this is then replaced by the same voice reading a sequence of random words.
D) The right ear's message is initially presented in a soft voice but is then spoken by a loud voice.

Question 9

Participants are shown pictures of two alternating scenes that are separated by a brief blank interval. The scenes are identical except for one small detail. In this case participants find it hard to detect the change. Which of the following statements is MOST likely to be true?

A) This effect occurs only when participants are unaware that there is a change in the scene.
B) A similar effect can also be found with movies and in actual live events (where participants fail to detect changes that have been made).
C) A similar effect can also be found with movies (where participants fail to detect changes that have been made) but not with actual live events.
D) Changes in the center of a scene often take longer to detect than changes in the periphery of a scene.

Question 10

Recordings from neurons in area V4 of the visual cortex are

A) equally responsive to both attended and unattended stimuli.
B) more responsive to the physical attributes of unattended stimuli than attended stimuli.
C) used primarily in expectation-based priming.
D) more responsive to attended inputs than unattended inputs.

Question 11

In dichotic listening experiments, some aspects of the unattended message seem to leak through and are heard despite the participant's intention to ignore the message. Which of the following statements reflects what is LEAST likely to leak through in this fashion?

A) material that is easily distinguishable from the attended message in its semantic content
B) mention of the participant's name
C) mention of a topic of personal importance to the participant
D) mention of a movie that the participant recently watched

Question 12

Tasks involving dichotic listening are tasks in which

A) two different visual stimuli are presented.
B) two different auditory messages are presented, one to each ear.
C) participants must identify subthreshold sounds.
D) participants must dichotomize sounds into distinct categories.

Question 13

In which of the following situations would we expect the fastest response time?

A) The stimulus being presented to the participant is identical in form to the stimulus used as the warning signal.
B) The stimulus being presented to the participant is markedly different from the stimulus used as the warning signal.
C) The stimulus being presented to the participant is the stimulus the participant was expecting.
D) The stimulus being presented to the participant is identical in form to the warning signal but is different from the stimulus the participant was expecting.

Question 14

Change blindness demonstrates that

A) perception leads to attention.
B) attention cannot be divided.
C) changes in a scene are easily detected.
D) attention is not sufficient for perception.

Question 15

There is a cost to expectation-based priming, revealed by the fact that priming the wrong detector leads to slower responding. That is, getting prepared for one target seems to hinder performance for other targets. What does this finding reveal about selective attention?

A) Selective attention is a limited-capacity system.
B) Selective attention is an unlimited-capacity system.
C) Expectation-based priming is more effective than stimulus-based priming.
D) The cost of priming is inevitable.

Question 16

Participants are instructed to fixate on a point on a computer screen and report on a "+" sign that appears off to one side. After several trials, the fixation point is replaced by a new shape, but the participants do not notice this change. This is a study of

A) inattentional blindness.
B) neglect syndrome.
C) attentional apathy.
D) shadowing.

Question 17

The task of shadowing involves

A) immediately repeating, word for word, the contents of a message.
B) drawing the mirror image of a simple sketch.
C) copying the movements of a target individual.
D) repeating back, from memory, a message heard some minutes earlier.

Question 18

An example of the difference between perception and conscious perception is shown by Moore and Egeth (1997), who showed participants a display containing two horizontal lines and a series of surrounding dots. In one trial the lines and dots were arranged to produce the Müller-Lyer illusion (an illusion that causes two same-length lines to look different in length). In this experiment, MOST participants were

A) consciously aware of the Müller-Lyer pattern and perceived the two lines to be of the same length.
B) consciously aware of the Müller-Lyer pattern and perceived the two lines to be of different lengths.
C) not consciously aware of the Müller-Lyer pattern and perceived the two lines to be of different lengths.
D) not consciously aware of the Müller-Lyer pattern and perceived the two lines to be of the same length.

Question 19

In dichotic listening tasks, MOST participants are able to

A) tell if the unattended channel contained a coherent message or just random words.
B) identify physical attributes of the message on the unattended channel.
C) concentrate effectively on the attended channel, so they end up detecting nothing on the unattended channel.
D) maintain their focus on the attended channel only with considerable difficulty and frequent slips.

Question 20

A participant who has just participated in an experiment involving dichotic listening is LEAST likely to remember

A) whether input in the unattended channel was spoken by a male or a female.
B) whether the unattended channel contained nonspeech noises or speech.
C) the semantic content of the attended channel.
D) the meaning of the words presented on the unattended channel.

Question 21

Participants are shown two rectangles. A target appears in one of the rectangles. Prior to the appearance of the target, a cue appears signaling the target's location. In the majority of the trials the cue is correct; however, sometimes the cue is misleading. In the latter case the target could appear in the same rectangle but at a different location or in the other rectangle. Which of the following statements is MOST likely to be true when the cue is misleading?

A) Participants respond to the target faster if the cue appears in the same rectangle rather than in the other rectangle.
B) Participants respond to the target faster if the cue appears in the other rectangle rather than in the same rectangle.
C) Participants often fail to detect the target if it appears in the same rectangle as the cue.
D) Participants often fail to detect the target if it appears in the rectangle other than the rectangle with the cue.

Question 22

Some researchers have compared visual attention to a searchlight beam sweeping across the visual field. Which of the following claims about this beam is NOT currently supported by evidence?

A) It is possible to split the beam of visual attention, so that two nonadjacent positions are both within the beam.
B) Movements of attention can be separate from movements of the eye.
C) The beam of visual attention can be adjusted by the participant, so that it is sometimes wide and sometimes narrow.
D) Stimuli inside the beam of visual attention are primed, promoting their perception.

Question 23

Priming based on specific expectations about the identity of the upcoming stimulus produces

A) no benefit for processing if the expectations are correct but slows processing if the expectations are incorrect.
B) a benefit for processing if the expectations are correct but slows processing if the expectations are incorrect.
C) a benefit for processing if the expectations are correct but has no effect on processing if the expectations are incorrect.
D) the same benefit as stimulus-based repetition priming.

Question 24

All of the following statements are true of patients with unilateral neglect syndrome, EXCEPT

A) in general, they seem to ignore half of the world.
B) when their attention is directed toward a particular object, it often stays with that object.
C) if an object previously attended to is moved into the ignored half of the world, patients will start to ignore the object.
D) when asked to cross out all the letter E's on a page, patients with damage to the right parietal lobe will cross out only the E's on the right side of the page.

Question 25

The evidence from unilateral neglect patients and patients with normal attentional abilities suggests that

A) space-based attention is more important than object-based attention.
B) object-based attention is more important than space-based attention.
C) both space- and object-based attention are important in attention.
D) attention is a perfect cognitive system.

Question 26

In each trial of an experiment, participants see a warning signal and then, a half second later, see a pair of letters. The participants press one button if the letters are the same (e.g., W W ) and a different button if the letters are different (e.g., P X ). In 80% of the trials, the warning signal is identical to the letters that will be shown on that trial. The following are the warning signals and the test stimuli presented on Trial 97 of the procedure. Group 1: warning signal = L; test pair = L L
Group 2: warning signal = U; test pair = L L
Group 3: warning signal = +; test pair = L L
In this setup we should expect the fastest responses from

A) Group 3 and slowest responses from Group 2.
B) Group 1 and slowest responses from Group 3.
C) Group 1 and slowest responses from Group 2.
D) Group 1 and no difference between Groups 2 and 3.

Question 27

If we overload attention by giving someone too much to do, we would expect to see what change in feature-binding abilities?

A) improved feature binding
B) errors in feature binding
C) no change in binding
D) Feature binding would no longer be possible.

Question 28

Participants are asked to listen to a tape-recorded message and to shadow the message as they hear it. Which of the following tasks will be easiest to combine with this shadowing task?

A) viewing a series of printed words, followed by a test measuring memory for the words
B) simultaneously hearing a tape-recorded message, followed by a test measuring memory for the gist of the second message
C) simultaneously hearing a tape-recorded list of words, followed by a test measuring memory for the word list
D) viewing a series of pictures, followed by a test measuring memory for the pictures

Question 29

It has been hypothesized that some mental resources (e.g., the response selector) are unitary and therefore are not divisible. If two tasks both require one of these unitary resources, divided attention between these two tasks will

A) not be possible.
B) be possible only by means of sharing of the resource between the two tasks.
C) be possible only if one of the tasks requires more resources than the other.
D) be possible only if the two tasks make matched demands of the resource.

Question 30

Patty is asked to find a red square among a display that also contains blue squares and red circles. This task requires what kind of search process?

A) feature
B) combination
C) applied
D) spatial location

Question 31

If attention is like a spotlight, then feature search is a(n) _____ spotlight, while a search for a combination of features is a _____ spotlight.

A) focused; small
B) focused; broad
C) broad; focused
D) above-average; below-average

Question 32

The available data from patients with brain damage to circuits controlling attention indicate that

A) the brain mechanisms controlling attention are inseparable from the brain mechanisms directly involved in perception.
B) multiple brain mechanisms are responsible for the control of attention.
C) a single mechanism governs the ability to disengage attention from its current focus and the ability to lock into a new attention focus.
D) the mechanisms controlling attention differ from one individual to the next.

Question 33

In a study of spatial attention, participants are shown a neutral cue, a high-validity prime (correctly predicting the location of the target 80% of the time), or a misleading cue to prime the location of an
Upcoming target. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A) Response times to a neutral cue are faster than response times to a priming cue.
B) Response times to a misleading cue are faster than response times to a neutral cue.
C) There is no difference in response times between a neutral cue and a misleading cue.
D) Response times to a neutral cue are faster than response times to a misleading cue.

Question 34

Marcus is searching for a red square among an array of red and blue squares. Marcus is easily (and quickly) able to identify the red square because he is engaged in a _____ search.

A) feature
B) combination
C) primed
D) location-based

Question 35

Patients with unilateral neglect ignore one side of their visual field. This problem illustrates the importance of

A) object-based perception.
B) space-based perception.
C) memory for objects.
D) paying attention to objects.

Question 36

When engaged in a _____ search, set size does not matter. However, when engaged in a _____ search, set size has an impact on performance.

A) combination; feature
B) top-down; feature
C) feature; combination
D) feature; spatial

Question 37

If a participant is asked to perform two activities at the same time, performance will be improved if

A) the two activities are highly dissimilar, drawing on different task-specific resources.
B) the two activities are highly similar, drawing on the same task-specific resources.
C) both activities require large amounts of task-general resources.
D) neither activity involves verbal processing.

Question 38

The idea of a "cognitive budget" is used several times in this chapter. Which of the following statements is NOT true of the "cognitive budget"?

A) One can only perform multiple tasks if the sum of the tasks' demands do not exceed the budget.
B) The budget can increase through practice.
C) Tasks may require fewer resources after practice.
D) The budget contains task-specific and task-general resources.

Question 39

Posner, Snyder, and Davidson (1980) examined spatial attention using arrows as a prime. Most of the time the arrow pointed to the area where the stimulus would appear, but 20% of the time it did not. They compared reaction times (RTs) when the cue was valid, when it was invalid, and when a neutral cue was presented. Which of the following statements was NOT supported by their findings?

A) RTs were slower in the invalid condition than in the valid condition.
B) Spatial attention is limited in capacity.
C) We can attend to two different locations without a reduction in performance.
D) RTs were faster for responses to valid cues relative to neutral cues.

Question 40

A patient has suffered brain damage and, as a result, now seems to ignore all information on the left side of her world. If shown words, she reads only the right half of the word; if asked to copy a picture, she copies only the right half. This patient seems to be suffering from

A) a hemispherectomy.
B) right hemiblindness.
C) unilateral neglect syndrome.
D) parietal syndrome.

Question 41

Stroop interference demonstrates that

A) word reading is automatized.
B) the identification of a stimulus requires few resources.
C) practice with a color-naming task leads to automaticity.
D) automatic tasks do not exist.

Question 42

Attention is BEST characterized as a(n)

A) skill.
B) mechanism.
C) capacity.
D) achievement.

Question 43

Which of the following statements is NOT true about automatic tasks?

A) They do not require many attentional resources.
B) They can be combined with other tasks.
C) They can act as mental reflexes.
D) Executive control cannot override automaticity.

Question 44

A participant is shown a series of stimuli and is asked to name the color of the ink in which the stimuli are printed. The eighth stimulus happens to be printed in green ink. We should expect a relatively slow response if the stimulus happens to be

A) a series of green X's.
B) the word "RED" printed in green.
C) the participant's name printed in green.
D) the word "GREEN" printed in green.

Question 45

Participants with either high or low working-memory capacities (WMC) are asked to complete a Stroop task, where words are presented in different colors of ink and participants have to read the color of the word aloud instead of the word. How would you expect the high- and low-WMC groups to perform?

A) High-WMC participants will make more errors than low-WMC participants.
B) Low-WMC participants will make more errors than high-WMC participants.
C) Low-WMC participants will respond faster than high-WMC participants.
D) There will be no difference between high- and low-WMC participants.

Question 46

Lucas suffered a blow to his right parietal lobe and now suffers from unilateral neglect. Answer the following questions about Lucas.
a. In general, what behavioral tendencies will he exhibit?
b. If Lucas is shaving his face in the morning, what odd outcome might we expect?
c. If you ask Lucas to fixate on an object and then move that object to his left visual field, how will he respond?

Question 47

Which of the following statements about working-memory capacity (WMC) is TRUE?

A) People with smaller WMC will perform better on tasks requiring executive control.
B) People with larger WMC are more likely to make errors on executive control tasks.
C) People with higher WMC perform better when the task requires a novel response to override a habitual response.
D) WMC is not correlated with performance on other cognitive tasks.

Question 48

Describe the dichotic listening procedure and two studies that have manipulated the basic paradigm. What does the body of dichotic listening evidence tell us about the nature of attention?

Question 49

Which of the following statements is NOT true of executive control?

A) It is used to keep current goals active.
B) It inhibits distracting thoughts.
C) It seems to rely on the PFC.
D) It encourages habitual responding over goal-directed behaviors.

Question 50

The existence of task-general resources is indicated by the fact that

A) similar tasks will interfere with each other more than dissimilar tasks.
B) if a task has been heavily practiced, it is less likely to cause interference with other tasks.
C) some brain lesions disrupt all tasks requiring attention.
D) interference between two tasks can sometimes be observed even if the two tasks have no elements in common.

Question 51

Compare and contrast inattentional blindness and change blindness. Provide a real-life example of each process.

Question 52

Attention is limited in several ways. Sometimes we can complete competing tasks at the same time, but sometimes we cannot because the tasks interfere with each other. Which combination of tasks is likely to cause the LEAST amount of interference?

A) tasks that require the same task-specific resources
B) tasks that require general resources
C) a task that requires general resources and one that requires task-specific resources
D) two tasks that require different task-specific resources

Question 53

Which situation is the MOST difficult (and most dangerous)?

A) a novice driver talking on a cell phone
B) an experienced driver driving home
C) an experienced driver talking on a cell phone
D) an experienced driver driving in a new city

Question 54

Your friend says that she can drive and text on her cell phone at the same time because she has a lot of practice doing both things. Use your knowledge of attention to convince her (using the appropriate psychological terms and evidence) that she should not text and drive at the same time.

Question 55

There are several reasons why practice can improve performance. Which of the following statements is NOT a good reason?

A) Practice means that the response selector is no longer needed.
B) Practice helps us to memorize a task's procedures, leading to improvement in performance.
C) There are often many ways to approach a task; practice helps us determine the best way to complete a task.
D) Practice makes elements of a task become easier; this frees up resources to deal with other elements in the same task.

Question 56

An experienced driver can drive while holding a relatively complex conversation. This combination of activities is difficult, however, for a novice driver. Which of the following explanations is MOST likely to explain the difference?

A) The two activities are very different, so the task combination creates no problems with channel segregation.
B) Practicing a task leads to a decline in the resource demands for that task.
C) The two activities are very different, so they rely on different sets of task-specific resources.
D) Practicing the tasks improves confidence in the task.

Question 57

Attention is limited in many ways. Which of the following statements is NOT true about attentional limits?

A) Attention is limited spatially.
B) You can divide attention if the tasks are very similar.
C) Attention cannot be divided among similar stimuli.
D) Expectation can influence attention.

Question 58

Describe the Posner and Snyder (1975) experiment. What does it tell us about the role that priming plays in attention? What are the costs and benefits of such priming?