Deck 3: Attention and Performance

Question 1

Which statement demonstrates the results of Woldorff et al.'s (1993)neuroscience study of dichotic listening?

A) Activity levels are higher for brain regions associated with the unattended ear.
B) Activity levels for brain regions associated with both ears are dependent on the type of stimulus presented.
C) The primary auditory cortex is very active for the unattended ear,but the primary auditory cortex and the surrounding language areas are very active for the attended ear.
D) Activity levels are higher for brain regions associated with the attended ear.

Answer 1

Activity levels are higher for brain regions associated with the attended ear.

Question 2

The points at which it is no longer possible to continue processing all information in parallel are referred to as:

A) parallel bottlenecks.
B) parallel conjunctions.
C) serial bottlenecks.
D) serial conjuctions.

Answer 2

serial bottlenecks.

Question 3

When subjects were asked to look at two superimposed visual stimuli,they:

A) could not filter out one of the scenarios and thus retained little information about either.
B) could filter out one of the scenarios and retain most of the content of the attended-to scenario.
C) could filter out one of the scenarios but could not retain much content.
D) tended to focus largely on context in both scenarios and ignore physical traits.

Answer 3

could filter out one of the scenarios and retain most of the content of the attended-to scenario.

Question 4

In Treisman's attenuation theory of attention,the notion is that:

A) messages may be attenuated on the basis of physical properties,but semantic selection criteria apply to all messages.
B) weak semantic content attenuates the strength of a message,thus leading to it being filtered out.
C) weak physical traits attenuate semantic evaluation,resulting in the message being filtered out.
D) messages may be attenuated on the basis of semantic traits,but physical selection criteria apply to all messages.

Question 5

Triesman and Geffen compared the attenuation theory with the late-selection theory.They asked subjects to indicate when they heard a target word,but the word could occur either in the shadowed or unattended ear.Their results suggest that:

A) the attenuation theory is supported since most subjects detected the shadowed,but not the unattended,target words.
B) the late-selection theory is more accurate since subjects detected the targets equally often in both ears.
C) the attenuation theory must be inaccurate since subjects detected more unattended than attended targets.
D) both the attenuation and late-selection theories do an equally good job of explaining attention.

Question 6

Processing a complex visual scene is MOST analogous to:

A) ignoring an auditory signal.
B) hearing a single sound.
C) experiencing tactile input.
D) shadowing a conversation.

Question 7

You are at a museum.Which answer choice is an example of exogenous control?

A) a brightly-colored painting against a white wall
B) a description of the painting's key features
C) a tour guide's description of a sculpture
D) arrows pointing to a section of the gallery

Question 8

In the dichotic listening task,subjects are asked to:

A) "shadow" a message in one ear while hearing another stimulus in the other ear.
B) provide information on an oral message that has been segmented in an atypical way.
C) accurately monitor disparate information that is coming in from both auditory channels.
D) listen to two competing oral messages presented on the same soundtrack.

Question 9

In studies of dichotic listening,psychologists have found that the subjects could:

A) identify some semantic meaning of the message heard in the nonattended ear.
B) identify only the physical characteristics of the message (speech vs.noise)heard in the nonattended ear.
C) identify fairly accurately the semantic content of the message heard in the nonattended ear.
D) not only identify semantic content,but also tell which language was being spoken in the nonattended ear.

Question 10

In O'Craven,Downing,and Kanwisher's (1999)study,participants viewed a series of pictures consisting of faces superimposed on houses.Which statement BEST summarizes the results of the study?

A) Only the parahippocampal place area became active,regardless of the participant's focus.
B) Only the fusiform face area became active,regardless of the participant's focus.
C) The parahippocampal place area and fusiform face area both always became active.
D) The active region varied,depending on whether the participant attended to faces or houses.

Question 11

When visual stimuli are presented off the foveal fixation point,subjects:

A) are faster shifting attention to an expected point than to an unexpected point.
B) are equally fast shifting attention to expected and unexpected points.
C) are generally unable to shift attention fast enough to see the stimulus.
D) can shift attention rapidly to an expected point,but they are very inaccurate in identifying the stimulus.

Question 12

Which answer choice is an example of endogenous control?

A) a fire-alarm sounding in the hallway
B) a flickering light above a sculpture
C) a loud argument at the gift shop
D) arrows pointing to a section of the gallery

Question 13

In Neisser and Becklen's experiment with superimposed video scenarios,what is a likely explanation of the outcome?

A) Subjects must be able to use both content and physical cues to guide their eyes to the critical detail.
B) Subjects must depend largely on content and context to be able to monitor one scenario in preference to the other.
C) Subjects must depend largely on physical traits of the stimuli to be able to monitor one scenario in preference to the other.
D) Subjects must use a complex segmentation and cognitive resynthesis to monitor one scenario while filtering out the other.

Question 14

In a visual array,subjects must identify the location of the target letter O.This should be EASIEST when the distracters are:

A) C's and G's.
B) C's and I's.
C) G's and X's.
D) I's and X's.

Question 15

In an experiment,a subject is asked to put on headphones and repeat the message that is played in the right ear while another message plays simultaneously in the left ear.After the task is completed,the experimenter asks what played in the left ear.The subject is MOST likely able to remember:

A) whether the voice was male or female.
B) what the topic of the message was.
C) most of the words in the message.
D) the emotional tone of voice that was used.

Question 16

Imagine that you are at a party with many conversations going on around you.Your attention is "grabbed" by a conversation that includes your name.This event suggests that:

A) people are not able to concentrate attention very easily when they are bombarded with stimuli.
B) the meaning of a message is more important than the physical characteristics of the message.
C) background noise can interfere significantly with attending processes.
D) people can simultaneously process many different messages,as long as they are rich with meaning.

Question 17

What is a major distinction between the filter theory and the late-selection theory?

A) Filter theory assumes that selection criteria are mostly semantic,while late selection assumes they are mostly physical.
B) Filter theory assumes that people can readily attend to multiple meaningful messages,while late selection assumes multiple messages are processed only in terms of physical traits.
C) Filter theory assumes a limited channel capacity,while late selection assumes that any capacity limits must come later in processing.
D) None of these statements distinguishes these theories.

Question 18

Broadbent's filter theory of attention assumed that:

A) people use physical traits of stimuli to choose what gets through the attention bottleneck.
B) attending is largely a volitional process that opens and closes gates on information flow.
C) recognition of the stimulus must occur before filtering can occur.
D) the attender uses mostly semantic information to decide what gets through and what does not get through.

Question 19

When stimuli are presented off the foveal fixation point,it becomes clear that:

A) eye movement to a new fixation point occurs prior to the shift in attention.
B) shifting eye fixation to a new point is an automated routine independent of attention processes.
C) a shift in attention precedes and guides the eye movement to the nonfoveal region.
D) shifting eye fixation is largely a volitional top-down process that has little to do with attention.

Question 20

Which statement concerning divided-attention (e.g. ,shadowing)experiments is NOT true?

A) Subjects use meaning as a criterion for shadowing,even when the message switches from ear to ear.
B) Subjects often cannot recall anything about the content of the unattended message.
C) The process of shadowing one message is automatic for most subjects.
D) All the information from an attended message can be processed.

Question 21

Some evidence for object-based attention involves the phenomenon of:

A) attenuation.
B) partial report.
C) inhibition of return.
D) neglect of visual field.

Question 22

The phenomenon of illusory conjunction refers to:

A) reports of strong sensory illusions in complex figures.
B) the tendency to report combinations of features that had not appeared together in the original display.
C) a combination of sensory illusions based on distorted features in the original display.
D) the impression that stimuli in the nonattended field have features in common with the attended stimuli.

Question 23

Unilateral visual neglect is due to damage to this lobe of the brain.

A) frontal
B) parietal
C) occipital
D) temporal

Question 24

In a visual array,subjects must identify the location of the target letter O.This should be MOST difficult when the distracters are:

A) C's and G's.
B) C's and I's.
C) G's and X's.
D) I's and X's.

Question 25

When Triesman and Schmidt presented combination stimuli outside the focus of attention,they observed a phenomenon called:

A) pattern segmentation.
B) geon decomposition.
C) iconic overwriting.
D) illusory conjunction.

Question 26

While giving a patient a vision test,Dr.Smith notices the patient is not able to see any stimuli that are presented in the right half of the visual field.This disorder is MOST likely due to damage to which area of the brain?

A) temporal
B) frontal
C) parietal
D) occipital

Question 27

Using a hands-free headset while driving is:

A) similar to using a cell phone.
B) similar to having a conversation with a passenger.
C) safer than using a cell phone.
D) safer than having a conversation with a passenger.

Question 28

In her feature-integration theory,Treisman proposed that people:

A) must segment objects into elements before they shift attention.
B) must focus attention on a stimulus before they can synthesize the pattern.
C) use many contextual cues and top-down processing to extract salient features.
D) use mostly physical cues of the stimulus to guide feature extraction for later integration.

Question 29

Patients with parietal lobe injury generally have difficulty disengaging attention from visual information:

A) presented to the undamaged side.
B) presented to the damaged side.
C) only if several other lower brain areas are also damaged.
D) only if other crucial higher brain centers are also damaged.

Question 30

In a study,subjects listened to two different sentences played at the same time in opposite ears.In the right ear,the subjects heard,"Jack went shopping for some fruit in the grocery store" in a woman's voice;in the left ear,the subjects heard,"Sally jumped up from her seat to get the phone call" in a man's voice.The subjects were asked to repeat what they heard in the left ear.When asked about the message in the right ear,all the subjects could remember was that the message was in a woman's voice.Therefore,researchers conclude that,although both messages were perceived,subjects were not able to attend to both messages.This is evidence:

A) of a deficit in attention.
B) supporting a central bottleneck.
C) supporting automaticity
D) of the binding problem.

Question 31

Studies of visual neglect provide evidence for:

A) agnosia.
B) bottleneck theories of attention.
C) object-based attention.
D) feature integration.

Question 32

Damage to the _____ lobe is likely to cause deficits in visual attention.

A) sensory-motor
B) frontal
C) temporal
D) parietal

Question 33

In the clinical condition called unilateral visual neglect,patients:

A) ignore information in the visual field on the same side as the brain damage.
B) appear to lose significant visual detail only if there is damage to the right spatial side of the brain.
C) ignore information in either visual field only if there is damage to the right spatial brain.
D) ignore information in the visual field on the opposite side as the brain damage.

Question 34

Patients with right-hemisphere parietal damage were asked to copy a picture.They:

A) could not copy the picture.
B) could copy specific components of the picture,but not the spatial configuration.
C) could copy the spatial configuration of the picture,but not the specific components.
D) copied the picture successfully,unlike patients with left-hemisphere parietal damage.

Question 35

What is the term used by cognitive psychologists studying perception to describe the difficulty in explaining the fact that individuals are able to remember the proper combination of features of stimuli that they have seen previously?

A) conjunction mystery
B) perceptual combination riddle
C) binding problem
D) feature/configural conundrum

Question 36

Patients with left-hemisphere parietal damage were asked to copy a picture.They:

A) could not copy the picture.
B) could copy specific components of the picture,but not the spatial configuration.
C) could copy the spatial configuration of the picture,but not the specific components.
D) copied the picture successfully,unlike patients with right-hemisphere parietal damage.

Question 37

If we have looked at a particular region of space,we find it harder to return our attention to that region of space.This phenomenon is called:

A) inhibition of return.
B) cue utilization.
C) object-based attention.
D) stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA).

Question 38

Based on Treisman and Gelade's study of features and attention,we know it would be easiest for subjects to detect a T among a display of:

A) Y's and I's.
B) Z's and I's.
C) F's and E's.
D) H's and E's.

Question 39

Research presenting simultaneous visual and auditory stimuli to subjects suggests that subjects:

A) can process multiple perceptual modalities at once.
B) cannot process multiple perceptual modalities at once.
C) can process automatically.
D) can process multiple perceptual modalities but rarely do so.

Question 40

In the study of attention,automaticity refers to the:

A) forced or automatic attention that is given to certain powerful stimuli.
B) performance of a skill that has been practiced repeatedly with little or no direct attention.
C) automatic feature extraction that occurs because of specialized neural receptors.
D) routine segmentation of complex stimuli that occurs to extract salient features.

Question 41

Underwood's case study of Moray showed that:

A) the task of shadowing is difficult enough that it requires continuous directed attention,even with much practice.
B) only relatively simple tasks ever become truly automatic.
C) even the difficult task of shadowing can become automated enough to allow resources for monitoring the unattended channel.
D) Moray's ability to report details from the unattended channel depended largely on the physical characteristics of the stimulus.

Question 42

What is the Stroop effect and what does it tell us about automatic processes?

Question 43

What is central attention? Describe the experimental evidence that indicates when central bottlenecks occur and when they do not.

Question 44

What information have shadowing experiments provided about auditory attention?

Question 45

Compare the implications of talking to a passenger while driving to talking on a cell phone while driving.

Question 46

Describe Broadbent's filter model,Treisman's attenuation model,and Deutsch and Deutsch's late-selection model of auditory attention.Summarize the neuroscience evidence that relates to these theories.What conclusion can be reached regarding the veracity of these theories?

Question 47

The strong tendency for words to command processing is known as the:

A) MacLeod phenomenon.
B) Stroop effect.
C) Sperling effect.
D) Underwood process.

Question 48

Patients with damage to the prefrontal regions of the brain are:

A) much better at the Stroop task than individuals without this damage.
B) somewhat better at the Stroop task than individuals without this damage.
C) similar in Stroop task performance to individuals without this damage.
D) much worse at the Stroop task than individuals without this damage.

Question 49

A common error in the Stroop task is reading the word itself instead of saying the color in which the word is printed.This is probably because:

A) reading is a highly automated process.
B) reading is a highly controlled process.
C) attentional processes,being data-driven,have focused exclusively on letter features.
D) the attentional system cannot decide between top-down or bottom-up processing.

Question 50

How are goal-directed attention and stimulus-driven attention behaviorally different? How are they neurologically different? Give two examples of each type of attention.

Question 51

In the MacLeod and Dunbar study of geometric shapes and colors,the authors discovered that:

A) shape naming has little in common with color naming and does not respond to practice.
B) with practice,shape naming becomes more automatic than color naming.
C) practice improves shape naming,but it remains a controlled process.
D) practice influences speed of shape naming but does not produce the Stroop effect.

Question 52

According to Treisman (Treisman & Gelade,1980),how do people recognize patterns in a visual field?

Question 53

Compare and contrast Broadbent's filter model and Treisman's attenuation model.

Question 54

You can probably carry on a conversation and drive a car at the same time because driving the car:

A) has become an automatic process requiring little direct attention.
B) is largely based on conditioned responses that are controlled in the lower brain centers.
C) is different enough from conversing that the two do not interfere with each other.
D) is almost entirely a bottom-up skill.

Question 55

The task that requires subjects to name the color in which a word is printed is called the:

A) Sperling paradigm.
B) LaBerge task.
C) Stroop task.
D) Schneider task.

Question 56

Explain the cocktail party analogy as it relates to the dichotic listening task.

Question 57

What is the evidence that points to limits to parallelism?

Question 58

Damage to the prefrontal regions results in deficits of:

A) executive control.
B) motor control.
C) motor attention.
D) perceptual attention.

Question 59

When subjects are asked to name the color of ink in which a word is printed and the word itself is the name of a different color,subjects typically:

A) are about as fast as when they name the color for a word of the same color.
B) experience such conflict that their reading process breaks down immediately.
C) show little interference because physical traits of stimuli override contextual traits.
D) are much slower than when naming the color for a word of the same color.

Question 60

Detecting one set of letters (B,C,F,G,H,J,K,L)in the presence of another set of letters (Q,R,S,T,V,W,X,Y,Z):

A) is as hard as detecting letters in the presence of numbers.
B) is not affected by the number of letters in the display.
C) is more accurate but takes less time compared with detecting letters in the presence of numbers.
D) becomes automatic with enough practice.

Question 61

Compare and contrast early-selection and late-selection theories.

Question 62

Explain the Stroop effect and how it pertains to automaticity.

Question 63

Broadbent's filter theory is BEST described as a late-selection theory.

Question 64

Why is it difficult to pat your head while rubbing your stomach?

Question 65

Describe the difference between Treisman's attenuation theory and Deutsch and Deutsch's late-selection theory.

Question 66

Visual attention is NOT always directed to the part of the visual field being processed by the fovea.

Question 67

What is automaticity? Provide examples of tasks that may become automated with practice.

Question 68

Treisman's feature-integration theory of attention was developed as an attempt to answer the binding problem.

Question 69

The fovea registers a large part of the visual field.

Question 70

Deutsch and Deutsch (1963)proposed a modification of Broadbent's model of attention.This modification was known as the attenuation theory.

Question 71

What is the binding problem?

Question 72

How is endogenous control different from exogenous control? Give one example of each.

Question 73

Describe the methods by which auditory attention is studied in the laboratory.

Question 74

Subjects can focus their attention on a few degrees of area in their visual field and move their focus of attention over their visual field to process a meaningful event.

Question 75

Both Broadbent's and Triesman's theories assume that there is some filter or bottleneck in processing.

Question 76

How does Triesman's attenuation theory account for the limitations of Broadbent's theory?

Question 77

Describe the evidence that supports the feature-integration theory proposed by Treisman.

Question 78

An experiment where a subject is asked to listen to two simultaneous messages is called a dichotic listening task.

Question 79

What does Mangun,Hillyard,and Luck's (1993)ERP study tell us about neural activation during visual attention?

Question 80

What are some strengths and weaknesses of Broadbent's filter theory?