Perception and Theories of Attention
In the multiple resource model of attention, what two different pools of attention do we draw from? Hint: This is what would allow us to easily talk and drive at the same time.
Verbal and Spatial
______ is when we fail to detect that an object has moved from one view to the next
Change blindness
What is the process involved in the encoding, storage, retrieval, and using information when it is no longer present?
Memory
Which is better for recall, distributed practice or massed practice?
Distributed. Cramming = bad for long term memory
What is the phonological similarity effect? Is it easier or harder to remember words that sound similar?
It’s harder to recall a list of words that sound the same than when they sound different.
_____ is the ability to process some stimuli and not others.
Attention
Describe the visual search CogLab. Why would it take longer to determine it was a conjunctive absent search rather than conjunctive present search on average?
You visually try to identify an object that is distinguishable by one or more different features. Conjunctive absent takes longer because you need to search the entire area before concluding it is absent, but when it is present you do not search the rest of the area.
What are the three interacting systems in the modal memory model?
Sensory, short-term, and long term memory
What is the difference between proactive and retroactive interference?
Retroactive interference is when new information prevents recall of previous information
Proactive interference is when prior learning prohibits new learning, such as when your old password interferes with the memory of your new one.
What two factors determine how many items we can store in our phonological loop?
Depends on duration before items decay from PS and speed of rehearsal.
Where is the ‘what’ system of attention located in the brain? Where is the ‘where’ system located?
What Stream: Goes from occipital to temporal lobe (Ventral stream)
Where Stream: Goes from occipital to parietal (Dorsal stream)
The idea of having different systems is supported by the Ungerleider and Mishkin study.
What is an attentional blink? Describe the attentional blink CogLab and its predicted results.
There is a brief moment in time when your attention “blinks” and you miss things. The detection of the first letter causes you to miss the second letter. Once processing of the first letter is done after a few milliseconds, there is no difficulty detecting the second letter.
What is the difference between iconic and echoic memory? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each?
It is sensory information from visual stimuli. It lasts about .5 to 1 second and is easily disrupted but has a large capacity. It is auditory sensory memory and has a longer duration of 3-4 seconds but a smaller capacity.
What is the testing effect?
Answering practice test questions is one of the most effective ways to get better results and improve long term memory
Describe the word length effect. How can this be accounted for using the properties of the phonological loop?
The number of items remembered is related to the length of words. Longer words are take longer to rehearse, therefore tend to decay from working memory easier than shorter words.
According to the recognition by components theory of object perception, what are the three basic properties of geons?
According to the theory, our brain processes every visual object as a combination of geons.
View Invariance: identification from different angles
Discriminability: easily distinguished from one another
Resistance to visual noise: Can be easily identified when partially occluded
What is the stroop task? What does it suggest about the automaticity of identifying words vs. colors?
You try to read a list of color names where the color of the word isn't always the same as the written word. You read the word automatically and struggle saying the actual color, meaning reading is more automatic.
Explain the modality effect in relation to what we know about iconic and echoic memory
The modality effect is that the recency effect depends on the modality of presentation. There is a stronger recency effect with auditory stimuli over visual presentation. With visual stimuli, iconic memory of the last item is gone before you try to report it.
Regarding proactive and retroactive interference, why is it that the middle information presented in a serial position curve is the least likely to be remembered?
It is not impacted by the primary or recency effect, and it is also impacted by both proactive and retroactive interference because by nature of being the middle information presented, there was information presented before and after it.
Describe the irrelevant speech effect. Explain the effect with what we know about working memory. What would you suggest to someone that likes to study while listening to music? Explain.
There is a strong reduction in performance of recall when the background noise is spoken, even in an unfamiliar language. I would listen to music with no words or study in silence.
Describe the Broadbent's filter theory. How does this model relate to selective attention?
The Broadbent filter theory is that we process almost everything at sensory level but have a limited processing capacity for higher level analysis to protect from overload.
Describe feature integration theory. Describe the theory in terms of the typical (predicted) results of our visual search CogLab experiment.
The feature integration theory includes the Pre-attentive stage which is based on basic features of the stimulus, meaning no attention is necessary and it is automatic. Focused attention stage is based on a conjunction/binding of features, attention is effortful.
Describe the Ebbinghaus experiment. What were the main results? Where was the steepest drop-off in memory?
It was one of the first high impact memory experiments and measured how long it takes to learn a list of nonsense syllables perfectly. The steepest drop off was after 1-2 days, but after that information could be recalled almost indefinitely.
Describe the method of loci. Be sure to highlight what is critical for the method’s effectiveness.
It is when you visualize walking around an area with distinct landmarks and links items to be remembered with the landmarks. To recall items, you walk through the area. It helps to use bizarre imagery.
Identify and describe the different parts of Baddeley’s working memory model.
Baddeley’s working memory model is an extension of STM. There is the central executive which allocates attention as needed, The visuospatial sketchpad which maintains visual/spatial material, mental images. The phonological loop maintains verbal information and has two parts which are the articulatory control process and phonological store. The ACP converts non-speech information to auditory speech code an this is where you rehearse and refresh. The phonological store is similiar to STM and items decay from memory.