Core Concepts of Attention
Focusing on writing your essay while ignoring the television in the room is an example of what?
A sleepy driver fails to notice the car ahead of him braking and gets into an accident. This is an example of what?
Inattentional blindness
This brain network is responsible for achieving and maintaining an alert state of readiness, such as becoming aware when a teacher walks into the room at the start of class.
Alerting Network
This is a chemical messenger in the brain that transmits signals across a synapse.
Neurotransmitter
This is the idea that different parts of the brain are responsible for different behavior or mental processes.
Localization of Function
Experimental methods that could directly test causality (e.g. lesioning or invasive stimulation) are generally unethical in humans. Researcher must rely on animal models so as to not violate which ethical standard?
Causing Undue Harm
This concept of attention occurs when you fail to detect changes in a physical scene, often because attention is focused elsewhere
Change Blindness
Being so caught up in your book that you don’t notice it’s raining until you finish the chapter is an example of which concept of attention?
Change blindness
This brain network is responsible for resolving conflict among responses, error detection, and cognitive control, such as ignoring other stimuli while a teacher is talking.
Executive Control Network
A study by Volkow et al (2009) used PET scans and discovered that people with ADHD had lower levels of this neurotransmitter in brain regions involving the reward pathway, leading to reduced motivation for tasks that were not immediately rewarding.
Dopamine
This type of scan can map metabolic changes that indicate which part of the brain is active during specific tasks, creating both an anatomical and functional image of the brain
fMRI
Because multiple brain regions are involved with attention, this means researchers should be careful to avoid this classic pitfall in psychological research when looking at brain activity?
Assuming Correlation = Causation
Rapidly switching between two tasks/sources of stimuli is known as...
Task switching/Multitasking
A pilot not hearing a landing gear alarm because they are managing a difficult weather situation is a real life example of what?
Inattentional deafness
Which brain network helps you shift focus on a specific stimulus, such as looking at a teacher as they begin to talk?
Orienting Network
Researchers have found that prescribing reuptake inhibitors for this neurotransmitter (allowing it to stay active between neurons for longer) has helped to improve attention & focus for individuals with ADHD
Norepinephrine
In this type of brain scan, magnetic fields are used in conjunction with radio frequency fields to create an anatomical image of a brain. While good for studying the physical structure of a brain, it is not an "active" scan like other kinds.
MRI
As technology advances, biological data may be stored and shared digitally. This raises the concern that researchers need to be careful not to violate which ethical standard?
Anonymity/Confidentiality
Focusing on something so much that you do not hear external changes is known as what?
Inattentional deafness
Little Jimmy staying focused while playing a video game, but getting consistently distracted while doing his homework, is a real world example of how attention can be affected by what?
Motivation
A study by Dustron et al (2003) found that children with this disorder showed less activation in the prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia, suggesting that it is linked to weaker functioning in the brain networks responsible for regulating attention
ADHD
Twin, pedigree, and adoption studies have suggested a heritability rate for ADHD around what percentage?
70-80%
In this type of brain scan, a patient is injected with a harmless dose of radioactive glucose, those radioactive particles release a gamma ray when the brain metabolizes the glucose and it can be recorded in a machine
PET scan
Because many attention tests take place in controlled laboratory settings, one could say that they lack what?
Mundane Realism / Ecological Validity
During the Flanker Test, it is much easier to notice the direction of the middle fish during which kind of trial?
Incongruent trial
If you are watching a stream of rapidly switching numbers to find the number 1 and then the number 2, and you fail to notice number 2 since it appeared immediately after the 1, you are experiencing what?
Attentional blink
This disorder, largely caused by damage to the right hemisphere of the brain, results in patients losing awareness of the left side of the environment and body.
Hemispacial Neglect
Longitudinal twin studies often encountered the issue of participation shrinking as the participants grew older. This phenomenon of losing participants, which may affect the validity of a study, is referred to as what?
Attrition/Attrition Rate
In this brains can, electrodes are placed on the skull and measure the electrical activity within the brain
EEG scan
Researchers favoring biological arguments while ignoring the role that environment and context can play in attention can lead to a dangerous assumption known as Biological... what?
Determinism