2 Selective Attention Free Online FlashCards

What is selective attention?

Selective attention prioritizes some available information for further processing while giving other information less priority.

What practical problem does selective attention help solve?

It helps people follow a conversation in a noisy room or find a particular object in a cluttered scene.

Does selective attention completely block all unattended information?

No. Unattended information can sometimes influence perception or behavior, so selection is not always an all-or-none gate.

Where does early-selection theory place the filter?

It proposes that attention filters input before it is fully identified or understood.

How does Broadbent’s classic model select an input channel?

Incoming signals are briefly registered for basic physical properties, such as which ear they come from, and a limited-capacity filter selects a channel for fuller processing.

What does attenuation theory propose about unattended input?

It proposes that unattended input is weakened rather than completely blocked; some features and meaning can still be processed.

Where does late-selection theory place selection?

It proposes that inputs can be analyzed for meaning before attention selects which information guides conscious report, memory, or action.

What is dichotic listening?

Different speech streams are presented to the two ears, allowing researchers to study how listeners prioritize one stream over another.

What did Cherry’s dichotic-listening experiments show?

Listeners could follow the attended stream but had limited access to the words and meaning of the competing stream.

What findings suggest that ignored speech can still affect processing?

Listeners sometimes detected a message switch across ears, and contextual predictability affected the likelihood of repeating a word from the wrong stream.

What characterizes a feature search?

The target differs from distractors by one salient feature, such as a red item among green items, and can often be found quickly with little change in response time as display size grows.

What characterizes a conjunction search?

The target is defined by a combination of features; search often slows as the display grows, consistent with inspecting items or binding features.