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Definition
| the skill through which a person focuses on one and put or one task, while ignoring other stimuli that are also on the scene. |
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Term
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Definition
| a task in which research participants hear 2 simultaneous verbal messages- one in the left ear and one in the right. In typical experiments participants are asked to pay attention to one of these inputs (the attended channel) and urged to ignore the other (the unattended channel). |
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Term
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Definition
| a stimulus or group of stimuli that a person is trying to perceive. Ordinarily, information is understood or remembered from the attended channel. |
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Definition
| a stimulus or a group of stimuli that a person is not trying to perceive. Ordinarily, little information is understood, or remembered from the unattended channel. |
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Definition
| a task in which research participants repeat back a verbal input word for word as they hear it. |
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Definition
| a hypothetical mechanism that would block potential distractors from further processing |
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Definition
| a visual mark like a . or a + at which research participants point their eyes |
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Term
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Definition
| a pattern in which perceiver seem not to see stimuli right in front of their eyes. This pattern is caused by the participants focusing attention on some other stimulus and not expecting the target to appear. (also, inattentional deafness for auditory stimuli, and inattentional numbness for physical stimuli.) |
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Term
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Definition
| s a pattern in which perceivers either do not see or take a long time to see large scale changes individual stimulus. This pattern reveals how little people perceive, even from stimuli in plain view, if they are not specifically attending to the information. |
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Term
| early selection hypothesis |
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Definition
| a proposal that selective attention operate an early stage of processing, so that unattended inputs receive little analysis. |
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Term
| Late selection hypothesis |
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Definition
| a proposal that selective attention operates at a late stage of processing, so that unattended inputs receive considerable analysis |
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Term
| Biased competition theory |
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Definition
| a proposal that attention functions by shifting neurons’ priorities, so that the neurons are more responsive to the inputs that have properties associated with the desired or relevant input |
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Term
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Definition
| the mechanism through which people allocate processing resources to particular positions in space, so that they more efficiently process inputs from that region in space. |
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Term
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Definition
| a group of processes in which mental resources are limited, so that extra resources supplied to one process must be balanced by a withdrawal of resources somewhere else- with the result that the total resources expended do not exceed the limit of what is available. |
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Term
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Definition
| some process or capacity needed for performance, but in limited supply |
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| Endogenous control of attention |
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Definition
| a mechanism through which a person chooses (often on the basis of some meaningful signal) where to focus attention. |
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Term
| Exogenous control of attention |
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Definition
| a mechanism through which attention is automatically directed, essentially as a reflex response, to some attention grabbing input |
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Term
| Feature integration theory |
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Definition
| a proposal about the function of attention in “gluing together” elements and features that are in view |
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Definition
| the skill of performing multiple tasks simultaneously. |
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Definition
| the mental resources and processes that are used to set goals, choose task priorities, and avoid conflict among competing habits or responses |
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Definition
| a pattern of responding in which a person produces the same response over and over, even though they know that the task requires a change in response. Often observed in patients with brain damage in the frontal lobe. |
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Term
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Definition
| a pattern of behavior in which people fail to keep their goal in mind, so that, for example, they rely on habitual responses, even if those responses will not move them toward the goal |
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Term
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Definition
| a state achieved by some tasks and some forms of processing, in which the task can be performed with little or no attention. In many cases, automatized actions can be combined with other activities without interference. Automatized actions are also often difficult to control, leading many psychologists to refer to them as mental reflexes. |
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Term
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Definition
| a classic demonstration of automaticity in which research participants are asked to name a color of ink used to print a word in the word itself is the name of a different color. (for example, the word “yellow” printed in blue ink) |
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