The Attending Brain
Attention is the process by which certain information is selected for further processing and other information is discarded. In general, when an object or perceptual feature is attended there is an increased activity, measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging, in brain regions that are involved in perceiving those stimuli relative to when they are unattended. These biasing signals originate from parietal regions (typically spatially organized) and frontal regions (which controls task-relevance). Theories of attention differ according to whether they are early selection (prioritizing information based on sensory information) or late selection (prioritizing information based on meaning) or both. Brain damage to the right parietal lobe can lead to problems attending to the left side of space and this is called neglect. Neglect can affect different aspects of spatial attention providing evidence for different specialized processes.
Multiple Choice Questions
Flashcards
The process by which certain information is selected for further processing and other information is discarded
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A failure to be aware of a visual stimulus because attention is directed away from it
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A failure to notice the appearance/disappearance of objects between two alternating images
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Any aspect of a stimulus that, for whatever reason, stands out from the rest
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The movement of attention from one location to another
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The movement of attention from one location to another without moving the eyes/body
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The movement of attention accompanied by movement of the eyes or body
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A slowing of reaction time associated with going back to a previously attended location
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Attention that is externally guided by a stimulus
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Attention is guided by the goals of the perceiver
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A task of detecting the presence or absence of a specified target object in an array of other distracting objects
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An inability to report a target stimulus if it appears soon after another target stimulus
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Contains neurons that respond to salient stimuli in the environment and are used to plan eye movements
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Lateral intra-parietal area (LIP)
A fast, ballistic movement of the eyes
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A spatial layout that emphasizes the most behaviorally relevant stimuli in the environment
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Part of the frontal lobes responsible for voluntary movement of the eyes
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A failure to attend to stimuli on the opposite side of space to a brain lesion
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In a non-damaged brain there is over attention to the left side of space
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The ability to detect an object among distractor objects in situations in which the number of distractors presented is unimportant
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A situation in which visual features of two different objects are incorrectly perceived as being associated with a single object
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A theory of attention in which information is selected according to perceptual attributes
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A theory of attention in which all incoming information is processed up to the level of meaning (semantics) before being selected for further processing
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If an ignored object suddenly becomes the attended object, then participants are slower at processing it
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In the context of attention, this term refers to unawareness of a stimulus in the presence of competing stimuli
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A severe difficulty in spatial processing normally following bilateral lesions of the parietal lobe; symptoms include simultanagnosia, optic ataxia, and optic apraxia
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Inability to perceive more than one object at a time
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A task involving judging the central point of a line
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A variant of the visual search paradigm in which the patient must search for targets in an array, normally striking them through as they are found
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Adjusting one set of spatial coordinates to be aligned with a different coordinate system
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A map of space coded relative to the position of the body
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