Deck 4: Paying Attention

Question 1

The different forms of priming can be distinguished in several ways. For example, the effects of _____ can be observed almost immediately after the relevant cue is provided; in contrast, the effects of _____ require a half second or so to appear after the relevant cue.

A) concept-driven priming; data-driven priming
B) stimulus-based priming; expectation-based priming
C) expectation-based priming; repetition priming
D) semantic priming; repetition priming

Answer 1

B

Question 2

A participant is asked to shadow a message presented to the left ear while simultaneously ignoring a message presented to the right ear. During the experiment, which of the following statements reflects what the participant is LEAST likely to detect?

A) The right ear's message is initially presented in a high-pitched voice but is then spoken by a low-pitched voice.
B) The participant's name is mentioned three times at various points within the right ear's message.
C) Initially, the right ear's message contains a male voice reading a coherent passage, but this is then replaced by the same voice reading a sequence of random words.
D) The right ear's message is initially presented in a soft voice but is then spoken by a loud voice.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

In each trial of an experiment, participants see a warning signal and then, a half-second later, see a pair of letters. The participants press one button if the letters are the same (e.g., W W) and a different button if the letters are different (e.g., P X). In 80% of the trials, the warning signal is identical to the letters that will be shown on that trial. Listed below are the warning signals and the test stimuli presented on trial number 97 of the procedure. Group 1 warning signal = L; test pair = L L
Group 2 warning signal = U; test pair = L L
Group 3 warning signal = +; test pair = L L
In this setup we should expect fastest responses from:

A) Group 3 and slowest responses from Group 2
B) Group 1 and slowest responses from Group 3
C) Group 1 and slowest responses from Group 2
D) Group 1 and no difference between Groups 2 and 3

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Priming based on specific expectations about the identity of the upcoming stimulus produces:

A) no benefit for processing if the expectations are correct but slows processing if the expectations are incorrect
B) a benefit for processing if the expectations are correct but slows processing if the expectations are incorrect
C) a benefit for processing if the expectations are correct but has no effect on processing if the expectations are incorrect
D) the same benefit as stimulus-based repetition priming

Question 5

Some researchers have compared visual attention to a searchlight beam sweeping across the visual field. Which of the following claims about this beam is NOT currently supported by evidence?

A) It is possible to split the beam of visual attention, so that two nonadjacent positions are both within the beam.
B) Movements of attention can be separate from movements of the eye.
C) The beam of visual attention can be adjusted by the participant, so that the beam is sometimes wide and sometimes narrow.
D) Stimuli inside the beam of visual attention are primed, promoting their perception.

Question 6

The task of shadowing involves:

A) immediately repeating, word for word, the contents of a message
B) drawing the mirror image of a simple sketch
C) copying the movements of a target individual
D) repeating back, from memory, a message heard some minutes earlier

Question 7

The available data from patients with brain damage to circuits controlling attention indicate that:

A) the brain mechanisms controlling attention are inseparable from the brain mechanisms directly involved in perception
B) multiple brain mechanisms are responsible for the control of attention
C) a single mechanism governs the ability to disengage attention from its current focus and also the ability to lock in to a new attention focus
D) the mechanisms controlling attention differ from one individual to the next

Question 8

In a study of spatial attention, participants are shown a neutral cue, a high-validity cue (predicting the location of the target 80% of the time), or a low-validity cue (misleading participants to the location of the target 20% of the time) to prime the location of an upcoming target. Which of the following statements is TRUE?

A) Response times to a neutral cue are faster than response times to a correct high-validity cue.
B) Response times to an incorrect low-validity cue are faster than response times to a neutral cue.
C) There is no difference in response times between either a neutral cue or an incorrect low-validity cue.
D) Response times to a neutral cue are faster than response times to an incorrect low-validity cue.

Question 9

Tasks involving dichotic listening are tasks in which:

A) two different visual stimuli are presented
B) two different auditory messages are presented, one to each ear
C) participants must identify subthreshold sounds
D) participants must dichotomize sounds into distinct categories

Question 10

In dichotic listening experiments, some aspects of the unattended message seem to leak through and are heard despite the participant's intention to ignore the message. Which of the following statements reflects what is LEAST likely to leak through in this fashion?

A) material that is easily distinguishable from the attended message in its semantic content
B) mention of the participant's name
C) mention of a topic of personal importance to the participant
D) mention of a movie that the participant recently watched

Question 11

Participants are instructed to fixate on a point on a computer screen and report on a "+" sign that appears off to one side. After several trials, the fixation point is replaced by a new shape, but the participants do not notice this change. This is a study of:

A) inattentional blindness
B) neglect syndrome
C) attentional apathy
D) shadowing

Question 12

All of the following statements are true of patients with unilateral neglect syndrome, EXCEPT:

A) in general, they seem to ignore half of the world
B) when their attention is directed toward a particular object, it often stays with that object
C) if an object previously attended to is moved into the ignored half of the world, patients will start to ignore the object
D) when asked to cross out all the letter E's on a page, patients with damage to the right parietal lobe will cross out only the E's on the right side of the page

Question 13

An example of the difference between perception and conscious perception is shown by Moore and Egeth. They showed participants a display containing two horizontal lines and a series of surrounding dots. In one trial the lines and dots were arranged to produce the Müller-Lyer illusion (an illusion that causes the same two lines to look different in length). In this experiment MOST participants were:

A) consciously aware of the Müller-Lyer pattern and perceived the two lines to be of the same length
B) consciously aware of the Müller-Lyer pattern and perceived the two lines to be of different lengths
C) not consciously aware of the Müller-Lyer pattern and perceived the two lines to be of different lengths
D) not consciously aware of the Müller-Lyer pattern and perceived the two lines to be of the same length

Question 14

In dichotic listening tasks, MOST participants are able to:

A) tell if the unattended channel contained a coherent message or just random words
B) identify physical attributes of the message on the unattended channel
C) concentrate effectively on the attended channel, so they end up detecting nothing on the unattended channel
D) maintain their focus on the attended channel only with considerable difficulty and frequent slips

Question 15

A patient has suffered brain damage and, as a result, now seems to ignore all information on the left side of her world. If shown words, she reads only the right half of the word; if asked to copy a picture, she copies only the right half. This patient seems to be suffering from:

A) a hemispherectomy
B) right hemiblindness
C) the unilateral neglect syndrome
D) parietal syndrome

Question 16

In a study of visual selection, participants were shown a video of people throwing and catching a ball. Some of the people were wearing white shirts and some were wearing black. Participants were asked to attend only to the group of people wearing white shirts and count the number of times they threw the ball. In this study, participants:

A) could not ignore the participants wearing black
B) reported the total number of times the ball changed hands regardless of whether it was thrown by a person wearing a white shirt or a person wearing a black shirt
C) reported the number of throws made by the people wearing black shirts 50% of the time
D) easily completed the task, but in the process failed to notice some other peculiar events that occurred

Question 17

A participant has just participated in an experiment involving dichotic listening. Of the following choices, the participant is LEAST likely to remember:

A) whether the unattended channel was spoken by a male or a female
B) whether the unattended channel contained nonspeech noises or speech
C) the semantic content of the attended channel
D) the meaning of the words presented on the unattended channel

Question 18

Participants are shown pictures of two alternating scenes that are separated by a brief blank interval. The scenes are identical except for one small changed part. In this case participants find it hard to detect the change. Which of the following statements is MOST likely to be true?

A) This effect occurs only when participants are unaware that there is a change in the scene.
B) A similar effect can also be found with movies and in real live events (where participants fail to detect changes that have been made).
C) A similar effect can also be found with movies (where participants fail to detect changes that have been made) but not with real live events.
D) Changes in the center of a scene often take longer to detect than changes in the periphery of a scene.

Question 19

Participants are shown a pair of similar pictures separated by a blank interval. The pictures are identical except for one single aspect (e.g., a man is wearing a hat in one scene but not in the other). In these kinds of tasks participants often find it hard to detect the change. This phenomenon is known as change:

A) identification
B) perception
C) blindness
D) unawareness

Question 20

In which of the following situations would we expect the fastest response time?

A) The stimulus being presented to the participant is identical in form to the stimulus used as the warning signal.
B) The stimulus being presented to the participant is markedly different from the stimulus used as the warning signal.
C) The stimulus being presented to the participant is the stimulus the participant was expecting.
D) The stimulus being presented to the participant is identical in form to the warning signal but is different from the stimulus the participant was expecting.

Question 21

Which of the following statements is NOT true about automatic tasks?

A) They don't require many attentional resources.
B) They can be combined with other tasks.
C) They can act as mental reflexes.
D) Executive control cannot override automaticity.

Question 22

It has been hypothesized that some mental resources (e.g., the response selector) are unitary and therefore are not divisible. If two tasks both require one of these unitary resources, divided attention between these two tasks will:

A) not be possible
B) be possible only by means of sharing of the resource between the two tasks
C) be possible only if one of the tasks requires more resources than the other
D) be possible only if the two tasks make matched demands of the resource

Question 23

There is a cost to expectation-based priming, revealed by the fact that priming the wrong detector leads to slower responding. That is, getting prepared for one target seems to hinder performance for other targets. What does this finding reveal about selective attention?

A) Selective attention is a limited-capacity system.
B) Selective attention is an unlimited-capacity system.
C) Expectation-based priming is better than stimulus-based priming.
D) The cost of priming is inevitable.

Question 24

The prefrontal cortex is thought to be involved in working-memory capacity (WMC). This region is thought to be MOST important for working memory in terms of:

A) conflict detection
B) memory consolidation
C) encoding sensory information
D) goal maintenance

Question 25

Recordings from neurons in area V4 of the visual cortex are:

A) equally responsive to both attended and unattended stimuli
B) more responsive to the physical attributes of unattended stimuli than attended stimuli
C) used primarily in expectation-based priming
D) more responsive to attended inputs than unattended inputs

Question 26

If a participant is asked to perform two activities at the same time, performance will be improved if:

A) the two activities are highly dissimilar, drawing on different task-specific resources
B) the two activities are highly similar, drawing on the same task-specific resources
C) both activities require large amounts of task-general resources
D) neither activity involves verbal processing

Question 27

Stroop interference indicates that:

A) word reading is automatized
B) the identification of a stimulus requires few resources
C) practice with a color-naming task leads to automaticity
D) automatic tasks do not exist

Question 28

Which of the following statements about working-memory capacity (WMC) is TRUE?

A) People with smaller WMC will perform better on tasks requiring executive control.
B) People with larger WMC are more likely to make errors on executive control tasks.
C) People with higher WMC perform better when the task requires a novel response to override a habitual response.
D) WMC is not correlated with performance on other cognitive tasks.

Question 29

Research suggests that, along with the prefrontal cortex, there is another brain region involved in working-memory capacity (WMC). This area is used for conflict detection and is supported by the:

A) anterior cingulate
B) premotor cortex
C) corpus callosum
D) cerebellum

Question 30

Which of the following statements is NOT true of executive control?

A) It is used to keep current goals active.
B) It inhibits distracting thoughts.
C) Some researchers believe it can be measured through working-memory capacity.
D) It encourages habitual responding over goal-directed behaviors.

Question 31

Studies looking at electrical activity in the brain suggest that the processing steps for attended stimuli and unattended stimuli are:

A) indistinguishable
B) distinguishable for only 1 second after stimuli presentation
C) distinguishable 60 to 70 ms after stimuli presentation
D) distinguishable, although the exact time at which these two inputs differ is unknown

Question 32

A late selection view of attention suggests that:

A) only the attended input is analyzed; the unattended input receives little analysis
B) all inputs are fully processed; however, only the attended input reaches consciousness
C) attention can switch back and forth between attended and unattended inputs
D) analysis of an unattended input is greater than that of the attended input

Question 33

There are several reasons why practice can improve performance. Which of the following statements is NOT a good reason?

A) Practice means that the response selector is no longer needed.
B) Practice helps us to memorize a task's procedures, leading to improvement in performance.
C) There are often many ways to approach a task; practice helps us determine the best way to complete a task.
D) Practice allows elements of a task to become easier; this frees up resources to deal with other elements in the same task.

Question 34

Participants are asked to listen to a tape-recorded message and to shadow the message as they hear it. Which of the following tasks will be easiest to combine with this shadowing task?

A) viewing a series of printed words, followed by a test measuring memory for the words
B) hearing a simultaneous tape-recorded message, followed by a test measuring memory for the gist of the second message
C) hearing a simultaneous tape-recorded list of words, followed by a test measuring memory for the word list
D) viewing a series of pictures, followed by a test measuring memory for the pictures

Question 35

An experienced driver can drive while holding a relatively complex conversation. This combination of activities is difficult, however, for a novice driver. Which of the following explanations is MOST likely to explain the difference?

A) the two activities are very different, so the task combination creates no problems with channel segregation
B) practice of a task leads to a decline in the resource demands for the task
C) the two activities are very different, so they rely on different sets of task-specific resources
D) practice of the tasks diminishes the need for task-specific resources

Question 36

Participants are shown two rectangles. A target appears in one of the rectangles. Prior to the appearance of the target, a cue appears signaling the target's location. In the majority of the trials the cue is correct; however, sometimes the cue is misleading. In the latter case the target could appear in the same rectangle but at a different location or in the other rectangle. Which of the following statements is MOST likely to be true when the cue is misleading?

A) Participants respond to the target faster if the cue appears in the same rectangle rather than in the other rectangle.
B) Participants respond to the target faster if the cue appears in the other rectangle rather than in the same rectangle.
C) Participants often fail to detect the target if it appears in the same rectangle as the cue.
D) Participants often fail to detect the target if it appears in the other rectangle than the rectangle with the cue.

Question 37

The existence of task-general resources is indicated by the fact that:

A) similar tasks will interfere with each other more than dissimilar tasks
B) if a task has been heavily practiced, it is less likely to cause interference with other tasks
C) some brain lesions disrupt all tasks requiring attention
D) interference between two tasks can sometimes be observed even if the two tasks have no elements in common

Question 38

Participants with high and low working-memory capacities (WMC) are asked to complete a Stroop task, where words are presented in different colors of ink, and participants have to read the color of the word aloud, instead of the word. How would you expect the high- and low-WMC groups to perform?

A) High-WMC participants will make more errors than low-WMC participants.
B) Low-WMC participants will make more errors than high-WMC participants.
C) Low-WMC participants will respond faster than high-WMC participants.
D) There will be no difference between high- and low-WMC participants.

Question 39

A participant is shown a series of stimuli and is asked to name the color of the ink in which the stimuli are printed. The eighth stimulus happens to be printed in green ink. We should expect a relatively slow response if the stimulus happens to be:

A) a series of green X's
B) the word "RED" printed in green
C) the participant's name printed in green
D) the word "GREEN" printed in green

Question 40

Posner, Snyder, and Davidson (1980) examined spatial attention using arrows as a prime. Most of the time, the arrow pointed to the area where the stimulus would appear, but 20% of the time it did not. They compared reaction times (RT) when the cue was valid, when it was invalid, and when a neutral cue was presented. Which of the following results was NOT supported by their findings?

A) RTs were slower in the invalid condition relative to the valid condition.
B) Spatial attention is limited in capacity.
C) We can attend to two different locations without a reduction in performance.
D) RTs were faster for valid responding relative to neutral responding.

Question 41

Moore and Egeth (1997) asked participants to rate which of two lines was longer. Background dots were presented with the lines. On some trials, the dot pattern was a visual illusion, designed to manipulate the perceived length of the lines. Moore and Egeth found that:

A) one can be influenced by events one is not conscious of
B) one cannot have perception without consciousness
C) attention and perception are necessary for consciousness
D) attention requires perception

Question 42

Attention is necessary for:

A) eye movements
B) perception
C) conscious perception
D) working-memory capacity

Question 43

Attention is limited in many ways. Which of the following statements is NOT true about attentional limits?

A) Attention is limited spatially.
B) You can divide attention if the tasks are very similar.
C) Attention cannot be divided among similar stimuli.
D) Expectation can influence attention.

Question 44

The searchlight metaphor of attention is problematic in what way?

A) Attention can be divided across spatial locations, unlike a searchlight.
B) Attention can be dependent on an object, not a location.
C) Attention cannot be turned off, like a searchlight can.
D) Attention is not equally distributed across a location, like a searchlight suggests.

Question 45

The idea of a "cognitive budget" is used several times in this chapter. Which of the following statements is NOT true of the "cognitive budget"?

A) One can only perform multiple tasks if the sum of the tasks' demands do not exceed the budget.
B) The budget can increase through practice.
C) Tasks may require fewer resources through practice.
D) The budget contains task specific and task-general resources.

Question 46

Change blindness indicates that:

A) perception is not sufficient for attention
B) attention cannot be divided
C) changes in a scene are easily detected
D) attention is not sufficient for perception

Question 47

Attention is BEST characterized as a:

A) skill
B) mechanism
C) capacity
D) achievement

Question 48

Which situation is the MOST difficult (and most dangerous)?

A) a novice driver talking on a cell phone
B) an experienced driver driving home
C) an experienced driver talking on a cell phone
D) an experienced driver driving in a new city

Question 49

Attention is limited in several ways. Sometimes we can complete competing tasks at the same time, but sometimes we cannot because the tasks interfere with each other. Which combination of tasks is likely to cause the LEAST amount of interference?

A) Tasks that require the same task-specific resources
B) Tasks that require general resources
C) A task that requires general resources and one that requires task-specific resources
D) Two tasks that require different task-specific resources