Chapter 3, Perceptual Processes II: Attention and Consciousness Video Solutions, Cognition

Problem 1

What is divided attention? Give several examples of divided-attention tasks you have performed within the past 24 hours. What does the research show about the effects of practice on divided attention? Can you think of some examples of your own experience with practice and divided-attention performance?

Amy Jiang

Numerade Educator

01:45

Problem 2

What is selective attention? Give several examples of selective-attention tasksboth auditory and visual - that you have performed within the past 24 hours. In what kind of circumstances were you able to pick up information about the message you were supposed to ignore? Does this pattern match the research?

Crystal Wang

Numerade Educator

01:39

Problem 3

This chapter discussed the Stroop effect in some detail. Can you think of other tasks that you routinely work on, where you also need to suppress the most obvious answer in order to provide the correct response? What attentional system in your cortex is especially active during these tasks?

Leonardo Filgueiras

Numerade Educator

04:39

Problem 4

Imagine that you are trying to carry on a conversation with a friend at the same time you are reading an interesting article in a magazine. Describe how the bottleneck theories and automatic versus controlled processing would explain your performance. Then describe Treisman's feature-integration theory and think of an example of this theory, based on your previous experiences.

Somer Davis

Numerade Educator

01:55

Problem 5

Imagine that you are searching the previous pages of this chapter for the term "dichotic listening." What part of your brain is activated during this task? Now suppose that you are trying to learn the meaning of the phrase dichotic listening. What part of your brain is activated during this task? Describe how research has clarified the biological basis of attention.

Rikhil Makwana

Numerade Educator

Problem 6

Summarize the two theoretical approaches to attention that we discussed in this chapter: the bottleneck approach and Treisman's feature-integration approach. Then for each approach, think of a situation you have recently experienced and apply the approach to this situation.

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02:47

Problem 7

Define the word consciousness. Based on the information in this chapter, do people have complete control over the information stored in consciousness? Does this information provide an accurate account of your cognitive processes? How is consciousness different from attention?

Emily Himsel

Numerade Educator

01:45

Problem 8

Cognitive psychology has many practical applications. Based on what you have read in this chapter, what applications can you suggest for driving and highway safety? Describe the research described in this chapter, and then list three or four additional applications.

Emily Himsel

Numerade Educator

Problem 9

Cognitive psychology can also be applied to clinical psychology. Discuss some applications of the Stroop effect and thought suppression to the area of psychological problems and their treatment.

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Problem 10

Chapters 2 and 3 both examine perception. To help you synthesize part of this information, describe as completely as possible how you are able to perceive the letters in a word, using both bottom-up and top-down processing. Describe how your attention would operate in both a selective-attention situation and a divided-attention situation. How are saccadic eye movements relevant?

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