Week 6 Recitation

1. On the topic of feature binding, which of the following are true?

• A. Simple search (e.g., searching for a blue circle in a sea of red circles) gets significantly harder as the number of distractors increases.

• B. Conjunctive search (e.g., searching for a blue circle in a sea of blue and red circles and squares) does not get harder as the number of distractors increases.

• C. Feature binding is required for us to be able to perceive objects, as opposed to a mosaic of free-floating qualities.

• D. Feature binding, unlike other processes, does not impose a cognitive load, and so does not eat up any of our finite attentional capacity.

2. According to Shiffrin & Schneider's theory of automaticity, which of the following statements accurately reflects the transition from controlled to automatic processing?

• A. Controlled processing requires no attention and is unaffected by the complexity of the task.

• B. Automatic processing occurs instantly without the need for practice or repetition.

• C. Through practice and repetition, some tasks can transition from requiring controlled, conscious effort to becoming automatic and requiring less cognitive effort.

• D. Tasks that are inherently complex can never become automatic, regardless of the amount of practice or repetition.

3. 3. Which of the following statements best describes the findings associated with the dichotic listening task, particularly in the context of selective attention?

• A. Participants can equally recall information from both attended and unattended channels, indicating no selective attention bias.

• B. Participants are better at recalling information presented to the dominant (typically right) ear, suggesting a lateral preference in auditory processing.

• C. Participants typically recall and process information from the attended channel significantly better than from the unattended channel, demonstrating selective auditory attention.

• D. The dichotic listening task shows that visual cues are more dominant in selective attention than auditory cues.

4. 4. Which of these results supports the early selection model of attention?

• A. During dichotic listening, subjects didn’t notice when speech was reversed.

• B. During dichotic listening, subjects noticed their own name being spoken.

• C. During dichotic listening, subjects can switch ears to follow content.

• D. During dichotic listening, subjects showed subliminal lexical priming.

5. According to the load theory of attention, which of these would lead to results that appear to favor the late selection model of attention?

• A. When the distractor is high load and there is little excess capacity

• B. When the distractor is low load and there is excess capacity

• C. The load theory of attention cannot explain results in favor of the early selection model of attention or late selection model of attention.

• D. The load theory of attention can only explain results in favor of the early selection model of attention.

6. In the Dictionary stage within the Attenuation Theory, which of these words would have the lowest activation threshold?

• A. Boat

• B. Cacophony

• C. Scratch

• D. Fire

7. Stroop (1935) tested if different colored text interferes with subjects’ ability to name and read colors. What were their primary findings?

• A. Word reading is automatized so reading influences color naming, but naming doesn’t influence reading.

• B. Both word reading and color naming symmetrically impact each other.

• C. Color naming is automatized so naming influences word reading, but reading doesn’t influence naming

• D. Neither word reading and color naming impact each other since both are automatized tasks.

8. Which of the following best describes a late-selection model of attention?

• A. Attention filters out irrelevant information early in the sensory processing stage, before any meaning is assigned to the information.

• B. Attention selects relevant information after the meaning of all incoming stimuli has been processed.

• C. Attention can only focus on one stimulus at a time, making it impossible to process multiple stimuli simultaneously.

• D. Attention is equally distributed across all stimuli, regardless of their relevance or importance.

9. Which of the following best describes the key difference between Broadbent’s Early Selection Theory and Treisman’s Attenuation Theory?

• A. Broadbent suggests that unattended information is completely filtered out early in processing, while Treisman proposes that unattended information is weakened but still processed to some extent.

• B. Broadbent asserts that attention can only focus on one stimulus at a time, while Treisman asserts that multiple stimuli to be processed simultaneously.

• C. Broadbent argues that attention operates based on the meaning of stimuli, while Treisman's theory is concerned only with physical characteristics.

• D. Broadbent suggests that unattended information is processed more thoroughly than attended information, while Treisman claims that attention is equally distributed across all stimuli.