PSYB65H3 Lecture Notes - Ataxia, Postcentral Gyrus, Scotoma
Document Summary
William james describes attention as: selective attention: selection of inputs, thoughts or actions, while others are ignored, voluntary attention: intentionally shift attention from one input to another, reflexive attention: shift occurs in response to external event. Hermann von helmholtz: demonstrated voluntary kind of intention even without eye movements and without changes of accommodation , one can concentrate attention on peripheral nervous system and exclude attention from all other parts, eg. Stare at the middle of the screen but focus peripherals to corner of the screen. Able to remember letters from the corner of the screen. Using voices with different pitch, speeds,tones, directions, accent, etc. Recent experiments say spatial hearing is not major cue. Auditory selective attention is mediated by contralateral anterior temporal lobe: those who had anterior temporal lobectomy impaired at task when it was on side opposite to their lesion in brain. William james suggested attention is early in sensory processing chain.
