PSYC1003 Study Guide - Final Guide: Feature Integration Theory, Hemispatial Neglect, Inattentional Blindness
Attention
• Selected or focused attention
• Sustained attention
• Divided attention and dual task performance
• Feature integration theory and the blinding problem
• Perceptual load theory
• Inattentional blindness and change blindness
2.1 Neglect and Extinction
• Disorders of Attention: Unilateral neglect - a deficit in the ability to report, respond to or
orient to information presented on the side of space opposite to the cerebral lesion, despite
the fact that the individual has adequate sensory and motor capabilities.
• Extinction - a failure to report a stimulus (visual, tactile or auditory modality), presented to the
side of space opposite to the central lesion (contralesional side):
o if a symmetrical stimulus on the same side as the lesion is present at the same time
o even though perception of a single stimulus on the contralesional side is preserved.
• Eg: A stroke patient who shows neglect for information presented to his left responds
differently depending on whether objects in the left and right visual fields are similar or
different.
Acute Neglect
• In the first few days following stroke, neglect is easily identified because of the obvious
deviation of the eyes, head, and trunk away from the side opposite the lesion.
Persisting Neglect
• In later days, the behaviour remains notable since the patient with neglect may :
o Not dress the left side of the body.
o Not eat the food on the left side of the page.
o Not respond to speaking from the left.
o Not read the left half of a word or page.
→ Bedside Tests of Neglect
• Line bisection - ask them to mark the centre of the line, and they will mark the centre to the
right.
• Rod bisection - (dissociation) - he can grab the centre of the rod (has vision for action) but
cannot point to the centre (doesn't have vision for perception).
• Cancellation
• Draw on a clock task
• When two is one - got two flowers in a pot and ask the patient to copy them.
• Scene task - (viewer-centred or stimulus-centred)
• Word reading – viewer-centred, stimulus-centred or object-centred.
• Frames of Reference
3.1 Selective Attention
• Selective attention - 'it is the taking possession of the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out
of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought.'
• William James (1980) distinguished between:
o Passive Modes of Attention – stimulus-driven attentional control, controlled in a
bottom-up way by external stimuli, eg: a loud noise.
o Active Modes of Attention – goal-driven attentional control, controlled in a top-down
fashion, eg: the individual’s goals.
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