PSYC 330 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Gluten, Cortisol, Sedentary Lifestyle
4 Jun 2018
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CH8 Attention Across the Life
‘Last-in/ first out’ principle (LIFO)
■ Plate stacking mechanism
- Plates are placed one on top of the other,
because of the weight, they gradually sink inside
a storage container → only top plate is accessible
- That last plate to be put in the stack is also the first
place to be removed from it
■ The sensory aspects of attention (stimulus-driven), because they are the first to
develop, will be the last to disappear as we age; cognitive aspects of attention (goal-
driven) will be the first to disappear (as they are the last to develop)
- Sensory function, eg kinesthetic (touch), olfactory (smell), visual inputs are
functioning in newborns
- Cognitive operations takes time to develop, more strategic (skills)
- Eg filtering component of selective attention
Development of cortical neurons
- Newborns do not have a dense amount of neuron connections
- 3 months old is more dense
- 2 year-old has a lot of interconnected neurons
- Development of visual acuity: infants can’t see very well, but after
a few months can discriminate faces
- Sticky fixation: problems disengaging attention, one month olds often can’t take their
attention away from some things, causes them to be distressed/ cry
- Development of subcortical area (first) → Development of cortical area (later)
- Hence cortical area shows signs of functional decline first
- Subcortical area (midbrain/ superior colliculus): locates external visual events and
initiates saccadic eye movements (stimulus-driven), attention shift in response, IO
- Cortical operation (posterior parietal lobe): maintenance of engaged attention
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Studying attention in infants
■ Challenges
- Many of the subjects are too young to understand experimental instructions
- Subjects are not content to sit still very long or to participate in an experiment
without distraction
- Researchers therefore usually make inferences base on overt orienting (eg eye and head
movements to stimulus location)
■ Studying selective looking experiment
- A young child’s attention is first directed to a puppet at a central location and then to a
striped pattern at a peripheral location
- Orienting reflex: sudden appearance of stimulus in an infant’s visual periphery
will cause orienting gaze toward it
- The baby will eventually lost in this stimulus (habituate to it) if it remains for a
long time or it is presented repeatedly
- Similarities in testing babies and monkeys
- Eventually, location cue is needed to use for babies to switch attention
Aging and cognition
- Cognitive decline in last 3rd of life involves a decline in attention
- Attention declines over time, 30% due to the genes, 70% due to other thing like
■ Diet
- Sugar increases inflammation of neurons + disease
- Inflammation is primary cause of cancer/ alzheimer's, found in depression as
well
- Wheat → increases blood sugar, ATI, gluten, many breads soaked in pesticides
when growing
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Plates are placed one on top of the other, because of the weight, they gradually sink inside a storage container only top plate is accessible. That last plate to be put in the stack is also the first place to be removed from it. Sensory function, eg kinesthetic (touch), olfactory (smell), visual inputs are functioning in newborns. Cognitive operations takes time to develop, more strategic (skills) Newborns do not have a dense amount of neuron connections. 2 year-old has a lot of interconnected neurons. Development of visual acuity: infants can"t see very well, but after a few months can discriminate faces. Sticky fixation: problems disengaging attention, one month olds often can"t take their attention away from some things, causes them to be distressed/ cry. Development of subcortical area (first) development of cortical area (later) Hence cortical area shows signs of functional decline first.
