What does this scenario tell us about attentional focus? Can you think of situations in which a sudden event like this could disrupt performance of a task, and other situations in which it could benefit performance of a task? In what ways can this be studied?

Attention course

Question 1) Imagine that you’re watching your neighbour’s child while she is looking at a “Where’s Waldo” puzzle book … and she is finding it quite hard to find Waldo. Do you think it’s just children that can have difficulty finding Waldo? What does difficulty finding Waldo tell us about how we visually search for objects? In what ways do we use this knowledge in everyday life?

Question 2) One of your friends is talking about a basketball game she was playing in recently. And she was describing what it was like for her to guard two players at the same time. In particular, she talked about how she could keep track of both of them … by sometimes looking at one opponent while keeping track of the other player with what she called her “peripheral vision”. What does this tell us about how we move our attention around within a visual scene? How could being able to do so benefit us in everyday life? In what ways can this be studied?

Question 3) A friend is telling you about something unusual that he experienced while buying groceries. In particular, while he was in the store and looking at fruits and vegetables, he thought he saw a purple banana. But when he took a second more careful look, he saw that the banana was actually yellow. Why, when he first looked it, might he have seen a purple banana? What does this tell us about how attention can affect visual perception? Can you think of other situations in which our perception of objects might be “fooled” in this way?

Question 4) Imagine that you’re relaxing at the beach with some friends and you’re watching a beautiful sunset. Then, far away and in off to the side of where you’re looking, there’s a bright flash. And you find yourself turning quickly and looking in that direction in time to see a bolt of lightning. What does this scenario tell us about attentional focus? Can you think of situations in which a sudden event like this could disrupt performance of a task, and other situations in which it could benefit performance of a task? In what ways can this be studied?

Question 5) You are visiting a friend and watching her while she is talking to her baby girl. And you notice that when your friend moves her eyes to look at things in the room, the baby also moves her eyes to look at those things too. What does this scenario tell us about attention during mother-child interactions? Why might this be important? In what ways can this be studied?