COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY

Prelim Reviewer
LESSON 1: COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704)– Empiricism
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY • Believed that humans are born without knowledge and
• study of how people perceive, learn, remember, and think therefore must seek knowledge through empirical
about information. observation.
o “Tabula rasa” (“blank slate”)
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGIST o the study of learning was the key to understanding the
• study how people perceive various shapes, why they human mind.
remember some facts but forget others, or how they learn
language. IMMANUEL KANT (German philosopher)
• Dialectically synthesized the views of Descartes and Locke
DIALECTIC • arguing that both rationalism and empiricism have their
• developmental process where ideas evolve over time place.
through a pattern of transformation • Both must work together in the quest for truth. Most
• involved in the progression of ideas. psychologists today accept Kant’s synthesis.
• Thesis is proposed
STRUCTURALISM - WILHELM WUNDT, EDWARD TITCHENER
o statement of belief.
• First major school of thought in Psychology
o After a while however, certain individuals notice
• seeks to understand the structure of the mind and its
apparent flaws in the thesis.
perceptions by analyzing those perceptions into (affection,
o Some people believe that human nature governs many
constituent components, attention, memory, sensation, etc.)
aspects of human behavior (e.g.intelligence or
• Goal of psychology: To understand the structure of the mind
personality; Sternberg, 1999)
and its perceptions by analyzing those perceptions into their
• Antithesis is emerged
constituent components
o Antithesis is a statement that counters a statement of
• Method – Introspection: looking inward at pieces of
previous belief.
information passing through consciousness
o The environmental contexts in which we are reared
• The aim is to look at the elementary components of an object
almost entirely determines many aspects of human
or process
behavior.
• Experiments involving introspection:
• Synthesis integrates the viewpoints
o Individuals reported on their thoughts they were working
o A debate between a thesis and anthesis leads to a
on a given task.
synthesis. Synthesis integrates the most credible features
o We can analyze our own perceptions.
of each two (or more) views.
o The interaction between our innate nature and
WILHELM WUNDT
environmental nurture may govern human nature.
• Father of Psychology
PHILOSOPHY • Founder of Structuralism in Psychology
• seeks to understand the general nature of many aspects of • Used a variety of methods in his research including
the world, in part through introspection, the examination of Introspection.
inner ideas and experiences. • Challenges in Introspection:
o Trouble in verbalizing one's thoughts.
PHYSIOLOGY o Inaccuracy
• seeks a scientific study of life-sustaining functions in living o The fact that people are asked to pay attention to their
matter, primarily through empirical (observation-based) thoughts or to speak out loud while they are working on
methods. a task may itself alter the processes that are going on.

EDWARD TITCHENER - Functionalism

ARISTOTLE
• American student
• Empiricism: Believes that knowledge is acquired through
• Follower of Wundt
empirical evidence
• First full-fledged structuralist
o Nature of reality
• Helped bring structuralism to the US.
o Reality lies only in the concrete world of objects that our
• His experience relied solely on the use of introspection,
bodies sense
exploring psychology from the vantage point of the
• According to the rationalist, the only route to truth is reasoned
experiencing individual.
contemplation; (b) according to the empiricist, the only route
to truth is meticulous observation. FUNCTIONALISM
• How to investigate reality • developed to counter structuralism
o The route to knowledge is through empirical evidence, • Developed after introspection and the focus (elementary
obtained through experience and observation structures of sensation) of structuralism is criticized.
o Observations of the external world are the only means to • Goal of psychology: To study the processes of mind rather
arrive at truth than its contents said that the key to understanding the
human mind and behavior is to study the processes of how
RENE DESCARTES (1596-1650) and why the mind works as it does
• Rationalism - Believes that knowledge is acquired through • seeks to understand what people do and why they do it.
thinking and logical analysis • Natural for functionalism to have led to pragmatism.
• He maintained that the only proof of his existence is that he • Method - introspection, observation, experiment
was thinking and doubting.
• “Cogito ergo sum” – I think therefore I am
• Innate ideas
o Felt that one could not rely on one’s senses because
those very senses have often proven to be deceptive
FUNCTIONALIST BEHAVIORISM
• interested in the practical applications of their research. • Goal of psychology: To study observable behavior
• Unified by the kinds of questions they asked, not by the • focuses only on the relation between observable behavior
answers they found or methods used for finding those and environmental events or stimuli.
answers. • The idea was to make physical whatever others might have
called “mental”
PRAGMATIST • According to strict, extreme (“radical”) behaviorists, any
• believed that knowledge is validated by its usefulness. hypothesis about internal thought and ways of thinking are
• What can you do with it? nothing more than speculation
• concerned with the following: • Method: Animal experiments, conditioning experiments
o knowing what people do;
o to know what we can do with our knowledge of what IVAN PAVLOV
people do • Nobel Prize-winning physiologist
Example: Learning and Memory • Studied involuntary learning behavior
• Usefulness: • Classical conditioned learning
o improve the performance of children in school o Began with the observation that dogs salivated in
o help us remember the names of people we meet. response to the sight of the lab technician who fed them.
This response occurred before the dogs even saw
WILLIAM JAMES whether the technician had food.
• Leader in guiding functionalism toward pragmatism
JOHN B. WATSON
JOHN DEWEY - ASSOCIATIONISM • “Father” of Radical Behaviorism
• Early pragmatist who profoundly influenced contemporary • He believed that psychologists should concentrate only on
thinking in cognitive psychology. the study of observable behavior.
• Remembered primarily for his pragmatic approach to • Shifting the emphasis of experimental research from human
thinking and schooling. to animal participants.
ASSOCIATIONISM B. F. SKINNER
• Method - introspection, observation, experiment • Radical Behaviorist
• Goal of psychology: Examine how elements of the mind can • Believed that virtually all forms of human behavior, not just
become associated with one another to result in a form of learning, could be explained by behavior emitted in reaction
learning. to the environment.
• Associations may result from: • the strengthening or weakening of behavior, contingent on
o contiguity - associating things that tend to occur at the presence or absence of reinforcement (rewards) or
about the same time. punishments
o similarity - associating things with similar features or
properties. GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY - MAX WERTHEIMER, WOLFGANG KÖHLER
o contrast - associating things that contrast show polarities, • To understand psychological phenomena as organized,
such as hot/cold light/dark, day/night. structured wholes
• According to this view, we cannot fully understand behavior
HERMANN EBBINGHAUS when we only break phenomena down into smaller parts.
• Associationist • the mind "informs" what the eye sees by perceiving a series of
• The first experimenter to apply associationist principles individual elements as a whole.
systematically. • Method – experiment, observation
• Studies his own mental processes
o made up a list of nonsense syllables (zax) COGNITIVE REVOLUTION (1950S)
o noted how long it took him to memorize those lists • took place in response to behaviorism
o counted his errors and recorded his response times. • belief that much of human behavior can be understood in
• Studied how people learn and remember material through terms of how people think.
rehearsal conscious repetition of material • rejects the notion that psychologists should avoid studying
o Rehearsal - conscious repetition of material to be mental processes because they are unobservable.
learned.
• Repetition aid learning. KARL LASHLEY (1890-1958)
• Considered the brain to be an active, dynamic organizer of
Edwards Lee Thorndike behavior.
• Associationist • None of these activities were, in his view, readily explicable in
• Coined the term 'law of effect' terms of simple conditioning.
• The role of 'satisfaction' is the key to forming associations. • Emphasized that the brain actively processes info
• Termed this principle the Law of Effect:
• a stimulus will tend to produce a certain response over time DONALD HEBB (1949)
if an organism is rewarded for that response. • proposed the concept of cell assemblies as the basis for
• Thorndike believed that an organism learns to respond in a learning in the brain.
given way (the effect) in a given situation if it is rewarded • Cell assemblies are coordinated neural structures that
repeatedly for doing so (the satisfaction, stimulus for future develop through frequent stimulation.
actions).
• Example: valid solutions and treats
NOAM CHOMSKY Thalamus
• Linguistic arguments against behaviorism. Arguments from • Primary relay station for sensory information coming into the
language acquisition brain (cerebral cortex)
• Behaviorists can not explain how children can produce novel • transmits information to the correct regions of the cerebral
sentences they never heard cortex through projection fibers that extend from the
thalamus to specific regions of the cortex.
Alan Turing • comprises several nuclei (groups of neurons) that receive
• Development of first computers specific kinds of sensory information and project that
• Analogy between computers and human minds information to specific regions of the cerebral cortex,
o Hardware (brain), Software (mind) including four key nuclei for sensory information:
o Thinking can be described in terms of algorithmic • (1) from the visual receptors, via optic nerves, to the visual
manipulation of some information cortex, permitting us to see
• (2) from the auditory receptors, via auditory nerves, to the
Cognitive Psychology
auditory cortex, permitting us to hear
• Goals Of Research
• (3) from sensory receptors in the somatic nervous system, to
o Data Gathering
the primary somatosensory cortex, permitting us to sense
o Data Analysis
pressure and pain
o Theory Development
• (4) from the cerebellum (in the hindbrain) to the primary
o Hypothesis formation
motor cortex, permitting us to sense physical balance and
o Hypothesis testing
equilibrium
o Application to real world
• (5) Hypothalamus - controls the endocrine system
• Research Method
o controls the autonomic nervous system, such as internal
o Scientific Investigation - process of finding the answer to
temperature regulation, appetite and thirst regulation
a question using various research methods
o involved in regulation of behavior related to species
o Controlled Laboratory experiments - controlled
survival (in particular, fighting, feeding, fleeing, and
experiment is defined as an experiment in which all the
mating)
variable factors in an experimental group and a
o plays a role in controlling consciousness (see reticular
comparison control group are kept the same except for
activating system)
one variable factor in the experimental group that is
o involved in emotions, pleasure, pain, and stress reactions
changed or altered.
o Psychobiological research - systems approach that aims MIDBRAIN - Helps to control eye movement and coordination
to integrate the biological, psychological and social Superior colliculi (on top)
systems that may influence health or pathology, • involved in vision (especially visual reflexes)
particularly in chronic diseases and physical and/or
psychiatric disorders. Inferior colliculi (below)
o Self-reports - an individual's own account of processes • involved in hearing
cognitive (ex. Verbal protocol, Diary study)
o Case study - in-depth studies of individuals Reticular activating system (also extends into the hindbrain)
o Naturalistic Observation - detailed studies of cognitive • important in controlling consciousness (sleep arousal),
performance in everyday situations and non-laboratory attention, cardiorespiratory function, and movement.
contexts
o Computer simulation and Artificial Intelligence - Analogy Gray matter, red nucleus, substantia nigra, ventral region
for human cognition, Computer simulations of artificial • important in controlling movement.
intelligence
Gray matter White matter
LESSON 2: COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE
• contains most of the • made up of bundles
NERVOUS SYSTEM
brain neuronal cell which connect various
• basis for our ability to perceive, adapt to, and interact with bodies. gray matter areas.
the world around us. Through this system we receive, process, • Fully develops once a • Develops throughout the
and then respond to information from the environment. person reaches 20s. 20s and peaks in middle
• Conducts, processes, age.
FOREBRAIN and sends information to • Interprets sensory
Cerebral cortex various parts of the body. information from various
• outer layer of the cerebral hemispheres parts of the body.
• Involved in receiving and processing sensory information,
thinking, other cognitive processing, planning and sending HINDBRAIN
motor information. Cerebellum
• essential to balance, coordination, and muscle tone.
Basal ganglia
• collections of nuclei and neural fibers. Pons
• Crucial to the function of the motor system. • involved in consciousness (sleep and arousal); bridges neural
transmissions from one part of the brain to another; involved
Limbic systems (hippocampus, amygdala, and septum) with facial nerves
• Involved in learning, emotions, and motivation
• Hippocampus - influences learning and memory, Medulla Oblongata
• Amygdala - influences anger and aggression, • serves as juncture at which nerves cross from one side of the
• Septum - influences anger and fear. body to opposite side of the brain; involved in
cardiorespiratory function, digestion, and swallowing.
LOBES OF THE CEREBRAL HEMISPHERES NEURONAL STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION
FRONTAL LOBE Individual neural cells
• associated with motor processing • called neurons, transmit electrical signals from one location
• higher thought processes such as abstract reasoning and to another in the nervous system. The greatest concentration
problem solving, of neurons is in the neocortex of the brain.
• planning and judgment • tend to be arranged in the form of networks, which provide
• critical in producing speech. information and feedback to each other within various kinds
• Prefrontal cortex - involved in complex motor control and of information processing.
tasks that require integration of information over time
• Frontal lobe, located toward the front of the head (the face), Neocortex
plays a role in judgment, problem solving, personality, and • part of the brain associated with complex cognition. This
intentional movement. It contains the primary motor cortex, tissue can contain as many as 100,000 neurons per cubic
which specializes in the planning, control, and execution of millimeter.
movement, particularly of movement involving any kind of • comprises the largest part of the cerebral cortex and makes
delayed response. up approximately half the volume of the human brain. It is
thought to be responsible for the neuronal computations of
Parietal lobe attention, thought, perception and episodic memory.
• associated with somatosensory processing. It receives inputs
from the neurons regarding touch, pain, temperature sense, BASIC PARTS OF NEURON
and limb position when you are perceiving space and your
relationship to it—how you are situated relative to the space
you are occupying. Involved in consciousness and paying
attention. If you are paying attention to what you are
reading, your parietal lobe is activated.

Temporal lobe
• associated with auditory processing and comprehending
language. Involved in your retention of visual memories. For
example, if you are trying to keep in memory then your
temporal lobe is involved. It also matches new things you see
to what you have retained in visual memory. Soma
• which contains the nucleus of the cell (the center portion that
Occipital lobe performs metabolic and reproductive functions for the cell),
• associated with visual processing. It contains numerous visual is responsible for the life of the neuron and connects the
areas, each specialized to analyze specific aspects of a dendrites to the axon.
scene, including color, motion, location, and form.
Dendrites
• branchlike structures that receive information from other
NEUROTRANSMITTERS
neurons, and the soma integrates the information. Learning is
• chemical messengers for transmission of information across
associated with the formation of new neuronal connections.
the synaptic gap to the receiving dendrites of the next
Hence, it occurs in conjunction with increased complexity or
neuron.
ramification in the branching structure of dendrites in the
brain.

Axon
• long, thin tube that extends (and sometimes splits) from the
soma and responds to the information, when appropriate, by
transmitting an electrochemical signal, which travels to the
terminus (end), where the signal can be transmitted to other
neurons.

Myelin
• white, fatty substance that surrounds some of the axons of
the nervous system, which accounts for some of the
whiteness of the white matter of the brain. Some axons are
myelinated. This sheath, which insulates and protects longer
axons from electrical interference by other neurons in the
area, also speeds up the conduction of information.
• Transmission in myelinated axons can reach 100 meters per
second (equal to about 224 miles per hour).

Nodes of Ranvier
• small gaps in the myelin coating along the axon, which serve
to increase conduction speed even more by helping to
create electrical signals, also called action potentials, which
are then conducted down the axon.
Terminal buttons DISTAL STIMULI PROXIMAL STIMULI
• small knobs found at the ends of the branches of an axon • Light Waves • Photon Absorption
that do not directly touch the dendrites of the next neuron. • Sound Waves • Conduction to basilar
Rather, there is a very small gap, the synapse. • Chemical Molecules membrane
• Chemical Molecules • Absorption in olfactory
Synapse • Pressure/Vibration epithelium
• juncture between the terminal buttons of one or more • Conduct with taste buds
neurons and the dendrites (or sometimes the soma) of one or • Stimulation of dermis
more other neurons. Synapses are important in cognition. receptor cells
•
COGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS FOR STUDYING
BRAIN FUNCTIONING EYE
Cornea
• clear dome that protects the eye.

Pupil
• the opening in the center of the iris.

Vitreous Humor
• gel-like substance that comprises the majority of the eye.

Retina
• converts electromagnetic light energy into neural
electrochemical impulses

Fovea
• thin region of the retina.

THREE MAIN LAYERS OF NEURONAL TISSUE (RETINA)

ganglion cells
• axons constitute the optic nerve and (close to the front,
outward facing of the eye

Interneuron cells
• compose of Amacrine cells and horizontal cells, make single
lateral (i.e., horizontal) connections among adjacent areas
of the retina in the middle layer of cells.

Bipolar cells
• make dual connections forward and outward to the
ganglion cells, as well as backward and inward to the third
layer of retinal cells.

PHOTORECEPTOR
• converts the light energy into electrochemical energy
transmitted by neurons to the brain
• Rods - long and thin; more highly concentrated in the
periphery of the retina than in the foveal region; responsible
for night vision.
• Cones - short and thick photoreceptors. Allow for the
perception of color and more highly concentrated in the
foveal region than in the periphery retina.

PHOTOPIGMENTS
• chemical substances that react to light and transform
physical electromagnetic energy into electrochemical
neural impulse

APPROACHES TO PERCEPTION
1. Bottom-up Theories
• Describe approaches where perception starts with the stimuli
whose appearance you take in through your eye.
• Direct Perception - the information in our sensory receptors,
including the sensory context, is all we need to perceive
LESSON 3: VISUAL PERCEPTION anything.
PERCEPTION • Template Theory - multiple templates are held in memory
• set of processes by which we recognize, organize, and make • Feature Matching Theory - recognize objects on the basis of
sense of the sensations we receive from the environmental a small number of characteristics (features).
stimuli. • Recognition by Component Theory - Participants were asked
what they saw on the Global level and Local level
2. Top-down Theories ANOMALIES IN COLOR PERCEPTION
• perception is driven by high-level cognitive processes, Color Blindness
existing knowledge, and the prior expectations that influence • result from lesions to the ventromedial occipital and temporal
perception. lobes.
• Protanopia - extreme form of red-green color blindness
GESTALT LAW • Deuteranopia - trouble seeing green.
• "The whole is more than a sum of its parts" • Tritanopia - blues and greens can be confused.

LAW OF PRÄGNANZ Achromacy or Rod Monochromacy

• Individuals organize their experience in as simple, concise, • People with this condition have no color vision at all. People
symmetrical, and complete manner as possible with this condition have cones that are nonfunctional.
• see only shades of gray, as a function of their vision through
GESTALT PRINCIPLES OF VISUAL PERCEPTION
the rods of the eye.
Figure-ground
• organize perceptions by distinguishing between a figure and Dichromacy
a background • only two of the mechanisms for color perception work, and
one is malfunctioning. Red-Green Colorblindness, People
Proximity
with this form of color-blindness have difficulty in
• Elements tend to be grouped together according to their
distinguishing red from green.
nearness
PAREIDOLIA
Similarity
• tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in
• Items similar in some respect tend to be grouped together
a random or ambiguous visual pattern.
• ability to see shapes or make pictures out of randomness.
Continuity
• based on smooth continuity, which is preferred to abrupt Afterimage
changes of direction • optical illusion that refers to an image continuing to appear
after exposure to the original image has ceased.
Closure
• Prolonged viewing of the colored patch induces an
• Items are grouped together if they tend to complete a figure
afterimage of the complementary color (for example, yellow
Symmetry color induces a bluish afterimage).
• Prefer to perceive objects as mirror images
LESSON 4: ATTENTION
ATTENTION
3. Perceptual Constancy
• we actively process a limited amount of information from the
• Object remains the same even though our sensation of the
enormous amount of information available through our
object changes
senses, our stored memories, and our other cognitive
• Size constancy vs Shape constancy
processes.
• allows us to use our limited mental resources judiciously.
4. Depth Perception
• By dimming the lights on many stimuli from outside
• ability to see the world in three dimensions and detect
(sensations) and inside (thoughts and memories), we can
distance
highlight the stimuli that interest us.
• Monocular vs Binocular depth cues

DEFICIT IN PERCEPTION FUNCTIONS OF ATTENTION

Agnosia • Signal-detection theory (SDT) - framework to explain how
• inability to recognize things have trouble to perceive sensory people pick out the few important stimuli when they are
information. Caused by damage to the border of the embedded in a wealth of irrelevant, distracting stimuli.
temporal and occipital lobes. o Hits (True Positive)
o False Alarms (False Positives)
Simultagnosia o Misses (False Negative)
• disturbance in the temporal region of the cortex. o Correct Rejection (True Negative)
• an individual is unable to pay attention to more than one
object at a time. VIGILANCE
• person’s ability to attend to a field of stimulation over a
Prosopagnosia prolonged period, during which the person seeks to detect
• results in a severely impaired ability to recognize human the appearance of a particular target stimulus of interest.
faces.
BURST AND TONIC STAGE
Optic Ataxia • Neurological basis
• an impairment in the ability to use the visual system to guide o Amygdala
movement. o Thalamus
• has trouble reaching for things.
FEATURE-INTEGRATION THEORY
Ataxia • explains the relative ease of conducting feature searches
• results from a processing failure in the posterior parietal and the relative difficulty of conducting conjunction
cortex, where sensorimotor information is processed. searches.
• People with ataxia lose muscle control in their arms and legs.
SIMILARITY Skills
• data are a result of the fact that as the similarity between • The more practiced and skilled you are in performing a task,
target and distracter stimuli increases, so does the difficulty in the more your attention is enhanced.
detecting the target stimuli
FUNCTION OF ATTENTION
GUIDED SEARCH THEORY Alerting
• suggests that all searches, whether feature searches or • defined as being prepared to attend to some incoming
conjunction searches, involve two consecutive stages. event, and maintaining this attention. Alerting also includes
o parallel stage: the individual simultaneously activates a the process of getting to this state of preparedness. The brain
mental representation of all the potential targets. areas involved in alerting are the right frontal and parietal
o the person chooses the true targets from the activated cortexes as well as the locus coeruleus. The neurotransmitter
elements. According to this model, the activation norepinephrine is involved in the maintenance of alertness.
process of the parallel initial stage helps to guide the
evaluation and selection process of the serial second Orienting
stage of the search. • defined as the selection of stimuli to attend to. This kind of
attention is needed when we perform a visual search. You
SELECTIVE ATTENTION
may be able to observe this process by means of a person’s
• We choose to attend to some stimuli and ignore others. (Colin
eye movements, but sometimes attention is covert and
Cherry) cocktail party problem, the process of tracking one
cannot be observed from the outside. The brain areas
conversation in the face of the distraction of other
involved in the orienting function are the superior parietal
conversations. He observed that cocktail parties are often
lobe, the temporal parietal junction, the frontal eye fields,
settings in which selective attention is salient. Shadowing
and the superior colliculus. The modulating neurotransmitter
(Experiment on selective attention)
for orienting is acetylcholine.
o whether or not they have a distinct filter for incoming
information and if the filter occurs early or late in the
Executive Attention
processing of information
• includes processes for monitoring and resolving conflicts that
Three factors help you to selectively attend only to the message arise among internal processes. These processes include
of the target speaker to whom you wish to listen: thoughts, feelings, and responses. The brain areas involved in
• Distinctive sensory characteristics of the target’s speech. this final and highest order of attentional process are the
• Sound intensity (loudness). anterior cingulate, lateral ventral, and prefrontal cortex as
• Location of the sound source well as the basal ganglia. The neurotransmitter most involved
in the executive attention process is dopamine.
THEORIES
Broadbent’s Model FAILING ATTENTION
• According to one of the earliest theories of attention, we filter • Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD)
information right after we notice it at the sensory level. • Change blindness - an inability to detect changes in objects
or scenes that are being viewed.
Selective Filter Model • Inattentional blindness - which is a phenomenon in which
• selective filter blocks out most information but some people are not able to see things that are actually there.
personally important messages are so powerful that they • Spatial Neglect (hemi-neglect) -attentional dysfunction in
burst through the filtering mechanism. which participants ignore the half of their visual field that is
contralateral to (on the opposite side of) the hemisphere of
Late-Filter Model the brain that has a lesion.
• suggested that stimuli are filtered out only after they have
been analyzed for both their physical properties and their Automatic and Controlled Processes in Attention
meaning. This later filtering would allow people to recognize • Automatic Process - Demand little or no effort or even
information entering the unattended ear. attention
• Controlled Processes - Accessible to conscious control and
Divided Attention even require it
• We prudently allocate our available attentional resources to • Automization (Proceduralization) - tasks that start off as
coordinate our performance of more than one task at a time. controlled processes eventually become automatic ones as
a result of practice.
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE OUR ABILITY TO PAY ATTENTION
Anxiety
• Being anxious, either by nature (trait-based anxiety) or by
situation (state-based anxiety), places constraints on
attention.

Arousal
• overall state of arousal affects attention as well. You may be
tired, drowsy, or drugged, which may limit attention. Being
excited sometimes enhances attention.

Task Difficulty
• If you are working on a task that is very difficult or novel for
you, you’ll need more attentional resources than when you
work on an easy or highly familiar task. Task difficulty
particularly influences performance during divided attention.