Attentional Processing
Author | : David LaBerge |
Publisher | : Harvard University Press |
Total Pages | : 284 |
Release | : 1995 |
ISBN-10 | : 0674052684 |
ISBN-13 | : 9780674052680 |
Rating | : 4/5 (84 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: LaBerge explores how we are able to restrict the input of extraneous and confusing information, or prepare to process a future stimulus, in order to take effective action. As well as describing the pathways in the cortex presumed to be involved in attentional processing, he examines the hypothesis that two subcortical structures, the superior colliculus and the thalamus, contain circuit mechanisms that embody an algorithm of attention. In addition, he takes us through various ways of posing the problem, from an information-processing description of how attention works to a consideration of some of the cognitive and behavioral consequences of the brain's computations, such as desiring, judging, imaging, and remembering.