Attention and Information Processing (6B) Practice Test

A dual-task driving simulator study assesses divided attention. Participants drive in a virtual environment and must brake when a pedestrian steps into the road. In the dual-task condition, participants also respond “yes/no” to simple spoken questions through a headset. Divided attention refers to distributing limited attentional resources across concurrent tasks, often producing performance costs.

Which pattern most likely supports divided attention limits in this study?

In a study of selective attention during reading, participants are shown a rapid stream of letters at the center of a screen and must press a key whenever they see a target letter (e.g., X). At the same time, irrelevant words appear in the periphery. Selective attention is defined here as prioritizing the central stream while suppressing peripheral distraction. Researchers manipulate peripheral words to be either common neutral words or personally relevant words (e.g., the participant’s hometown).

Which finding would most likely indicate a failure of selective attention due to increased distractor salience?