Posner, Snyder, and Davidson (1980) Examined Spatial Attention Using Arrows

question 38

Multiple Choice

Posner, Snyder, and Davidson (1980) examined spatial attention using arrows as a prime. Most of the time the arrow pointed to the area where the stimulus would appear, but 20% of the time it did not. They compared reaction times (RTs) when the cue was valid, when it was invalid, and when a neutral cue was presented. Which of the following statements was NOT supported by their findings?

• A) RTs were slower in the invalid condition than in the valid condition.
• B) Spatial attention is limited in capacity.
• C) We can attend to two different locations without a reduction in performance.
• D) RTs were faster for responses to valid cues relative to neutral cues.

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Definitions:

Receptive Language

The capability to grasp or make sense of language that is listened to or read.

One-word Stage

The developmental period in early childhood when children begin to use single words to communicate meaning.

Babbling

Babbling is a stage in child language acquisition during which infants spontaneously produce sounds and syllables unrelated to the language spoken around them, indicating early speech development.

Spoken Sounds

The audible units of communication used in verbal language.