Question

What is the central bottleneck in action selection?

1) PRP or Psychological Refractory period: 2 tasks and must plan a response to both
2) Attentional blink: difficulty in perceiving the second of two target stimuli presented in rapid succession
3) Stroop effect: interference in reaction time when the color of a word and its meaning differ
4) Cocktail party effect: ability to focus on a specific auditory stimulus while filtering out other stimuli

Answer 1

The central bottleneck in action selection refers to the limited capacity of attention and its impact on multitasking. Examples of this bottleneck include the Psychological Refractory Period and the Attentional Blink.

Step-by-step explanation:

The central bottleneck in action selection refers to the limited capacity of our attention and the difficulties it can cause in multitasking. One example of this bottleneck is the Psychological Refractory Period (PRP), where the brain experiences a delay when switching between two tasks that require planning a response. This delay can interfere with the smooth execution of actions and lead to slower reaction times.

Another example is the Attentional Blink, which is the difficulty in perceiving the second of two target stimuli presented in rapid succession. This occurs because our attention is still engaged with perceiving the first stimulus, causing a temporary blindness to subsequent stimuli.

While the Stroop effect and the Cocktail Party effect are interesting phenomena related to attention, they are not directly related to the central bottleneck in action selection.