3. Attention, Anxiety, Arousal Flashcards
Define arousal.
All-inclusive, well-ranging continuum of psychological activation
Define anxiety.
A negatively charged emotional state that is characterized by internal discomfort and a feeling of extreme nervousness
Describe the arousal continuum.
- Like a number line w/ high and low arousal on opposing sides
- Continuum of “daily functioning” in middle
- Deep sleep = low arousal
- Life threat (fight or flight) = high arousal
Define activation.
Process in the central nervous system that increases the activity in the brain from a lower level to a higher level, and maintains this high level
List the neurophysiological mechanisms of the brain?
- Cerebral cortex
- Hypothalamus
- Reticular Activating System
How does the cerebral cortex act as a neurophysiological mechanism? What does it look like?
- Higher Intellectual Functions
- “like the bark of a tree” –> rough appearance
- Thought processes including the cognitive representations of anxiety
How does the hypothalamus act as a neurophysiological mechanism?
- Controls Endocrine System
- Regulates sympathetic NS & pituitary gland
- Triggers cascade of hormonal chemical changes in body
How does the Reticular Activating System act as a neurophysiological mechanism?
- Activates cortex from brainstem
- Peripheral info comes in from senses, extremities –> RAS routes signals to right place in the brain
How does the Autonomic NS act as a neurophysiological mechanism? Examples?
- Body reactions to environmental stressors
- Ex) change in body temp, respiration rate, heart rate, blood pressure
Define state anxiety.
A transitory form of apprehension that varies in intensity, in proportion to the strength of the fear-inducing cue
Define trait anxiety.
Relatively stable individual differences in anxiety proneness and disposition to perceive a wide range of stimulus situations as dangerous/threatening, and to respond to such threats w/ a disproportionate amount of fear
Explain the Drive Theory of Arousal & Performance. Who developed it? Define its parts. Describe graph.
- Clarke Hull
- Performance is a multiplicative function of the drive state and habit strength
- P = D x H
- Drive state = arousal/activation level
- Habit strength = how well-learned the task is
- Linear = performance increases w/ arousal level
Explain the Inverted U Hypothesis of Arousal & Performance. Describe graph.
- Optimal level of performance and arousal level
- Performance increases w/ increased arousal until optimal level
- Performance decreases w/ increased arousal past optimal level
Describe the Optimal Levels theory of performance and arousal level.
Diff inverted U’s & corresponding optimal levels for diff sports, movements, skills
Describe the Task Complexity theory of performance and arousal level. What areas of life can this be applied to?
- Diff inverted U’s & corresponding optimal levels for difficult/complex (low arousal), moderate, and relatively simple skills (high arousal)
- Graph is for skills that are well-learned
- Can be applied to any domain of optimal performance
Define activation response.
General energy mobilizing response that provides the conditions for a high performance, both physically and psychologically
What is the significance of the Zone of Optimal Performance?
Outside of zone, you won’t perform your best due to being over/under aroused
What is the flow state? When does it occur? How do you get out of it?
- Out of body experience where pain/problems aren’t really relevant
- Skill is so well-learned, it’s almost effortless
- Quickest way to get out of it is to realize you’re in one
Define attention.
The ability to process info about the environment
What are the characteristics of attention?
- Serial, shifting from source to source
- Limited in capacity
- Effortful
- Related to arousal
- Limits the capacity to do certain parts of tasks together
List the stage models of info processing.
- Selective attention
- Pertinence model
Describe the Selective Attention stage model of info processing.
- Blocking out info that isn’t important at the time
- Info still coming in, but not paying attention to it
Describe the Pertinence Model of info processing. Examples?
- Only paying attention to what is pertinent at the moment
- Ex) hungry, thirsty, unsafe –> not able to focus on things that aren’t more important than these
What is the Stroop Effect?
- Color word not depicted in same color –> participants tasked w/ saying color of word instead of reading the word
- When ink color and form conflict, reaction time is slowed
