CH5 - Sleep & Consciousness

Question 1

The inability to sleep is called..

Answer 1

Insomnia

Question 2

Explain latent content

Answer 2

The underlying meaning of dreams, as theorised by Sigmund Freud.

Question 3

What is manifest content?

Answer 3

The storyline of a dream

Question 4

Describe the 4 stages of sleep

Answer 4

Stage 1 - small irregular waves
Stage 2 - sleep spindles
Stage 3 & 4 - deep sleep, slow delta waves
REM sleep: stage of sleep characterised by darting eye movements.

Question 5

Describe the preconscious mental process

Answer 5

Memories that are not presently conscious but can be readily brought to consciousness if the need arose.

Question 6

What is the difference between mindfulness and meditation?

Answer 6

Mindfulness - A state of focused awareness of all senses — thoughts, feelings and behaviours — without judgement and without reaction.
Meditation - Developing a deep state of tranquillity by altering the normal flow of conscious thoughts.

Question 7

What are psychoactive substances?

Answer 7

Drugs that operate on the nervous system to alter mental activity.

Question 8

Define circadium rhythm

Answer 8

A cyclical biological process that evolved around the daily cycles of light and dark.

Question 9

Explain cognitive unconsciousness

Answer 9

Focuses on information-processing mechanisms that operate outside of awareness, such as procedural knowledge and implicit memory.

Question 10

What is the process of focusing conscious awareness, providing heightened sensitivity to a limited range of experience requiring more extensive information processing?

Answer 10

Attention

Question 11

What is it called when the usual conscious ways of perceiving, thinking and feeling are modified or disrupted?

Answer 11

Altered state of consciousness

Question 12

Name the process in which people divert attention from information that may be relevant but emotionally upsetting.

Answer 12

Selective inattention

Question 13

What do stimulants do?

Answer 13

Increase energy, alertness and autonomic activity

Question 14

Explain subliminal perception

Answer 14

Perception of stimuli below the threshold of consciousness.

Question 15

Describe the unconscious mental process

Answer 15

Memories in the unconscious are inaccessible to consciousness because they would be too anxiety provoking to acknowledge and thus have been repressed.

Question 16

What is the conscious mental process?

Answer 16

Involves subjective awareness of stimuli, feelings or ideas.

Question 17

The alertness component of consciousness appears to be regulated by:

Answer 17

the reticular formation (neurons from r.f. through to frontal lobes)

Question 18

What is William James’ theory/idea of consciousness?

Answer 18

That consciousness is a constantly moving stream of thoughts, feelings and perceptions.

Question 19

Qualitatively different patterns of subjective experience are called…

Answer 19

States of consciousness

Question 20

Two functions of consciousness are

Answer 20

Regulating thought and behaviour; and monitoring the self and environment

Question 21

The cognitive unconscious primarily includes

Answer 21

Information processing mechanisms that operate outside of awareness

Question 22

True or false: unconscious cognitive processes operate simultaneously

Answer 22

True

Question 23

Consciousness in the sense of subjective awareness may be found in what areas of the brain?

Answer 23

Distributed among several neural pathways: the reticular activating system, cortex and the thalamus.

Question 24

A coma/unconsciousness is caused by damage to the…

Answer 24

Reticular formation

Question 25

In addition to the influence of light and dark, circadium rhythms are controlled by..

Answer 25

The hypothalamus

Question 26

PET scans show that the process of conscious attention is initiated by:

Answer 26

The reticular formation which arouses the cortex, which focuses attention on relevant stimuli