Chapter 3 - Consciousness Flashcards
What is the conscious “high track?”
Our minds take deliberate actions we know we are doing.
Ex. problem solving, naming an object, defining a word.
In one study students showed brain activity related to pushing a button before that were aware of their decision. For example, hitting or catching a ball without consciously having to calculate the trajectory, talking without having to define each word, and walking / talking / chewing gum.
What is the unconscious “low track?”
Our minds perform automatic actions often without us being aware of them.
Ex. walking, acquiring phobias, processing sensory details into perceptions and memories.
What is selective attention?
Millions of bit of information are coming at our senses every second. We have the skill to selective attention - our brain is able to choose a focus and select what to notice.
Good news: we can focus our mental spotlight on a conversation even when others are going on around us - called the cocktail party effect.
Bad news: we can hyper-focus on a conversation while driving, putting the driver and passengers at risk.
What is selective inattention?
What we are not focused on / what we do not notice.
Refers to our failure to notice part of our environment when our attention is directed elsewhere.
What is in-attentional blindness?
Various experiments show that when our attention is focused we miss seeing what other may think is obvious to see. Some magic tricks take advantage of this.
What is change blindness?
2/3 of people didn’t notice when the person they were giving directions to was replaced by a similar looking person because it wasn’t relative to the task at hand.
What is the circadian rhythm?
Refers to the body’s natural 24 hour cycle, roughly matched to day / night, light / dark. It is hard to shift a circadian rhythm - cause of jet lag.
The following factors vary over the course of a day: body temperature, arousal / energy, mental sharpness.
“Larks” and “owls” - daily rhythms vary from person to person. Evening peak - 20 year old “owls.” Morning peak - 50 year old “larks.”
Talk about sleep and the four sleep stages.
About every 90 minutes we pass through a cycle of four distinct sleep stages.
Before falling asleep alpha waves are the relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake sleep.
When falling asleep, breathing slows and brain waves are slow and irregular. May have hyphagogic (while falling asleep) hallucinations. Brain waves change from alpha waves to NREM-1 (first stage of non-REM sleep).
What is REM sleep?
Dreams occur during period of wild brain activity and rapid eye movements.
Heartbeat rises and breathing becomes rapid. “Sleep paralysis” occurs when the brainstem blocks the motor cortex’s messages and muscles do not move. “Paradoxical sleep” occurs when the brain is active but the body is immobile.
What determines the necessary amount of sleep and our sleep patterns?
Affected by age, biology, culture, and individual variation.
Age: newborns need 16 hours while adults generally need 8 hours or less.
Individual variation: some people function best on 7 hours of sleep while some need more and some need less.
Culture: North Americans sleep less than others and less than they used to, perhaps because of the use of light bulbs.
What are some theories as to why we sleep?
Sleep protected our ancestors from predators.
Sleep restores / repairs our brain / body.
Sleep builds / strengthens memories.
Sleep facilitates creative problem solving.
More sleep = higher IQ; able to think more clearly.
What are the effects of sleep loss / deprivation?
Inadequate sleep makes you more likely to lose brain power, be irritable, gain weight, feel old, and get sick.
Sleep loss results in more accidents, probably caused by impaired attention and slower reaction time - more accidents when we spring forward than when we fall back.
How to sleep well?
Turn lights low and turn all screens off.
Eat earlier and drink less alcohol / caffeine.
Get up at the same time everyday.
Exercise (in the late afternoon is best).
Don’t check the clock, just let it happen naturally.
What are psychoactive drugs?
Chemicals introduced into the body which alter perceptions, mood, and other elements of the conscious experience.
Many can be harmful to the body if addiction develops.
Define tolerance.
Refers to the diminished psychoactive effects after repeated use. Feeds addiction because users take increasing amounts of drugs to get the same desired effect.
