Chapter 4 Flashcards
What is consciousness
Awareness of ourselves and our environment
What is the difference between sensation and perception
Sensation- the physical process during which sensory organs respons to external stimuli
Perception- the psychological process that makes sense of the stimuli
What three steps of sensation
Reception-the stimulation
Transduction- transforming stimulation
Transmission-delivering information
What is transduction
The conversion of one form of energy to another
What is the difference between absolute threshold and differential threshold/just noticeable difference (JND)
Absolute threshold- the minimal amount of stimulation that each sense organ requires in order to detect a stimulus
JDN- a principle that underlies our ability to detect the difference between two stimuli of different intensities
Signal detection
Method for studying the ability to correctly identify sensory stimuli (hearing test)
What is weber’s law
The idea that bigger stimuli require larger differences to be noticed
Minimum: 2% weight, 8% light intensity and 0.3% sound wave frequency
What is bottom up processing
When we build up to perception from the individual pieces (the first experience)
What is bottom up processing
When we build up to perception from the individual pieces (the first experience)
What is top down processing
When stimuli we’ve experienced in our past influences how we experience new ones
What is sensory adaption
When we experience a stimuli that doesn’t change, we stop paying attention to it (ex. Feeling the weight of our clothing)
What is subconscious
A concept introduced by Sigmund Freud that proposes that some of our memories and even basic motivations are not always accessible to our conscious minds
What are cues
A stimulus that has a particular significance to the perceiver
What is priming
The activation of certain thoughts or feelings that make them easier to think if and act upon (ex priming people by having them drink a warm glass of milk, vs a cold one, resulted in them behaving more “warmly” towards others)
What is the difference between low awareness and high awareness
Low awareness- saves mental effort, influenced by subtle factors (not in total control, just go with the flow)
High awareness- uses mental effort, can overcome some biases (needs more effort, in total control)
What is mindfulness
A state of higher consciousness that includes an awareness of the thoughts passing through one’s head
What is the flexible correction model
People who are aware that their thoughts/feelings are being influenced by an undone, outside source, can correct their attitude against the bias.
The less we are paying attention —-
The more likely we are to be influenced by non-conscious stimuli
Who is franz mesmer
Often credited as among the first people to “discover” hypnosis; the word mesmerize stems from mesmer’s name
What is hypnosis
A mental state characterized by reduced peripheral awareness and increased focus on a singular stimulus, which results in an enhanced susceptibility to suggestion
What is the difference between dissociation and trance states
Dissociation- The separation of one’s awareness from everything besides what one is centrally focused on
Trance states- involves dissociation of one’s self, however people in a trance state are said to have less voluntary control over their behaviors and actions
What is circadian rhythm
The physiological sleep-wake cycle (can be influenced by sunlight as well as daily schedule and activity)
what is the difference between alpha and beta waves
Beta waves- high in frequent but low in intensity
Alpha waves- low in frequency but high in intensity
What are the four stages of sleep
-Stage 1 (NREM 1)- The “falling asleep” stage; marked by theta waves
-Stage 2 (NREM 2) -the light sleep stage; marked by high intensity brain waves “sleep spindles” and associated with memory processing (makes up 55% of sleep)
-Stage 3 (NREM 3) - marked by greater muscle relaxation and appearance of delta wave (makes up 20-25% of sleep)
-Stage 4 (NREM 4) - marked by rapid eye movement (REM), less intense brain waves and associated with dreaming (makes up 20% of sleep)
What is the difference between depressants and stimulants
Depressants- substances that slow down the bodys physiology and mental processes
Stimulants- substances that speed up the bodys physiology and mental processes
What is limited capacity
The notion that humans have limited mental resources that can be used at a given time
What are the three types of attention
Divided- the ability for humans to attend to many sources of information at once
Spatial- how we focus on one part of our environment and how we move our attention to other locations in the environment
Selective- some informaiton is attended to while other information is intentionally blocked out
What is dichotic listening
Refers to the situation when two messages are presented simultaneously to an individual, with one message in each ear. (Used in selective attention experiments)
What is shadowing
A task in which the individual is asked to repeat auditory messages as it is presented
What is the alate selection/response selection model
Proposed to by Deutsch and Deutsch, which suggests that all information in the unattended ear is processed on the basis of meaning, not just the selected ot highly pertinent information
What is Ann triesmans attention model
When carrying out a number of dichotic listening experiments, she discovered that individuals spontaneously floowed the story, of the content of the message, when it shifted from one ear to another. Then they realized they were shadowing the wrong ear and switched back
What are divided attention tasks
Switching between tasks is cognitively demanding and can impair performance
What is multitasking
Can ve done without imparted performance if it relates to specific well-learned tasks for specific individuals.
