Chapter 5: Consciousness

Question 1

Consciousness

Answer 1

The moment-by-moment awareness of the external environment as well as one’s own thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.

Question 2

Introspect

Answer 2

The process of examining one’s internal thoughts and feelings.

Question 3

Selective attention

Answer 3

The act of focusing one’s awareness into a particular aspect of one’s experience, to the exclusion of everything else.

Question 4

Inattentional blindness

Answer 4

A failure to perceive information that is outside the focus of one’s attention.

Question 5

Change blindness

Answer 5

A form of inattentional blindness, in which a person fails to notice changes in a visual stimulus.

Question 6

Automaticity

Answer 6

The ability to perform a task without conscious awareness or attention.

Question 7

Cognitive unconscious

Answer 7

The various mental processes that support everyday functioning without conscious awareness or control.

Question 8

Subliminal perception

Answer 8

A form of perception that occurs without conscious awareness.

Question 9

Default mode network

Answer 9

An interconnected system of brain regions that are active she the mind is alert and aware but not focused on any particular task, such as during mind wandering.

Question 10

Global workspace hypothesis

Answer 10

The hypothesis that conscious awareness arises from synchronized activity, from across various brain regions, that is integrated into coherent representations of an experience.

Question 11

Circadian rhythm

Answer 11

A regular, 24-hour pattern of bodily arousal. Also known as the biological rhythm or biological clock.

Question 12

Sleep

Answer 12

A regularly occurring state of altered consciousness that happens when arousal is very low.

Question 13

Beta waves

Answer 13

High-frequency, low-amplitude electrical waves in the brain (as measured by EEG) that occur in a rhythmic pattern and are associated with being awake and actively thinking.

Question 14

Alpha waves

Answer 14

Low-frequency, high-amplitude electrical waves in the brain (as measured by EEG) that occur in a rhythmic pattern and are associated with being awake yet relaxed with the eyes closed.

Question 15

Hallucinations

Answer 15

Sensory experiences, such as sights and sounds, that happen in the absence of any true sensory input.

Question 16

Delta waves

Answer 16

Very-low-frequency, high-amplitude electrical waves in the brain (as measured by EEG) that occur in a rhythmic pattern and are associated with deep, Stage 3 sleep.

Question 17

Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep

Answer 17

A stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements, brain activity similar to wakefulness, faster heart and breathing rates, inhability to move the skeletal muscles, and dreams.

Question 18

Unihemispheric sleep

Answer 18

A pattern of sleep in which only one half (or hemisphere) of the brain experiences slow-wave sleep at a time, while the other half remains awake.

Question 19

Insomnia

Answer 19

A sleep disorder involving chronic difficulties with falling or staying asleep.

Question 20

Sleep apnea

Answer 20

A sleep disorder in which a person’s breathing is interrupted because of obstruction in the airway or problems with the brain’s control of breathing.

Question 21

REM behaviour disorder (RBD)

Answer 21

A sleep disorder that involves acting out one’s dreams because the paralysis that normally occurs during REM sleep is absent or incomplete.

Question 22

Sleepwalking

Answer 22

A sleep disorder that involves walking or performing other behaviours while in deep sleep.

Question 23

Night terrors

Answer 23

A sleep disorder occurring during deep sleep that involves dramatic expressions of fear, with accelerated heart rate and respiration.

Question 24

Narcolepsy

Answer 24

A sleep disorder in which a person falls asleep suddenly and uncontrollably.

Question 25

Dreams

Answer 25

Sequences of images, emotions, and thoughts, sometimes vivid and storylike, that are experienced during sleep.

Question 26

Dreams

Answer 26

Sequences of images, emotions, and thoughts, sometimes vivid and storylike, that are experienced during sleep.

Question 27

REM rebound

Answer 27

The tendency to spend more time in REM sleep if deprived of it on previous nights.

Question 28

Manifest content

Answer 28

According to Sigmund Freud’s theory, the visible, surface content of a dream or behaviour that disguises the hidden, latent content.

Question 29

Latent content

Answer 29

According to Sigmund Freud’s theory, the hidden drives and wishes that are expressed in dreams and behaviour but in a disguised form (as the manifest content)

Question 30

Activation-synthesis hypothesis

Answer 30

The hypothesis that dreams result from the brain’s attempt to organize the chaotic patterns of brain activity during sleep into a semicoherent narrative.

Question 31

Psychoactive drugs

Answer 31

Chemical substances that alter a person’s thoughts, feelings, or behaviours by influencing the activity of neurotransmitters in the nervous system.

Question 32

Drug tolerance

Answer 32

The diminished response to a drug that results from prolonged use, leading the drug user to require larger doses to achieve the same original effect.

Question 33

Withdrawal

Answer 33

Unpleasant physical symptoms that result when a person is physically dependant on a drug and its effects wear off.

Question 34

Drug addiction

Answer 34

An uncontrollable compulsion to use a substance even though that substance damages the user’s health and everyday functioning.

Question 35

Depressants

Answer 35

Drugs that decrease activity levels in the nervous system.

Question 36

Alcohol myopia

Answer 36

The idea that alcohol narrows attention and perception, such that intoxicated people use restricted information in deciding how to think and behave.

Question 37

Stimulants

Answer 37

Drugs that increase activity levels in the nervous system.

Question 38

Psychedelics

Answer 38

Drugs that distort perception and can trigger hallucinations (sensations without any sensory input), changes in modes, thoughts, sense of self, and even feelings of insight.

Question 39

Hypnosis

Answer 39

A relaxed state of mind in which a person is especially receptive to suggestions made by a hypnotist and feels their actions and thoughts are happening to them rather than being produced voluntarily.

Question 40

Hypnotic analgesia

Answer 40

A reduction in pain perception caused by a hypnotic suggestion.

Question 41

Dissociation

Answer 41

A splitting of conscious awareness. In the case of hypnosis, one stream of awareness stays connected to the hypnotist’s suggestions whereas another stream observes the person’s experiences in a disconnected way.

Question 42

Meditation

Answer 42

A set of practices used to train a person’s ability to control attention, awareness, and sometimes emotions.