Chapter 5: Consciousness* Flashcards
What is metacognition?
Humans’ ability to think about their own thinking.
What are some limitations of introspection?
It involves self-reporting and, therefore, suffers from limitations related to revealing potentially embarrassing information. People may not want to reveal their thoughts or feelings honestly or accurately.
People may also not be able to translate their conscious experiences into words, and even if they are able to, their words may not be understood in the same way they experienced them.
What is arousal (not the sexy kind)?
Arousal is a persons’ level of wakefulness or alertness. It is at a high point when we are awake and vigilant and at a low point when we are deeply sleeping.
What are the two main aspects of consciousness?
Arousal and awareness. These are usually connected but are not interdependent.
A person can experience high levels of arousal and low levels of awareness (sleepwalking), and low levels of arousal and high levels of awareness (vividly dreaming).
What is selective attention?
The act of focusing one’s awareness on a particular thing, excluding all other things from one’s attention as a result.
What is inattentional blindness?
The failure to perceive things outside the focus of one’s attention.
What is change blindness?
A form of inattentional blindness, in which a person fails to notice changes in visual stimuli.
What is automaticity?
The ability to perform a task without conscious awareness or attention.
How does mind wandering (or perceptual decoupling) benefit us?
- Automaticity
- Allows us to use information that isn’t immediately present (memory)
- Plays a role in creative thinking and problem-solving
- Helps us to structure plans and organize
What were Freud’s 3 sections of consciousness?
- Conscious - focus of current awareness
- Preconscious - consciously accessible thoughts, feelings, and memories
- Dynnamic unconscious - inaccessible memories, instincts, nd desires
What is the cognitive unconscious?
The various mental processes that support everyday functioning without conscious awareness or control.
What is subliminal perception?
A form of perception that happens without any conscious awareness.
Which parts of the brain control arousal or alertness?
Certain areas of the thalamus, or the reticular activating system in the brain stem (which controls the cycling of sleep and wakefulness and also the levels of arousal in the frontal lobe).
Which parts of the brain control awareness?
Regions in both the frontal and parietal lobes.
What is the ‘default mode network’?
An interconnected system of brain regions that are active when the mind is alert and aware but not focused on any particular task.
What is the global workspace hypothesis?
The hypothesis that conscious awareness rises from synchronized activity, from across various brain regions, that is integrated into coherent representations of an experience.
What are beta waves?
High-frequency, low-amplitude electrical waves in the brain that occur in a rhythmic pattern and are usually associated with being awake and actively thinking.
What are alpha waves?
Low-frequency, high-amplitude electrical waves in the brain that occur in a rhythmic pattern and are usually associated with being awake, but relaxed with closed eyes.
Define Stage 1 sleep.
This stage is usually where alpha waves occur. You are ‘dozing’. It is easy to wake you up during this stage of sleep. It is superficial.
Define Stage 2 sleep.
During Stage 2 sleep, the brain will emit rapid bursts of rhythmic brain-wave activity called ‘sleep spindles’ and high-amplitude waves called ‘K complexes’ start to occur every few seconds.
Define Stage 3 sleep.
During Stage 3 sleep, the brain is less responsive to external stimuli, and it is hard to be woken up without feeling disoriented or sluggish. The brain continues to emit ‘sleep spindles’ and ‘K complexes’, but also starts to emit large and slow ‘delta waves’. Stage 3 sleep is critical for the body to restore itself, with recovery, growth, and the immune system.
What are delta waves?
Very-low-frequency, high-amplitude electrical waves in the brain that occur in a rhythmic pattern and are associated with deep, Stage 3 sleep.
What is Rapid Eye Movement (or REM) sleep?
A stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements, brain activity similar to wakefulness, faster heart and breathing rates, inability to move the skeletal muscles, and dreams.
What is unihemispheric sleep?
A pattern of sleep where only one hemisphere of the brain experiences slow-wave sleep at a time.
