Chapter 6 - Consciousness Flashcards
Visual agnosia
The inability to visually recognize objects
Consciousness
Our moment-to-moment awareness of ourselves and our environment
Selective attention
The process that focuses awareness on some stimuli to the exclusion of others
Controlled (conscious or explicit) processing
The conscious use of attention and effort
Automatic (unconscious or implicit) processing
Can be performed without conscious awareness or effort
Divided attention
The ability to respond, seemingly simultaneously, to multiple tasks or demands
Blindsight
A condition where people are blind in part of their visual field yet in special tests respond to stimuli in that field despite reporting that they cannot see those stimuli
Priming
Exposure to a stimulus influences (primes) how you subsequently respond to that same or another stimulus
Implicit memory
When memory influences our behavior without conscious awareness
Attention
The process of concentrating on some features of the environment to the possible exclusion of others
Describe the cocktail party phenomenon
P. 225
Automaticity
Required when a task no longer requires conscious control
Circadian rhythms
Daily biological cycles
Suprachiasmatic nuclei (in the brain)
Control most circadian rhythms
Melatonin
Hormone with a calming effect on the body
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
A cyclic tendency to become psychologically depressed during certain seasons of the year
Beta waves
The activity shown in the brain when you are awake and alert
Alpha waves
The slower activity shown in the brain when we are feeling relaxed and drowsy
Restoration model (sleep)
States that sleep recharges our bodies and allows us to recover from physical and mental fatigue
Evolutionary/circadian sleep models
Models of sleep that focus on the position that sleep’s main purpose is to increase a species’ chances of survival in relation to environmental demands