consciousness Flashcards
naturally accuring
normal part of our daily life and are not under our control
induced
intentionally achieved by using an aid
daydreaming
naturally occurring where there is shift in awareness from external events to internal thoughts
meditation
purposely induced, individual is high focused on internal thoughts at the expense of another stimuli
alcohol
purposely induced, substance slows or depresses the brain and nervous system
attention
measure of awareness and way of distinguishing between different states of consciousness
selective attention
choosing and attending to a specific stimulus and ignoring others
divided attention
attention distributed on two or more activities simultaneously
frequency
number of brain waves per second
high frequency = faster
low frequency = slower
amplitude
the intensity of the brain waves (microvolts)
high amplitude = bigger peaks and thoughts
beta
alertness + intense mental activity, eyes open (awake and concentrating)
alpha
relaxed, calm, internally focused, wakeful state with eyes closed
theta
falling asleep, awakening from sleep, meditation, dreaming
delta
deep dreamless sleep, unconscious
stimulants
- increase activity in the CNS and the rest of the body
- increase physiological arousal = excitatory pattern of brain waves
- increase in higher frequency activity and a decrease in lower frequency activity (increase beta, decrease delta alpha and theta)
depressant
- decrease activity in the CNS and the rest of the body
- decrease physiological arousal = inhibited pattern of brain wave activity
- increase lower frequency activity and decrease higher frequency activity (reduce beta, increase delta alpha and theta)
speed + accuracy
used to assess how varying amounts of a stimulants or depressant affect performance on a cognitive task involving learning, decision making or problem solving
measurement of speed
response/reaction time on a stimulus (in a road simulator, ‘reaction time’ to unpredicted stimuli - road signs)
measurement of accuracy
proportion of correct and incorrect responses in relation to the total number of possible responses (driving simulator, the number of unpredicted road stimuli to which the participant correctly reacts)
better performance - faster and fewer errors
objective measures
scores are not subjects to personal opinion or interpretation by the researcher ( speed measured using an electronic device which provides exactly the same data regardless of the researcher collecting it)
