Consciousness Flashcards
What are the two dimensions of consciousness?
Awareness and wakefulness.
What is a coma?
State of consciousness in which eyes are closed and person is unresponsive/unarousable.
What is a vegetative state?
State of minimal consciousness in which eyes might be open, but person is otherwise unresponsive.
What is flow?
Exists when we thrive in ability to perform challenging tasks.
What is selective attention?
Ability to focus awareness on specific features in environment while ignoring others.
What is the cocktail party effect?
Ability to filter out auditory stimuli, then to refocus attention when name is heard.
What is sustained attention?
Ability to maintain focused awareness on a target or idea.
What is meditation?
Practices that people use to calm the mind, stabilize concentration, focus attention, and enhance mindfulness.
What do experienced meditators’ brains show evidence of?
Thicker cortex in brain areas associated with attention and sensitivity to sensory info.
What are circadian rhythms?
Variations in physiological processed that cycle within approx. 24 hours, including sleep-wake cycle.
What are free-running rhythms?
Internally generated rhythm in absence of time cues.
What are ultradian rhythms?
Variations in physiological processes that repeat in a cycle of less than 24 hours; sleep stages follow this cycle.
In which stages of sleep do delta waves most commonly occur?
Stages 3 and 4.
In what stage of sleep does REM occur?
Stage 1.
What is consciousness?
Awareness of one’s surroundings and of what’s in one’s mind at a given moment.
What is the acoustic arousal threshold?
Amount of sound required for awakening.
What is sleep debt?
Amount of sleep our brains owe our bodies.
What are five sleep disorders?
Insomnia; sleep apnea; sleepwalking; narcolepsy (may lie in deficiency in orexin); hypersomnia.
What are the two levels of consciousness in which dreams operate, according to Freud?
Manifest level - surface level of dreams, recalled upon awakening.
Latent level - deeper unconscious level; their meaning is found here.
What is hypnosis?
State characterized by focused attention, suggestibility, absorption, lack of voluntary control, suspension of critical faculties.
What is the Stroop effect?
Delay in reaction time when colour of words on a test and their meanings differ.
What are psychoactive drugs?
Substances that when ingested reliably produce qualitative changes in conscious experience.
What are agonists and antagonists?
Agonist - drug that mimics effect of a neurotransmitter at its receptors.
Antagonist - drug that blocks effect of a neurotransmitter at its receptors.
What are depressants?
Substances that decrease/slow central nervous system activity.
Includes alcohol, sedatives, and opiates.
What are stimulants?
Substances that activate nervous system and produce arousal.
Includes caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines, and ecstasy.
What are hallucinogens?
Substances that create distorted perceptions of reality ranging from mild to extreme.
Includes marijuana and LSD.
