Consciousness

Question 1

What are the two dimensions of consciousness?

Answer 1

Awareness and wakefulness.

Question 2

What is a coma?

Answer 2

State of consciousness in which eyes are closed and person is unresponsive/unarousable.

Question 3

What is a vegetative state?

Answer 3

State of minimal consciousness in which eyes might be open, but person is otherwise unresponsive.

Question 4

What is flow?

Answer 4

Exists when we thrive in ability to perform challenging tasks.

Question 5

What is selective attention?

Answer 5

Ability to focus awareness on specific features in environment while ignoring others.

Question 6

What is the cocktail party effect?

Answer 6

Ability to filter out auditory stimuli, then to refocus attention when name is heard.

Question 7

What is sustained attention?

Answer 7

Ability to maintain focused awareness on a target or idea.

Question 8

What is meditation?

Answer 8

Practices that people use to calm the mind, stabilize concentration, focus attention, and enhance mindfulness.

Question 9

What do experienced meditators’ brains show evidence of?

Answer 9

Thicker cortex in brain areas associated with attention and sensitivity to sensory info.

Question 10

What are circadian rhythms?

Answer 10

Variations in physiological processed that cycle within approx. 24 hours, including sleep-wake cycle.

Question 11

What are free-running rhythms?

Answer 11

Internally generated rhythm in absence of time cues.

Question 12

What are ultradian rhythms?

Answer 12

Variations in physiological processes that repeat in a cycle of less than 24 hours; sleep stages follow this cycle.

Question 13

In which stages of sleep do delta waves most commonly occur?

Answer 13

Stages 3 and 4.

Question 14

In what stage of sleep does REM occur?

Answer 14

Stage 1.

Question 15

What is consciousness?

Answer 15

Awareness of one’s surroundings and of what’s in one’s mind at a given moment.

Question 16

What is the acoustic arousal threshold?

Answer 16

Amount of sound required for awakening.

Question 17

What is sleep debt?

Answer 17

Amount of sleep our brains owe our bodies.

Question 18

What are five sleep disorders?

Answer 18

Insomnia; sleep apnea; sleepwalking; narcolepsy (may lie in deficiency in orexin); hypersomnia.

Question 19

What are the two levels of consciousness in which dreams operate, according to Freud?

Answer 19

Manifest level - surface level of dreams, recalled upon awakening.

Latent level - deeper unconscious level; their meaning is found here.

Question 20

What is hypnosis?

Answer 20

State characterized by focused attention, suggestibility, absorption, lack of voluntary control, suspension of critical faculties.

Question 21

What is the Stroop effect?

Answer 21

Delay in reaction time when colour of words on a test and their meanings differ.

Question 22

What are psychoactive drugs?

Answer 22

Substances that when ingested reliably produce qualitative changes in conscious experience.

Question 23

What are agonists and antagonists?

Answer 23

Agonist - drug that mimics effect of a neurotransmitter at its receptors.

Antagonist - drug that blocks effect of a neurotransmitter at its receptors.

Question 24

What are depressants?

Answer 24

Substances that decrease/slow central nervous system activity.

Includes alcohol, sedatives, and opiates.

Question 25

What are stimulants?

Answer 25

Substances that activate nervous system and produce arousal.

Includes caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines, and ecstasy.

Question 26

What are hallucinogens?

Answer 26

Substances that create distorted perceptions of reality ranging from mild to extreme.

Includes marijuana and LSD.