exam 3 Flashcards
What is Consciousness?
• Awareness of internal and external stimuli.
• Almost every human behaviour comes from a mixture of conscious and unconscious processing.
- ex: digestive system
The Nature of Consciousness: Variations in Awareness and Control
Awareness of internal and external stimuli
Different levels of awareness
Attention and consciousness are closely related but you can have one without the other. Example: Mind wandering
James
stream of consciousness
Different Forms of Consciousness
occur spontaneously: daydreaming, drowsiness, dreaming
physiologically induced: hallucinations, orgasm, food or oxygen starvation
psychologically induced: sensory deprivation, hypnosis, meditation
Levels of Consciousness
Consciousness ranges in levels from minimal consciousness to full consciousness to self- consciousness.
full consciousness
self-consciousness
minimal consciousness
Full consciousness
Consciousness in which you know and are able to report your mental state
Self-consciousness
Distinct level of consciousness in which the person’s attention is drawn to the self as an object
Recognition of self in mirrors by humans and other animals
Minimal consciousness
Low-level kind of sensory awareness and responsiveness that occurs when the mind inputs sensations and may output behavior
More on Levels of Consciousness
-Looking at the link: EEG, fMRI, PET scans.
• Hypnosis and anesthesia can teach us about
consciousness.
• Processes in the brain that create consciousness: sensory network and internal consciousness network exchanges information with the thalamus
-comas and brain death
comas
Brain damage. Lasts for a few days or weeks. May open the eyes but not be consciou
Brain death
axons are torn and cannot carry messages.
comas
Unconscious, unresponsive, unarousable (no sleep/wake cycle).
vegetative state
stupor
PVS
locked in syndrome
vegetative state
Unresponsive to psychological and physical stimuli, have a sleep/wake cycle, often eyes open.
stupor
Unresponsive but can be aroused briefly by pain.
PVS
persistive vegetative state
After 30 days, PVS
locked in syndrome
Awakens from coma and is completely conscious but paralyzed and can only blink.
Anesthesia
Used to be thought that ‘going under’ was like a sub going deeper into the ocean
• Problem: Seems like the path downward into unconsciousness is not the same as the pathway coming into consciousness
• Used to be thought that ‘old brain’ comes back before more complex functions
• Different brain patters with stages of anesth
Consciousness and Brain Act
• EEG – monitoring of brain electrical activity
• The electroencephalograph
• Brain waves
• Amplitude (height)
• Frequency (cycles per second) (= correlated)
• Beta (13–24 cps)= alertness/problem-solving
• Alpha (8–12 cps) = resting/relaxation
• Theta (4–7 cps) = low-alertness/sleep
• Delta (< 4 cps) =deep/dreamless sleep
Wandering Mind
• Our minds most often wander when we are engaged in automated, repetitive tasks or in difficult/complex tasks.
• We may be unaware of our minds wandering.
• Similar to under the influence of alcohol
• Effects of driving while ‘wandering’ and drinking while driving – dangerous!
The Default Network Activated During Daydreaming
• An fMRI scan shows that many areas, known as the default network, when mind wandering or daydreaming. More activity at rest than during attention- demanding tasks.
sleep
don’t know why all animals sleep
babies need more sleep
need less sleep as ppl get older
Biological Rhythms and Sleep
circadian rhythms
physiological pathway of the biological clock
melatonin and circadian rhythms
ignoring and realigning circadian rhythms
Physiological pathway of the biological clock
• Light levels > retina > suprachiasmatic nucleus of hypothalamus > pineal gland > secretion of melatonin
Circadian rhythms
– 24 hr. biological cycles
• Regulation of sleep/other body functions
Sleep as a State of Consciousness
When sleeping, are we fully unconscious and “dead to the world”?
Or is the window to consciousness open?
§ We move around in bed but don’t fall out.
§ We sometimes incorporate real- world noises into our dreams.
§ Some noises (our own baby’s cry) wake us more easily than others
How Do We Learn About Sleep and Dreams?
§ We can monitor EEG/brain waves and muscle movements during sleep.
§ We can expose the sleeping person to noise and words, and then examine the effects on the brain (waves) and mind (memory).
§ We can wake people and see which mental state (e.g. dreaming) goes with which brain/body state.
Measuring the Sleep and Waking Cycle
• Instruments:
• Electroencephalograph – brain electrical
activity
• Electromyograph – muscle activity
• Electrooculograph – eye movements
• Other bodily functions also observed
Cycling Through the Stages of Sleep
stages 1-4
stage 1
brief, transitional (1–7 min.)
• alpha > theta
• hypnic jerks
stage 2
sleep spindles and K-complexes (10–25 min.)
stages 3 & 4
slow-wave sleep (30 min.)
stage 5
REM, EEG similar to awake, vivid dreaming (initially a few minutes, progressively longer as cycle through the stages)
• Developmental and cultural differences in REM sleep
REM sleep
Fast brain wave activity: alpha/theta like awake state. Also beta waves.
• ‘Paradoxical sleep.’
• Breathing rapid/irregular.
• Needed for learning, but different kinds of sleep may relate to different kinds of learning
EEG Patterns during the Stages of Sleep
awake - beta waves
drowsy, relaxed - alpha waves
stage 2 sleep - sleep spindles, K complexes
stage 3/4 sleep
delta waves
REM sleep
fast, random
Age Trends
• 15-24 greatest sleep time
• 33-44 least (time stress)
• Newborns—sleep 6-8 times in 24hrs or 16-17 hours per day. In some cultures where babies are carried sleep less.
• Have only 2 types—REM and NREM and spend more time (50%) in REM than adults but not dreaming—brain connections
• Age; ethnicity
Sleep Over the Life Span
§ Shorter sleep cycles in infancy. Sleep 17 hours a day 50% REM § 90-minute cycle emerges by age 5
§ From childhood to late adulthood, total sleep time decreases §15-20 year olds sleep average of 8.5 hours aday and the elderly
average under 6 hours.
§ Time spent into stages 3 and 4 declines and by late adulthood we get little stage slow wave sleep.
Why Do We Sleep?
§ Protective role in human evolution
§ Brain restoration and repair of damaged neurons
§ Store and rebuild memories of day’s experiences
§ Promotes creative problem solving
§ Encourages growth through pituitary gland secretion of growth hormone
§ Memory consolidation–synaptic changes associated with recently stored
memories become durable and stable, causing memory to become more
reliable.
§ May also enhance problem-solving abiliti
The Neural and Evolutionary Bases of Sleep
• Brain structures:
• Ascending reticular activating system
• Pons, medulla, thalamus, hypothalamus, limbic system
• Neurotransmitters:
• Acetylcholine and serotonin
• Also norepinephrine, dopamine, and GAB
Sleep Needs and Deprivation
• Across our lifetime, we get about one hour of sleep for every two awake.
• Memories deteriorate unless sleep occurs.
• REM sleep deprivation has the most detrimental effects, followed by slow- wave sleep (stage 3).
The Effects of Sleep Deprivation
§ Fatigue
§Impairment of concentration,
creativity, communication
§Can lead to obesity, hypertension, suppressed immune system
§Can lead to irritability and slowed performance
§Affects attention, memory, reaction time, decision making, motor coordination, immune system, emotional regulation.
Doing Without: Sleep Deprivation
Complete deprivation – 3 or 4 daysmax
Partial deprivation or sleep restriction
-Impaired attention, reaction time, coordination, and decision making
-Accidents: Chernobyl, Exxon Valdez
Selective deprivation
-REM and slow-wave sleep: rebound effect
Sleep loss and health
sleep disorders
insomnia
sleep apnea
somnambulism
narcolepsy
sleep paralysis
night terrors
insomnia
Difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep
sleep apnea
Person stops breathing for brief periods while asleep
Somnambulism (sleepwalking)
Occurs when the person arises and walks around during sleep
narcolepsy
Sudden sleep attacks occur in the middle of waking activities
sleep paralysis
Experience of waking up unable to move
Night terrors (sleep terrors)
Abrupt awakenings with panic and intense emotional arousal
Somnambulism
• Sleepwalkers in cartoons have their arms outstretched and eyes closed, but that’s just for cartoons.
• A real-life sleepwalker usually walks normally with eyes open, sometimes with a glassy look.
Alto/Matthieu Spohn/Getty Images
Problems in
The World of Dreams: The Contents of Dreams
• Dreams – mental experiences during sleep
• Content usually familiar
• Common themes
• Waking life spillover – day residue
• Lucid dreaming (conscious)
• Culture and dreams
What is learning?
A process by which experience produces a relatively enduring change in behaviour or capabilities.
Non-associative learning
Learning that does not involve forming associations between stimuli; learning occurs following repeated exposure to a single stimulus or event
Habituation
Weakening of response to a stimulus after repeated presentation
Dishabituation
There is a recovery of attention to a novel stimulus following habitation (e.g., new sound).
Sensitization
A strong stimulus results in an exaggerated response to the subsequent presentation of weaker stimuli
Associative learning
connections are formed between two or more stimuli; accounts for most learning
Types of associative learning:
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
Conditioning
The association of events in the environment
Classical Conditioning
Occurs when 2 stimuli become associated with one another. A formerly neutral stimulus evokes a reflexive (not goal directed) response that is ‘naturally’ evoked by a stimulus.
Operant Conditioning
Changing behavior choices in response to consequences. We associate responses with specific consequences. Smiling at others produces friendly greeting.
Behaviorism is the view that psychology
§ Should be an objective science
§ Studies behaviors without taking mental processes into account
-Ivan Pavlov, John B Watson, BF Skinner
Pavlov…
§Studied the digestive system for two decades
§Won the Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1904
§ Accidentally discovered classical conditioning through his work on salivation with dogs.
§Investigated this phenomenon further through experimentation
- Unconditioned stimulus (US)
• Something that on its own elicits a response; reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism. Food.
- Unconditioned response (UR)
• Reflexive reaction, a physical response elicited by an US. It does not need to be learned. Salivation.
- Conditioned stimulus (CS)
• A neutral stimulus that elicits the SAME response as an unconditioned stimulus with which it has been paired. Produces no reliable response in an organism. TONE
- Conditioned response (CR)
• Reaction that resembles an unconditioned response but is produced by a conditioned stimulus. Learned behaviour = Salivation
The Acquisition Phase is…
The initial learning of the stimulus- response (S-R) relationship
As the N.S. and U.S. are paired more often, the more likely the association will be learned and the C.R. stronger. Fido salivates more often and consistently.
The most rapid acquisition followed by the strongest response is a half- minute delay between the CS and US
natural response:
US leads to UR
During Conditioning
The bell/tone (N.S.) is repeatedly paired with the food (U.S.).
extinction
Reduction of a conditioned response after repeated presentations of the conditioned stimulus alone
Generalization
Responding (salivation) to a new tone that is slightly different. Adaptive function: Animal responds to similar tones in rustling leaves or would be eaten. Doesn’t
have to be identical.
Discrimination
Loss of generalization. Learn to respond to only one tone. Afraid of German Shepard’s only not wiener dogs.
Higher-order Conditioning
• A procedure in which a neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus through association with an already established conditioned stimulus
Applications: Classical Conditioning
§ Recovery:
§Former drug users crave the
drug when…
§They are in the environment in which they took drugs.
§They associate with people with whom they took drugs.
§These contexts act as CSs and trigger cravings for the drug (CR)
Little Albert Experiments
John Watson applied the principles of classical conditioning to humans.
§ Watson believed that human emotions and behaviors are merely a bundle of conditioned responses (conditioned emotional reactions or CERs).
§ Watson and a colleague, Raynor, conditioned a baby to associate white rats (CS) with a loud noise (US) and fear them (CR).
§ Little A showed stimulus
Phobia
persistent, irrational, or obsessive fear of a specific object or situation that may arise as a result of fear conditioning
Extinction processes
can help change unwanted responses to stimuli
Systematic desensitization (Exposure Therapy)
a process used to condition the extinction of phobias through a gradual exposure to the feared object or situation
Behaviourism
the systematic study and manipulation of observable behavior
B. F. Skinner
o Organisms don’t simply respond to the environment,
but rather they exert influence (or “operate”) on it
o Behaviours that are followed by favourable consequences will likely be repeated
Operant Conditioning
• A type of associative learning a form of associative learning where behaviour is modified depending on its consequences; also called instrumental conditioning
• Responses that produce favourable consequences tend to be repeated whereas responses that produce unfavourable consequences become less likely to occur. e.g., Spoilt child learns crying pays off.
• A response/behaviour (crying) operates on or produces effects on the environment (mother feels bad and gives child his own way) which influences whether response/behaviour will occur again (it will).
Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)
focused on instrumental behaviors and created a puzzle box to show the law of effect.
Law of effect
Principle that behaviors that are followed by a ‘satisfying state of affairs’ tend to be repeated and those that produce an ‘unpleasant state of affairs’ are less likely to be repeated
Consequences of Behaviour
• Skinner argued that a response (“operant”) can lead to three types of consequences:
1.A neutral consequence neither increases or decreases the probability that the response will recur
2.Reinforcement strengthens the response or makes it more likely to recur. Reinforcer = may be a reward.
3.Punishment weakens the response or makes it less likely to recur.
Reinforcer
Any stimulus or event that produces an increase in a certain behaviour; more effective than punishment in promoting learning
Positive reinforcement
Presentation of a pleasant consequence following a behaviour to increase the probability that the behaviour will reoccur (e.g., praise, treats, feeling accepted).
Negative reinforcement
The removal of an unpleasant stimulus after a response to increase the probability that the behaviour will reoccur
Lever Pushing (Positive Reinforcement )
• Consequence is that
lever pushing (the response) is Is strengthened
because the outcome is pleasantry of
food (reinforcer)
which reinforces the
lever pushing.
Other Examples: Positive Reinforcement
• A stimulus is added to increase the likelihood of a response (i.e., behaviour).
• Your boss gives you a bonus AFTER you work hard.
• A child gets a dessert AFTER eating dinner
Operant Extinction
• Weakening and eventual disappearance of a response because it is no longer reinforced.
• When previously reinforced behaviours no longer pay off, we are likely to abandon and replace them with more successful ones.
• If pressing a lever no longer results in food pellets, the rat eventually will stop making this response.
Punishment
An experience that produces a decrease in a certain behaviour
Positive punishment
Presentation of an unpleasant consequence following a specific behaviour to decrease the probability of the behaviour being repeated
negative punishment
Removal of a pleasant stimulus as a consequence of a behaviour to decrease the probability of the behaviour being repeated
o Silent treatment, no car or phone privileges, or time out will decrease the behaviour from happening again
continuous reinforcement
Behaviour is reinforced every time it occurs. Learning occurs quickly
partial/intermittent reinforcement
Behaviour is only followed by reinforcement some of the time . Behaviour is acquired more slowly and is difficult to extinguish.
The Basic Principles of Operant Conditioning
• Learning takes place in contexts; behavior is under stimulus control.
• Three-term contingency: discriminative stimulus, response, reinforcer.
Schedules of reinforcement: Ratio or Interval. Either Fixed or Variable.
• Fixed Ratio (FR): Reinforcement occurs after a fixed number of responses. High rate of responding with pauses after reinforcement.
• Variable Ratio (VR): Reinforcement occurs after an unpredictable, average number of responses. High, regular rate of response.
• Fixed Interval Schedule (FI): Reinforcement occurs every time a fixed time has elapsed. Low rate of responding with increases as time for reinforcement approaches.
• Variable interval scheduled (VI): Reinforcement occurs after varying lengths of time. Low rate of responding as reinforcement is tied to time rather than output
Operant Conditioning and New Behaviours
• Introducing new behaviour by reinforcing successive approximations of the desired behaviour until the complete behavioural sequence emerges
• Example: steps in training a dog to roll over
§ Successive approximations
§ Reward behavior that approaches the
desired behavior
§ Allows animal trainers to get animals to perform complex behaviors
Instinctive Drift
During operant conditioning, the tendency for an organism to revert to instinctive behavior
Albert Bandura
In his classic Bobo Doll Experiment, 1961, Bandura explored observational learning in children.
§ Kids saw adults punching an inflated doll while narrating their aggressive behaviors such as “kick him.”
§ These kids were then put in a toy-deprived situation… and acted out the same behaviors they had seen.
Social Cognitive Theories
• Theories that emphasize how behaviour is learned and maintained through observation and imitation of others, positive consequences, and cognitive processes such as plans, expectations, and beliefs
• Learning is more than just standard conditioning procedures
Observational learning or social learning
occurs without overt training in
response to watching the behaviour of others; called models
Modelling
occurs when an observer learns from the behaviour of another
Vicarious learning - observational learning
occurs when an individual observes the consequences to another’s actions and then chooses to duplicate the behaviour or refrain from doing so
mirror neurons - observational learning
neurons fired when an animal or human performs an action or when they see another animal perform the same action
Antisocial Effects of Observational Learning
arning
§What happens when we learn from models who demonstrate antisocial behavior, actions that are harmful to individuals and society?
§Children who witness violence in their homes, but are not physically harmed themselves, may hate violence but still may become violent more often than the average child.
§Perhaps this is a result of “the Bobo doll effect”? Under stress, we do what has been modeled for us.
Timing
Multiple exposures separated by time facilitate learning facts (e.g., studying)
context
Studying in several different locations increases the likelihood that you will form strong memories about the information and remember it in other locations
• Awareness and attention
o Some types of learning can occur without awareness (implicit
learning)
o Awareness and attention enhance learning
o Some attentional processes are automatic and occur when a
particular stimulus is very different from those that surround it
o Other times, we must rely on an active searching method, where we examine material in search of the most relevant stim
Stroop Effect
If information is inherently contradictory, attending to one stimulus can block our ability to attend to the relevant stimulus (e.g., the Stroop Effect)
like the word orange text is blue
