Exam 3

Question 1

Natural Substance Drugs

Answer 1

Natural substances

Marijuana, Cocaine, Opium, Caffeine, Alcohol

Question 2

Artificial Drugs

Answer 2

LSD (acid), MDMA (ecstasy), Amphetamines

Question 3

Three main effects of psychoactive effects

Answer 3

◦ Stimulants, Depressants, Hallucinogens

Question 4

Tolerance

Answer 4

◦ Continued use of a drug leads to tolerance
◦ The drug’s effect lessens as the brain adapts
◦ As a result, it will take larger doses to produce the
same effect as before

Question 5

Withdrawal

Answer 5

-If the drug is no longer used, the user may experience
discomfort and distress
-Withdrawal effects can occur even if the person is not
addicted to the drug

Question 6

Dependence

Answer 6

Absence of the drug may lead to feelings of physical
pain and intense cravings (physical dependence)
and/or negative emotions (psychological dependence)

Question 7

Wanting vs. Liking

Answer 7

Addiction results in increased craving, without
increased enjoyment
◦ Liking
Hedonic pleasure from a reward
◦ Wanting
Motivation and pursuit of a reward
◦ Different neural systems for liking versus wanting
◦ Addictive drugs hyper sensitize “wanting” centers of brain, but “liking” centers habituate
◦ Leads to chronic cravings for drug but drug no longer
feels good

Question 8

All psychoactive drugs work by . . .

Answer 8

All psychoactive drugs work by altering synaptic transmission by stimulating, inhibiting, or mimicking neurotransmitters
◦ But, expectations can also influence how the
drugs affect us

Question 9

What are stimulants?

Answer 9

Stimulants are drugs that excite neural activity and

speed up body functions

Question 10

What are common stimulants?

Answer 10

◦ Common stimulants: caffeine, nicotine, cocaine,

ecstasy, amphetamines, methamphetamines

Question 11

Psychological effects of Stimulants

Answer 11

Psychological effects
◦ Elevates mood
◦ Increases alertness
Stimulants often lead to a “crash” after use
◦ fatigue, irritability, headaches, depression

Question 12

Physiological effects of Stimulants

Answer 12

Physiological effects
◦ Increase heart rate and breathing
◦ Pupil dilation
◦ Decrease appetite and increase energy

Question 13

Methamphetamines

Answer 13

Methamphetamines
Such as “crystal meth”
◦ Also, produces psychological euphoria
Due to dopamine release
◦ Increase neural activity and speed-up body functions
◦ With drastic side effects
Insomnia, seizures, high blood pressure, and tendency towards
violent behavior
◦ Highly addictive
Chronic use can leads to drastic weight lose, poor health, bad
teeth, premature aging

Question 14

Why is crack cocaine more addictive than pure cocaine?

Answer 14

Cocaine
◦ Caused euphoria lasting up to 30 minutes
◦ Followed by crash into an agitated depression
Crack Cocaine
◦ Can be smoked
◦ Lead to a faster high, more intense “high” that last
longer than pure cocaine
◦ But, also leads to a worse crash and more intensive
cravings

Question 15

Ecstasy

Answer 15

Ecstasy
◦ MDMA (methylene-dioxy-meth-amphetamine)
◦ Powerful stimulant and hallucinogenic
◦ Triggers the release of dopamine and blocks the
reuptake of serotonin
◦ Produces euphoria and feelings of social
connectedness
Famous as a “party” drug

Question 16

What are Depressants?

Answer 16

Depressants are drugs that reduce neural activity and slow body functions

Question 17

Common depressants

Answer 17

Common depressants
◦ Alcohol
◦ Barbituates (tranquilizers)
◦ Opiates

Question 18

Opiates

Answer 18

Opiates are derived from opium
◦ Heroin and morphine
◦ Depresses neural activity
◦ Decreases pain and anxiety
◦ Slower breathing and heart rate
◦ Pupil’s constrict
◦ Can generate feelings of bliss and euphoria
 Negative effects
◦ Often leads to withdrawal
◦ Reduces levels of natural endorphins in the body
◦ Withdrawal leads to intense cravings
◦ Overdose is common

Question 19

Hallucinogens

Answer 19

Hallucinogens
◦ Distort perceptions
◦ May generate sensory images in the absence
of actual sensory input
i.e. see, hear, or feel things that aren’t really there

Question 20

Common Hallucinogens

Answer 20

Common hallucinogens
◦ LSD
◦ PCP
◦ Cannabis

Question 21

LSD

Answer 21

LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide)
◦ Chemically similar to a form of serotonin
LSD mimics the action of serotonin while blocking the
action of natural serotonin
◦ Can generate intense emotional experiences that
can be either positive (euphoria) or negative
(panic and terror)
Expectations play a role

Question 22

Why do plants carry drugs?

Answer 22

◦ Plants can’t run
◦ Plant defenses are chemical warfare
Cyanide in apples and cherries deter herbivores eating
leaves
Capsaicin in hot peppers prevents most animals from
eating them
Caffeine in coffee makes small mammals sick
Nicotine in tobacco is an insecticide
Cocaine, opiates are potent toxins

Question 23

DMT

Answer 23

-Studies the relationship between religious
experiences and a natural psychoactive compound
-DMT (dimethyltryptamine)
active ingredient of ayahuasca, a hallucinogen used by tribes in South America
-Like other psychedelic substances, DMT acts by altering the monoamine neurotransmitters
- Studies involving controlled administration of DMT
lead subjects to feel quasi-religious feelings
-Sensations of bliss, timelessness, out of body experiences, floating towards a light, presence of other beings or spirits

Question 24

Neurotheology

Answer 24

◦ The neuroscience of exceptional human
experiences
◦ What happen in the brain when people feel the
presence of the supernatural?

Question 25

Common causes of hallucinations

Answer 25

◦ Mental illness (schizophrenia)
◦ Drugs
◦ Extreme duress
 Sleep deprivation, Starvation, Illness
◦ Ritualized behavior
 Chanting, self-flagellation, deep meditation
◦ Sensory deprivation
 Like in a sensory deprivation tank

Question 26

Form Constants of Hallucinations

Answer 26

◦ Colors and geometric shapes
◦ Tunnels
◦ Spirals
◦ Grids
◦ Cobwebs

Question 27

Near Death Experiences

Answer 27

◦ Experiences where people feel like they had
died or been close to dying
◦ May feel like they have returned from the grave

Question 28

Common experiences of near death

Answer 28

◦ Similar experiences reported by many
 Seeing a light at the end of a tunnel
 Visions of a world beyond
 Like their relatives waiting in heaven
 Or, how their energy would become one with the universe
 Intense emotions
 Usually positive
 Out of body experiences
 The presence of other beings

Question 29

Terror Management Theory

Answer 29

Terror Management Theory
◦ Humans only animal aware of own mortality
◦ Awareness of mortality theorized to arouse feelings of
terror and anxiety that need to be managed
◦ To cope with the terror of mortality salience, the Self
seeks connection with things that will exist death
◦ Attitudes change in predictable ways
Become more patriotic, more religious, more family
oriented, more supportive of the extended Self
Increased drive to believe that the individual is a part
of something that will continue after death

Question 30

Effects of Mortality Salience Priming

Answer 30

◦ Defense of cultural worldview
Patriotism, religion, family values
Greater love and tolerance others (with some exceptions)
◦ Greater dislike of people with negative view of country
◦ Greater support of harsh tactic used against national enemies
◦ Greater dislike of abstract art
Because abstract art doesn’t have a clear “meaning”

Question 31

“The Dying Brain Theory”

Answer 31

◦ Decreased activity of visual cortex
Produced “light at the end of tunnel” visions
◦ Decreased activity at temporal-parietal junction
Sensory association areas
Produces sensory hallucinations and feeling of
disembodiment
◦ Feelings of euphoria due to release of natural
endorphins

Question 32

Temporal-Parietal Junction

Answer 32

Many mystical feelings associated with activity
at the TPJ
◦ The TPJ is where the temporal and parietal lobes
meet
◦ Adjacent with multiple “association areas”
Association areas integrate info from primary receiving
areas
Shapes and colors become a “tree” or a “face”
Salty, sweet, and umami become “ice cream” or “a hamburger”
Pressure, temperature, and vibration become a “silk shirt” or a “lovers kiss”
◦ TPJ adjacent with visual, auditory, somatosensory
association areas
Including areas involved in proprioception

Question 33

Studies of nuns and monks

Answer 33

• Andrew Neuberg
  During mediation and prayer
  ◦ Neural activity decreases in the parietal lobe
  Orientation-association area
  Patients with lesions in this area have difficulty
  navigating through physical environments and report
  feeling an inability to determine where there physical
  self ends and the physical world begins
  Loss of proprioception
  ◦ Activation overlaps with areas involved during
  orgasm
  Perhaps giving insight into experiences of religious
  ecstasy

Question 34

The God Helmet

Answer 34

Research of Michael Persinger
◦ Created a helmet that directs electromagnetic
waves at targeted parts of the left temporal lobe
◦ Simulates effects of temporal lobe epilepsy
A large percentage of patients report experiences of
hearing voices and seeing ghostly figures and out of
body experiences
◦ Effects of the helmet
Reports that 80% of subjects tested report some feeling
of a “sensed presence”, out-of-body, or other type of
dissociative state
Visions experienced highly influenced by religious belief
and expectations
Catholics might see feel the presence of a saint
Sci-fi enthusiast might feel the presence of aliens

Question 35

Meditations on Happiness

Answer 35

Research of Richard Davidson
◦ Studies effects of meditative practices on
neural activity
◦ Research involves buddhist monks
Including the Dalai Lami
Effects of Mediation
◦ Left hemisphere lateralization
Left lateralization linked to positive affect
Right lateralization linked to negative affect
◦ Greater neural plasticity
◦ Improved immune function
◦ Beneficial effects of mediation even for
novice mediators

Question 36

Objective Threshold

Answer 36

! Objective Threshold

! Amount of signal for the stimulus to be detected at all

Question 37

Subjective Threshold

Answer 37

! Amount of signal for the stimulus to be consciously detected
! Subjective threshold is always greater than the objective
threshold

Question 38

Subliminal Perception

Answer 38

above objective threshold but below subjective threshold

Question 39

Signal Detection Theory

Answer 39

! “Sensitivity” for detecting a target
! Depends on the amount of stimulus, and…
“ How much is there?
! The criteria used to identify the stimulus
“ How much do you need to say “Yes” it’s there

Question 40

Signal Detection Theory 4 types of responses

Answer 40

Four types of responses
! Hit - it’s there, you saw it
! Miss – it’s there, you missed it
! False Alarm – it’s not there, but you saw it
! Correct Rejection - it’s not there, and you didn’t see it

Question 41

Drink Coke

Answer 41

! Legacy of James Vicery
! The Story: Ft. Lee, NJ (1957)
“ Flashed “Hungry, Eat Popcorn” and “Drink Coca-Cola” for 3
milliseconds every 5 seconds
“ Claim: popcorn sales rose 58% and Coke sales rose 18%
! Should you believe it?
“ No – the stimuli were beneath the objective threshold
“ 3 milliseconds is too fast for human visual system to detect
“ In 1962, Vicery admitted the story was a gimmick.
“ Many believe the data were falsified and/or that he never
actually ran the study

Question 42

Principle of Ideomotor action

Answer 42

! William James
“ “Wherever a movement…immediately follows
upon the idea of it, we have ideomotor action.
We are then aware of nothing between the
conception and the execution.”
“ “…for certain… every [mental] representation
of a movement awakens in some degree the
actual movement”

Question 43

Conscious vs. Non-conscious processing

Answer 43

– Conscious – one thing at a time
– Non-conscious – many things simultaneously
• Multiple meanings of the word “Palm” simultaneously activated by a subliminal
prime
• Only one meaning activated with a liminal prime

Question 44

Evaluative Priming

Answer 44

! Use primes to measure valence of attitudes (good/bad)
! If you like something, easier to pair with “good” things
! If you dislike something, easier to pair with “bad” things
! Used to measure social attitudes
“ Easier to associate “bad” with socially stigmatized groups

Question 45

Semantic Priming

Answer 45

! Use of primes to measure content of attitudes
! Faster to respond to congruent pairs vs. incongruent pairs
“ Bread goes with Butter, not with Cats
! Used to measure social attitudes
“ Easier to associate “African-American” with “athletic” than “intelligent”

Question 46

Action Priming

Answer 46

! Action Priming

! Use of primes to influence or alter behavior

Question 47

Mood Priming

Answer 47

! Mood Priming
! Priming that influences moods and evaluations
“ Warm vs. Cold temperature
“ Warm coffee makes people nicer than ice water does
“ Facial feedback
“ Hold a pen sideways with your teeth (kinda like a smile)
“ Hold a pen facing forward with your lips (kinda like a frown)
“ A joke is funnier with “smiling”
“ Physical feedback
“ Pull towards vs. Pushing away from you
“ Like someone more when pulling towards self

Question 48

Lexical Decision Tasks

Answer 48

! Lexical Decision Tasks
! Is this a real word or not?
! Demonstrates priming effects
! Words recognized faster when primed
with a related word (compared to being
primed with an unrelated word)

Question 49

Stroop Effect

Answer 49

Say the color the words are
printed in as quickly as you
can
What errors do you make?
Reading interferes with your
ability to state the color, and
your reaction time is slower
Another “negative priming”
effect

Question 50

Case Study of D.F.

Answer 50

Separate perception and action
pathways
◦ Case study of D.F.
Woman with damage to temporal lobe
Lost ability to perceive orientation
◦ Could not match the orientation of a letter
to the orientation of the slot
Brain did not understand what “horizontal” meant
Could not consciously understand the task
Because it required her to perceive orientation
◦ But…if asked to “mail” the letter, she could
Once she began the action of mailing the letter, she
automatically aligned it to match the slot
The behavior occurred without conscious
awareness of how to do it

Question 51

Reflexes

Answer 51

Unlearned fast simple response to a stimulus
◦ Controlled by spinal cord and brain stem
◦ Can’t prevent a reflex, but can dampen the response
◦ Examples
Baby reflexes
Rooting, sucking, grasping reflexes
Patellar reflex
The “knee jerk” reflex
Reflex linked to your proprioceptive sense
Leg kicks because it thinks the leg is being stretched
Startle reflex
A defensive reaction to unanticipated stimuli

Question 52

Instincts

Answer 52

Set pattern of complex behavior present in every
member of a species
◦ Instincts are “hardwired” in the brain
Instinctual behaviors are not learned
Born already “knowing” how to do certain things
Examples
Spiders building a web
Imprinting in birds
Migration patterns of fish, turtles, and birds
Instinctual behaviors can be modified by environment
Bird song will change due to the other songs that are present
Spiders will build web differently if they are on drugs

Question 53

Prepared Learning

Answer 53

Evolution has prepared the brain to learn certain stuff
Attention to faces
Newborn babies pay more attention to faces than non-faces
Easier to learn a fear of snakes than flowers
Fear learning in humans and monkeys
Snakes are an evolutionary threat to primates
Critical period for language
Ability to learn language peaks during early childhood
After the age of 7, language becomes very difficult to learn

Question 54

Unconscious Behavior

Answer 54

Behaviors that one has no ability to consciously control
Behaviors while in an unconscious state
Like talking in your sleep or sleep walking
Behavior of patients with usual neurological conditions
Split-brain patients
Right brain is unconscious about what the left brain controls
Uncontrolled behavior due to brain tumors
Patients may have behaviors triggered by specific stimuli
Neurological tics
Memory disruptions
Patients may have intact procedural memory that triggers
behavior without conscious awareness

Question 55

Preconscious Behavior

Answer 55

Behavior that occurs without awareness, but that could
be consciously controlled
 Once they become conscious
◦ Examples
 Behaviors on “auto-pilot”
 Walking, driving, etc
 Emotional reactions
 Facial expressions may be triggered automatically but can be
controlled afterwards
 Effects of priming
 Automatic vs. Controlled behavior
 The effect of automatic attitudes on behavior depends on the
person’s motivations and awareness

Question 56

Habits

Answer 56

Complex behaviors that are frequently repeated
Under conscious control but frequently repeated
Individual events may blur together and go unnoticed
◦ Triggers for habitual behaviors may not be consciously
known
Examples
Habit of getting a snack around 2pm?
Could be triggered by low sugar in the blood
Could be triggered by a desire to socialize
◦ Much research into creating and shaping human habits
for both good and for ill

Question 57

Habitual behaviors have three important components

Answer 57

Cue
◦ A stimulus that triggers the behavior
◦ Can be external – like a sight, or a scent, or a music cue
◦ Could be internal – like a feeling of fatigue or boredom
Routine
◦ The behavior that is triggered
Could be eating, watching TV, exercising, playing a game, etc..
◦ Habits are repeated because they lead to rewards
Reinforcer
◦ The pleasure or reward that comes from the behavior
Pleasure of food, the relief from boredom, the feeling of
accomplishment, etc..

Question 58

How Habits become non-conscious

Answer 58

As the behavior is repeated, it requires less effort and demands less
attention

Question 59

Why is it so hard to change habits?

Answer 59

Habitual behaviors can be difficult to change
◦ They become habitual because they are repeated
◦ They are repeated because they are reinforcing
Once a habit loop has developed, decisions are no longer
fully conscious
◦ The habit cue primes the habitual behavior
Changing habits requires conscious awareness of the cues
and rewards
◦ May be aware of our behavior, but not aware of the cues or the
reward that motivates the behavior

Question 60

Classical Conditioning

Answer 60

◦ Association of neutral stimulus with a stimulus that
leads to a specific response
◦ Later the neutral stimulus is able to trigger the
response
Pavlov’s dogs
Learned to associate bell with food
Baby Albert
Learned to associate “flurry and white” with loud noise

Question 61

Operant Conditioning

Answer 61

◦ Learning through reinforcement and punishment
◦ Behaviors that are reinforced will increase
◦ Behaviors that are punished will decrease

Question 62

Positive Reinforcement

Answer 62

Positive reinforcement (give something good)
◦ Behavior increases from receiving a pleasant stimulus
Dog get a treat when it sits on command

Question 63

Negative Reinforcement

Answer 63

Negative reinforcement (take away something bad)
◦ Behavior increases because an aversive stimulus is removed
Rat learns that pulling a lever will prevent it from being shocked
Parent buys a toy to stop a child’s temper tantrum

Question 64

Positive Punishment

Answer 64

Positive punishment (give something bad)
◦ Behavior decreases because an aversive stimulus is received
A child stops misbehaving after he gets spanked

Question 65

Negative Punishment

Answer 65

Negative punishment (take away something good)
◦ Behavior decreases because a pleasant stimulus is removed
A child stops misbehaving after his candy is taken away
A teenager gets punished by being grounded (removing their freedom)

Question 66

Determinism by Democritus

Answer 66

Democritus
◦ Ancient Greek Philosopher
◦ First theory of the atom
“Atomos” in ancient Greek
Everything was made from tiny bits of matter
◦ Argued Free Will does not exist
Determinism
◦ Physical objects follow causal laws
Human beings are physical objects
◦ Every event is determined by past events
◦ Every thing that happens is pre-determined
There is only one possible future for everything
Including people

Question 67

Indeterminism by Aristotle

Answer 67

Indeterminism
◦ Aristotle and Epicurus
◦ Argued people must be responsible for their
actions, thus determinism can’t be correct
The argument was that humans must be morally
responsible for their actions
Otherwise, no one could be accountable for criminal acts
◦ Argued that some events occur by chance
◦ Not every event is truly pre-determined
◦ This degree of randomness was sufficient to allow
humans to have free will

Question 68

Dualism and Free Will

Answer 68

Body is physical. Subject to physical laws
◦ Mind is non-physical.
◦ Acts of mind do not nave to be pre-determined
If the mind is separate from the physical body
◦ Mind controls the physical body.

Question 69

David Hume et al

Answer 69

David Hume (and others)
◦ All information learned through senses
◦ Determinism is based on observation
◦ But, observations are flawed
 Don’t observe the full “truth” of reality
◦ The cause and effect we observe are merely
inferences of the mind
 Reasons and Passions
◦ Rational thought (reasons) is based on
observations of the outside world
◦ But, behavior can be caused by feelings (passions)
which come from within

Question 70

Immanuel Kant

Answer 70

Response to Hume’s criticism of empirical
sciences (based on observations)
Kant is a pioneer of the “scientific method”
◦ Proposed that determinism must be true for the
physical world
◦ But, there must also exist another (non-physical)
world outside of physical space and time
Kant called this the “noumenal” world. And, proposed it
was the realm of God, the infinite, and the immortal soul
◦ This form of dualism argued that non-physical
events could cause changes in the physical world

Question 71

Problems with Science and Religion

Answer 71

Neither science or religion appears to be able to
fully answer the question of free will
◦ Scientifically… the universe follows deterministic laws.
Cause and effect. Human beings are physical beings. Thus,
all choices are effects of pre-determined causes.
◦ Religiously… God is all-knowing and all-powerful. God
already knows what choices will be made, so how was it
possible that anyone made a choice?

Question 72

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)

Answer 72

Frontal lobes commonly associated with selfregulation,
planning, and decision making
Executive functions
◦ The dorsalateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is
associated with conscious decisions to move

Question 73

Readiness Potential

Answer 73

Activity in the brain’s motor
cortex that precedes a movement
◦ Brain activity gradually increases
prior to a voluntary movement
◦ The readiness potential begins up
to one second before the actual
movement
 As if the brain is slowly getting ready
to move the body

Question 74

Libet’s Experiment

Answer 74

Needs to time three events
◦ 1) Start of the muscle movement (M)
◦ 2) Start of the readiness potential (RP)
◦ 3) When the intention to move occurs (W)
 This was labeled “W” for “will”
 Used EEG and EMG to time M and RP
◦ EEG to record readiness potential
◦ EMG to record the muscle movement

Question 75

Libet’s Results

Answer 75

Results
◦ Readiness potential was about 550ms before the action
◦ Conscious intent was about 200ms before the action
◦ Readiness potential for action came before the decision
to act!
Brain was already initiating the behavior 350ms before the person
had “decided” to act

Question 76

Libet’s Interpretations

Answer 76

Rules of cause and effect suggest…
◦ The brain initiates the action independent of
conscious will
◦ The conscious mind simply becomes aware
that the action is going to happen

Question 77

Free Will vs. Free Won’t

Answer 77

We can’t control our impulses to initiate an action
◦ But… when we become consciously aware of an impulse
◦ Our conscious minds can “veto” the action