Lecture 6: Consciousness

Question 1

What is Consciousness?

Answer 1

It’s one’s subjective experience of the world, one’s body & mental perspective
* Alterations in consciousness can be experienced through:

• Subliminal perception
• Sleep-related experiences
• Hypnosis

Question 2

What is Sleep Paralysis?

Answer 2

It’s when your unable to move just before falling asleep or right before waking up

• Caused by a disruption in sleep cycle, usually associated with anxiety & terror
• 10% experience the incubus phenomenon
• Has been reported in many cultures

Question 3

What is Sleep Walking?

Answer 3

It’s when your walking while fully being asleep, you act like a fully awake person but your asleep.

13-15% children and 4-5% of adults sleepwalk occasionally

*But it can cause sleep deprivation.

Question 4

Sleep Deprivation can cause..

Answer 4

• Depression
• Difficulties learning new information or paying attention
• Slowed reaction times
• Hallucinations
• Less vigorous immune response to viral infections

Question 5

How much sleep do you need (at least) to function…

Answer 5

you should be getting at least 7-8 hours of sleep

Question 6

Define Electroencephalogram (EEG)

Answer 6

Measures brain activity to analyze between different stages of sleep and wakefulness

Question 7

Name the 5 different brain waves

Answer 7

1. Gamma
2. Beta
3. Alpha
4. Theta
5. Delta

Question 8

Give a short description about what Gamma and Delta are…

Answer 8

1. Gamma is problem solving and concentration
2. Delta is sleep and dreaming

Question 9

Give a short description about what Beta and Alpha are…

Answer 9

1. Beta is a busy and active mind
2. Alpha is a reflective and restful mind

Question 10

What is Theta?

Answer 10

It’s drowsiness

Question 11

What is Stage 1 of sleep? How does brain activity slow down?

Answer 11

It’s considered a “light” stage of sleep, and it happens as the brain activity slows down producing THETA waves

*Brain activity is slows when in an
1. BETA - awake and alert stage
2. ALPHA - awake and in a relaxed state
3. GAMMA - awake/concentrating and problem solving

Question 12

What is somethings that a person may experience in their stage 1 sleep?

Answer 12

Hypnagogic Imagery - which are dream like images that pass in and out of consciousness

Myoclonic Jerks - sudden jerking of limbs

Question 13

Stage 2, What is it? What happens to the heart rate and muscles?

Answer 13

Brain activity slows down even more than before

An EGG would show
1. Sleep Spindles - sudden intense bursts of electrical activity
2. K - Complexes - occasional rising and falling brain waves
*Appear ONLY during sleep

The heart rate and body temperature decreases and muscles relax more…

Question 14

Stage 3, What is it? and why Is it one of the more important states??

Answer 14

In order to have well rested sleep, you need to go through stages 3 and 4, kinda like deep sleep.

*It is Delta waves, for children 40% of their sleep is in deep sleep, however for adults it’s like 1/4 which is like 25%

Question 15

What Happens after deep sleep?

Answer 15

We return to stage 2 and then move onto stage 5 (REM) which is 20-25% of out sleep.

In this stage the brain is….
*most active
*body is inactive…known paradoxical sleep

This is when dreaming occurs, REM sleep is longer when entered early morning rather then closer to when we first fall asleep….stages 1-4 ARE NOT REM!!!!!

Question 16

What happens when we don’t get our REM sleep

Answer 16

Basically when were deprived of REM sleep we experience REM rebounds

Question 17

Explain dreaming, scientifically!

Answer 17

We dream in something called NREM sleep which is like the opposite of REM dreaming. It depends on the stage your on.

Question 18

What is NREM dreaming compared to REM?

Answer 18

NREM - is long emotional, sleep, something weird would occur such as flying elephants

REM - is short and everyday topics dream like dreaming about doing your test

Question 19

What does REM stand for?

Answer 19

Rapid Eye Movement

Question 20

What is Lucid Dream?

Answer 20

Its a dream where you know your dreaming, for example - walking into a haunted house, seeing ghosts but telling yourself it’s all a dream

Question 21

Does everyone dream?

Answer 21

Yes everyone dreams however, some people may forget their dreams.

Question 22

Why do we dream?

Answer 22

We don’t know why exactly for sure but some reasons may be…

• Processing emotional memories
• Integrating new experiences with established memories
• Reorganizing & combining memories

Question 23

What is Insomnia?

Answer 23

Insomnia is one of the most common sleep disturbances, it’s when people find it extremely difficult to fall asleep.

*9-20% of people struggle with it

Question 24

What side effect can sleeping pills cause?

Answer 24

Can result dependancy and then once off of it you can have rebound insomnia

Question 25

Define Narcolepsy

Answer 25

This is when one experiences a sudden and unexpected sleep episode lasting a few minutes or seconds

*Once they fall asleep they immediately go into REM sleep

Question 26

What is sleep apnea?

Answer 26

Sleep apnea is caused by a blocked airway during sleep, so you’ll be awake multiple times throughout the night.

Question 27

Sleep apnea is a lack of oxygen, what can happen because of this?

Answer 27

due to lack of oxygen, carbon dioxide can build up and cause many severe problems

Question 28

What is effective for children and adults with sleep apnea

Answer 28

For children surgery is more effective, as their younger

For adults however, face masks are known to be more effective

Question 29

Explain Hypnosis?

Answer 29

A person administers imaginative suggestions to another to produce changes in their consciousness.

People respond to hypnotic suggestions differently,

Question 30

State the 6 Research Flaws..

Answer 30

1. Reactivity
2. Social desirability bias/positive impression management
3. Unrepresentative or biased sample
4. Confounding variables
5. Lack of a control group
6. Invalid measures

Question 31

Define reactivity

Answer 31

This term refers to how the act of observing someone might change their behaviour and so also change the data you collect from them.

Question 32

Define social desirability and positivity impression management

Answer 32

These terms refer to the possibility that people may not always tell the truth when asked questions, or may attempt to improve their performance on a task to impress the experimenter.

Question 33

Define unrepresentative/ biased sample

Answer 33

This term refers to the possibility that the sample of participants in the research description may not reflect the full range of people about whom we are interested in making conclusions (i.e., the population).

Question 34

Define confounding variables

Answer 34

When conducting an experiment, a confounding variable is something that differs between the experimental and control groups, which confounds (or confuses) our interpretation of the study.

Question 35

Define lack of control group

Answer 35

Remember that in an experiment, we create an experimental group for whom we have manipulated an independent variable (e.g., we increase the amount of violent TV a group of children watches) to try to determine the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable (e.g., we look to see if watching more violent TV increases aggression in this group of children).

Question 36

Define invalid measures

Answer 36

This term refers to the question of whether or not we are sure that we are really measuring the thing we want to measure.