PSYD13 Delkurs 1 - Consciousness Flashcards
Visual agnosia?
An inability to visually recognise objects
Define consciousness
Our moment-to-moment awareness of ourselves and our environment
What is selective attention?
The process that focuses awareness on some stimuli to the exclusion of others
Controlled processes?
The conscious use of attention and effort, has limited capacity, require attention, ex driving
Automatic processes?
Can be performed without conscious awareness or effort, no capacity limitation, very hard to modify when learned, for example walking
Divided attention?
The ability to respons, seemingly simultaneously to multiple tasks or demands, i.e. multitasking
What is blindsight?
A condition where people are blind in a part of their visual field yet in special tests respond to stimuli in that field despite reporting that they cannot see those stimuli
What is consciousness as global workspace?
Consciousness is a global workspace that represents the unified activity of multiple modules in different areas of the brain
Define attention
The process of concentrating on some feature(s) of the environment to the possible exclusion of others
What is the Cocktail Party phenomenon? (Collin Cherry)
The phenomenon refers to both our ability to focus our attention on one conversation out of many, but especially describes the phenomenon of switching our attention when you hear you name
What is Broadbent’s Filter Model?
Broadbent meant that there is a filter at the entrance of the information processing system. He meant that selection is based on the physical characteristics of the stimulus, that selection is made before the meaning of the stimuli is processed
What are the parts of Broadbent’s Filter Model?
Sensory memory = hold information for a fraction of a second and then transfer it to filter
Filter = based on physical characteristic filters information and sends it to the detector
Detector = processes the information, processes meaning, output of detector is sent to STM
What is Treisman’s Attenuation Model?
A critique of Broadbent’s model that stated that some words are more important than others:
If someone all of a sudden says “Amelia” at a party my attentions shifts - meaning that some words “stick out” more than others. Treisman meant that the activation threshold is lower for some words compared to others, meaning that for example my name has a lower threshold compared to “book” (mental dictionary)
What is Deutsch & Deutsch Late Selection Model?
This model states that you process everything and then attend to it, that you process the meaning and then select. According to this model information is selected based on its relevance at the time.
Define selective attention
Maintaining a focus on attention on a specific item even when faced with alternatives and distractions
What is feature integration theory?
- Parallel processing/simple feature search = Find the white square among the black circles
- Serial Processing/conjunction search = Find the white square among the white circles and black squares
What is automaticity?
Automaticity is when a controlled process, through practice, becomes automatic
What is a factor that influences once abaility for divided attention?
Similarity - it’s hard to do two tasks at the same time that are similar
What is endogenous control?
Endogenous attention = voluntary attention
What is exogenous control?
Exogenous attention = reflexive attention
Inattentional blindness?
When our attentions is focused on a sequence of events, that we miss another event, incapability to detect an unexpected object
Example: Gorilla in our midst
Change blindness?
Failure to detect changes in the visual environment.
Example: Experimenter switch in the middle of pedestrian giving directions
Circadian rhythms?
Daily biological cycles
Suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN)?
Nuclei that regulate most circadian rhythms
Melatonin?
Hormone that has a relaxing effect on the body
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)?
A cyclic tendency to become psychologically depressed during certain seasons of the year
Beta waves?
The activity shown in the brain when you are awake and alert
Alpha waves?
The slower activity shown in the brain when we are feeling relaxed and drowsy
Delta waves?
Very regular, slow (0.5 to 2 cps) and large brain waves that appear as the sleeper moves into stage 3 of sleep
Slow-wave sleep?
Stage 3 and 4 together
REM sleep?
Stage of sleep characterised by rapid eye movements, high arousal and frequent dreaming
REM sleep paralysis?
During REM sleep the brain sends signals that make it more difficult for voluntary muscles to contract -> muscles relaxed, i.e. paralysed
What is the restoration model?
It states that sleep recharges our run-down bodies, and allows us to recover from physical and mental fatigue
What are evolutionary/circadian sleep models?
Models of sleep that focus on the position that sleep’s main purpose is to increase a species’ chances of survival in relation to its environmental demands
Which brain-process does it seem that REM-sleep helps with?
Memory consolidation = a gradual process by which the brain transfers information into LTM
Insomnia?
Chronic difficulty in falling asleep, staying asleep o experiencing restful sleep
Narcolepsy?
Extreme daytime sleepiness and sudden, uncontrollable sleep attacks that may last from less than a minute to an hour
REM-sleep behaviour disorder (RBD)?
A disorders in which the loss of muscle tone that causes normal REM-sleep paralysis is absent
Night terrors?
Frightening dreams that arouse the sleeper to a state of near-panic
Sleep apnoea?
The repeated stopping and restarting of breathing during sleep
Activation-synthesis theory?
States that dreams do not serve any particular function - they are merely a by-product of REM neural activity
Problem-solving dream models?
State that, because dreams are not constrained by reality, they can help us find creative solutions to our problems and ongoing concerns
Cognitive-process dream theories?
Theories that propose that dreaming and waking thought are produced by the same mental systems in the brain
Neuromodulator?
A specific group of neurotransmitters that have a widespread and generalised influence on synaptic transmission
Agonist?
Excitatory drug that increases the activity of a neurotransmitter
Antagonist?
Inhibitory drug that inhibits or decreases the activity of a neurotransmitter
Substance dependence?
Maladaptive pattern of substance use that causes a person significant distress or substantially impairs that person’s life, i.e. drug addiction
Depressants?
Decrease nervous system activity, ex alcohol
Alcohol myopia?
Short-sighted thinking caused by the inability to pay attention to as much information as when sober
Stimulants?
Increase neural firing and arouse the nervous system, ex amphetamines (=increase dopamine and noradrenaline activity), cocaine, ecstasy
Cocaine?
Increases the activity of noradrenaline and dopamine by blocking their re-uptake
Ecstasy (MDSM)?
Is artificially synthesised and is both a stimulant and a hallucinogen, that primarily increases serotonin functioning. When the drug has worn off you feel depressed caused by serotonin depletion
Opiates?
They stimulate receptors normally activated by endorphines, thereby producing pain relief + increase dopamine activity, which may be why they induce euphoria, ex: opium, morphin, codeine and heroin
Hallucinogens?
Drugs that produce hallucinations, ex LSD and marijuna. LSD causes a flooding of excitation in the nervous system, it increases the activity of serotonin and dopamine at certain receptor sites, but still unclear exactly how LSD works
Marijuna?
Drug which main ingredient is THC which binds to receptors on neurons throughout the brain. THC -> cannabinoids -> GABA (inhibitory)
Define hypnosis
A state of consciousness involving focus attention and reduced peripheral awareness characterised by an enhanced capacity for response to suggestion
Hypnotic susceptibility scales?
A standard series of pass-fail suggestions that are read to a subject after a hypnotic induction
Dissociation theories?
Theories that view hypnosis as an altered state involving a division (dissociation) of consciousness
Social cognitive theories?
Theories which propose that hypnotic experience result from expectations of people who are motivated to take on the role of being hypnotised
What is “the problem of other minds”?
How can we know that other people are conscious?
What is the hard problem, i.e. the explanatory gap?
How come two people can get the same pain impulse and still rate it differently?
What is Qualia?
Refer to the subjective, first-person experiences or the “felt” qualities of conscious experience
What is the problem with Neural Correlates of Consciousness (NCC)?
An epistemological problem where it is uncertain how we can gain knowledge of the neural basis of consciousness
What is the conclusion of Mary’s Room?
Neuropsychology is incomplete
Cognitive closure?
States that we are incapable cognitively to understand the mind-body problem
What is the Eliza effect?
It is when you wrongfully attribute human qualities to AI
What are the 4 parts of consciousness?
- Subjective 2. Dynamic 3. Self-reflecting 4. Selective attention
What is the global workspace theory?
An analogy of attention
How long are our sleep cycles?
90 mins
Somnambulism?
= sleepwalking
What is the activation-synthesis theory?
This theory states that dreams are simply a bi-product of random REM-activity
