Quiz 2 Flashcards
Consciousness
Personal awareness of mental activities, internal sensations, and the external environment
Intentionality
Being directed toward an object
- you have to be thinking about something
- you can’t have a consciousness not thinking about something
One of four basic properties of consciousess
Unity
Resistance to division
- integrating information from the sense to form a whole
One of four basic properties of consciousness
Selectivity
Capacity to include some objects but not others
- dichotic listening
- cocktail party phenomenon
One of four basic properties of consicousness
Transience
Has tendency to change
One of four basic properties of consciousness
James and stream of consciousness
“like a river”
- consciousness allows people to develop sense of personal identity that has continuity over time
- feel like same person as your ten-year-old self
- integrate past, present, and future behavior
How do we judge what is conscious?
- capacity for experiences ( feel pain, pleasure, hunger, etc.)
- capacity for agency ( self-control, planning, memory, thought)
Is AI conscious; Chinese room thought experiment
- ai not experiencing actual emotions
Chinese room
- can machine actually be intellegent?
- boxes of Chinese characters and book of instructions, human can use it to make phrases
- ai can only simulate knowledge
Mind-body problem
- how the mind is related to the brain and body
- david chalmers: “hard problem of consciousness”; how do physical and non-physical things interact?
- descartes: suggested mind has effect on brain via pineal gland
- contemporary: suggest mental events tied to brain events
Experience of the consciousness
Arise from synchronized activity across the brain
- if simulate same brain activity as for example “tennis” will they start thinking about tennis?
Selective attention
Conscious awareness focused on particular stimulus
- can only attend to one thing while ignoring others
Cherry and dichotic listening experiments
- Focused Auditory Attention
- One message is presented to the left ear, another in the right ear
- person can repeat what they heard in left ear, but could not report what was said in other ear
Talking on the phone while driving
Division of attention: we can’t do it
- creates less attention and impairs attention for each task
Switching attentional focus
Conscious and unconscious perception
Capture of attention by salient stimuli
Change blindness
Failure to detect substantial change in visual scene
inattentional blindness
Failure to notice an unexpected but fully visible object when attention is diverted to other aspects of a display
hemispatial neglect
Patient ignores objects in one half of visual field in perception and imagery
blindsight
Respond to visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it or see them
- avoid blocks in hallway without actually being able to see them
- flash shape very briefly so ppl don’t “know” what they saw but can guess correctly what they saw
Two track mind
Unconscious parallel processing
- id and superego
- like elephant that does what it does
Conscious sequential processing
- ego
- reasoning and steer the elephant
automatic processing
Unconscious, efficient, fast
- suffer no capacity limitations
- do not require attention
- very hard to modify once learned
controlled processing
Conscious, demanding, slow
- limited capacity
- require attention
- can be used flexibly in changing circumstances
circadian rhythm
Cycle or rhythm that is roughly 24 hours long
- approx 90 min sleep cycle
external and internal environmental cues for rhythm
Without any environmental time cues, circadian rhythms become desynchronized
- jet lack: out of sync with daylight and darkness cues
- light: light sensitive retinal proteins; suprachiasmatic nucleus that decreases melatonin production
- temperature
- other schedules: exercise, food, social interaction
Awake State
Alert: beta brain waves
Drowsy: Alpha brain waves
N1 sleep
First stage of non-REM (NREM) sleep
Slowed breathing and irregular brain waves
Can experience hallucinations:
Sensory experiences that occur without a sensory stimulus
Hypnagogic sensations: sense of falling, body suddenly jerk
alpha and theta brain waves
N2 sleep
Lasts for about 20 min
Periodic sleep spindles
theta brain waves with delta near the end
Bursts of rapid, rhythmic brain-wave activity that aid memory processing
Can be awakened without too much difficulty, but asleep
N3 sleep
Deep sleep
Slow-wave sleep
Lasts for about 30 min
Delta waves: Large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep
REM sleep
Rapid eye movement sleep
Recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur
Also known as paradoxical sleep
Muscles are relaxed, but other body system active
Lasts about 10 min, but periods get longer the longer the sleep
Return through N2
Brain waves become more rapid, like those nearly awake N1 sleep waves
Heart rate rises, breathing becomes rapid and irregular
Brain motor cortex active but brainstem blocks messages
20 to 25 percent of sleep is REM sleep
changes in sleep with age
Young: sleep a lot
Teen: wake up late, go to bed late; more night owl
Adults: morning person, sleep less
cultural social and economic influences on sleep
Jobs, schools, etc.
functions of sleep
Protection
Recuperation: neurons repaired, unused connections pruned, CSF washes out toxin and protein fragments in N3 sleep
Memory consolidation: Cf EMDR and Trauma therapy vs REM sleep
Creative thinking
Supporting growth: rested athletes have more energy
effects of sleep loss
Sleep debt
- takes at least 2 weeks for recovery
- after sleep debt paid, people sleep 7.5 - 9 hours
Effects
- mood: more angry
- depressed: more suicidal thinking
- weight gain
sleep disorders
- insomnia : inability to fall asleep
- narcolepsy : fall asleep too often
- sleep apnea (stop breathing)
- sleep walking and talking (N3 sleep)
- exploding head syndrome : hear loud sound
Dream characteristics
- intense emotions
- illogical thought
- meaningful sensation
- uncritical acceptance
- difficulty remembering dream on waking
- mostly negative
Dream functions
- satisfy own wishes (Frued’s wish fufillment)
- file away memories (info processing)
- develop and preserve neural pathways (phsyiological function)
- make sense of neural static (activation synthesis)
Drug tolerance
With continued use, users develop tolerance as brain chemistry adapts
require larger doses each time to have same effect
Drug withdrawal
Addiction and reward system in the brain
Get jacked by drug and alcohol
altering synaptic transimission among neurons
increasing or decreasing neurotransmitter amounts
blocking, mimicking, or influencing a particular neurotransmitters effects
addictive drugs activate dopamine-producing neurons in brain’s reward system
Effects of alcohol
Depressant: calm neural activity and slow body functions
Slowed neural processing, memeory disruption, reduced self wareness, expectancy effects, girls affected more than boys
Effects of opiates
Depress neural functioning
Opium derivatives: heroin, methadone
Cessation of endorphin production in body
Broad classification of drugs
Depressants: drugs that depress brain activity
Opiods: drugs that are chemically similar to morphine and relieve pain and produce euphoria
Stimulants: drugs that stimulate brain activity
Psychedelics: drugs that distort sensory perceptions
Nature / Nurture
developmental psychology theme
- genetic and environmental influences on development
Continuity and stages
developmental psychology themes
- slow, continuous process vs critical periods
stability and change
developmental psychology theme
- ex. is personality consistent?
prenatal stages
3 stages (from conception to birth)
1. Germinal: 2 week period; brief lifetime of zygote (fertilized egg)
2. Embryo: 2 - 8 week period; brain develop around 250,000 nerve cells per min
3. Fetal : 9 week - birth; myelination: formation of fatty sheath around axons of a neuron
synaptic pruning
brain development in prenatal brain; rapid frontal lobe growth from 3 to 6 years
synaptic pruning: shuts down unused links; use-it-or-lose-it
critical period of neuroplasticity
Critical period for some skills : lack of exposure to spoken, written, or signed language before adolescence will cause person to never master any language
Visual experience: without visual stimulation during early years, will never have normal perceptions
infant memory
Infantile amnesia
- can’t consciously recall from before age 4
- as children mature, children become increasingly capable of remembering experiences
- frontal lobe and hippocampus continue to mature
Still process and store info –> relearn language not spoken since child
rats in “enriched environment”
rats in enriched environment: developed heavier / thicker brain cortex
rats in impoverished environment: slow cognitive development
early sensory and motor development
perceptual: poor distance vision, responds to facial features
motor: grasping, innate motor responses, roll over –> crawl –> walk
piaget’s stages
Stages of cognitive development in which children learn
periods of change, stability and movement to next stage with distinctive characteristics and thinking
schemas: concepts or mental molds into which we pour our experiences
sensorimotor
piaget’s stage
(birth - 2 yrs) sensorimotor: begin to interact with environment
no object permanence
pre-operational
piaget’s stage
(2 - 6 yrs) pre-operational: begins to represent world symbolically
lack of concept of conservation
inability to take point of views of others
concrete operational
piaget’s stage
(6 - 11 yrs) concrete operational: think logically about physical objects and events, understands conservation of physical properties
comprehension of mathematical transformation
formal operational
piaget’s stage
(11 yrs + ) formal operational: child think logically about abstract and hypotheticals
gradual progression rather than discrete stages
More current thinking
- piaget’s theory was more about stages
vygotsky
scaffolding: child’s mind grows through interactions with social environment
theory of mind: occurs when children begin to infer other’s mental states
Social learning: infant’s ability to learn from others
- depends on
1. joint attention: focus on what someone else is focused on
2. social referencing: use other person’s reactions as info about how to think about the world
3. Imitation: ability to do what another person does
bowlby
Attachment
- emotional tie to another; seek closeness; separation distress
Origins: body contact more important than nourishment
Familiarity: formed during critical period
- imprinting: hours after hatching in birds
harlow’s monkey
attachment experiment with baby monkey
- seek contact more when in distress
- developed behavioral abnormalities
- incapable of learning /communicating with other
- incapable of normal sexual behavior
ainsworth’s strange situation
Child play in lab playroom, and see how child will react when mom leaves and returns
secure attachment: distress when leave, seek contact / comfort when return
insecure attachment: distress / indifferent when leave, still upset / indifferent when return
deprived of attachment / neglect
cause insecure attachment
lower intelligence, abnormal stress response, more ADHD
critical period of developing attachment
Anxiety over separation peaks at 13 months then gradually declines
securely attached children will have basic trust
temperament
a person’s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity
temperament is genetics
temperament affects attachment style
temperament typically persists
effects of infant attachment on adult outcomes
Secure attachment : adjust well to strange situation and flourish socially and academically
Anxious attachment : constantly crave acceptance but remain alert to signs of possible rejection
Avoidant attachment : experience discomfort getting close to others and use avoidant strategies to maintain distance
cultural parenting differences
West: emphasize independence
British boarding school
Asian/African: physical and emotional closeness; family
optimal parenting
Authoritarian: coercive, impose rules and expect obedience
Permissive: unrestraining, little punishment
Neglectful: uninvolved; inattentive
Authoritative: confrontive, demanding and responsive (children have highest self-esteem and self-regulation)
puberty
Time when we mature sexually
- surge of hormones
- continue develop frontal lobes
- egocentrism
- imaginary audience : what others think about them
- personal fable: believe they are unique
Menarche - first menstrual period
kohlberg’s stages
Describe the development of moral reasoning
- preconventional (before 9) : self-interest; obey rules to avoid punishment or gain concrete rewards
- conventional (early adolescence): uphold laws and rules to gain social approval or maintain social order
- postconventional (adolescence and beyond): actions reflect beliefs in basic rights and self-defined ethical principles
- mainly based on individualist societies
moral reasoning vs intuitions
moral intuition: “quick gut feeling”, mind makes moral judgement quickly and automatically; based on emotion
moral reasoning: based on thinking and reason
shift from parents to peers
Puberty alters attachments and primes perception
- display superior recognition for peers’ faces
- seek to fit in with group
- selection effect: adolescents seek out peers with similar attitudes
