test #5 Flashcards
consciousness
is our awarness of our external and internal environments
Nonconscious activity
nonconscious activities are processes that one does not have to consciously monitor or regulate
- nonconcious survival related processes such as breathing, heart rate, and basic arousal are controlled by a old region of the brain called the brain stem
unconciousness
when in an unconscious state, one is not aware of/not able to provide information about one’s environment or mental state
full consciousness
in a state of full consciousness, we are fully aware of our external environment and internal mental state
altered state of consciousness
an altered state of consciousness is different than normal, characterized as bizarre, dreamlike or disorganized. These states can be brought on by fatigue, hypnosis, meditation, or the use of psychoactive drugs.
A Circadian rythm
A Circadian rythm is a person’s inner biological clock that influences daily cycles of various wakefulness and sleep on a roughly twenty-four (naturally varies between individuals).
how does the body tell time
CIK accumulates in the SCN when a certain amount of Per proteins accumulate it turns CIK off so you become sleepy
things that signals bed time
- not suprinsingly fatigue is influenced by light. The eyes continually send information about the illumination in the environment to a small region of the brain’s hypothalamus called the “suprachiasmatic nucleus”
- the suprachiasmatic nucleus can then influence the release of hormones dark at night, whereas bright light in the morning inhibits its release
REM sleep
during REM sleep our eyes dart around in brief bursts of activity behind our closed eyelids (“REM” stands for rapid eye movement). Brain waves become quick while heart rate and breathing speed up.
when having awoken from REM sleep 80% of the time people report having been dreaming. Such hallucinations of the sleeping mind are vivid, emotional, and often bizarre.
Our muscles are paralyzed for the duration of each REM cycle. So you cant act out your dreams.
why do we dream
there are many theories on why people dream freud thinks it for hidden desires, to consilidate memories, relseas theory; to practice survival situations. solve puzzles bacuade you are bound by the rules of logic
altered state of consciousness and drugs
psychoactive drugs are drugs whose primary purpose is to alter consciousness experience
there are two types of psychoactive drugs:
An antagonist is a drug that DECREASES certain neural activity, often by blocking or dampening the response of particular receptor sites in the synapse, whereas an AGONIST is a drug that INCREASES certain neural activity
agonist example
cocaine
blocks reuptake = artificial stimulation - so dopamine binds and binds again indirect agonist to dopamine receptors
antagonist example
coffee
blocks adenosine antagonist. coffee is close enough to adenosine to fit in the receptor but not close enough to activate the receptors
minimal consciousness
minimal consciousness occurs when there is a relatively fragmented connection between self and environment in which one might respond to stimuli, but not be aware of it on a more thoughtful level
three basic memory processes
- Encoding
- Storage
- Retrieval
Encoding
The process of getting information into the memory system by converting it to a format that can be mentally presented
Storage
Process of maintaining encoded information in memory over time
eg. March 5th (my bday) — sent to — neural code
retrieval
the process of locating previously stored information and making accessible for use (remembering)
eg. neural code — returns info of — march (5th bday)
three types of memory
- Sensory memory
- Short-term memory
- long term memory
sensory memory function
the function of sensory memory is to hold on to raw information from the senses after the exposure in order to give us extra time to encode it in memory.
ei. to make sens of a whole word you need to remember the first bits long enough to decode it
iconic sensory memory
holds on to a visual memory that has just been seen.
echoic sensory
echoic sensory memory holds a brief auditory echo of a sound that has just been heard
experiments on sensory memory
a researcher named Sperling worked to answer the question as to what the capacity and duration of sensory memory us by showing people a display of letters for 50 milisenconds. he asked people to remember as many numbers as they can and they remembered about 4/12 but when they wereasked just one row they could remember 2-3/4 meaning they actually remembered 6/12
goal: identify how capacity and duration come into play of sensory memory.
capacity
how much the memory system can hold