topics about healthy people Flashcards
what are the two types of cognitive processing?
bottom up: sensory driven, organises incoming information
top down: driven by knowledge, experience and expectation (used to determine perception in ambiguous circumstances)
what is the whole percept and who came up with it?
the tendencies we all have to organise everything into systems and seek meaningful groupings (e.g. by proximity, similarity, continuity)
gestalt
what is the ‘doors of perception’ theory about perception and who came up with it?
our brain is subconsciously selective about what we remember, this prevents us from being overwhelmed by large amounts of useless information
Huxley
What is the ‘context of madness’ experiment and who carried it out?
Rosenhan
patients (normal healthy people) were told to pretend to be hearing voices, were diagnosed with schizophrenia, were all hospitalised, later discharged with schizophrenia supposedly in remission - perceptive expectations were challenged
what are the 5 altered states of consciousness?
- sleep
- dreams
- psychoactive drugs
- meditation
- hypnosis
What is the hard problem and who came up with it?
to explain how physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experience
what is an example of actions that are always unconscious?
visuomotor control
an example of something that is normally unconscious but can be brought under some conscious control
biofeedback
an example of a skilled action that is learned with conscious effort but becomes automatic
playing the piano
an example of a skilled action that, once learned, can be done consciously or subconsciously
driving a car
example of an action that always seems to be done consciously
recalling a phone number
types of psychoactive drugs, by affect on behaviour (6)
sedatives hypnotics stimulants opiates hallucinogens psychedelics
three different altered states which can occur as a result of psychedelic drugs
hallucinations: visual - patterns and colours
delusions: merging with surroundings
emotional changes: ranging from euphoria to terror
2 different types of meditation
one point (concentrative) meditation: diminish sensory input (e.g. repeat mantra or movement like tai chi)
open meditation: aware of everything around, experience not met with a response (e.g. mindfulness)
who was the researcher who did a lot of work on hypnosis?
kilstrom
what does someone do when in a hypnotised state?
- they’re receptive to suggestions
- they narrow their attention to a single source
- they lack initiative and wilful action
- they’re in a trance-like state
(however, outwardly they can appear fully alert and interacting normally)
what are positive hallucinations?
when someone sees or hears something that isn’t there
what are negative hallucinations?
when someone fails to perceive something (e.g. pain)
what are the two halves of sleep and what type of sleep is present in both of them?
core sleep:
- first 5 hours
- most of deep (stage 3 + 4) sleep
- half of REM sleep
optional sleep:
- next 2+ hours
- mostly stages 1 + 2
how long is our natural circadian rhythm and what study worked this out?
25 hours and the bunker study
participants had no indication of time or outside light levels
the effect of age on sleep
as age increases: total reduction in sleep time, early reduction in % of REM (peaks at 8 months)
by age 40, there has been a large reduction in stage 3 + 4 sleep
what are parasomnias and when do they occur?
sleep walking, talking and nightmares
occur in stage 3 + 4 of sleep (not REM)
decrease with age