Unit 2 Flashcards
Stream of consciousness
Term used by William James for the mind as a continuous flow of changing sensations, images, thoughts, and feelings
Metacognition
Process by which we think about thinking
Consciousness
Awareness of external events and internal sensations under a condition of arousal
Arousal
Being engaged with one’s environment
Theory of mind
Individual’s understanding that they and others think, feel, perceive, and have private experience
Controlled process
The most alert states of human consciousness during which individuals actively focus their efforts towards a goal; managed by the prefrontal cortex
Selective attention
Concentrating on a specific aspect of experience while ignoring others
Executive function
Higher order complex cognitive process, including thinking, planning, and problem solving
Automatic process
States of consciousness that require little attention and do not interfere with other ongoing activities
Daydreaming
Between active consciousness and dreaming while asleep wandering thoughts, fantasy, imagination, and rumination
Unconscious thought
According to Freud, a reservoir of unacceptable wishes, feeling, and thoughts that are beyond conscious awareness
Sleep
A natural state of rest for the body and mind that involves the reversible loss of consciousness
Biological rhythms
Periodic physiological fluctuations in the body that can influence behavior
Circadian rhythms
Daily behavioral or physiological cycles that involve the sleep/wake cycle, body temperature, blood pressure, and blood sugar level
Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)
A small brain structure that uses input from the retina to synchronize it’s own rhythm with the daily cycle of light and dark
Electroencephalography(EEG)
Measures electrical activity of the brain and has helped to identify four stages of sleep
Stage W (wakefulness)
Desynchronous beta waves reflect concentration and alertness
State N1 (non-REM1) sleep
When people are just falling asleep, characterized by the theta waves, slower than alpha waves
Stage N2 ( non-REM2) sleep
Theta waves continue, interspersed with sleep spindles
Stage N3(non-REM3) sleep
Characterized by delta waves, the slowest and highest amplitude brain waves during sleep; our deepest sleep
Stage R (REM) sleep
After going through stages N1 to N3
REM sleep
Characterized by rapid eye movement when most vivid dreams occur
GABA receptors
Help regulate the process of sleep
Insomnia
Inability to sleep
Sleep apnea
Stop breathing while asleep
nightmare
a frightening dream occuring during REM sleep
night terror
a sudden arousal from sleep(N3), accompiened by an intense fear
REM sleep behavior disorder
Physically act out vivid, often unpleasant dreams
Narcolepsy
Falling asleep while doing a task and going directly into REM sleep
Manifest content
The surface content of a dream, containing dream symbols that disguise the dreams true meaning
Latent content
A dreams hidden content;it’s unconscious and true meaning
Cognitive theory of dreaming
We can understand dreaming by applying the same cognitive concepts used in studying the waking mind
Activation synthesis theory
Dreaming occurs when the cerebral cortex synthesizes neural signals from activity in the lower part of the brain
Hypnosis
An altered stated of consciousness
Divided consciousness view of hypnosis
Hilgards view that it involves a splitting of consciousness into two separate components
Social cognitive behavior view of hypnosis
The perspective that hypnosis is a normal state in which the hypnotized person behaves the way they believe that a hypnotized person should behave
Meditation
The attainment of a peaceful state of mind in which thoughts are not occupied by worry
Mindfulness meditation
A technique practiced by yoga enthusiasts and Buddhist monks
Lovingkindness meditation
Aims to develop loving acceptance of oneself and others
Psychoactive drugs
Drugs that act in the nervous system to alter consciousness, modify perception, and change moods
Tolerance
The need to take increasing amounts of a drug to get the same effect
Physical dependence
The physiological need for a drug that causes unpleasant withdrawal symptoms
Psychological dependence
The strong desire to repeat the use of a drug for emotional reasons
Addiction
A physical or psychological dependence, or both on a drug
Substance use disorder
A psychological disorder in which a persons use of psychoactive drugs affects their health, ability to work, and ability to engage in social relationships
Depressants
Slow down mental and physical activity
Stimulants
Increase the central nervous system’s activity
Hallucinogens
Modify perceptual experiences and produce visual images that are not real
Learning
A systematic, relatively permanent change in behavior that occur through experience
Behavior
A theory of learning that focuses solely on observable behaviors
Associative learning
When an organism makes a connection, or an association, between two events
Observational learning
Leaning through observing and imitating another’s behavior
Classical conditioning
Learning process in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an innately meaningful stimulus and acquired the capacity to elicit a similar response
Unconditional stimulus(US)
Produces a response without prior learning
Unconditional response(UR)
An unlearned reaction that is automatically elicited by the unconditioned stimulus
Conditioned stimulus(CS)
A previously neutral stimulus that eventually elicits a conditioned response after being paired with the unconditioned stimulus
Conditioned response(CR)
The learned response to the conditioned stimulus
Acquisition
The initial learning of the connection between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus when these two stimuli are paired
Contiguity
The CS and US are presented very close together in time
Contingency
The CS also serves as a reliable indicator that the US is on its way
Stimulus generalization (Classical Conditioning)
The tendency of a new stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus to elicit a response that is similar to the conditioned response
Stimulus discrimination (classical conditioning)
The process of learning to respond to certain stimuli and not others
Extinction (classical conditioning)
The weakening of the conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus is absent
Spontaneous recovery
The process by which a conditioned response can recur after a time delay, without further conditioning
Counterconditioning
A classical conditioning procedure for changing the relationship between a conditioned stimulus and its conditioned response
Aversive conditioning
A form of treatment that consists of repeated pairings of a stimulus with a very unpleasant stimulus
Placebo effect
The effect of a substance or procedure used as a control to identify the actual effects of a treatment
Immunosuppression
A decrease in the production of antibiotics to fight disease
Taste aversion
A special kind of classical conditioning involving the learned association between a particular taste and nausea
Habituation
Decreased responsiveness to a stimulus after repeated presentations
Operant conditioning
A form of associative learning in which the consequences of a behavior change the probability of the behaviors occurrence
Law of effect
Behaviors followed by positive outcomes are strengthened and behaviors followed by negative outcomes are weakened
Shaping
Rewarding successive approximations of a desired behavior
Reinforcement
The process by which a reinforcer following a particular behavior increased the probability that the behavior will happen again
Positive reinforcement
The presentation of a stimulus following a given behavior in order to increase the frequency of that behavior
Negative reinforcement
The removal of a stimulus following a given behavior in order to increase the frequency of that behavior
Avoidance learning
An organisms learning that it can altogether avoid a negative stimulus by making a particular response
Learned helplessness
Experience with unavoidable aversive stimuli an organism learns that it has no control over negative outcomes
Primary reinforcer
Innately satisfying one that does not take any learning on the organisms part to make it pleasurable
Secondary reinforcer
Acquires it’s positive value through an organisms experience a learned or conditioned reinforcer
Generalization (operant conditioning)
Performing a reinforcer behavior in a different situation
Discrimination
An unjustified negative action toward a member of a group simply because the person belongs to that group
Extinction (operant conditioning)
Decreases in the frequency of a behavior when the behavior is no longer reinforced
Continuous reinforcement
A behavior is reinforced every time it occurs
Partial reinforcement
A reinforcer follows a behavior only a portion of the time
Schedules of reinforcement
Specific patterns that determine when a behavior will be reinforced
Ratio schedule
Relies on the number of behaviors that must be performed prior to reward
Interval schedule
Based on the amount of time that must pass before a behavior is rewarded
Fixed schedule
The number of behaviors or the amount of time is always the same
Variable schedule
The required number of behaviors or the amount of time that must pass changes and is unpredictable from the perspective of the learner
Punishment
A consequence that decreases the likelihood that a behavior will occur
Positive punishment
The presentation of a stimulus following a given behavior in order to decrease the frequency of the behavior
Negative punishment
The removal of a stimulus following a given behavior in order to decrease the frequency of that behavior
Delay of gratification
Putting off the pleasure of an immediate reward to gain a larger later reward
Applied behavior analysis
The use of operant conditioning principles to change human behavior
Implicit learning
Unreinforced learning that is not immediately reflected in behavior
Insight learning
A form of problem solving in which the organism develops a sudden insight into or understanding of a problems solution
Preparedness
The species specific biological predisposition to learn in certain ways but not others
Instinctive drift
The tendency of animals to revert to instinctive behavior that interferes with learning
Learning styles
The idea that people differ in terms of the method of instruction that will be effective
Fixed mindset
Belief that out qualities are carved in stone and cannot change
Growth mindset
Belief that our qualities can change and improve through effort
Memory
The retention of information or experience over time
Encoding
The first step in memory the process by which information gets into memory storage
Storage
The retention of information over time and how this information is represented in memory
Retrieval
The memory process that occurs when information that was retained in memory comes out of storage
Attention
To begin the process of memory encoding
Selective attention
Focusing on a specific aspect of experience while ignoring others
Divided attention
Concentrating on more than one activity at the same time
Sustained attention
The ability to maintain attention to a selected stimulus for a prolonged period of time
Executive attention
Directing attention to engage in higher level cognitive functioning
Levels of processing
A continuum of memory processing from shallow to deep deeper processing produces better memory
Shallow
Physical and perceptual features are analyzed
Intermediate
Stimulus is recognized and labeled
Deep
Semantic meaningful symbolic characteristics are used
Elaboration
The formation of a number of different connections around a stimulus at a given level of memory encoding
Mental imagery
Visualizing material that we want to remember in ways that create a lasting portrait
Atkinson shiffrin theory
Memory storage involves three separate systems
Sensory memory
Time frames of a fraction of a second to several seconds
Short term memory
Time frames up to 30 seconds
Long term memory
Time frames up to a lifetime
Sensory memory
Involves holding information from the world in its original sensory form for only an instant
Echoic memory
Auditory sensory memory
Iconic memory
Visual sensory memory
Short term memory
Limited capacity memory system in which information is usually retained for only as long as 30 seconds unless strategies are used to retain it longer
George miller
The usual limit to how much information people can keep track of without external aids is a range of 7-2 items
Memory span
The number of digits an individual can report back in order after a single presentation of them
Working memory
Short term memory and attention that allow individuals to hold information temporarily as they perform cognitive tasks
Phonological loop
Briefly stores speech based information consists of an acoustic code and rehearsal
Visual spatial sketch pad
Functions independently of the phonological loop
Central executive
Integrates information from the phonological loop the visual spatial sketch pad and long term memory
Long term memory
Stores huge amounts of information for a long time
Explicit memory (declarative memory)
The conscious recollection of information that can be verbally communicated
Implicit memory (nondeclarative memory)
Memory in which behavior is affected by prior experience without a conscious recollection of that experience
Episodic memory
Information that the where when and what of life’s happening
Semantic memory
Knowledge about the world
Procedural memory
Memory for skills
Priming
The activation of information already in storage to help remember new information better and faster
Schema
A preexisting mental concept or framework that helps people to organize and interpret information
Script
A schema for an event, often containing information about physical features people and typical occurrences
Connectionism
The theory that memory is stored throughout the brain in connections among neurons
Nodes
The interconnected locations of neural activity
Consolidation
The process by which interconnected networks are formed
Long term potentiation
The concept that if two neurons are activated at the same time the connection between them may be strengthened
Retrieval
The memory process that occurs when information that was retained in memory comes out of storage
Serial position effect
The tendency to recall the items at the beginning and end of a list more readily than those in the middle
Primacy effect
Better recall for items at the beginning of a list
Recency effect
Better recall for items at the end
Recall
A memory task in which the person must retrieve previously learned information
Recognition
A memory task in which the person only has to identify learned items
Encoding specificity principle
Information present at the time of encoding or learning tends to be effective as a retrieval cue
Context dependent memory
The process of recalling information in the same context in which it was learned
Autobiographical memory
A specific form of episodic memory, consisting of a persons recollections of their life experiences
Reminiscence bump
The phenomenon whereby adults remember more events from the second and third decades of life than from other decades
Flashbulb memory
The memory of emotionally significant events that people often recall with more accuracy and vivid imagery than everyday events
Traumatic memory
Memories of personal trauma are emotionally arousing and are usually more accurate than memories of ordinary events
Motivated forgetting
Forgetting that offsite when something is so painful or anxiety laden that remembering is intolerable
Repression
Traumatized by an event that the person forgets it and then forgets the act of forgetting
Encoding failure
Occurs when the information was never entered into long term memory
Interference theory
People forget not just because memories are lost from storage but because other information gets in the way
Proactive interference
Material that was learned earlier disrupts the recall of material that was learned later
Retroactive interference
Material that was learned later disrupts the recall of material that was learned earlier
Decay theory
When an individual learns something new a neurochemical memory traces forms but over time this trade disintegrates
Tip of the tongue phenomenon
A type of effort full retrieval associated with feeling that we know something but cannot quite pull it out of memory
Retrospective memory
Remembering information form the past
Prospective memory
Remembering information about something in the future includes memory for intentions
Time based prospective memory
An intention to engage in behavior after a specified amount of time
Event based prospective memory
An intention to engage in the behavior when an external event or cue elicits it
Amnesia
The loss of memory
Anterograde amnesia
A memory disorder that affects the retention of new information and events
Retrograde amnesia
Memory loss for a segment of the pass but not for new events
