Week 6

Question 1

What is the function of consciousness

Answer 1

to monitor mental events, regulate thought and behaviour

Question 2

What is the Conscious level

Answer 2

the level at which mental activities occurring that people are aware of.

Question 3

What is the Preconscious level

Answer 3

a level of mental activity that is not currently conscious but of which we can easily become conscious.

Question 4

What is the Non-Conscious level

Answer 4

a level of mental activity that is inaccessible to conscious awareness.

Question 5

Describe active conscious, passive conscious and altered conscious

Answer 5

Active consciousness – awake and aware.
Passive consciousness – daydreaming
Altered consciousness – hallucinations etc

Question 6

Explain Dualism and Materialism in Consciousness

Answer 6

Dualism – mind and brain as different
Materialism – mind and brain are one and the same. Complex interactions among brains nerve cells create consciousness.

Question 7

Explain Theatre view and Parallel distributed processing (PDP)

Answer 7

Theatre view – consciousness is a single phenomenon, a ‘stage’ on which all the various aspects of awareness converge to ‘perform’ before the ‘audience’ of your mind.
PDP – the mind processes many parallel streams of information; whose interactions create the unitary experience we all call consciousness.

Question 8

Explain the characteristics of NREM1 sleep

Answer 8

light sleep, easily rousable, slow brain waves.

Question 9

Explain the characteristics of NREM2 sleep

Answer 9

still rousable, slightly bigger brain waves.

Question 10

Explain the characteristics of NREM3 sleep

Answer 10

deeper sleep, stage of night terrors, biggest brain waves.

Question 11

Explain the characteristics of REM sleep

Answer 11

dreaming occurs here. Heart rate, breathing and blood pressure all like when you are awake. (only a small portion of all 4 cycles, around 4 minutes)

Question 12

Define the two interacting processes that explain why people sleep

Answer 12

Circadian Rhythm – a human biological rhythm/cycle that repeats about once a day.
Sleep Drive - While circadian rhythms govern when, homeostatic drive, the second process, is more relevant to why we sleep (e.g. potentially when we require recuperation).

Question 13

Explain the three theories as to why we dream

Answer 13

Analysis and consolidation - Some researchers believe that all mammals dream for the purpose of analysing and consolidating information that has a personal or survival value.
Wish fulfillment - Freud argued that dreams are for wish fulfilment.
Activation Synthesis Theory – dreams are random by products of neural stimulation of the cortex during REM sleep.