Wk4 Flashcards
Consciousness
Subjective awareness of mental events
Attention
Process of focusing conscious awareness
Flow
Mental state of consciousness in which a person performing an activity is fully absorbed in a feeling of energised focus.
Self-reports conscious thoughts at specific times, such as the beeper test
Experience-sampling
Psychodynamic perspective of consciousness
- Conscious processes - person is aware
- Unconscious processes - person is unaware
- Preconscious processes - person is not currently aware, but can be brought into consciousness
Cognitive perspective of consciousness
Focusses on information-processing mechanisms that operate outside of awareness
Behavioural perspective of consciousness
Consciousness is considered analogous to a continuously moving video camera. There are 2 functions of consciousness - monitor and control and allow people to initiate and terminate thoughts/behaviour in order to attain goals.
Evolutionary perspective of consciousness
Evolved as a mechanism for directing behaviour in adaptive ways. The primary function of consciousness is to foster adaptation.
Cyclical biological clocks evolved around daily cycles of light and dark
Circadian rhythms
REM
Rapid eye movement - most dreaming occurs here where eyes dart around and EEG resembles awake state
What are the 3 theories of dreaming?
- Dreams have meaning - Freud distinguished between the manifest content (story line) and the latent content (underlying meaning)
- Cognitive Perspective - dreams are the outcome of cognitive processes and their content reflects concerns people express in waking conditions.
- Dreams are a biological phenomenon with no meaning at all.
What is it called when you are at a party with lots of people but can hear only the person you are talking to?
The cocktail party effect
What is it called when you divert attention from information that may be relevant but emotionally upsetting?
Selective inattention
What are the 3 functions of attention?
- Orienting to sensory stimuli
- Contents of consciousness
- Maintaining alertness
A way that researchers study divided attention where information is simultaneously presented in left and right ears in earphones
Dichotic listening
What is it called when the participant is asked to focus on info from only one ear repeating loudly what they hear?
Shadowing
Perception of stimuli below the threshold of consciousness
Subliminal perception
Explicit memory
Conscious
Implicit memory
Unconscious
What is it called when you flash images too quickly for conscious recognition but slowly enough to be registered outside of awareness?
Tachistoscope
What are the stages of sleep?
Awake - Beta waves and relaxed - alpha waves
NREM - Stage 1 - Theta, Stage 2 - Spindles, Stage 3 and 4 - Delta waves
REM - Resembles waking activity
Stage 1 sleep
Theta waves, slow eye movement, muscles relax, blood pressure drops.
Stage 2 sleep
Larger theta waves with spindles, sleep deepens and alpha activity stops
Stage 3 and 4 sleep
Delta waves, when they get to more than 50% a person is in stage 4. Deep sleep, relaxed muscles, decreased rate of respiration and lower body temp.
Depressants
Provide a sedative or calming effect such as heroin (benzodiazepines). Slow down activity of central nervous system and produce intense pleasure, feeling of wellbeing and drowsiness. Alcohol is also a depressant.
Alcohol
Long-term produces physical changes in brain that can affect cognitive function and sometimes dementia. Wernickes encephalopathy and korsakoffs syndrome, caused by thamine deficiency. Nerve damage and cerebral atrophy.
Stimulants
Increase alertness, energy and autonomic reactivity. Nicotine, caffeine and cocaine.
Hallucinogens
Alter sensory data to produce bizarre or unusual perceptions.
LSD
psychotic symptoms, depression, paranoia, lack of motivation and changes in brain physiology.
