PSYC 1300 Chapter 2: Consciousness and the Two-Track Mind

Vocabulary flashcards covering consciousness, dual processing, sleep, and psychoactive drugs for PSYC 1300 Exam 1.

Consciousness

Our awareness of ourselves and our environment, which arises from synchronized brain activity.

Hypnosis

A social interaction in which one person suggests to another that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur.

Flow

An altered state of consciousness characterized by complete engagement and absorption in an activity.

Selective Attention

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus, as illustrated by the cocktail party effect.

Cocktail Party Effect

A phenomenon of selective attention involving the ability to attend to a single voice among a mixture of background noises.

Inattentional Blindness

Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere, demonstrated by the invisible gorilla video experiment.

Change Blindness

Failing to notice changes in the visual environment when attention is focused elsewhere.

Dual Processing

The principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious (explicit) and unconscious (implicit) tracks in the brain.

Explicit Processing

Conscious, deliberate processing of information on the two-track mind's upper track.

Implicit Processing

Unconscious, automatic processing of information occurring on the two-track mind's lower track.

Blindsight

A condition in which a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing or perceiving it.

Unconscious Parallel Processing

The processing of many aspects of a problem or sensory environment simultaneously without conscious effort.

Conscious Sequential Processing

The processing of one aspect of a problem or stimulus at a time, requiring focused conscious attention.

Circadian Rhythm

The biological clock that regulates bodily rhythms, such as temperature and sleep cycles, on a 24-hour cycle.

Owls and Larks

Individual variations in circadian rhythms, where 'owls' are night-oriented and 'larks' are morning-oriented.

Beta and Alpha Waves

Brain waves associated with states of awareness; alert awake states feature beta waves, whereas relaxed awake states show alpha waves during sleep cycles.

REM Sleep

Rapid Eye Movement sleep, a recurrent sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur.

REM Rebound

The tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation.

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)

A brain structure that controls sleep patterns by signaling melatonin production during the night and suppressing it during the day.

Melatonin

A sleep-inducing hormone produced during the night and suppressed during the day, controlled by the SCN.

Social Jet Lag

A disruption in sleep patterns resulting from a mismatch between an individual's biological circadian rhythm and social/work schedules.

Sleep Debt

The cumulative result of chronic sleep deprivation, which impacts mental health and contributes to psychological disorders.

Psychoactive Drugs

Chemical substances that alter perceptions and moods, producing pleasurable effects followed by negative aftereffects.

Depressants

A category of psychoactive drugs, including alcohol, that reduce neural activity and slow body functions.

Alcohol

A depressant psychoactive drug that impairs brain function and physical control.

Stimulants

A category of psychoactive drugs, such as nicotine and cocaine, that excite neural activity and speed up body functions.

Nicotine

A highly addictive psychoactive drug categorized as a stimulant.

Cocaine

A powerful psychoactive drug categorized as a stimulant that excites neural activity.

Hallucinogens

A category of psychoactive drugs, such as LSD, that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input.

LSD

A powerful hallucinogenic drug that impacts sensory perceptions and produces altered states of consciousness.