unit 1 part 2 ap pysch

consciousness

our subjective awareness of ourselves and our environment

cognitive neuroscience

interdisciplinary study of brain activity linked with thinking, knowing, remebering, communicating

dual processing

principle that info is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks

blindsight

condition in which a person can respond to a visula stimulus w/o consciously experiencing in( demonstrates dual prcessing)

parallel processing

processing multiple aspects of a stimulus simultaneously

(faster, more autnomic type of processing)

Sequential processing:

processing one aspect of a stimulus or problem at a time; generally used to process new information or to solve difficult problems. ( more focused attention)

circadian rhythm

internal biological clock( tells your body when to wake up; correlates with sun)

Sleep Stages

1. NREM

2. NREM

3. NREM

4. REM

Alpha waves

relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state

beta waves

fully awake

NREM 1— Alpha waves

transtioning from wake to sleep

hypanogic sensations( falling, leg, arm jerk)

NREM 2— theta waves

clearly asleep

periodic sleep swindles( burst of rapid brain wave actvity)

NREM 3— delta waves

deep sleep

Slow delta waves

finally hard to be woken up; sleep walking can occur

REM

rapid eye movements; reoccuring sleep stage( vivid dreams can occur)

sleep paralysis

brainstem block motor cortex’s messages and muscles dotn move,(nervous system is active)

Rem rebound

tendency for rem sleep to increase following rem sleep deprivation

why we sleep?

— repair and reorganize during sleep

— memories and consoldiated during rem( dreams), nuerla connections for new learning are strengthened

— human growth hormone released during sleep to promote muscle development and growth

— energy is preserved

sleep loss

— affects mood

— offsets metabolism

— suppress immune system

— cognitive effects(decreased attention, slowed reaction time)

insomnia

recurring problems in falling and staying asleep

narcolepsy

uncontrollable sleep attacks

sleep apnea

a sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakening

sleepwalking(somnambulism)

occurs during NREM-3, harmless

Sleep talking

sleep talking can occur in any sleep stage

REM sleep behavior disorder

a sleep disorder in which normal REM paralysis does not occur; instead kicking, twitching, or punching occurs, acting out ones dream

activation-synthesis theory

Rem sleep triggers neural activity evokes random visual memories, whoch our sleeping brain weaves into stories( trying to make snese of neural static)

consoldiation theory

dreams are a result of memory consolidation that occurs during sleep.

sensation:

senosry receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our enviroment

sensory receptors

sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli

Preception

brain organizes and interprets sensory info

bottom up processing

begins with sensory receptors and works up to the brains integration of sensory (what am i seeing?)

top down processing

uses expectations or assumption about what we are sensing( is that something i’ve seen before?)

transduction

transforming sights, sounds and smells into nueral impulses brain can interpret( light waves, sound waves)

absolute threshold

-minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50 percent of time( faintest light/ sound we can see)

-the lower the threshold the quieter noises/ or fainter smells that you can detect. higher threshold cant hear or smell the same things.

Young people have low, old people have high.

weber’s law

able to tell difference between degrees of stimulation, 2 stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage

sensory adaptation

diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimuli

ex: when walking into a room, you smell a candle, but staying a while in the room you get used to smell you forget it is burning.

Waves of electromagnetic radiation

turns these wave sensations into colors.

wavelength/ frequency

color/ hue

short wavelength= high frequency( blueish colors)

long wavelength= low frequency (reddish colors)

height/amplitude

intensity or brightness

great amplitude (brighter)

small amplitude (dull)

structure of eye CPLR

cornea-pupil-lens- retina

cornea

is protective outer layer of eye

lens

transparent structure behind pupil, changes shape to focus images on retina

nearsighteness (myopia)

can see objects close up, not far away, focuses on point in front of retina

accommodation

to focus the rays, the lens change its curvature and thickness

retina

contains the receptor rods and cones, plus layers of neurons that begin the processing of visual information

cats inverted image to brain

rods( 120 millon)

necessary for peripheral and twilight vision( on the sides, no light)

cones( 6 million)

detect fine detail and create color sensations

optic nerve

leaves through back of the eye and carries neural impulses from eye to brain

blindspot

area of missing info in feild of vision, Eye has no receptor cells at place where optic nerve leaves eye (back of eye, so you cant see in back of head)

Young- Helmholtx trichromatic( 3 color) theory

theory that retina conains 3 types of color receptors or cones( red, green, and blue) which when stimulated in combo, can produce perception of any color.

monochromatism

cant distinguish any color, only see black white or gray

dichromatism

reduced ability to see colors because they only have 2 functional cones types in eyes.