Psychology: Consciousness and Learning (Chapters 4 & 5)

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering Chapter 4 (Consciousness, Sleep, Psychoactive Drugs, Meditation) and Chapter 5 (Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning, Associative Limitations, Observational Learning).

Consciousness

The subjective experience of being aware of oneself and one's surroundings, including sensations, feelings, thoughts, and metacognition.

Metacognition

The cognitive process of having thoughts about thoughts.

Stream of Consciousness

William James's description of consciousness as a continuously moving and ever-changing flow of subjective thoughts and experiences.

Controlled Processing

A higher-level state of consciousness where an individual actively focuses efforts toward a goal; it requires selective attention to a small set of stimuli, utilizes executive functioning, and is relatively slow (e.g., solving math problems or learning to drive).

Automatic Process

A lower-level state of consciousness requiring little attention or conscious effort that does not interfere with other ongoing activities (e.g., an experienced driver).

Daydreaming

A lower-level state of consciousness characterized by wandering thoughts, fantasy, imagination, and rumination; potentially useful for reminding and problem-solving.

Incubation

A subconscious process involving problem-solving that occurs without conscious awareness.

Parallel Processing

The simultaneous subconscious processing of multiple streams of information at the same time.

Freud's Unconscious

A state of no awareness where anxiety-producing thoughts and desires are kept out of conscious awareness to protect the self.

Altered States of Awareness

Mental states that differ noticeably from normal awareness, which can be caused by drugs, fever, fatigue, or meditation.

Circadian Rhythms

Daily 24-hour behavioral or physiological cycles, including the sleep/wake cycle, body temperature, blood pressure, and blood sugar.

Theories of Sleep

Four major functional explanations for sleep: Adaptive Evolutionary Function (safety), Conservation function (energy conservation), Restorative Function (replenishing the body and brain), and Brain Plasticity (enhancing synaptic connections and memory consolidation).

REM Sleep

Also called 'paradoxical sleep'; a sleep stage characterized by rapid eye movement where the body is deeply asleep but brain waves look wide awake. Approximately 80% of this stage involves dreaming that is vivid and longer than non-REM dreams.

EEG Sleep Stage Patterns

Brain wave patterns recorded during sleep: Beta waves (high frequency, low amplitude, desynchronous; wakefulness), Alpha waves (increased amplitude, synchronous; relaxed wakefulness), Theta waves (slower frequency, greater amplitude; Stage N1), Sleep spindles (intermittent sudden bursts in frequency; Stage N2), and Delta waves (slowest frequency, highest amplitude; Stage N3 deep sleep).

Nightly Sleep Cycle Distribution

The breakdown of a typical night's sleep: 60% spent in light sleep (stages N1 and N2), 20% in deep sleep (stage N3), and 20% in REM sleep.

Insomnia

A sleep disorder characterized by persistent difficulty falling or staying asleep, affecting approximately 30% of adults.

Narcolepsy

A sleep disorder characterized by a sudden, overpowering urge to sleep, affecting between 0.02% and 0.04% of adults.

Sleep Apnea

A sleep disorder characterized by repeatedly stopping breathing while asleep, affecting 9% to 38% of adults.

Manifest Content

In Freud's psychodynamic theory of dreaming, the conscious, surface storyline and imagery of a dream that acts as a symbol.

Latent Content

In Freud's psychodynamic theory of dreaming, the true, hidden, and unconscious wishes or fears underlying a dream.

Activation-Synthesis Theory

The dream theory proposing that dreams are the cerebral cortex's attempt to synthesize and make sense of random neural brain activity, with no inherent meaning.

Reward Pathway for Psychoactive Drugs

The neural circuit consisting of the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA), Nucleus Accumbens (NAC), and Prefrontal Cortex that activates during pleasurable experiences and motivates drug-seeking behavior.

Tolerance

The physiological effect of continued drug use where an individual requires an increasing amount of the drug to achieve the same effect.

Physical Dependence

A physiological need for a drug that causes unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the drug is discontinued.

Addiction

An intense, compulsive urge to take a drug despite adverse consequences.

Fentanyl

A synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine or heroin that binds to brainstem opioid receptors to stop breathing; responsible for 70,000 to 73,000 deaths annually (70% of fatal US overdoses).

Mindfulness

The awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally.

Learning

A relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience.

Associative Learning

A model of learning based on making connections between events through direct experience.

Classical Conditioning

A form of associative learning in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a learned conditioned response.

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)

A stimulus that naturally and automatically produces a response without prior learning (e.g., food in Pavlov's experiment).

Unconditioned Response (UCR)

An unlearned, naturally occurring automatic response to an unconditioned stimulus (e.g., salivation to food).

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A previously neutral stimulus that eventually evokes a conditioned response after repeated pairings with an unconditioned stimulus (e.g., bell in Pavlov's experiment).

Conditioned Response (CR)

The learned response produced by a conditioned stimulus after repeated pairings with an unconditioned stimulus.

Contiguity

In classical conditioning acquisition, the principle that the CS and UCS must be presented closely together in time.

Contingency

In classical conditioning acquisition, the principle that the CS must reliably precede and predict the UCS; conditioning does not occur if the UCS occurs first.

Generalization (Classical Conditioning)

The tendency of stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus to also elicit the conditioned response.

Discrimination (Classical Conditioning)

The process by which an organism learns to respond to the conditioned stimulus while not responding to dissimilar stimuli.

Classical Conditioning Time Course

The progression of associative strength showing acquisition during repeated CS-UCS pairings, extinction when the CS is presented alone, and spontaneous recovery of the CR following a rest pause.

Extinction (Classical Conditioning)

The fading of the conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous Recovery

The reoccurrence of an extinguished conditioned response after a time delay when the conditioned stimulus is presented again, showing the association was not forgotten.

Biological Preparedness

The species-specific predisposition to more readily associate stimuli and situations that present real evolutionary danger with fear.

Operant Conditioning

A form of learning in which the consequences of a voluntary behavior change the probability of that behavior's occurrence by strengthening or weakening stimulus-response connections.

Positive Reinforcement

An operant procedure that increases the frequency of a behavior by presenting a rewarding or pleasant stimulus following that behavior.

Negative Reinforcement

An operant procedure that increases the frequency of a behavior by removing an aversive or unpleasant stimulus following that behavior.

Positive Punishment

An operant procedure that decreases the frequency of a behavior by presenting an aversive or unpleasant stimulus following that behavior.

Negative Punishment

An operant procedure that decreases the frequency of a behavior by removing a pleasant or desirable stimulus following that behavior.

Fixed Ratio (FR) Schedule

A partial reinforcement schedule where a behavior is reinforced after a set, predictable number of responses.

Variable Ratio (VR) Schedule

A partial reinforcement schedule where a behavior is reinforced after an unpredictable, varying number of responses (e.g., gambling); yields high response rates that are highly resistant to extinction.

Fixed Interval (FI) Schedule

A partial reinforcement schedule where the first behavior is reinforced after a set amount of time has elapsed (e.g., mail delivery).

Variable Interval (VI) Schedule

A partial reinforcement schedule where a behavior is reinforced after an unpredictable amount of time has elapsed (e.g., fishing).

Schedules of Reinforcement Cumulative Response Graph

A cumulative response curve showing that ratio schedules produce steeper, higher rates of response than interval schedules, with fixed ratio showing post-reinforcement pauses and fixed interval showing scalloped acceleration before delivery.

Shaping

An operant technique of teaching a complex sequence of behaviors by rewarding successive approximations of the desired behavior.

Blocking

A limitation of simple associative models where prior conditioning to a first conditioned stimulus prevents conditioning to a second stimulus when presented together, because the second stimulus adds no new predictive information.

Sensory Preconditioning

A classical conditioning anomaly where two neutral stimuli (e.g., light and bell) are paired first; when one is subsequently paired with a UCS, the other previously unreinforced stimulus also elicits the CR because it provides new predictive information.

Latent Learning

Unreinforced learning that is not immediately reflected in behavior; demonstrated by Tolman's rats developing a cognitive map of a maze that was only demonstrated once reinforcement began on day 11.

Cognitive Map

A mental representation of the layout of one's physical environment acquired through latent exploration without direct reinforcement.

Insight Learning

A form of problem solving observed in primates solving out-of-reach food tasks that occurs through a sudden cognitive realization rather than simple trial-and-error reinforcement.

Observational Learning

Albert Bandura's model of learning that occurs when an individual observes and imitates another's behavior (modeling), consisting of four processes: attention, retention, motor reproduction, and reinforcement.

Instinctual Drift

The biological tendency of animals to revert back to innate, instinctual behaviors that interfere with conditioned operant responses.