psych ch. 5 Consciousness

Circadian rhythms

• daily biological cycles that are about 24 hours long

• Are regulated by the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) in the hypothalamus

• Environmental factors like the day-night cycle also affect it

REM sleep

• rapid eye movements

• most vivid dreaming occurs during it

• physiological arousal increases

• muscle paralysis

REM

• decreases by 20% by the age of 85

• __ is 50% of total time of sleep at bith

Restorative Theory

• Sleep allows us to recharge our bodies and recover from fatigue

• growth hormone secreted during non-rem sleep; protein production increases during rem; replenishment of neuro transmitter

Evolutionary Theory

• sleeps main purpose is to increase a species’ chances of survival

• Dark environments are unsafe; humans have poor night vision compared to animals at night

Consolidation Theory

• Sleep helps strengthen the neuronal connections that serve as the basis for learning and memory

• assist in the creation of memories, learning difficult concepts; similar patterns of brain activity when learning and sleeping afterwards

Insomnia

• chronic inability to sleep normally

• Falling asleep

• Frequent waking

• Returning to sleep

• Early-morning awakening

Narcolepsy

characterized by an irresistible compulsion to sleep during the daytime

Sleep Apnea

causes the person to stop breathing while asleep

Activation-Synthesis Theory

• why we dream

• Brainstem (pons) bombards higher brain centers with random neural activity

• Cerebral cortex interprets activity and creates a dream

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

• why we dream

• Dreams symbolize wish fulfillment

• Manifest content vs. latent content

manifest content

• the story line of the dream

• sigmund freud

latent content

• what the dreams mean

• sigmund freud

Psychoactive drugs

chemicals that affect mental processes and behavior by temporarily changing conscious awareness

Tolerance

individual requires greater dosages of the drug to achieve the same effect

Withdrawal

• after reducing or ceasing drug intake, physical or psychological symptoms occur

Physiological dependence

tolerance+withdrawl

Wilhelm Wundt and his student Edward Titchener

founded psychology as a science based on exploring consciousness and its contents

John B. Watson, B. F. Skinner,

other behaviorists insisted that the science of psychology should restrict itself to the study of observable behaviors.

automatic processing

allows us to attend to information with little or no conscious effort or awareness

selective attention.

we can only focus our attention on a small portion at one time. This narrow focus on specific stimuli is known

cocktail-party effect

it occurs when the brain is responsive to some “speech streams” while ignoring others

looking without seeing

inattention blindness

circadian rhythm

patterns in our physiological functioning roughly follow the 24-hour cycle of daylight and darkness

there are two times when the desire for sleep hits hardest

• 2:00 and 6:00 A.M

• 2:00 and 4:00 P.M.

hypothalamus

a brain structure whose activities revolve around maintaining homeostasis, or balance, in the body’s systems

suprachiasmatic nucleus

• consists of two clusters, each no bigger than an ant, totaling around 20,000 neurons

• plays a role in our circadian rhythm by communicating with other areas of the hypothalamus and the reticular formation, which regulates alertness and sleepiness

pineal gland

a part of the endocrine system, to regulate the release of melatonin, a hormone that promotes sleep

beta waves

Brain waves that indicate an alert, awake state

alpha waves

Brain waves that indicate a relaxed, drowsy state

Stage N1 NREM

• light sleep

• muscles go limp and body temperature starts to fall.

• will see in theta waves in eeg

theta waves

lower frequency waves than alpha and beta

N2 (NREM 2 sleep)

• little bursts of electrical activity called sleep spindles and large waves called K-complexes appearing every 2 minutes or so

• slightly deeper than n1

• harder to awaken you.

sleep spindles

• s short bursts of high-frequency brain waves lasting about 0.5 to 2

• re associated with memory consolidation and intelligence

Stage N3 (NREM 3 sleep

• slow-wave sleep, and it has a higher proportion of tall, low-frequency delta waves than prior stages

• secretion of growth hormone, which builds tissues and promotes growth to be taller and stronger

• feel groggy, disoriented, and downright irritated when jarred from a slow-wave slumber.

Stage r or REM

• The stage of sleep associated with dreaming; sleep characterized by bursts of eye movements, with brain activity similar to that of a waking state, but with a lack of muscle tone

The Interpretation of Dreams,

proposing that dreams are a form of “wish fulfillment,” or a playing out of unconscious desires.

lucid dream

a dream you know you’re having

depressants

• suppress certain kinds of activity in the central nervous system (CNS), or slow things down.

• anti- anxiety

• opiods

stimulants

• a drug that increases neural activity in the sympathetic nervous system, producing heightened alertness, energy, elevated mood, and other effects

• ex: cocaine, Methamphetamine, caffeine

hallucinogens

• drugs that produce hallucinations (sights, sounds, odors, or other sensations of things that are not actually present), altered moods, and distorted perception and thought.

• ex: ketamine, pcp, lsd etc

hypnosis

• is an altered state of consciousness in which changes in perceptions and behaviors result from suggestions made by a hypnotist

characteristics of hypnosis

• ability to focus intently, ignoring all extraneous stimuli;

• heightened imagination

• an unresisting and receptive attitude

• decreased pain awareness

• high responsivity to suggestions