Modula 1.5a - 1.6d Key Terms

Consciousness

our awareness of ourselves + environment

cognitive neuroscience

study of the brain activity linked w/ mental processes

dual processing

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

blindsight

ability to respond to a visual stimulus w/o consciously perceiving them

parallel processing

processing multiple aspects of a stimulus/problem simultaneously + enables your mind to take care of routine business – UNCONSCIOUS!

sequential processing

processing 1 aspect of a stimulus/problem at a time + best for solving new/diffuclt problems – CONSCIOUS!

(sleep

a periodic, natural loss of consciousness)

circadian rhythm

24 hr biological clock; regular bodily rhythms (for ex: of temperature and wakefulness)

• linked to suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) → pair of cell clusters in the hypothalamus that controls circadian rhythm

  • In response to light, the SCN adjusts melatonin production, THUS decreasing melatonin

Sleep Cycle

repeats every 90 mins

1. Nrem1 (non-rapid eye movement) → light sleep + may experience hynagogic sensations → sensations of falling; slow breathing + irregualr brain waves + 15-20 mins + Alpha waves → fast brain waves of a relaxed + awake state

1. Nrem2 → “Sleep Spindles” (short burst of rapid activity/energy in the brain) on an EEG, deep sleep BUT can be easily awaken + 15-20 mins

2. Nrem3 → deepest stage + hard to wake + 20-30 mins + Delta waves → slow waves

3. return back to Nrem2

4. then REM (rapid eye movement) → 10 mins + heart rate rises + rapid & irregular breathing + dreams occur + paradoxical sleep (essentially paralyzed) b/c muscles are relaxed AND motor cortex is active BUT the brainstem blocks its messages

1, 2, 3, 2, REM

hallucinations

false sensory experiences

lack of sleep = weight gain + messes w/ hormones, metabolism, and brain’s responses to food by…

• increasing ghrelin: hunger-arousing hormone, and decreasing leptin: hunger-suppressing

• increasing cortisol: stress hormone that stimulates the body to make fat, and decreasing metabolic rate

• disrupting gene expression, which increases risk for heart disease

• enhancing limbic brain responses to the mere sight of food + decreasing cortical responses that help us resist temptation

sleep disorders

• insomnia → difficulty falling or staying asleep

• narcolepsy → you will suddenly fall asleep w/ NO warning

• sleep apnea → interrupted breathing during sleep

• REM sleep behavior disorder → acting out dreams b/c the paralysis of REM DOES NOT occur

(dream

a sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person’s mind.)

Dream theories

Main 3 Theories:

• Information processing/consolidation: Dreams help sort the day’s events + consolidate them in memory.

• Activation-synthesis theory → the brain’s attempt to synthesize random neural activity (+ Where dreams have no meaning)

  • The brain synthesizes these random images + sensations w/ existing memories + emotions to create a narrative, which can explain the bizarre nature of dreams

• Sigmund Freud pscyhodynamic wish-fulfillment theory → dreams are a way to fulfill unconscious wishes that are unacceptable when conscious

  • He proposed that dreams have two components: the manifest content (the actual story of the dream) and the latent content (the hidden, symbolic meaning). He believed that interpreting the latent content could help people resolve inner conflicts

Other Theories:

• (Physiological function → Regular brain stimulation may help develop and preserve neural pathways in the brain.)

• (Cognitive development → Dreams reflect the dreamers’ level of development — their knowledge and understanding.)

his idea that dreams provide insight into the unconscious HOWEVER dreams are actually MEANINGLESS**

REM rebound

spending extra time in REM the next time you sleep

sensation

our sensory receptors → sensory nerve endings that respond to stimuli; + nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment

perception

the process by which our brain organizes + interprets sensory info

bottom-up processing

info processing that begins w/ sensory receptors + works up to the brain’s integration of sensory info

top-down processing

info processing — YOU interpret what your senses detect

transduction

conversion of on form of energy into another that our brain can use: Vision processes light energy. Hearing processes sound waves. All of our senses

1. receive sensory stimulation, often using specialized receptor cells

2. transform that stimulation into neural impulses

3. deliver the neural information to our brain

psychophysics

study the relationships between the physical energy we can detect + its effects on our psychological experiences

Gustav Fechner

studied the edge of our awareness of absolute threshold → minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time

signal detection theory

predicting how + when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation (noise) + assumes there is no single absolute threshold + that detection depends partly on a person’s experience, expectations, motivation, and alertness.

subliminal priming

CANNOT consciously detect 50% of the time + below your absolute threshold

difference threshold

or the just noticeable difference: JND + amount of change require to “notice” a change w/in a sense

• That detectable difference increases with the size of the stimulus. If we listen to our music at 40 decibels, we might barely detect an added 5 decibels (the jnd). But if we increase the volume to 110 decibels, we probably won’t detect an additional 5-decibel change

Weber’s law

to perceive a difference, two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage (not a constant amount).

• for ex: Two lights must differ in intensity by 8%

sensory adaptation

When constantly exposed to an unchanging stimulus, we become less aware of it b/c our nerve cells fire less

wavelength

distance from the peak of one light/sound wave to the peak of the next + determines hues → color

intensity

the amount of energy the wave contains + influences brightness

cornea

eye’s clear, protective outer layer + bends light to help focus

pupil

adjustable opening in the center where light enters

iris

colored muscle that controls in response to light intensity the size of the pupil opening

lens

after passing through pupil, light hits the transparent structure (behind pupil) + changes shape to focus images

retina

multilayered tissue lining the back inner surface of the eyeball

accommodation

process to focus the rays, the lens changes its curvature + thickness

rods

retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray + sensitive to movement; necessary for peripheral and twilight vision, when cones don’t respond

cones

retinal receptors that are concentrated near the center of the retina + function in daylight/well-lit + detect fine detail + give rise to color sensations

optic nerve

nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain

blind spot

no receptor cells + optic nerve leaves the eye

fovea

retina’s area of central focus

Young–Helmholtz trichromatic (three-color) theory

retina contains 3 diff color receptors: red, green, blue, which can produce the perception of any color

• ex: the retina has no separate receptors especially sensitive to yellow. But when red and green wavelengths stimulate both red-sensitive and green-sensitive cones, we see yellow

opponent-process theory

opposing retinal processes: red-green, blue-yellow, white-black enable color vision

• ex: some cells are stimulated by green and inhibited by red; others are stimulated by red and inhibited by green

• antagonistic relationship + negative after images

feature detectors (David Hubel and Torsten Wiesel worked on this)

nerve cells in the occipital lobe’s visual cortex that respond to a scene’s specific visual features — to particular edges, lines, angles, and movements

parallel processing

doing many things at once

audition

sense of act/hearing

frequency

# of complete wavelengths + determines pitch → high/low tones

middle ear

a piston made 3 tiny bones (hammer [malleus], anvil [incus], and stirrup [stapes]) that picks up vibrations + transmits them to the cochlea → a snail-shaped tube in your inner ear → innermost part of the ear, containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs

sensorineural hearing loss

common hearing loss caused by damage to cochlea’s receptor cells or the auditory nerve (also called nerve deafness)

conduction hearing loss

uncommon hearing loss caused by damage to the mechanical system that conducts sound waves to the cochlea

cochlear implant

device for converting sounds into electrical signals + stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea

place theory

theory that links the pitch we hear w/ the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated + explain how we hear high-pitch sounds NOT low pitch

frequency theory

theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a tone, thus enabling us to sense its pitch

gate-control theory

spinal cord contains a neurological “gate” that controls the transmission of pain messages to the brain

gustation

sense of taste

olfaction

sense of smell

kinesthesis

our system for sensing the position + movement of individual body parts.

vestibular sense

our sense of body movement + position that enables our sense of balance.

sensory interaction

one sense may influence another

embodied cognition

the influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments

• Judgments may mimic body sensations: Sitting at a wobbly desk and chair may make relationships seem less stable

• Hard chair, hard on crime: People who sat in a hard chair, compared with a soft chair, gave harsher punishments to criminals, and to college students who cheated on a final paper

Steps on how light waves get turned into vision w/ 5 eye parts

1. light enters the eye through the cornea, which bends light to help provide focus

2. then light passes through the pupil + the iris. The iris which adjust the size of the pupil to control how much light enters

3. Then the light hits the lens, which focuses the light into an image on your retina at the back of your eye

4. The retina converts the focused light into electrical signals

5. THEN the electrical signals are sent to the occipital lobe of the brain by the optic nerve.