Consciousness Drugs, Emotion, Stress, Language, Learning

Slow down neural activity in the brain by stimulating GABA and dopamine systems

Depressants

Types of Depressants

Alcohol

Barbiturates

Opiates

Stimulants

Increase release of neurotransmitters and speed up body functions

Examples of Stimulants

Caffeine

Nicotine

Cocaine

Amphetamines

Hallucinogens (Psychedelics)

Create hallucinations by distorting perceptions in the absence of any sensory input

Examples of Hallucinogens

LSD

Marijuana

Psychological Dependence

Associated with use of drug in response to painful emotion

Physical dependence

Withdrawals

Three components of Emotion

1. Physiological

2. Cognitive

3. Behavioral

People perform best when they are moderately aroused

Yerkes-Dodson Law

Physiological and behavioral response to a stimuli lead to the cognitive aspect of emotion

Automatic responses lead to cognitive understanding of emotion

James-Lange Theory Of Emotion

Physiological and cognitive responses lead to a behavioral response

Cannon-Bard theory of emotion

Physiological response leads to a conscious cognitive interpretation that leads to a behavioral response and labeling of the emotion

Schachter-Singer Theory of emotion

Collection of brain structures primarily responsible for emotion

Limbic System

Parts of the Limbic System

Amygdala, Hippocampus, Prefrontal Cortex, Hypothalamus

Roles of each part of the Limbic system

Amygdala: emotional hub

Hypothalamus: physiological aspects

Hippocampus: memory formation

Prefrontal Cortex: behavioral response

What happened to Phineas Gage?

Prefrontal cortex injury causing personality change

Appraisal

How an individual interprets stressful nature of an event

Learned Helplessness

Lack of belief in one’s ability to manage situations

Language Acquisition

Describes the way infants learn to understand and speak their native language

Language is a form of behavior like any other that is subject to conditioning

BF Skinner’s behaviorist model of language acquisition

The human mind has an innate feature that allows people to gain mastery of language from limited exposure

Noam Chomsky’s Universal Grammar

Broca’s Area

Speech production

Broca’s Aphasia

People can’t speak

Wernicke’s area

Comprehension of speech and written language

Wernicke’s Aphasia

Word salad

Global Aphasia

Both production and understanding of language is disrupted

Non-associative

When an organism is repeatedly exposed to one type of stimulus

Habit

Action performed repeatedly until it becomes automatic

Habituation

Repeated exposure to same stimulus results in a decreased response

Dishabituation

Recovery of a response to a stimulus after habituation

Sensitization

Increased response to a stimuli

Associative Learning

Learning by association between two different stimuli. Includes classical and operant conditioning

Type of associative learning that takes advantage of the biological/instinctual responses lead to one stimuli to create an association with another unrelated stimuli

Classical Conditioning

Unconditioned Stimulus

Stimulus that brings reflexive response

Unconditioned response

Innate reflexive response to unconditioned stimulus

Neutral stimulus

Stimulus doesn’t produce reflexive response

Conditioned Stimulus

Neutral stimulus that through association with an unconditioned stimuli now causes a reflexive response

Conditioned response

Reflexive response to conditioned stimulus

Classical Conditioning

The process of converting neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus by association with an unconditioned stimulus

Acquisition

Process of creating a conditioned response

Extinction

process where conditioned stimulus no longer creates conditioned response after a period of time without associating CS with UCS

Generalization

Process by which similar stimuli also elicit conditioned response

Discrimination

When the conditioned response only occurs for conditioned stimuli

Operant conditioning

Uses reinforcements + punishments to shape behavior

Reinforcement

Increases likelihood of behavior occurring

Positive Reinforcement

Giving something desirable

Negative Reinforcement

Taking away something undesirable

Positive Punishment

Giving something undesirable

Negative punishment

Taking away something desirable

Primary Reinforcers

Things that are innately satisfying or desirable, like food

Secondary reinforces

Things learned to be reinforcers

Escape conditioning

Behaviors that help to escape from unpleasant stimuli

Avoidance Coniditoing

Behaviors that help avoid unpleasant stimuli before it happens

Continuous schedule

Every occurrence off behavior is reinforced

Intermittent schedule

Sometimes behavior is reinforced, sometimes it’s not. Slower acquisition but slower extinction

Four types of intermittent reinforcement schedules

1. Fixed Ratio

2. Variable Ratio

3. Fixed Interval

4. variable Interval

Fixed ratio schedule

Provides reinforcement after a set number of instances of behavior. Results in high response rate

variable-ratio schedule

Provides reinforcement after an unpredictable number of occurrences. High response rate

Fixed-interval schedule

Provides reinforcement after a set period of time that is constant

Variable-Interval Schedule

Provides reinforcement after an unpredictable amount of time

Observational/social learning

Learning through watching and imitating others

Modeling

Observer sees behavior being performed by another person and imitates