AP Psych Unit 3

circadian rhythm

the biological clock

regular body rhythms that occur on a 24hr cycle

REM sleep

rapid eye movement sleep

a recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur. Also known as paradoxical sleep, because the muscles are relaxed (except for minor twitches) but other body systems are active. increased heart rate, rapid and irregular breathing

20-25% of a nights sleep

fast, random, saw-tooth waves

young people have more REM sleep

sleep

periodic, natural loss of consciousness

NREM-1 sleep

transition from wakefulness to sleep. When you drift off

characterized by slow breathing, irregular brainwaves, and possible hallucinations

Theta waves

hallucination

false sensory experiences, such as seeing something in the absence of an external visual stimulus.

NREM-2 sleep

deeper phase of light sleep

lasts around 20 mins, gets longer as the night goes on

theta waves with periodic sleep spindles (bursts of rapid rhythmic brainwave activity)

NREM-3

deep sleep hard to wake

Lasts for about 30 mins

Brain emits large delta waves

Somnambulism and sleep terrors

suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

a pair of cell clusters in the hypothalamus that controls circadian rhythm. In response to light, the SCN causes the pineal gland to adjust melatonin production, thus modifying our feelings of sleepiness.

Insomnia

when a person has trouble falling asleep or staying asleep

Narcolepsy

when an individual will struggle to get sleep at night but will fall asleep uncontrollably throughout the day

REM sleep behavior disorder

When instead of experiencing the normal temporary paralysis of your arms and legs (atonia) during REM sleep, you physically act put your dreams

Sleep Apnea

when breathing stops during sleep

Somnambulism

sleep walking

Beta waves

13-30 hz

awake

reemerge during REM when the brain is active

Alpha waves

8-12 Hz

when you’re meditated, calm, or just falling asleep

Theta waves

3-8Hz

light sleep and deep relaxation

occur in NREM 1 and NREM2 with sleep spindles and K Complexes

Delta waves

0.5-4 Hz

deep, restorative sleep

NREM3

Activation synthesis theory

suggests that dreams are the brains attempt to make sense of random neural activity during REM sleep

Consolidation theory

proposes that dreaming is part of the process of consolidating memories. When info from short term memory is moved to long term memory.

Restoration theory

believes that sleep allows your body and brain to recover and restore energy and resources that were used during the day.

Hypnagogia

transitional state from wakefulness to sleep

Hypnic jerk

a brief, sudden involuntary contraction of the muscles which occurs as the person is beginning to fall asleep

Effects of sleep deprivation

Brain - diminished attentional focus and memory consolidation, increased risk of depression

Immune system- suppression of immune cells and increased risk of viral infections

Heart - increased risk of high blood pressure

Stomach - Increase in ghrelin (makes you hungry) and decrease in hormone suppressing leptin

Fat - increased production of fat cells

Joints- increased joint inflammation and arthritis

Muscles - reduced strength and slower reaction time

Manifest content vs latent content

manifest content is the surface storyline of a dream while latent content is the underlying meaning of the dream

Sigmund Freud

Sensory Awareness

sights sounds and other sensory messages

selective attention

Direct inner awareness

Memories, feelings and abstract concepts such as love

The awareness of things within ourselves

Sense of Self

The awareness of ourselves and our existence.

The knowledge that we are all unique individuals separate from others and our surroundings

Preconscious

Ideas that are not in your awareness right now but can be recalled if needed

Ex: the answer to a warm-up question

Unconscious/Subconscious

Information that is unavailable to awareness under most circumstances

Ex: typing on a keyboard, first impressions

Nonconsious

the level of consciousness on which most of our biological functions work

Ex: finger nails growing

Hypnosis

A condition of focused attention, reduced peripheral awareness and enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.

Has shown effectiveness int rating pain and anxiety

research does not support the use of hypnosis to retrieve accurate memories or recess in age

Pareidolia

A psychological phenomenon in which the mind responds to a stimulus, usually an image or sound by perceiving a familiar pattern where none exists

Sensation

the stimulus of sensory receptors and the transmission of sensory information

Perception

the process through which we interpret sensory stimulation

Enuresis

bed wetting

Absolute threshold

The weakest amount for a stimulus which can be detected

Subliminal threshold

when stimuli are below ones absolute threshold for conscious awareness

Supraliminal

stimuli that can be perceived by the conscious mind

Difference threshold

the minimum amount of difference that can be detected between two stimuli

Ex: the shades of white paint on a wall

Signal Detection theory

predicts how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus in background noise. Assumes that there is not absolute threshold and detection of stimulus depends on experience expectations and level of fatigue

Weber’s law

two stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage rather than an amount to be perceived as different

Synesthesia

an experience of sensation in which one system of sensation is experienced through another

Ex: tasting colors

Sensory adaptation

the process by which we become more sensitive to weak stimuli and less sensitive to unchanging stimuli

Ex: getting used to noise pollution while living in a city

Transduction

the transformation of stimulus energy into neural impulses

Phototransduction

the transformation of light into neural immpulses

Bottom Up processing

starts at the sensory receptors and works up the brain;s integration of sensory info

Top down processing

constructs perceptions from sensory input by drawing on our experience and expectations

Selective attention

focusing conscious awareness on a particular stimuli

Cocktail party effect

A specific, purely auditory subtype of selective attention. It describes your ability to focus on a single speaker or conversation in a loud, crowded room while filtering out all other background voices and noise

inattentional blindness

failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

change blindness

failing to notice change

photophysics

the study of the relationship between the physical characteristics of a stimulus and the psychological experience of them

priming

the activation of certain associations

Seeing or hearing a word makes you recognize a related word faster (e.g., recognizing the word "doctor" faster after seeing "nurse" than after seeing "bread").

Perceptual set

a mental predisposition to perceive one thing and not another

Extrasensory perception

A controversial claim that perception can occur apart from sensory input

telepathy - mind to mind communication

clairvoyance - perceiving distant events

precognition- perceiving future events

Wavelength

the distance from peak of one light/sound wave to the peak of the next

determines the hue of a color

Intensity

the amount of energy in a light or sound wave

determines the brightness

Pupil

the adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters

Iris

a colored muscle that dilates or constricts in response to light intensity and inner emotions

controls size of pupil

Lens

a structure behind the iris and pupil that focuses light rays onto the retina

Retina

the light sensitive inner surface of the eye containing the receptor rods and cones plus layers of neurons that being the processing of visual information

Accomodation

the process by which the eye’s lense changes shape to focus near or far objects on the retina

Rods

retinal receptors that detect black, white, and gray.

high sensitivity to dim light

Cones

retinal receptors that detect color and detail.

Cultured around the Fovea

Blind stop

the point at which the optic nerve leaves the eye, creating a blind spot because there are no receptors there

Optic nerve

the nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain

Fovea

the central focus point in the retina

ganglion cells

Neurons that relay information from the retina to the brain via the optic nerve

they make up the optic nerve which reaches the thalamus where they synapse with neurons that run to the visual cortex

Feature detectors

nerve cells in the brain that respond to specific features if the stimulus such as shape, angle, or movement

Parallel Processing

doing many things at once

Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory

the theory that the retina contains three color receptors (red, green, blue) which, when stimulated together can produce the perception of any color

opponent-process theory

the theory that opposing retinal processes (red-green, yellow-blue, white-black) enable color vision.

Ex: some cells stimulate green and inhibit red and vice versa

Bipolar cells

a type of nerve cells that combine the impulses from many of the visual receptor cells in the retina and then transmit the impulses to the ganglion cells

Gesalt

an organized whole. Gestalt psychologists emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes

figure-ground

the organization of the visual field into objects that stand out from their surroundings

grouping

the perceptual tendency to organize stimuli into coherent groups

Depth perception

the ability to see objects in three dimensions

Binocular cues

depth cues that depend on the use of both eyes

Retinal Disparity

a binocular cue for perceiving depth. By comparing images from the two eyes, the brain computes distance. The greater the difference between what the right eye sees vs the left eye, the closer the object is.

Monocular cues

depth cues available to each eye separately that can help us to tell the difference between lathe distances

relative size, motion, height, light, shadow

Phi phenomenon

an illusion of movement created when two adjacent lights blink on and off quickly in succession

perceptual constancy

perceiving objects as unchanging even as illumination and retinal images change

color constancy

perceiving familiar objects as having consistent color even if changing illumination alters the wavelength reflected by that object

perceptual adaptation

the ability to adjust to a new visual feild