exam 2

Consciousness

Awareness of thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations, and environments.

Sleep

Reduced awareness of external stimuli, low levels of physical activity.

Wakefulness

Alertness, awareness, and responsiveness to external stimuli.

Biological Rhythms

Internal rhythms of biological activity.

Circadian Rhythm

A roughly 24-hour internal clock in the brain that controls alertness and sleepiness.

Homeostasis

Ability to regulate various physiological processes to keep internal states steady and balanced.

Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

Brain's clock mechanism; located in the hypothalamus.

Jet lag

The circadian rhythm is out of sync with the time zone one is in.

Insomnia

Problems falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up too early at least three nights per week for a month.

Sleep debt

Cumulative of not getting enough sleep.

Sleep rebound

Increased amount and intensity of sleep after deprivation.

REM Sleep

Brain waves very similar to being awake; when most dreaming occurs.

Non-REM (NREM) Sleep

Four stages distinguished by characteristic patterns of brain waves.

Psychoactive drugs

Chemicals that alter consciousness by changing chemical processes in neurons.

Physical dependence

Adaptations that result in withdrawal symptoms.

Psychological dependence

Loss of control over drug use and compulsive use despite negative consequences.

Sensation

Detection of physical energy by sense organs.

Perception

Sensory information organized, interpreted, consciously experienced.

Transduction

Nervous system changes stimulus into electrical signals that the brain can use.

Absolute threshold

Lowest level of a stimulus we can detect 50% of the time.

Weber’s Law

Stronger the stimulus, greater change necessary for detection of a difference.

Amplitude

Distance from the center line to the top point of the crest or bottom of the trough.

Pitch

Frequency of sound waves; high frequency produces high pitches and low frequency produces low pitches.

Cornea

Transparent covering of the eye.

Retina

Light sensitive lining of the eye.

Trichromatic theory of color vision

All colors in the spectrum can be produced by combining red, green, and blue.

Gestalt Psychology

Breaking psychological phenomena down to smaller parts would not lead to understanding psychology.

Reflex

Motor/neural reaction to a specific stimulus in the environment.

Conditioned Response (CR)

Learned response to a previously neutral stimulus.

Pavlov’s Experiments

Research on salivation in dogs in response to being fed during the 1890s.

Acquisition

Linking a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus that becomes a conditioned stimulus.

Extinction

Conditioned response decreases or disappears when the conditioned stimulus no longer pairs with the unconditioned stimulus.

Stimulus Generalization

Stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus can provoke a conditioned response.

Positive reinforcement

Adding something they want after a behavior.

Punishment

Any consequence that decreases the frequency of a behavior.

Reinforcement schedule

Rule stating which instances of a behavior will be reinforced.

Latent learning

Learning that is not reflected in immediate behavioral change.