Exam 2

consciousness

person's subjective experience of the mind and the world

four properties of consciousness

intentionality, unity, selectivity, transience

intentionality

being directed toward an object

unity

resistance to division

selectivity

the capacity to include some objects but not others

cocktail party phenomenon

how people tune in one message even while they filter out others nearby

transience

tendency to change

levels of consciousness

minimal to full to self

minimal consciousness

a low-level kind of sensory awareness and responsiveness that occurs when the mind inputs sensations and may output behavior

full consciousness

consciousness in which you know and are able to report your mental state

self-consciousness

a distinct level of consciousness in which the person's attention is drawn to the self as an object

mental control

the attempt to change conscious states of mind

rebound effect of thought suppression

the tendency of a thought to return to consciousness with greater frequency following suppression; white bear

cognitive unconscious

all the mental processes that give rise to a person's thoughts, choices, emotions, and behavior even though they are not experienced by the person

subliminal perception

thought or behavior that is influenced by stimuli that a person cannot consciously report perceiving; controversial

awake

beta waves

drowsy, relaxed

alpha waves

stage 1 sleep

theta waves

stage 2 sleep

sleep spindles and K complexes

stage 3 sleep/stage 4 sleep

delta waves

REM sleep (characteristics)

fast, random; sawtooth waves

REM sleep (definition)

stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements and a high level of brain activity; body is immobilized

dreaming occurs most often in this stage

REM sleep (answer)

insomnia

difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep

sleep apnea

person stops breathing for brief periods while asleep

sleepwalking

occurs when the person arises and walks around during sleep

narcolepsy

when sudden sleep attacks occur in the middle of waking activities

sleep paralysis

the experience of waking up unable to move

night terrors (sleep terrors)

abrupt awakenings with panic and intense emotional arousal

psychoactive drugs

chemicals that influence consciousness or behavior by altering the brain's chemical message system

agonists

increase the activity of a neurotransmitter

antagonists

decrease the activity of a neurotransmitter

drug tolerance

the tendency for larger doses of a drug to be required over time to achieve the same effect

physical dependence

unpleasant physiological symptoms accompanying withdrawal from drug use

psychological dependence

desire to return to a drug even when physical symptoms are gone

depressants

substances that reduce the activity of the central nervous system; alcohol, barbiturates and benzodiazepines

alcohol myopia

a condition that results when alcohol hampers attention, leading people to respond in simple ways to complex situations

stimulants

substances that excite the central nervous system, heightening arousal and activity levels by increasing dopamine and norepinephrine; caffeine, amphetamines, nicotine, cocaine, ecstacy (MDMA)

narcotics (opiates)

highly addictive drugs derived from opium that relieve pain; heroin, morphine, methadone, codeine

hallucinogens

drugs that alter sensation and perception and often cause visual and auditory hallucinations; LSD (acid), PCP, ketamine

marijuana

the leaves and buds of the hemp plant that produces an intoxication that is mildly hallucinogenic; affect judgement and short-term memory, and impairs motor skills and coordination

gateway drug

a drug whose use increases the risk of the subsequent use of more harmful drugs; marijuana, alcohol, tobacco

repression

a mental process that removes unacceptable thoughts and memories from consciousness and keeps them in the unconscious

encoding

the process by which we transform what we perceive, think, or feel into an enduring memory

storage

the process of maintaining information in memory over time

retrieval

the process of bringing to mind information that has been previously encoded and stored

semantic encoding

Process of actively relating new information in a meaningful way to knowledge that is already in memory; lower left frontal lobe and inner left temporal lobe

visual imagery encoding

the process of storing new information by converting it into mental pictures; occipital lobe

organizational encoding

the process of categorizing information according to the relationships among a series of items; upper left frontal lobe

sensory storage

storage that holds sensory information for a few seconds or less

iconic memory

fast-decaying store of visual information

echoic memory

fast-decaying store of auditory information

short-term memory

storage that holds nonsensory information for more than a few seconds but less than a minute

magic number for number of items STM can hold

seven

rehearsal

the process of keeping information in short-term memory by mentally repeating it

chunking

combining small pieces of information into larger clusters or chunks that are more easily held in short-term memory

working memory

a type of short-term storage that actively maintains information

visuo-spatial sketchpad

temporarily holds visual/spatial images

phonological loop

temporarily holds verbal/auditory information

episodic buffer

integrates visual and verbal information from the subsystems into a multidimensional code

central executive

controls the flow of information through the system; coordinates the subsystems and the episodic buffer

long-term memory

storage that holds information for hours, days, weeks, or years; no known capacity

hippocampus

critical for putting new information into the long-term store

anterograde amnesia

the inability to transfer new information from the short-term store into the long-term store

retrograde amnesia

the inability to retrieve information that was acquired before a particular date, usually the date of an injury or surgery

consolidation

the process by which memories become stable in the brain

reconsolidation

memories can become vulnerable to disruption when they are recalled, requiring them to become consolidated again

retrieval cue

external information that is associated with stored information and helps bring it to mind

encoding specificity principle

the idea that a retrieval cue can serve as an effective reminder when it helps re-create the specific way in which information was initially encoded

state-dependent retrieval

the tendency for information to be better recalled when the person is in the same state during encoding and retrieval

transfer-appropriate processing

the idea that memory is likely to transfer from one situation to another when the encoding and retrieval contexts of the situations match

retrieval-induced forgetting

a process by which retrieving an item from long-term memory impairs subsequent recall of related items; eyewitness memory

successful recall

hippocampus

unsuccessful recall

left frontal lobe; try to recall

explicit memory

the act of consciously or intentionally retrieving past experiences

implicit memory

the influence of past experiences on later behavior, even without an effort to remember them or an awareness of the recollection

semantic memory

a network of associated facts and concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world

episodic memory

the collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place; imagination and creativity (time travel)

procedural memory

the gradual acquisition of skills as a result of practice, or "knowing how" to do things

priming

enhanced ability to think of a stimulus, such as a word or object, as a result of a recent exposure to the stimulus; less cortical activation

saves processing time for the brain

priming (answer)

collaborative memory

how people remember in groups; sharing memories with others can strengthen them, but can also produce retrieval-induced forgetting.

transience (memory)

forgetting what occurs with the passage of time

retroactive interference

situations in which information learned later impairs memory for information acquired earlier

proactive interference

situations in which information learned earlier impairs memory for information acquired later

absentmindedness

a lapse in attention that results in memory failure

prospective memory

remembering to do things in the future

blocking

a failure to retrieve information that is available in memory even though you are trying to produce it; tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

memory misattribution

assigning a recollection or an idea to the wrong source; frontal lobe intimately invovled

false recognition

a feeling of familiarity about something that hasn't been encountered before

source memory

recall of when, where, and how information was acquired

suggestibility

the tendency to incorporate misleading information from external sources into personal recollections

bias

the distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings on recollection of previous experiences

consistency bias

the tendency to reconstruct the past to fit the present

change bias

the tendency to exaggerate differences between what we feel or believe now and what we felt or believed in the past

egocentric bias

the tendency to exaggerate the change between present and past in order to make ourselves look good in retrospect

persistence

the intrusive recollection of events that we wish we could forget

flashbulb memories

detailed recollections of when and where we heard about shocking events

involved in emotional memory

amygdala

habituation

a general process in which repeated or prolonged exposure to a stimulus results in a gradual reduction in responding