Consciousness and Sleep/Dreaming Lecture Notes

Flashcards based on the lecture notes covering key vocabulary related to consciousness, sleep, and dreaming.

Neural correlate of consciousness

Parts of the brain that are correlated with conscious perception.

Consciousness

Our awareness of ourselves and our environment.

Unconscious

What happens in our brains outside of our awareness, even when fully awake, differing from being unconscious due to coma or sleep.

Freudian unconscious

An early psychological concept emphasizing that humankind is not fully in control of their actions, strongly influencing psychology and Western society.

Dual processing

The parallel processing of information that occurs both consciously (explicit, controlled, slow, not mandatory) and unconsciously (implicit, automatic, fast, mandatory).

Stroop test

A psychological test (1929) demonstrating the interference of unconscious processes, where reading the word meaning interferes with naming the ink color.

Selective attention

Focusing your mental resources on what matters around you, filtering out other stimuli.

Inattentional blindness

The inability to notice trivial (or sometimes significant) things in your sensory field, caused by selective attention.

Biological rhythms

Natural cycles that our body goes through, such as circadian rhythms and sleep cycles.

Circadian rhythm

Our approximately 24-hour cycle of mental peaks and dips, affecting alertness, body temperature, and regulated by bright lights.

Melatonin

A hormone that induces sleep, whose production is suppressed by bright lights.

Jet lag

Disruption of the circadian rhythm caused by rapid travel across time zones, leading to a mismatch between the body's internal clock and the external environment.

Sleep

A periodic, natural, reversible loss of consciousness.

Alpha waves

Brain waves associated with being awake but relaxed, often experienced in the transition to sleep.

Delta waves

Brain waves associated with the deepest stage of sleep (NREM-3), making it toughest to wake up.

Hypnagogic hallucinations

Sensory experiences, such as images, that occur during the transition from wakefulness to sleep, without narrative content.

REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement sleep)

A stage of sleep where dreaming happens, characterized by rapid eye movements, muscle paralysis, and increased activity in other body systems; also known as paradoxical sleep.

Paradoxical sleep

Another name for REM sleep, due to the paradox of an active brain and body systems (e.g., increased heart rate) coexisting with voluntary muscle paralysis.

Manifest content of dreams

The remembered storyline and imagery of a dream, according to Freudian theory.

Latent content of dreams

The underlying psychological meaning or symbolism of a dream, according to Freudian theory.