AP Psych | CH3 - Consciousness & Two-Track Mind

Consciousness

The awareness of one's self and their environment.

Cognitive Neuroscience

The interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (perception, thinking, memory, and language)

Selective Attention

The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.

Cocktail Party Effect

The ability to attend to only one voice among many others.

Perceptual Adaptation

The ability of the body to adapt to an environment by filtering out distractions.

Inattentional Blindness

The failure to see visible objects when one's attention is directed elsewhere.

Dual Processing

The principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks.

Circadian Rhythm

The body's biological clock that involves regular body rhythms (temperature, wakefulness, etc.) that occur on a 24-hour cycle.

Behavior Genetics

The study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior.

Gender Roles

A set of expected behaviors for males or females.

Gender Typing

The acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role.

Natural Selection

The principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations.

Schemas

A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.

Genomes

The complete instructions for making an organism, consisting of all the genetic material in that organism's chromosomes.

Norm

An understood rule for accepted and expected behavior. They prescribe "proper" behavior.

NREM1

In this stage of sleep, the body is not fully relaxed, though the body and brain activities start to slow with periods of brief movements. There are light changes in brain activity associated with falling asleep in this stage. It is easy to wake someone up during this sleep stage, but if a person is not disturbed, they can move quickly into the next stage. Hallucinations can also occur in this stage.

NREM2

In this stage of sleep, the body enters a more subdued state including a drop in temperature, relaxed muscles, and slowed breathing and heart rate. At the same time, brain waves show a new pattern, and eye movement stops. It can last for 10-25min during the first sleep cycle, and each stage can become longer during the night. Collectively, a person typically spends about half their sleep time in this stage.

NREM3/NREM4

Also known as deep sleep, it is harder to wake someone up if they are in this phase. Muscle tone, pulse, and breathing rate decrease as the body relaxes even further. The brain activity during this period has an identifiable pattern of what are known as delta waves. This stage is also critical to restorative sleep, allowing for bodily recovery and growth. Most time is spent in deep sleep during the first half of the night. As sleep continues, these stages get shorter, and more time gets spent in REM sleep instead.

REM Sleep

Known as rapid eye movement sleep, a reoccurring 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.

Insomnia

The reoccurring problem with staying or falling asleep.

Narcolepsy

A sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks. The sufferer may lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inconvenient times.

Sleep Apnea

A sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary wakings.

Night Terrors

A sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified. This tends to occur in children who spend more time in NREM3.

Nightmare vs Night Terrors

Unlike nightmares (REM), night terrors occur during NREM3 sleep, within two or three hours, and are seldom remembered.

Sleep Walking/Talking

An NREM3 sleep disorder that involves walking and talking during sleep. Usually occurs in childhood due to more time being spent sleeping in NREM3.

Freud's Dream Theory

Proposed that all dreams are a form of wish-fulfillment of repressed wishes or the representation of wish-fulfillment. These repressed wishes are wants that have been denied and have become part of the unconscious mind.

Blindsight

A condition in which a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it.

Change Blindness

Failing to notice changes in the environment.

Alpha Waves

The relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state.

Sleep

Periodic, natural, reversible loss of consciousness—as distinct from unconsciousness resulting from a coma, general anesthesia, or hibernation.

Hallucinations

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

Delta Waves

The large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep.

Dream

A sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person's mind. Dreams are notable for their hallucinatory imagery, discontinuities, and incongruities, and for the dreamer's delusional acceptance of the content and later difficulties remembering it.

Manifest Content

The remembered story line of a dream (as distinct from its latent, or hidden, content).

Latent Content

The underlying meaning of a dream (as distinct from its manifest content).

REM Rebound

The tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation (created by repeated awakenings during REM sleep).

Hypnosis

A social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur.

Posthypnotic Suggestion

A suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized; used by some clinicians to help control undesired symptoms and behaviors.

Dissassociation

A split in conscious- ness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others.

Psychoactive Drug

A chemical substance that alters perceptions and moods.

Tolerance

The diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug; requires the user to take larger and larger doses before experiencing the drug's effect.

Addiction

Compulsive drug craving and use, despite adverse consequences.

Withdrawal

The discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing the use of an addictive drug.

Physical Dependence

A physiological need for a drug, marked by unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when the drug is discontinued.

Psychological Dependence

A psychological need to use a drug, such as to relieve negative emotions.

Depressants

Drugs (barbituates, alcohol, etc.) that reduce neural activity and slow body functions.

Alcohol Dependence (alcoholism)

Alcohol use marked by tolerance, withdrawal if sus- pended, and a drive to continue use.

Barbiturates

Drugs that depress central nervous system activity, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgment.

Opiates

Including opium and its derivatives, (morphine and heroin) they depress neural activity to temporarily lessen pain and anxiety.

Stimulants

Drugs (caffeine, nicotine, amphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy, methamphetamine, etc.) that excite neural activity and speed up body functions.

Amphetamines

Drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded - up body functions and associated energy and mood changes.

Nicotine

A stimulating and highly addictive psychoactive drug in tobacco.

Methamphetamine (Meth)

A powerfully addictive drug that stimulates the central nervous system, with speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes; over time, appears to reduce baseline dopamine levels.

Ecstasy (MDMA)

A synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen. Produces euphoria and social intimacy, but with short-term health risks and longer-term harm to serotonin-producing neurons and to mood and cognition.

Hallucinogens

Psychedelic ("mind-manifesting") drugs, such as LSD, that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input.

LSD

A powerful hallucinogenic drug; also known as acid

Near-Death Experience

An altered state of consciousness reported after a close brush with death (such as through cardiac arrest); often similar to drug- induced hallucinations.

THC

The major active ingredient in marijuana; triggers a variety of effects, including mild hallucinations.