Studied by 0 peopleComa
completely unaware, asleep, no response
Vegetative state
alternates between eye-open and eye-closed state, periods of wakefulness, no reliable response to external stimuli
Minimally conscious state
Responds somewhat reliably, but not consistently to sensory stimuli
Locked in syndrome
fully aware but is unable to demonstrate as they can't move voluntary muscles
Hemispatial neglect
a failure to attend to stimuli on the opposite side of space to a brain lesion
Egocentric neglect
Failure to detect objects in one side in relation to self
Allocentric neglect
Failure to detect all contralateral sides of every object
Motor neglect
failure to move one side of body despite no paralysis
Tactile neglect
inattention to tactile stimuli on one side of the body
Auditory neglect
inattention to sound on one side of space
Blindsight
a condition in which a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it
ADHD
difficulty paying attention, hyperactiveness, day dreaming, easily distracted (sustained and selective attention)
Brain's default network
a circuit in the brain that is active when the brain is at rest while processing internal stimuli
Selective attention
A cognitive process to focus on one aspect of environment
Change blindness
failing to notice changes in the environment
inattentional blindness
failure to perceive objects that are not the focus of attention
Dichotic listening task
A task in which a person hears two or more different, specially recorded messages over earphones and is asked to attend to one of them.
Dichotic listening task findings
knows existence of message, gender of speaker, superficial nature of speech
cocktail party effect
Ability to concentrate on one voice amongst a crowd
Attentional blink
a brief slow down in mental processing immediately after processing another event
Divided attention
paying attention to more than one thing at a time (task-switching, with exception of tasks that had sufficient practise and knowledge)
Multitasking
performing multiple tasks at the same time (only possible when parallel processing is used: attention to colour and direction movement simultaneously - ventral and dorsal stream are separate)
Task switching
Ability to switch attention rapidly between two tasks that require the same type of processing or conscious attention (with some loss of information)
Day dreaming
a state of consciousness in which a seemingly purposeless flow of thoughts comes to mind
dynamic unconscious
Freud - Active system of our memories, deep desires, and the struggle to control them
Repression
Freud - ejection of unacceptable thoughts and memories (kept in unconsciousness)
Freudian slip
a verbal mistake that is thought to reveal an unconscious belief, thought, or emotion
Cognitive unconscious
all the mental processes that give rise to a person's thoughts, choices, emotions, and behaviour even though they are not experienced by the person.
Dual processing theory
A theory stating that the mind is composed of both conscious and unconscious activity
Dual processing theory components
System 1: unconscious, automatic System 2: rational, intentional
Stroop effect
Interference caused by conflicting information, caused by automatic processing
Stroop experiment
Facilitation condition (black letters), neutral condition (corresponding colour font), inference condition (interfering colour font), reading is an automatic process
Priming
when response to a stimulus is influenced or facilitated by recent experience with that stimulus or a related stimulus
Subliminal perception
the registration of sensory input without conscious awareness due to short durations and subtlety
Meditation
Produces relation by guiding attention
Concentrative meditation
focusing attention on one thing
Mindfulness meditation
letting thoughts flow freely, paying attention to them but trying not to react to them
Meditation on health
lower blood pressure, reduced stress, change in hormones responding to stress
Meditation on cognitive processing
Brain electrical activity: positive emotional state, better attentional performance, enhanced immune system, brain's default mode network
Sleep: Pineal Gland
melatonin
Sleep: hypothalamus
Detects light to regulate release of melatonin
5 stages of sleep
stages 1-4 and REM sleep stage
Insomnia
recurring problems in falling or staying asleep (self induced, secondary, primary_
Sleep apnea
a disorder in which the person stops breathing for brief periods while asleep
Somnambulism
occurs when a person arises and walks around while asleep (usually during slowwave sleep)
Narcolepsy
uncontrollable sleep attacks
Sleep paralysis
the experience of waking up unable to move
Night terrors
abrupt awakenings with panic and intense emotional arousal
Altered state of consciousness
a form of experience that departs significantly from the normal subjective experience of the world and the mind
Characteristics of dreams
intense emotion, illogical thought, fully formed sensations, uncritical acceptance, difficulty recalling
Manifest content
Freud - topic/superficial meaning of dream
Latent content
Freud - underlying meaning of dream
Activation-synthesis model
dreams are produced when the brain attempts to make sense of random neural activity that occurs during sleep
Dream: Amygdala
activated, explains intense emotions
Dream: Visual association areas
activated, explains vivid imagery in dreams
Dream: prefrontal cortex
low activity, explains uncritical acceptance and illogical thought
Dream: Motor cortex
active, brain stem is also active to inhibit actual movement
Philosophical zombie problem
hypothetical being that responds to stimuli but may not have inner experience
p-zombie problem: problem of other minds
fundamental difficulty we have in perceiving the consciousness of others
Chinese room problem
No matter how many messages you receive and respond to, you still do not know Chinese. Elusiveness of conscious experience
Turing test
a test for intelligence in a computer, requiring that a human being should be unable to distinguish the machine from another human being by using the replies to questions put to both.
Encoding
process of transforming what we perceive, think, or feel into an enduring memory
Semantic encoding
the encoding of meaning
Semantic judgements
meaning of words
Rhyme judgements
sound of words
Case judgements
appearance of words
Brain areas for semantic encoding
lower left frontal lobe, inner left temporal lobe
Visual imagery encoding
process of storing new information by converting it into mental pictures
Effectiveness of visual imagery encoding
similar to semantic encoding (preexisting knowledge), two mental placeholders (visual and verbal)
Brain areas for visual imagery encoding
occipital lobe
Organisational encoding
process of categorising information according to the relationships among a series of items.
Brain areas for organisational encoding
Left frontal lobe
Storage
process of maintaining information in memory over time
Sensory memory
storage that holds sensory information for a few seconds or less
Iconic memory
a fast-decaying store of visual information (decay in 1sec)
Iconic memory test
a grid of letters is flashed on screen for only 1/20th of a second, difficult to recall individual letters. But if prompted to remember a particular row immediately after the experiment there is high accuracy.
Echoic memory
a fast-decaying store of auditory information (decay in 5sec)
Short term memory
holds nonsensory information for 15-20 seconds, capacity of 7 items
Long term memory
storage that holds information for hours, days, weeks, or years
Retrieval
the process of getting information out of memory storage
Rehearsal
the process of keeping information in short-term memory by mentally repeating it
Serial position effect
our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list
Primacy effect
remembering the first items in a list
Recency effect
remembering the last items on a list
Chunking
combining small pieces of information into manageable units held in STM
Working memory
active maintenance of information in short-term storage
Working memory model
Visuo-spatial sketchpad: visual images Phonological loop: verbal info Episodic buffer: integrates visual and verbal info (gateway to LTM, learning) Central executive: coordinates subsystems and episodic buffer (awareness and mental manipulation)
Prospective memory
remembering to do things in the future
Hippocampus in memory
related to STM
Anterograde amnesia
an inability to form new memories
Retrograde amnesia
an inability to retrieve information from one's past
Hippocampal region index
Hippocampal region serves as an index to link separate info into one memory
Long term potentiation (LTP)
communication across the synapse between neurons strengthens connection, making further communication easier
Consolidation
process by which memories become stable in the brain
Short term consolidation
operates over seconds/minutes
Long term consolidation
Operates over days/weeks/months/years
Reconslidation
Process whereby memories become vulnerable to disruption when recalled, requiring them to be consolidated again.
encoding specificity principle
retrieval cues that match original information work better
State-dependent retrieval
information tends to be better recalled when the person has the same inner state during encoding and retrieval
transfer-appropriate processing
memory is likely to transfer from one situation to another when the encoding and retrieval contexts of the situations match
Note
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