Midterm 1

CH.1

What is psychology:

• Psychology is the scientific study of:

  • Mind which takes a focus on its internal states and processes.

    • Processes in the mind are unable to be seen directly so experimenters must infer by info gathered through observation and measurable responses.

  • Brain which focuses on behavior and action/ responses that may be directly observed.

The Scientific Approach:

• The scientific method is an ongoing process where data is collected and evidence is taken from that and evaluated to tests beliefs about the world.

• The main kind of evidence used in the scientific approach is Empirical evidence.

  • Empirical evidence: evidence gained through experience and observation.

• The steps to the scientific approach:

  • Make observations

  • Think of questions

  • Formulate a Hypothesis

  • Develop Testable Predictions

  • Gather Data to test predictions

  • *Refine, alter, expand or reject hypothesis*

  • Develop general theories

  • RESTART FROM STEP 1

• Basic Research: just done to seek knowledge

• Applied Research: Using knowledge to SOLVE real-world problems

• Levels of Analysis:

  • Environmental: Our past/ current physical/social environments

  • Psychological: Thoughts, Feelings, Motives

  • Biological: Brain processes, Genetic influences.

Psychology’s intellectual Roots:

• Mind-body Dualism (Rene Descartes)

  • Belief that the mind is a spiritual entity separate from physical laws but still controls the body.

• Monism (John Locke)

  • the philosophical idea that the mind and body are intertwined.

  • Early part of school of British empiricism which believed mental events are a product of physical events that can be studied.

  • Two types of long-term memory:

    • Declarative memory: conscious recall of facts

    • Nondeclarative: procedural memory.

• Mind-body dualism and Monism are opposing ideas even though they are both British empiricist ideas

• Psychophysics: How psychologically experienced stimuli depends on characteristics of physical stimuli

• Structuralism (Wundt + Titchener)

  • School of psych which analyzed the mind in terms of its basic elements which can be broken down into its basic components.

  • Utilized introspection to study sensations.

  • However structuralism has many weak points since its measure are extremely subjective and cant take things into account which lie outside of our consciousness.

  • Structuralism eventually evolved into functionalism.

• Functionalism (James)

  • Aimed to study the adaptive function of psychological experience/ consciousness

  • Heavily influences by Darwin’s evolutionary theory.

  • James studied overt behaviors and established psychology in north America

• Psychodynamic (Sigmund Freud)

  • Looks for causes of behavior within our internal primary unconscious forces.

  • Modern Psychodynamic Theory focuses more on our early relationships and how the unconscious and conscious aspects of personality influence behavior.

  • Utilized psychoanalysis

    • Psychoanalysis: Analysis of internal and primary unconscious psychological forces

  • Also utilized free association to tap into forgotten early life experiences

  • Freud believed suppressed drives cause anxiety leading to defense mechanisms

• Behavioral Perspective:

  • Focuses on the role of the external environment in shaping our actions.

  • Believed behavior’s are determined by prior life habits and current environmental stimuli.

  • Pavlov- idea of pairing a neutral event with an event that naturally produces an outcome (classical conditioning.)

  • Thorndike: Believed learning occurred through consequences of actions.

    • Law of effect: actions more likely to recur following satisfaction; less likely to recur following dissatisfaction.

  • Watson: Believed humans are products of their learning and proper subject matter of psychology is observable behavior.

  • Skinner (Radical behaviorist): Believed humans are passive agents and we don’t act on the world, the world acts on us.

    • Believed behavior is modified by rewards and punishments.

    • Believed social engineering could be used to change societal behaviors in a positive manner.

  • John Locke (early behaviorist)

    • Has roots in empiricist Tabula Rasa or blank slate.

  • Law of effect: satisfying consequences become more likely to occur unlike negative consequences

• Cognitive Behaviorism (Bandura)

  • Well-designed experiments allow for the study of consciousness

  • Believes humans are thinking creatures that do not just react to the environment but also learn new behaviors by observing the actions of others.

  • Two way: environment influences us + we influence environment.

• Humanistic perspective:

  • Emphasizes: Free will, personal growth, finding meaning in existence

  • Rejects psychodynamic and behaviorist theory.

  • Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:

    • Belief in inborn force towards self actualization which is a blend between personal choice and environmental influence.

    • Believed supportive environment leads to positive inner nature while misery occurs when we are held back from achieving self-actualization.

• Gestalt Psychology:

  • Whole is greater than the sum of its parts, studies how elements of experience are organized into wholes .

• Cognitive Psychology:

  • Study of mental processes

  • Studies mainly occur through recording neural activity during cognitive tasks.

    • EEG/MEG: high temporal precision

    • fMRI/PET”: high spatial resolution

• Sociocultural:

  • How the social environment influences behavior

  • How presence of others influences behaviors, thoughts and feelings.

• Biological perspective:

  • How brain processes and bodily functions regulate behavior.

CH.2

• Good theory reqs:

  • Incorporates broad facts and observations in a organized way

  • Testable

  • Predictions can be supported

  • Conforms to law of parsimony.

    • Law of parsimony: If two theories can explain and predict the same phenomena equally well, the simpler theory is preferred.

• Approaches to understanding behavior:

  • Hindsight Understanding: Relies on explanations after the fact

  • Drawback: Varying explanation of past events

  • If we understand the causes of a given behavior then we should be able to predict the conditions under which that behavior may occur in the future.

  • If condition's can be controlled then we may reproduce these behaviors.

  • If conditions can be controlled then we may reproduce these behaviors.

  • Prediction + control is an alternative to hindsight understanding.

• Subject designs:

  • Between-Subjects design: Some participants get one experimental manipulation while the others get the other experimental manipulation.

  • Within-Subject design: All participants participate in ALL experimental manipulations.

• Research Validity:

  • Validity: How well an experiment procedure actually tests what it is designed to test

  • Internal Validity: the extent to which the observed results represent the truth in the population we are studying and, thus, are not due to methodological errors.

  • Construct Validity: the extent to which your test or measure accurately assesses what it's supposed to.

• Descriptive Research

  • Research which aims to identity and understand behavior's in their natural settings and also provides clues to cause-effect relationships.

  • Doesn’t test cause-effect directly still requires experiment such as a case study.

Appendix

• Statistical significance minimum level is less than 0.05

CH 3. Biological Foundations of Behavior

• Neurons:

  • Building blocks of the nervous system that are specialized for communication and connect with other neurons.

  • The dendrites: receive messages from neurons and pass it along to the cell body.

  • The soma (cell body): contains genetic info to determine how neuron develops/functions and processes information

  • Axon: Conducts electrical impulses to other glands/ muscles

• Glial Cells:

  • Cell which serves multiple functions:

    • Supports neuron placement

    • Manufactures and transport nutrients

    • Forms the myelin sheath

    • Absorbs toxins and waste material

    • Protects the brain from toxins via the blood-brain barrier

    • During development glial cells direct neurons to their proper place in the brain.

• The Resting Neuron:

  • Neurons communicate through changes in charge between the interior and exterior of the axon

  • Membrane potential diff

    • Resting potential about 70mV

  • The membrane is semi-permeable

  • Polar resting state

• The neuron “in action“

  • Action Potential: A sudden reversal in the neurons membrane voltage

  • The shift from -ve interior to a +ve interior is known as depolarization

  • Action in the neuron is an all or none response, all responses past the threshold are the same.

  • AP starts near cell body then moves along the axon to terminal to release NT

  • Threshold for AP is 50 mV

  • Key mechanism to AP is movement of Na+ and K+ ions across the cell membrane.

• After the AP

  • Neuron enters the refractory period

    • Refractory Period: brief interval when a neuron cannot fire another AP

      • Occurs after EACH AP

      • ~-70 mV absolute refractory period.

• Graded Potentials:

  • SMALL variable changes in the electrical potential of a neuron that occur in the dendrites and cell body but are not enough to cause an AP

  • May bring the cell closer or further to the threshold to fire an AP

• Myelin

  • Glial cells insulate axons to increase the speed of signal transmissions, along with efficiency.

    • Insulate axons in CNS

  • Nodes of Ranvier: gaps between myelin which allows AP to jump which increases speed.

  • Myelin is lost in MS which disrupts timing of impulses

• Neurotransmitters:

  • Neurotransmitters (NT): chemicals carry messages across the synapse

    • These neurotransmitters can be excitatory or inhibitory

      • Excitatory: excite neuron and cause it to fire off a message, pass it along to next cell (DEPOLARIZES)

        • Ex) glutamate, epinephrine, norepinephrine.

      • Inhibitory: block or prevent chemical messages from being passed on any farther. (HYPERPOLARIZES)

        • Ex) GABA, Serotonin

• Agonists VS Antagonists

  • Agonists: enhance neurons ability to synthesize, store or release NT.

    • Mimic the action of an NT by binding to its receptor site,

    • Inhibits reuptake

  • Antagonists: Reduce neurons ability to synthesize, store or release NT.

    • Prevent NT from binding to receptor site by blocking it

• The Nervous System:

  • Sensory Neurons: Carry messages from senses to spinal cord and brain

  • Motor Neurons: Transmits output impulses from the brain and spinal cord to muscles/ organs

  • Interneurons: link the input and output functions.

• Peripheral Nervous System:

  • Nerves that extend outside the CNS

  • Somatic NS: sensory and motor neurons (voluntary movements)

  • Autonomic Nervous System

    • Controls glands, and smooth muscles that form the heart, blood vessels and stomach/ intestine lining.

    • Involuntary VITAL functions (respiration, circulation, digestion, etc.)

    • Sympathetic NS: part of nervous system that controls fight or flight

      • Affects multiple organs

    • Parasympathetic NS: slows body processes to come down from fight or flight

• Central Nervous System - Spinal Cord

  • Sensory Nerves: body to brain

  • Motor Nerves: brain to body

  • Interneurons: plays a large role in reflexes and are in-between motor and sensory nerves

    • Responses may occur without brain involvement.

• Central Nervous System-Brain

  • Medulla: Responsible for vital function, and all sensory and motor tracts pass through here.

    • Also involved in heart rate + respiration

  • Pons: carries nerve impulses as a bridge between higher and lower level of NS, regulates other vital functions (regulates sleep, and is involved in dreaming)

    • Has motor neurons to control face + neck glands

  • Cerebellum: Muscular movement coordination (balance) known for graceful movements in cats.

  • Midbrain:

    • Sensory portion: relay centers for visual/auditory systems.

    • Motor portion: controls eye movements

    • Reticular Formation (Brains gatekeeper): Alerts higher brain areas of messages then blocks or allows them to pass, role in consciousness sleep, and attention.

      • The R.F also wakes up higher centre’s in the brain so they can prep to receive input from sense organs

      • Without R.F messages do not register in the conscious awareness as if the brain isn’t “awake enough“

    • Forebrain (Cerebrum): 2 hemispheres with various parts buried within.

    • Thalamus: Has sensory processing/ relay station and auditory, visual stimuli, and organizes + directs info.

  • Brainstem: life support system

  • Basal Ganglia: surrounds the thalamus and is involved in voluntary motor control and damage to it results in Parkinson's Disease.

  • Hypothalamus: Regulates maintains internal state, controls many basic biological drives and connects to endocrine and hormone secretion.

  • Limbic System: Coordinates behaviors to satisfy motivational/ emotional urges from hypothalamus and is involved in memory.

    • Hippocampus: Forming and retrieving memories

    • Amygdala: Emotional response patterns (fear/ aggression)

      • May help avoidance of risky decisions.

  • Motor Cortex: Controls 600+ muscles used in voluntary movements, has more cortical space for areas with finer motor control.

  • Sensory Cortex: Receives sensory input that gives rise to sensations and has more cortical space for areas with greater sensory sensitivity.

  • Brocas Area: involved in speech production

  • Wernicke's Area: Involved in Speech comprehension.

  • Association Cortex: Critically involved in highest level of mental functions.

  • Prefrontal Cortex: Controls executive functions, key in judgement and impulse control.

• In split brain patients:

  • Visual stimuli in RIGHT visual field sent to LEFT hemisphere CAN be orally described

  • Visual stimuli in LEFT field of vision sent to RIGHT hemisphere CANT be orally described

    • ALL BECAUSE LANGUAGE IS LOCATED ON LEFT HEMISPHERE

• NERVOUS SYSTEM SHORTCUTS:

  • CNS: Brain + Spinal cord

  • PNS: literally everything else

  • SNS: sensory + motor neurons

  • ANS: has sympathetic and parasympathetic and has the smooth muscles for vital involuntary functions.

• Neuroimaging

  • Brain structure: CT scan, MRI

    • MRI is most detailed

  • Brain function: fMRI, PET

    • Dive into the topic of long-term memory, specifically declarative and nondeclarative memory.

    • Learn about psychophysics and its relationship to psychological experiences and physical stimuli.

    • Study the structuralism approach in psychology, its focus on analyzing the mind's basic elements, and its use of introspection.

    • Understand the limitations of structuralism and its evolution into functionalism.

    • Explore functionalism, its emphasis on the adaptive function of psychological experiences, and its connection to Darwin's evolutionary theory.

    • Dive into the biological foundations of behavior, including the structure and function of neurons and glial cells.

    • Understand the process of action potential

CH.4 Genes, Evolution, and Behavior

• Genotype vs Phenotype

  • Genotype: Genetic makeup that is transmitted from parent to offspring

    • Cannot be changed

  • Phenotype: Observable characteristics

    • Can be altered by environment and may be the expression/inexpression of multiple genes

    • May be affected by Polygenic effects: Multiple genes interact to produce a single phenotype

• Chromosomes and Genes

  • Chromosome: Tightly coiled molecule of DNA partly covered by a protein (histone)

    • 43 pairs in regular cells, 23 in sex cells

  • Gene: Hereditary units and expression alters the function of cells and targets brain structure/ function.

  • Allele: Alternative forms of a gene which may be expressed as recessive or dominant

  • Epigenetics: Lasting changes in gene function caused by external/ environmental factors.

    • Ex: maternal drug use

    • Gene expression may be changed by:

      • Histone modification: Makes transcription easier or harder

      • DNA methylation: Epigenetic tags, upregulate or deregulate.

  • Reaction Range: Range of possibilities that the genetic code allows

• Evolution and Behavior

Second half of course

Chapter 4: Genes, Evolution, and Behavior

• Genotype vs Phenotype:

  • Main philosopher involved in the discovery of the different alleles involved in genotypes which results in phenotypes is Mendel.

  • Genotype: Genetic makeup transmitted from parents to offspring.

    • Genotype cannot change.

  • Phenotype: Observable characteristics which can be altered by the environment.

    • May be altered by expression inexpression of multiple genes (epigenetics)

• Chromosomes and Genes:

  • Chromosome: Tightly coiled molecule of DNA partly covered by a protein (histones)

    • Unwound chromosome = chromatin

    • 23 pairs of chromosomes → 43 individuals

  • Gene: Hereditary units.

    • Relative expression alters the function of cells.

    • half of genes target brain structure + function.

    • Some genes may have polygenic effects where multiples genes produce a single phenotype.

  • Chromosome- DNA- Gene

  • Allele: Alternative forms of a gene (recessive/ dominant)

  • Epigenetics: Lasting changes in gene function caused by external/ environmental factors.

    • Ex. maternal behavior. drug use, nutritional intake.

    • Genes are modified in 2 ways:

      • Histone modification

      • DNA methylation

• Behavioral Genetics

  • Behavioral Genetics: Study how hereditary and environmental factors combine to influence psychological characteristics.

    • Accounts for variation between people

  • Reaction Range: Range of possibilities that the genetic code allows

    • Environment determines where within the range one falls.

  • Genes have been found to account for some human traits including personality traits and attitudes about topics.

• Evolution

  • Behavior does NOT evolve, the genes interacting with the environment do.

  • Evolutionary noise:Neutral variations, how non-ideal genes somehow get passed on.

• Mating systems

  • Polygyny: Many females, one male

  • Monogamous: One male, One female

  • Polyandry: One female, many males

  • Polygynandry: All mate with all

Ch 5: Sensation and Perception

• Sensations: Stimulus-detection process by which our sense organs respond and translate stimuli from the environment into nerve impulses sent to the brain.

• Perception: Active process of organizing stimulus input and giving it meaning

  • May even be switched between depending on context.

• Transduction: Nervous system converts external stimulus into electrical signals

• Synesthesia: Mixing of the senses, cross-wiring of the senses within the brain where multiple areas experience neural activation.

• Signal detection theory:

  • Signal detection theory: Signals need to be pulled out from noise

    • Absolute threshold is not fixed

    • Has a range of uncertainty

    • Decision criterion: Standard of how certain we are of a stimulus in order to say we detected it

      • Subject to change

• Sensory Adaption

  • Sensory neurons are finely attuned to changes in stimulation these neurons activation declines overtime leading to sensory adaption.

• Vision

  • Light is only perceives in a small range of the electromagnetic spectrum. (400-700nm)

  • Higher wavelength to lower: ROYGBIV

• The Eye

  • Pupil: Controls amount of light let in

  • Retina: Location of visual transduction.

    • Contains rods + cones (transduction cells)

    • Contains fovea

      • Fovea: Part of visual field with most cones and cleanest vison, anything directly viewed is in fovea.

        • Visual acuity (ability to see fine detail) in highest in the fovea

    • Has the blind spot.

      • Blind Spot: Where optic nerve and fovea meet (there are no photo receptors.)

    • Bipolar cells: Help send messages to brain from rods + cones, have synaptic connection with ganglion cells.

      • Rods connect to bipolar cells by coming together as many rods to connect to the same bipolar cell to combine their messages where hopefully the many signals to one cell are enough to fire it.

      • Cones in the retina also share bipolar cells however in the fovea they each have a direct line to a bipolar cell making it the best for detail

    • Ganglion Cells: Receive synapse from bipolar cells the G.C axons collect into a bundle to form the optic nerve.

    • Optic nerve: Takes info from rods + cones to higher visual centers.

  • Photoreceptors are located in the retina and are broken down into two kinds:

    • Rods: Black/ white photoreceptors which function best in low light and are mostly located in the periphery. Everywhere BUT the fovea’

      • Rods adapt to darkness after 30 minutes.

      • There are more rods than cones in the human eye.

    • Cones: Color and detail photoreceptors which function best in high illumination and appear near the center of the retina. Fovea ONLY contains cones.

      • Cones adapt to darkness after 10 minutes.

    • Light sensitive ends of rods and cones point away from entering light so only a fraction of light is received.

  • Lens: Magnifies light rays, accommodates by getting thicker or thinner so that we see objects closer and further away.

    • Hyperopia (far sightedness): occurs when lens doesn’t converge rays enough because they go too far (SHORT EYEBALL)

      • Occurs over time

    • Myopia (nearsightedness): Lens is too thick and converges too soon, the perfect image falls too short (LONG EYEBALL)

      • As aging makes the eyeball decrease in length, sometimes age helps with myopia.

• Color vision + its theories

  • Trichromatic Theory (Young- Helmholtz): There are 3 types of color receptors in retina, cones are most sensitive to blue, green, red wavelengths and visual systems combine activity from these cells.

    • Colors are perceived by additive mixture of impulses, if all are equally activated white is produced.

    • Fails to explain colorblind individuals.

  • Opponent-process theory (Hering, 1870) : There are three cone types which respond to two wave lengths

    • Red + green

    • Blue + yellow

    • Black + white

  • Colorblind: Absent or reduced number of one (or more) cone types

    • Monochromats: no color vision (most rare type)

    • Dichromats: 2 cone types (red-green is most common)

    • Color blindness is most common in males as it is an x-linked gene

  • Feature detectors: Responds to edges + lines, lowest level located in the back of brain (V1 primary visual cortex)

    • Key scientists who have experimented on this brain area are Hubel & Wiesel

• Mechanics of Sound:

  • Mechanical energy: Pressure waves in the air which create vibrations.

    • Two characteristics: Frequency & Amplitude

    • Frequency: The sensation of sound, Number of sound waves (cycles per second) HOW OFTEN

      • measured in hertz (Hz)

      • Higher frequencies = higher pitch

      • Range is lost with age

    • Amplitude: The perception of sound, the vertical size of sound waves, how loud a sound is. The physical pressure on eardrum

      • Measured in decibels (db)

      • Higher amplitudes = louder

      • 120db is the threshold for pain.

• The Ear:

  • Outer ear: consists of pinna and ear canal its responsible for funneling soundwaves into the eardrum.

  • Middle Ear: Consists of the ossicles (malleus, incus, stapes), and the oval window and conducts sound to the inner ear to amplify sound.

  • Inner ear: consists of the cochlea (where transduction happens) and the basilar membrane.:

    • Cochlea: Location of transduction that is filled with fluid that is disturbed by soundwaves.

      • Contains the Organ of Corti and basilar membrane which causes hair cells to bend and release NT which travel to the auditory nerve and sends signals to brain (temporal: auditory cortex)

      • If something is louder it just means there are more action potentials occurring.

• Pitch Perception

  • Place Theory: Location within cochlea where signal is transduced correlates to pitch, believes there is a tonal frequency map.

    • Works best for high pitches (5000-20000 Hz)

  • Frequency Theory: Nerve impulses sent to the brain match the frequency of the sound waves

    • Works best for low pitch (below 1000 Hz)

  • Sound localization: Consists of monaural cues or Binaural cues

    • Interaural Intensity Difference (IID): How amplitude changes based on obstruction (eg. head)

    • Interaural Time DIfference (ITD): Time from right vs left ear

    • Cone of confusion: Occurs when sound is coming from right behind or above an individual

• Deafness

  • Conduction deafness: Mechanical issues that may be helped by a hearing aid and is usually caused by a punctured eardrum or the calcification of ossicles.

  • Nerve deafness: Damage to the hair cells or auditory nerve, harder to help.

  • May be caused by repeated exposure to loud noise (working in the trades) or aging.

• Taste and Smell (The Chemical Senses):

  • Olfaction and Gustation derive sense from the chemicals in the air/ solution.

  • They work together to create flavor.

• Gustation (taste)

  • Made up of 5 basic receptors:

    • Sweet

    • Sour

    • Salty

    • Bitter

    • Umami (“meaty”/ “savory“)

  • Smell, temperature, and touch also affect taste

  • Taste was adapted to seek out nutrients and avoid toxins.

  • Taste Buds: Located in the papillae, have different taste cells in each bud.

    • There are filiform papillae which have no associated taste bud.

• Olfaction (smell)

  • Humans are not very smell-oriented as most of our brain is oriented to vision.

  • Odors occur through airborne molecules which bind to olfactory and to the olfactory bulb

  • It is believed we discriminate odors through our receptors recognizing diverse odors individually rather than mixing activity.

• Tactile Senses:

  • Somatosensory system: where tactile senses such as, touch, kinesthesis, and equilibrium occur.

    • The somatosensory system signals extreme temperature and alerts us to disorders within the body.

    • No touch when young stunts physical, and emotional development.

  • Touch: Tactile stimuli on skin

    • May be light touches or deep pressures which are both considered mechanical or even temperatures.

    • Itching is a mixing of sensations.

    • Referred pain: Damage to internal organs, sensed in a different location (heart attack = arm hurts)

  • Pain exists in many types and occur in the sequence of:

    • Spinal cord- thalamus - either somatosensory and frontal areas or the limbic system.

    • Pain is processed faster than touch.

  • Gate control theory: The experience of pain results from opening/ closing gate

    mechanisms in spinal cord.

    • Both physical and psychological pain.

  • Endorphins: Built in pain killers in nervous system, inhibits release of NT involves in synaptic transmission of pain

  • Kinesthesis: Feedback about join/ muscle position from receptor nerve endings in muscles, joints, and tendons.

  • Equilibrium: Body orientation which is caused by receptors in inner ear (semi circular canals)

• Perception = creating experiences

  • Bottom-up processing: Stimulus itself shapes our perception WITHOUT any preconceived ideas.

  • Top-down processing: USES preconceived ideas to interpret what we see

  • Gestalt principles believe our perception is often more than the sum of its parts and is made up of 4 laws:

    • Similarity

    • Proximity

    • Closure

    • Continuity

  • Perceptual Schema :Ability to recognize something suggests we have a mental representation with which to compare

  • Perceptual Set: A readiness to perceive stimuli in a certain way.

  • Perceptual Constancies: Allows us to recognize familiar stimuli under varying conditions, consists of shape, brightness, and size constancy.

  • Depth Perception occurs even though the retina receives 2D info despite our vision being in 3D. Depth perception occurs through monocular depth cues or binocular cues.

    • Binocular disparity: occurs since each eye sees a slightly different image and the differences are analyzed by feature detectors tuned for depth

      • Convergence: Feedback from eye muscles when looking at a close object.

      • Things FAR away from the horopter are in the UNCROSSED disparity. (must uncross or diverge eyes to see it clearly)

      • Things CLOSE to the HOROPTER are in the crossed disparity (must cross or converge eyes to see it clearly)

Ch.6: States of Consciousness

• Consciousness

  • Consciousness: Moment to moment awareness of ourselves and our environment

    • Subjective and private experiences.

    • Dynamic, fluctuations in consciousness and attention throughout the day.

    • Self reflective. central to out sense of self

    • Connected with selective attention

• Freuds psychodynamic perspective

  • There are 3 levels of consciousness:

    • Conscious: current awareness

    • Preconscious : outside awareness, can be easily recalled.

    • Nonconscious: Cannot be brought to awareness

  • The non conscious may influence our behaviors in ways we are not aware of (placebo, subliminal perception, split brain patients.)

• Controlled vs Automatic Processing

  • Controlled processing is things such as planning and studying, it is more flexible to change.

  • Automatic processing is more routine actions or well-learned tasks such as typing or driving and these things are usually very quick.

    • The ability to perform more than one activity at once (divided attention) is facilitates by automatic processing.

• Circadian Rhythms

  • Circadian Rhythms: Cyclical changes that occur roughly every 24 hours

  • The circadian rhythm is controlled by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) also known as the brains biological clock.

    • Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN): Located in hypothalamus and controls levels of alertness and regulates seasonal changes.

      • The lack of a SCN would cause the loss of sleep/ wake behavior, hormone schedules, and physiological parameters (body temp).

    • Light and dark reset the clock via the eyes.

      • Those who are blind or live in the dark have a free running circadian rhythm (24.3- 24.8 hour clock)

    • The environment may disrupt the circadian rhythm through things like jetlag or daylight savings.

  • Brain waves from conscious to dream state:

    • Beta-Alpha-Theta-Delta

• Stages of sleep

  • Stage 1: Light Sleep

    • Only lasts a few minutes

    • Theta waves

  • Stage 2: Sleep spindles

    • Sleep spindles: Bursts of energy in the brain while sleeping

    • Muscles are relaxed and respiratory + heart rate is slowed.

  • Stage 3: Slow delta waves

  • Stage 4: Delta wave dominant

    • Lasts 20- 30 minutes

  • These stages are cycled through in the order 1-2-3-4-3-2

• REM Sleep

  • REM: Rapid Eye Movement sleep characterized by an increase in heart rate, body temp, breathing, and has brain waves similar to someone who is awake.

  • In REM the body is paralyzed.

  • 82% of dreams happen in REM and the other 7% happen in NREM

    • REM has vivid bizarre dreams

    • NREM dreams are less vivid

  • The sleep cycles last about 90 minutes

  • At some point in the night stage 3 and 4 sleep stops and REM gets longer.

• Brain Structure involved in Sleep

  • Basal forebrain & regions of the brain stem: Responsible for falling asleep

  • REM sleep:

    • Brain stem (reticular formation)

    • Increased limbic system activity

    • Association areas near visual cortex

    • Decreased PFC

• Theories on why we sleep

  • Restoration model: Recharges the body to recover from physical/ mental fatigue

  • Evolutionary/ Circadian model: Increase chance of survival as it restores energy

• Disorders of sleep

  • Insomnia: Chronic difficulty falling or staying asleep or experiencing restful sleep.

    • Difficulty falling asleep is usually seen in younger individuals

    • Difficulty staying asleep is usually seen in older individuals

    • Affects 10-40% of population

    • Has biological, psychological, and environmental causes.

    • Most common sleep disorder

  • Narcolepsy: Uncontrollable falling asleep which in extreme cases causes cataplexy

    • Cataplexy: Loss of motor control and going directly to REM sleep

    • Narcoleptic episodes may last between a minute to an hour.

    • Narcolepsy does not affect sleep at night.

    • Has a genetic predisposition by an insensitivity to hypocretin.

      • Hypocretin: Regulates arousal, wakefulness and appetite.

  • Sleepwalking

    • Typically occurs during stage 3 or 4 sleep.

    • Those sleepwalking will have blank stares as they are not actually processing visual stimuli.

    • Once awoken they will have no memory of the event.

    • Affects 10-30% of children and less than 5% of adults.

    • More likely to happen if stressed, sick, drinking, or using meds.

    • Its completely safe to wake up someone sleepwalking.

  • Nightmares/ night terrors

    • Nightmares: Frightening dreams

    • Night Terrors: Screaming, thrashing, sweating in sleep stages 3 and 4.

      • Those who experience night terrors will have no recollection of them in the morning

• Dreams

  • Dreams occur when brain is most active which is in REM or the last few hours before waking.

  • You always have dreams its a failure to recall dreams not a failure to dream.

  • Blind before age 4 = visual imagery.

  • Blind after 7= visual imagery present.

• Theories on Why we dream?

  • Freud

    • Believed main purpose of dreams was wish fulfillment to gratify unconscious desires/ needs which are typically sexually and aggressive in nature.

    • Believed dreams had manifest content which is the surface level events as well as latent content which is the hidden psychological meaning.

  • Activation-synthesis theory

    • Activation- synthesis theory: Brain is trying to make sense of random neural activity during REM sleep.

    • Dreams have no meaning and are simply a byproduct of REM activity.

  • Problem-solving dream model

    • Problem solving dream model: Dreams help find creative solutions to problems/ conflicts as they are not constrained by reality.

    • Cognitive-process dream theories: Dreams and wakefulness are produced by the same mental systems. Focuses on the process of how we dream.

      • Believes kids don’t talk about dreaming because they don’t have imagery and cognitive abilities to support dreams.

  • Antrobus 1991

    • REM reticular formation activates cortex.

    • Perception is interpreted by cognitive modules.

    • Emotions may overlay a theme and signal a perceptual module.

    • There’s limited external sensory input therefore brain does a best fit interpretation.

• Drugs and altered consciousness

  • Hallucinogenic drugs have been used for plenty of time.

  • Psychoactive drugs are viewed as a pervasive part of society due to their effect on the brain.

    • Modify brain chemistry

    • Cross blood-brain barrier

    • Facilitate or inhibit synaptic transmission.

  • Drugs: Substance that contains chemicals that alter consciousness by changing chemical processes in neurons.

    • Are typically agonist or antagonist and act through neurotransmitter systems.

  • Prolonged use of drugs may cause an increase of a tolerance and quitting will cause withdrawals.

  • Tolerance: Decreasing responsivity to a drug, requires more drug to achieve the same effects.

  • Withdrawal: Compensatory response after stopping drug use, true for both legal and illegal drugs.

• Types of Drugs

  • Depressants

    • Depressants: Decrease nervous system activity (increase of inhibitory GABA)

    • Moderate doses may help reduce anxiety and produce euphoria

    • High doses may decrease vitals and may be fatal

    • Common depressants are alcohol, barbiturates, and tranquillizers.

  • Stimulants

    • Stimulants: Increase nervous system activity/ neural firing (increase dopamine and norepinephrine)

      • Increase in: BP, heart rate, respiratory rate

      • Produces euphoria and boosts mood.

      • Makes an individual very irritable

      • Common stimulants are amphetamines and cocaine.

  • Opiates

    • Product of opium

      • Opium: Product of poppy plant

      • Opium derivatives: Morphine, codeine, heroin.

    • Opiates: Bind to receptors activated by endorphins to relieve pain or produce euphoria and mood changes.

    • Highly asddictive and cause traumatic withdrawals.

    • Common opiates are oxycodone and fentanyl

  • Hallucinogens

    • Hallucinogens: Mind-altering drugs that produce hallucinations

    • Distort sensory experiences and are highly unpredictable

    • Common hallucinogens are LSD, mescaline, and psilocybin.

  • Marijuana

    • Contains THC

      • THC (tetrahydrocannabinol): major active ingredient in marijuana which binds to receptors on neurons throughout the brain (increases dopamine and GABA)

• Hypnosis

  • Hypnosis: A therapeutic technique where clinicians make suggestions to individuals who have undergone a procedure designed to relax them and focus their minds.

  • Susceptibility to hypnosis depends on the individuals

  • NOT a sleep like state