Conditioning: Learning associations between events
Classical conditioning: environmental events, ex. Pavlos dog, bell = food, environmental events
Ivan Pavlov’s Research: a physiologist who was studying the digestive system of dogs. He would hook up a machine to the dog's cheek to measure how much it would salivate when he showed them food. He realized that the dogs who had done the experiment a few times and were more experienced would start to salivate when they heard the door open or someone walking to bring them food. It appears that things that signal upcoming food can by themselves produce salivation after the dog has learned to associate that thing with receiving food.
Before any learning occurs we have some stimulus that before any learning automatically stimulus some response. Ex. the food
Neutral stimulus: has no response before learning but when we pair it with the unconditioned stimulus (food) a learning association occurs and then the neutral stimulus turns into a conditioned stimulus which triggers a conditioned response. ( bell before conditioning )
Conditioned stimulus ( bell )
When picking a conditioned stimulus you never want to choose something that the subject has already been exposed to. You want to choose a novel stimulus or something that the subject has never been exposed to and therefore has no associations with. The conditioned stimulus does not need to resemble the unconditioned stimulus, anything can become a conditioned stimulus.
Timing: the best-conditioned response occurs when the neutral stimulus precedes the unconditioned stimulus. Ex. Bell then food; NOT food then bell
Conditioned response: salivating when the dog hears the bell
Acquisition: the acquiring of the conditioned response. Acquisition occurs when a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus.
Operant conditioning: behavior-consequence, one's behavior produces certain consequences, ex. good studying = good grades
Extinction: the weakening and eventual disappearance of a conditioned response. The continued stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus, the bell but no food. It may take many, many extinction sessions to truly get rid of that behavior.
Spontaneous recovery: the reappearance of a learned response after it seemed to have gone extinct. This usually occurs after a break in time.
Higher-order Conditioning: this is when you take an already conditioned stimulus, the bell, and pair it with a brand new neutral stimulus, the flash of light, and then eventually the new stimulus will become its own conditioned stimulus that will produce the conditioned response, salivating.
Bell = Food = Salivating
Bell + Light = Food = Salivating
Light = Food = Salivating
Stimulus Generalization: responding to similar stimuli. Example: the dog will produce the conditioned response (salivating) in response to stimuli that sound or look similar to the conditioned stimulus but are not actually it.
Stimulus Discrimination: learning not to respond to the other stimuli that are not the actual conditioned stimulus.
Classical Conditioning in Real Life:
Classical Conditioning in Ads: advertisers will take attractive people and pair them with the product because seeing the beautiful people creates an unconditioned positive response that you learn to associate with the product by conditioning. This is an example of evaluative conditioning.
Learning to Fear: many fears are learned through classical conditioning. John B. Watson and Rosie Raynor Classic “Little Albert” study. The researcher would place an infant on a table and place various things in front of him to see what his reaction would be. They placed a white rat in front of the infant and the babies were not afraid at all and they wanted to play with the rat. Then after finding that the rat was a neutral stimulus they placed the rat in front of the infant again and hit a gong to create a loud noise. Then the toddler cried and after a few trials when they put the rat in front of the baby again he would cry without the loud noise. The rat had become a conditioned stimulus. The baby also showed a fearful response to things similar to a white rat such as a bunny, Santa mask, and cotton balls. This study is famous for showing fear through conditioning and also showing stimulus generalization.
Counterconditioning: pair conditioned stimulus with a new unconditioned stimulus. Now the researchers paired the rat with cookies and eventually the toddlers associated the rat with happiness.
Taste Aversion: when a new smell or flavor unconsciously becomes linked with an unconditioned response like nausea. For example, you try a new dish, and a few hours later you catch a cold and puke. A week later you go to have that new food again and you cannot even smell the food without feeling nauseous. Taste aversion is unique because in can occur after a single trial and there can even be a large delay between the stimulus and the response. This is due to a biological readiness to associate taste/color with illness/danger. We learn to stay away from poisonous things. Aversion means something we like to avoid.
Antabuse: antabuse is a drug that induces nausea. This can be used to treat alcoholism. You add the Antabuse, an emetic drug, to the drink and have the patient drink it. Later this will make him vomit. The hope of this treatment is that the patient will be conditioned to feel sick at the taste or smell of alcohol.
Drug Tolerance:
UCS = Drug
UCR = Physio. Arousal
CS = Drug Environment
CR = Physio. Slow-down
The unconditioned response and the conditioned response are in opposite directions because the body wants to compensate for the upcoming high.
Only real-life example where CR and UR have opposite effects.
Example: Blank was a regular cocaine user who often used in the same environment. One night he was asleep and it was time for his next dose of Cocaine so his girlfriend gave him his “normal” dose. He overdosed and died because he was asleep and his body did not prepare for the drug. He wasn't in his normal drug environment.
This phenomenon also explains withdrawal symptoms because your body prepares itself for the drug but never receives it.
Operant Conditioning
Behavior (“BX”) is controlled by its consequences
B.F. Skinner
The skinner box:
Consequences
Reinforcement: Behavior more likely to occur
Punishment: Behavior less likely to occur
Reinforcement
Primary reinforcers: inherently reinforcing; they are reinforcing without any learning required, and they normally satisfy a biological need EX. food, sex, water
Secondary reinforcers: associated with primary; we learn to value them. They are reinforcing through some learning EX. praise, awards, money; a baby doesn’t care about money but we learned as adults that we need money to survive.
Positive Reinforcement: presenting of a reinforcing stimulus. Reward learning. EX. The rat presses a level, and food is delivered, so the rat keeps pressing the lever.
Negative Reinforcement: strengthens a behavior through the removal of an unpleasant stimulus EX. Parents are nagging at you to do homework so to stop the nagging you study. Nagging is the unpleasant stimulus. Escape avoidance learning. EX. The rat standing on a shock floor, pressing a level turns the shock off, rat continues pressing the level.
Punishment: Decreases the strength of a behavior EX. rat pressing a lever turns the shock floor on, rat stops pressing the lever
Shaping: Reinforce successive approximations; reinforcing gradual progress of the desired behavior
EX. Training animals
When does extinction occur in operant conditioning and when does it occur in classical conditioning?
In classical conditioning, extinction occurs when the conditioned stimulus (bell) is experienced repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus (food).
In operant conditioning, extinction occurs when the action stops triggering the reinforcement
Extinction Burst: A burst in the desired behavior just after reinforcement stops. EX. Hitting the lever gave the rat food but we stopped this and hitting the lever didn't do anything. At first, the rat will hit the bar a lot all at once because it is confused and wants the food.
Spontaneous recovery: When there is a gap in time after extinction and the previously extinguished behavior reoccurs. EX. The next day the rat hits the lever again after sleeping all night.
Discriminative stimulus: cues indicating the probable consequence of a behavior. EX. Red light and green light that signal shock vs treat.
Schedules of Reinforcement:
Continuous: Every time you perform the behavior, it is reinforced. EX. The rat presses the lever and gets food every time.
Intermittent (Partial): When you perform the behavior, sometimes the behavior is reinforced. EX. The rat presses the lever and only sometimes gets the food.
Intermittent reinforcement shows greater resistance to extinction.
Intermittent Schedules
Fixed Ratio: reinforcement is given after a fixed number of responses. EX. The rat has to press the lever exactly 5 times before it will give him food. EX. you sell cars and you get a bonus for every 10th car you sell.
Variable Ratio: the reinforcement is available after a variable number of responses; the exact number of responses varies around some average EX. The average number of lever presses to get food is 10 but every time the number of times the rat has to press changes. EX. slot machines
Fixed Interval: the reinforcement occurs for the first behavior after some amount of time. EX. the rat can press the bar as many times as he wants but he only gets food when he presses the bar after 10 seconds have passed, then the interval repeats.
Variable interval: the reinforcement is given after some variable amount of time has passed. EX. the rat has to wait some amount of time before pressing the level will give him food, could be 10,15,3,8,12 seconds, etc.
Ratio schedules produce faster responding than interval schedules. This is because the organism will realize after a certain number of responses they will be rewarded.
Variable schedules produced very consistent responses. This is because the organism never really knows when the next reinforcement is available.
Fixed schedules create post-reinforcement pauses in the response. Right after reinforcement, the response levels will drop because the organism learns that it has to wait.
New Issues in Conditioning
Biological Influences: variables that can slow down or delay conditioning
Conditioned taste aversion: Biological influences speed up conditioning
Preparedness & Phobias: there is something built into our genes that make us fearful of certain things and not others. This is because our ancestors were threatened by spiders, heights, and snakes etc.
Instinctive Drift: the idea that sometimes an animal will drift back to instinctive behavior.
Latent Learning: They are learning but pivlate. those who are reinforced are likely to learn and continue the same patterns. Hidden learning
Observational Learning:
Albert Bandura
Conditions g ( cc and OC) can be learned by ordering models
Vicarious cond.
EX. A groupd of birds is passing by. The birds that have figured it out are digger through the trash and other other birds are watching =..
Famous “Bobo Doll”: each child was assigned to one of 4 groups. Group 1 saw the scientist play very gently with the doll and then smiled at him later that day.
Group 2 watched the adults beat up the doll and then be praised for it.
Group 3 watched the adults
Children learn through observation
TV/Video game violence increases aggression in both kids and adults. ISSUE: these are often correlation studies =, but many of them are experimental.
Wathcing violent video tends to desensitise us from the real cosequences of violence.
Chapter 5: Variations in Consciousness
Consciousness: the awareness of internal and external stimuli
Circadian Rhythms: occur on a 24-hour cycle
Sleep/Wake Cycle
The Body’s Clock
Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN): “Master Pacemaker”, found in the hypothalamus
When the SCN receives the message that its getting dark, it sends a message to the pineal gland which produces melatonin.
Melatonin makes you tired.
Artificial lights can disrupt this process and keep us from being able to fall asleep.
Violating Circadian Rhythms
Jet lag
It takes about a day for our body to adjust to a new time zone
It is harder to adjust to traveling east than it is to adjust to traveling west for most people. This is because traveling east shortens our day while traveling west lengthens our day.
Baseball Study: The visiting teams' win rates. If the visiting team does not travel the day before, they win 46% of the time. If the team traveled west the day before they won 44% of the time. If they traveled east the day before they won 37% of the time.
Why Do We Sleep?
Uncertain
Sleep Deprivation:
NTSB says that sleep-deprived driving is more dangerous than alcohol or drugs.
AAA study found that 80% report that they have fallen asleep while driving
AAA also found that 1 in 6 driving fatalities involved sleep deprivation
AAA found that 24 hours without sleep is the same as having a BAC of 0.1, it's the same as drunk driving.
College students are not aware of the fact that sleep deprivation limits their ability to do well on cognitive tests. - Conclusion of study
When male fruit flies are deprived of sleep they rarely mate. Sleep deprivation affects their sex drive.
The lack of deep sleep could actually be the reason for types of “old-age” diseases because as we get older we get much less deep sleep.
Stages of Sleep
Beta: Awake
Alpha: Drowsy
Theta: Stage 1; your brain waves become small and irregular and you feel yourself drifting on the edge of sleep. Hypnic jerks: When youre on the edge of sleep and your body jerks. This is a transition stage and it only lasts about 1-7 min.
Stage 2; lasts 10-20 minutes. Moderate noises probably won’t disturb you.
Delta: stage 3: heart rate slows, muscles relax
Delta: Stage 4: deep sleep, would take loud noise or shaking to awaken you; sleepwalking or sleeptalking occurs here
Beta: REM Sleep; the brain wave activity during REM sleep is the same as when we are awake; the brain is very active during REM
We get our deepest sleep (delta) during the first half of the night and most of our REM sleep during the second half of the night. This is why it's important to sleep the full night so you are not depriving yourself of deep sleep or REM sleep.
REM Sleep (Rapid Eye Movement)
“Paradoxical Sleep”
The brain is very active yet the body is virtually paralyzed
We have our most vivid dreams during REM sleep and these are the dreams we are the most likely to remember.
Purpose: memory consolidation; firming up recent learning so we can use it long term. REM sleep enhances learning.
REM Rebound: When we are deprived of REM sleep our body will jump right into REM sleep the next time we are able.
Slow-Wave Rebound: if people are deprived delta (deep) sleep, the next time they sleep their body will quickly fall into deep sleep.
Read about culture, sleep, and dreams
The stages of sleep seem to be the same for everyone worldwiofe; biological phenomenon. When people sleep might differ but the basic brain wave production is the same.
There are a lot of culuteral difference in how dreams are interpreted. There are cultures that put a lot of belief into their dreams and believ they prediited the future.
Study the name of the disorder and very basically what the syptoms are; sleep disorders
Why do we Dream? Our wishes and sometimes are fears emerge in our dreams.
Wish Fulfillment: Freud said dreams have an obvious plot but there are actallu deeper meanings to dreams. The was a woman who had repeated dreams that she was at her brothers funeral and she was confused because she loved her brother and did mot want him to die. Every dream was different but in every dream there was one similarity, she was standing next to the same man and he was conforming her. Latent content: desire for the man
The Problem Solving: Thinking through the issues of our day in our dreams and attempting to solve them. This can explain why dreaming is important
Activation synthesis model: The idea that deep in the brain, the pons sens out random neural signals to “keep the engine running” to the prefrontal cortex and the prefrontal cortex contruscts a dream to explain the random signals.
Hypnosis: A state of extreme suggestibility; the hypnatists suggest changes in the subjects, feelijngs, behavior etc and the subject tries to comply with the changes. People who have been hypnotized say it felt involuntary.
Two theories of hypnosis:
Dissociation theory: a split in consciousness where one observes and the other listens to the hypnotist. This is an everyday experience, for example when you drive home but then cannot remember the drive this is because one consciousness was focused on driving while the other was thinking about whatever you were thinking about, ex. homework, big game, etc. This can also be effective as pain control for some
Role Playing Theory: the hypnotized person “hands themselves over” to the hypnotist and plays the role of a hypnotized person. This is not to say that they are faking it, they are just so immersed in the role play that they give in to the suggestions from the hypnotist.
Forensic use of Hypnosis: Hypnosis does not increase the accuracy of memory recall
APA recommends that hypnotically refreshed testimony should not be allowed in court because it tends to be so inaccurate
Most states prohibit it in court
Hypnotized subjects reported less accurate memories but they are more confident in their statements
Consciousness Altering Drugs
Classifying Drugs
Most drugs are classified according to how they affect the central nervous system CNS or how they impact mood or behavior
Depressants: slow down your heart rate, breathing rate, and body function (CNS)
Sedatives
Alcohol: most widely used recreational drug in the US
Stimulants: Increase activity of CNS
Nicotine
Caffeine
Ridaline: increases the ability to focus on one thing and cuts out the other distractions
Aderhal
Opiates (narcotics): opium plants
Heroin
Morphine: medical pain relief
Hallucinogens (Psychedelics)
LSD: produce a sense of euphoria and produce hallucinations
Used in religious ceremonies
Can also produce extreme paranoia
Cannabis
Medical uses: cannabis can be used to treat glaucoma and can help people undergoing chemotherapy have an appetie
Neurotransmisster Activty
Dopamine (Reward) Pathway
All the drugs above affect the dopamine pathway
Drugs releases dopamine which makes them highly addictive
As our tolerance increases we need more and more of that drug to get the same dopamine release has the first time we took the drug.
Conditioning: Learning associations between events
Classical conditioning: environmental events, ex. Pavlos dog, bell = food, environmental events
Ivan Pavlov’s Research: a physiologist who was studying the digestive system of dogs. He would hook up a machine to the dog's cheek to measure how much it would salivate when he showed them food. He realized that the dogs who had done the experiment a few times and were more experienced would start to salivate when they heard the door open or someone walking to bring them food. It appears that things that signal upcoming food can by themselves produce salivation after the dog has learned to associate that thing with receiving food.
Before any learning occurs we have some stimulus that before any learning automatically stimulus some response. Ex. the food
Neutral stimulus: has no response before learning but when we pair it with the unconditioned stimulus (food) a learning association occurs and then the neutral stimulus turns into a conditioned stimulus which triggers a conditioned response. ( bell before conditioning )
Conditioned stimulus ( bell )
When picking a conditioned stimulus you never want to choose something that the subject has already been exposed to. You want to choose a novel stimulus or something that the subject has never been exposed to and therefore has no associations with. The conditioned stimulus does not need to resemble the unconditioned stimulus, anything can become a conditioned stimulus.
Timing: the best-conditioned response occurs when the neutral stimulus precedes the unconditioned stimulus. Ex. Bell then food; NOT food then bell
Conditioned response: salivating when the dog hears the bell
Acquisition: the acquiring of the conditioned response. Acquisition occurs when a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus.
Operant conditioning: behavior-consequence, one's behavior produces certain consequences, ex. good studying = good grades
Extinction: the weakening and eventual disappearance of a conditioned response. The continued stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus, the bell but no food. It may take many, many extinction sessions to truly get rid of that behavior.
Spontaneous recovery: the reappearance of a learned response after it seemed to have gone extinct. This usually occurs after a break in time.
Higher-order Conditioning: this is when you take an already conditioned stimulus, the bell, and pair it with a brand new neutral stimulus, the flash of light, and then eventually the new stimulus will become its own conditioned stimulus that will produce the conditioned response, salivating.
Bell = Food = Salivating
Bell + Light = Food = Salivating
Light = Food = Salivating
Stimulus Generalization: responding to similar stimuli. Example: the dog will produce the conditioned response (salivating) in response to stimuli that sound or look similar to the conditioned stimulus but are not actually it.
Stimulus Discrimination: learning not to respond to the other stimuli that are not the actual conditioned stimulus.
Classical Conditioning in Real Life:
Classical Conditioning in Ads: advertisers will take attractive people and pair them with the product because seeing the beautiful people creates an unconditioned positive response that you learn to associate with the product by conditioning. This is an example of evaluative conditioning.
Learning to Fear: many fears are learned through classical conditioning. John B. Watson and Rosie Raynor Classic “Little Albert” study. The researcher would place an infant on a table and place various things in front of him to see what his reaction would be. They placed a white rat in front of the infant and the babies were not afraid at all and they wanted to play with the rat. Then after finding that the rat was a neutral stimulus they placed the rat in front of the infant again and hit a gong to create a loud noise. Then the toddler cried and after a few trials when they put the rat in front of the baby again he would cry without the loud noise. The rat had become a conditioned stimulus. The baby also showed a fearful response to things similar to a white rat such as a bunny, Santa mask, and cotton balls. This study is famous for showing fear through conditioning and also showing stimulus generalization.
Counterconditioning: pair conditioned stimulus with a new unconditioned stimulus. Now the researchers paired the rat with cookies and eventually the toddlers associated the rat with happiness.
Taste Aversion: when a new smell or flavor unconsciously becomes linked with an unconditioned response like nausea. For example, you try a new dish, and a few hours later you catch a cold and puke. A week later you go to have that new food again and you cannot even smell the food without feeling nauseous. Taste aversion is unique because in can occur after a single trial and there can even be a large delay between the stimulus and the response. This is due to a biological readiness to associate taste/color with illness/danger. We learn to stay away from poisonous things. Aversion means something we like to avoid.
Antabuse: antabuse is a drug that induces nausea. This can be used to treat alcoholism. You add the Antabuse, an emetic drug, to the drink and have the patient drink it. Later this will make him vomit. The hope of this treatment is that the patient will be conditioned to feel sick at the taste or smell of alcohol.
Drug Tolerance:
UCS = Drug
UCR = Physio. Arousal
CS = Drug Environment
CR = Physio. Slow-down
The unconditioned response and the conditioned response are in opposite directions because the body wants to compensate for the upcoming high.
Only real-life example where CR and UR have opposite effects.
Example: Blank was a regular cocaine user who often used in the same environment. One night he was asleep and it was time for his next dose of Cocaine so his girlfriend gave him his “normal” dose. He overdosed and died because he was asleep and his body did not prepare for the drug. He wasn't in his normal drug environment.
This phenomenon also explains withdrawal symptoms because your body prepares itself for the drug but never receives it.
Operant Conditioning
Behavior (“BX”) is controlled by its consequences
B.F. Skinner
The skinner box:
Consequences
Reinforcement: Behavior more likely to occur
Punishment: Behavior less likely to occur
Reinforcement
Primary reinforcers: inherently reinforcing; they are reinforcing without any learning required, and they normally satisfy a biological need EX. food, sex, water
Secondary reinforcers: associated with primary; we learn to value them. They are reinforcing through some learning EX. praise, awards, money; a baby doesn’t care about money but we learned as adults that we need money to survive.
Positive Reinforcement: presenting of a reinforcing stimulus. Reward learning. EX. The rat presses a level, and food is delivered, so the rat keeps pressing the lever.
Negative Reinforcement: strengthens a behavior through the removal of an unpleasant stimulus EX. Parents are nagging at you to do homework so to stop the nagging you study. Nagging is the unpleasant stimulus. Escape avoidance learning. EX. The rat standing on a shock floor, pressing a level turns the shock off, rat continues pressing the level.
Punishment: Decreases the strength of a behavior EX. rat pressing a lever turns the shock floor on, rat stops pressing the lever
Shaping: Reinforce successive approximations; reinforcing gradual progress of the desired behavior
EX. Training animals
When does extinction occur in operant conditioning and when does it occur in classical conditioning?
In classical conditioning, extinction occurs when the conditioned stimulus (bell) is experienced repeatedly without the unconditioned stimulus (food).
In operant conditioning, extinction occurs when the action stops triggering the reinforcement
Extinction Burst: A burst in the desired behavior just after reinforcement stops. EX. Hitting the lever gave the rat food but we stopped this and hitting the lever didn't do anything. At first, the rat will hit the bar a lot all at once because it is confused and wants the food.
Spontaneous recovery: When there is a gap in time after extinction and the previously extinguished behavior reoccurs. EX. The next day the rat hits the lever again after sleeping all night.
Discriminative stimulus: cues indicating the probable consequence of a behavior. EX. Red light and green light that signal shock vs treat.
Schedules of Reinforcement:
Continuous: Every time you perform the behavior, it is reinforced. EX. The rat presses the lever and gets food every time.
Intermittent (Partial): When you perform the behavior, sometimes the behavior is reinforced. EX. The rat presses the lever and only sometimes gets the food.
Intermittent reinforcement shows greater resistance to extinction.
Intermittent Schedules
Fixed Ratio: reinforcement is given after a fixed number of responses. EX. The rat has to press the lever exactly 5 times before it will give him food. EX. you sell cars and you get a bonus for every 10th car you sell.
Variable Ratio: the reinforcement is available after a variable number of responses; the exact number of responses varies around some average EX. The average number of lever presses to get food is 10 but every time the number of times the rat has to press changes. EX. slot machines
Fixed Interval: the reinforcement occurs for the first behavior after some amount of time. EX. the rat can press the bar as many times as he wants but he only gets food when he presses the bar after 10 seconds have passed, then the interval repeats.
Variable interval: the reinforcement is given after some variable amount of time has passed. EX. the rat has to wait some amount of time before pressing the level will give him food, could be 10,15,3,8,12 seconds, etc.
Ratio schedules produce faster responding than interval schedules. This is because the organism will realize after a certain number of responses they will be rewarded.
Variable schedules produced very consistent responses. This is because the organism never really knows when the next reinforcement is available.
Fixed schedules create post-reinforcement pauses in the response. Right after reinforcement, the response levels will drop because the organism learns that it has to wait.
New Issues in Conditioning
Biological Influences: variables that can slow down or delay conditioning
Conditioned taste aversion: Biological influences speed up conditioning
Preparedness & Phobias: there is something built into our genes that make us fearful of certain things and not others. This is because our ancestors were threatened by spiders, heights, and snakes etc.
Instinctive Drift: the idea that sometimes an animal will drift back to instinctive behavior.
Latent Learning: They are learning but pivlate. those who are reinforced are likely to learn and continue the same patterns. Hidden learning
Observational Learning:
Albert Bandura
Conditions g ( cc and OC) can be learned by ordering models
Vicarious cond.
EX. A groupd of birds is passing by. The birds that have figured it out are digger through the trash and other other birds are watching =..
Famous “Bobo Doll”: each child was assigned to one of 4 groups. Group 1 saw the scientist play very gently with the doll and then smiled at him later that day.
Group 2 watched the adults beat up the doll and then be praised for it.
Group 3 watched the adults
Children learn through observation
TV/Video game violence increases aggression in both kids and adults. ISSUE: these are often correlation studies =, but many of them are experimental.
Wathcing violent video tends to desensitise us from the real cosequences of violence.
Chapter 5: Variations in Consciousness
Consciousness: the awareness of internal and external stimuli
Circadian Rhythms: occur on a 24-hour cycle
Sleep/Wake Cycle
The Body’s Clock
Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN): “Master Pacemaker”, found in the hypothalamus
When the SCN receives the message that its getting dark, it sends a message to the pineal gland which produces melatonin.
Melatonin makes you tired.
Artificial lights can disrupt this process and keep us from being able to fall asleep.
Violating Circadian Rhythms
Jet lag
It takes about a day for our body to adjust to a new time zone
It is harder to adjust to traveling east than it is to adjust to traveling west for most people. This is because traveling east shortens our day while traveling west lengthens our day.
Baseball Study: The visiting teams' win rates. If the visiting team does not travel the day before, they win 46% of the time. If the team traveled west the day before they won 44% of the time. If they traveled east the day before they won 37% of the time.
Why Do We Sleep?
Uncertain
Sleep Deprivation:
NTSB says that sleep-deprived driving is more dangerous than alcohol or drugs.
AAA study found that 80% report that they have fallen asleep while driving
AAA also found that 1 in 6 driving fatalities involved sleep deprivation
AAA found that 24 hours without sleep is the same as having a BAC of 0.1, it's the same as drunk driving.
College students are not aware of the fact that sleep deprivation limits their ability to do well on cognitive tests. - Conclusion of study
When male fruit flies are deprived of sleep they rarely mate. Sleep deprivation affects their sex drive.
The lack of deep sleep could actually be the reason for types of “old-age” diseases because as we get older we get much less deep sleep.
Stages of Sleep
Beta: Awake
Alpha: Drowsy
Theta: Stage 1; your brain waves become small and irregular and you feel yourself drifting on the edge of sleep. Hypnic jerks: When youre on the edge of sleep and your body jerks. This is a transition stage and it only lasts about 1-7 min.
Stage 2; lasts 10-20 minutes. Moderate noises probably won’t disturb you.
Delta: stage 3: heart rate slows, muscles relax
Delta: Stage 4: deep sleep, would take loud noise or shaking to awaken you; sleepwalking or sleeptalking occurs here
Beta: REM Sleep; the brain wave activity during REM sleep is the same as when we are awake; the brain is very active during REM
We get our deepest sleep (delta) during the first half of the night and most of our REM sleep during the second half of the night. This is why it's important to sleep the full night so you are not depriving yourself of deep sleep or REM sleep.
REM Sleep (Rapid Eye Movement)
“Paradoxical Sleep”
The brain is very active yet the body is virtually paralyzed
We have our most vivid dreams during REM sleep and these are the dreams we are the most likely to remember.
Purpose: memory consolidation; firming up recent learning so we can use it long term. REM sleep enhances learning.
REM Rebound: When we are deprived of REM sleep our body will jump right into REM sleep the next time we are able.
Slow-Wave Rebound: if people are deprived delta (deep) sleep, the next time they sleep their body will quickly fall into deep sleep.
Read about culture, sleep, and dreams
The stages of sleep seem to be the same for everyone worldwiofe; biological phenomenon. When people sleep might differ but the basic brain wave production is the same.
There are a lot of culuteral difference in how dreams are interpreted. There are cultures that put a lot of belief into their dreams and believ they prediited the future.
Study the name of the disorder and very basically what the syptoms are; sleep disorders
Why do we Dream? Our wishes and sometimes are fears emerge in our dreams.
Wish Fulfillment: Freud said dreams have an obvious plot but there are actallu deeper meanings to dreams. The was a woman who had repeated dreams that she was at her brothers funeral and she was confused because she loved her brother and did mot want him to die. Every dream was different but in every dream there was one similarity, she was standing next to the same man and he was conforming her. Latent content: desire for the man
The Problem Solving: Thinking through the issues of our day in our dreams and attempting to solve them. This can explain why dreaming is important
Activation synthesis model: The idea that deep in the brain, the pons sens out random neural signals to “keep the engine running” to the prefrontal cortex and the prefrontal cortex contruscts a dream to explain the random signals.
Hypnosis: A state of extreme suggestibility; the hypnatists suggest changes in the subjects, feelijngs, behavior etc and the subject tries to comply with the changes. People who have been hypnotized say it felt involuntary.
Two theories of hypnosis:
Dissociation theory: a split in consciousness where one observes and the other listens to the hypnotist. This is an everyday experience, for example when you drive home but then cannot remember the drive this is because one consciousness was focused on driving while the other was thinking about whatever you were thinking about, ex. homework, big game, etc. This can also be effective as pain control for some
Role Playing Theory: the hypnotized person “hands themselves over” to the hypnotist and plays the role of a hypnotized person. This is not to say that they are faking it, they are just so immersed in the role play that they give in to the suggestions from the hypnotist.
Forensic use of Hypnosis: Hypnosis does not increase the accuracy of memory recall
APA recommends that hypnotically refreshed testimony should not be allowed in court because it tends to be so inaccurate
Most states prohibit it in court
Hypnotized subjects reported less accurate memories but they are more confident in their statements
Consciousness Altering Drugs
Classifying Drugs
Most drugs are classified according to how they affect the central nervous system CNS or how they impact mood or behavior
Depressants: slow down your heart rate, breathing rate, and body function (CNS)
Sedatives
Alcohol: most widely used recreational drug in the US
Stimulants: Increase activity of CNS
Nicotine
Caffeine
Ridaline: increases the ability to focus on one thing and cuts out the other distractions
Aderhal
Opiates (narcotics): opium plants
Heroin
Morphine: medical pain relief
Hallucinogens (Psychedelics)
LSD: produce a sense of euphoria and produce hallucinations
Used in religious ceremonies
Can also produce extreme paranoia
Cannabis
Medical uses: cannabis can be used to treat glaucoma and can help people undergoing chemotherapy have an appetie
Neurotransmisster Activty
Dopamine (Reward) Pathway
All the drugs above affect the dopamine pathway
Drugs releases dopamine which makes them highly addictive
As our tolerance increases we need more and more of that drug to get the same dopamine release has the first time we took the drug.
