Chapter 4

Question 1

What is consciousness

Answer 1

Awareness of ourselves and our environment

Question 2

What is the difference between sensation and perception

Answer 2

Sensation- the physical process during which sensory organs respons to external stimuli
Perception- the psychological process that makes sense of the stimuli

Question 3

What three steps of sensation

Answer 3

Reception-the stimulation
Transduction- transforming stimulation
Transmission-delivering information

Question 4

What is transduction

Answer 4

The conversion of one form of energy to another

Question 5

What is the difference between absolute threshold and differential threshold/just noticeable difference (JND)

Answer 5

Absolute threshold- the minimal amount of stimulation that each sense organ requires in order to detect a stimulus
JDN- a principle that underlies our ability to detect the difference between two stimuli of different intensities

Question 6

Signal detection

Answer 6

Method for studying the ability to correctly identify sensory stimuli (hearing test)

Question 7

What is weber’s law

Answer 7

The idea that bigger stimuli require larger differences to be noticed
Minimum: 2% weight, 8% light intensity and 0.3% sound wave frequency

Question 8

What is bottom up processing

Answer 8

When we build up to perception from the individual pieces (the first experience)

Question 9

What is bottom up processing

Answer 9

When we build up to perception from the individual pieces (the first experience)

Question 10

What is top down processing

Answer 10

When stimuli we’ve experienced in our past influences how we experience new ones

Question 11

What is sensory adaption

Answer 11

When we experience a stimuli that doesn’t change, we stop paying attention to it (ex. Feeling the weight of our clothing)

Question 12

What is subconscious

Answer 12

A concept introduced by Sigmund Freud that proposes that some of our memories and even basic motivations are not always accessible to our conscious minds

Question 13

What are cues

Answer 13

A stimulus that has a particular significance to the perceiver

Question 14

What is priming

Answer 14

The activation of certain thoughts or feelings that make them easier to think if and act upon (ex priming people by having them drink a warm glass of milk, vs a cold one, resulted in them behaving more “warmly” towards others)

Question 15

What is the difference between low awareness and high awareness

Answer 15

Low awareness- saves mental effort, influenced by subtle factors (not in total control, just go with the flow)
High awareness- uses mental effort, can overcome some biases (needs more effort, in total control)

Question 16

What is mindfulness

Answer 16

A state of higher consciousness that includes an awareness of the thoughts passing through one’s head

Question 17

What is the flexible correction model

Answer 17

People who are aware that their thoughts/feelings are being influenced by an undone, outside source, can correct their attitude against the bias.

Question 18

The less we are paying attention —-

Answer 18

The more likely we are to be influenced by non-conscious stimuli

Question 19

Who is franz mesmer

Answer 19

Often credited as among the first people to “discover” hypnosis; the word mesmerize stems from mesmer’s name

Question 20

What is hypnosis

Answer 20

A mental state characterized by reduced peripheral awareness and increased focus on a singular stimulus, which results in an enhanced susceptibility to suggestion

Question 21

What is the difference between dissociation and trance states

Answer 21

Dissociation- The separation of one’s awareness from everything besides what one is centrally focused on
Trance states- involves dissociation of one’s self, however people in a trance state are said to have less voluntary control over their behaviors and actions

Question 22

What is circadian rhythm

Answer 22

The physiological sleep-wake cycle (can be influenced by sunlight as well as daily schedule and activity)

Question 23

what is the difference between alpha and beta waves

Answer 23

Beta waves- high in frequent but low in intensity
Alpha waves- low in frequency but high in intensity

Question 24

What are the four stages of sleep

Answer 24

-Stage 1 (NREM 1)- The “falling asleep” stage; marked by theta waves
-Stage 2 (NREM 2) -the light sleep stage; marked by high intensity brain waves “sleep spindles” and associated with memory processing (makes up 55% of sleep)
-Stage 3 (NREM 3) - marked by greater muscle relaxation and appearance of delta wave (makes up 20-25% of sleep)
-Stage 4 (NREM 4) - marked by rapid eye movement (REM), less intense brain waves and associated with dreaming (makes up 20% of sleep)

Question 25

What is the difference between depressants and stimulants

Answer 25

Depressants- substances that slow down the bodys physiology and mental processes
Stimulants- substances that speed up the bodys physiology and mental processes

Question 26

What is limited capacity

Answer 26

The notion that humans have limited mental resources that can be used at a given time

Question 27

What are the three types of attention

Answer 27

Divided- the ability for humans to attend to many sources of information at once
Spatial- how we focus on one part of our environment and how we move our attention to other locations in the environment
Selective- some informaiton is attended to while other information is intentionally blocked out

Question 28

What is dichotic listening

Answer 28

Refers to the situation when two messages are presented simultaneously to an individual, with one message in each ear. (Used in selective attention experiments)

Question 29

What is shadowing

Answer 29

A task in which the individual is asked to repeat auditory messages as it is presented

Question 30

What is the alate selection/response selection model

Answer 30

Proposed to by Deutsch and Deutsch, which suggests that all information in the unattended ear is processed on the basis of meaning, not just the selected ot highly pertinent information

Question 31

What is Ann triesmans attention model

Answer 31

When carrying out a number of dichotic listening experiments, she discovered that individuals spontaneously floowed the story, of the content of the message, when it shifted from one ear to another. Then they realized they were shadowing the wrong ear and switched back

Question 32

What are divided attention tasks

Answer 32

Switching between tasks is cognitively demanding and can impair performance

Question 33

What is multitasking

Answer 33

Can ve done without imparted performance if it relates to specific well-learned tasks for specific individuals.