Chapter 6 Flashcards
(53 cards)
split brain
surgery to sever large bands of axons (corpus callosum) connecting two hemispheres; to reduce frequency of epileptic seizures
conscious content
subjective experiences of internal and external world; “sense-of-self”; dependent on state of consciousness
states of consciousness
different levels of arousal and attention; can be influences by factors beyond your “control”
attention
process of selecting info from environment to prioritize for processing
passive attention
bottom-up info from external environment requires a response
active attention
goal-directed and top-down processing
selective attention
attend to one source of info and ignoring other stimuli
stimulus salience
bottom-up qualities of a scene that influence how we direct attention; (colour or brightness, loudness)
cocktail party effect
info not part of conscious awareness is processed
dichotic listening task
two different messages in each ear and participants asked to repeat one of them
divided attention/multitasking
simultaneously attend to two (or more) tasks at the same time
automaticity
fast and effortless processing accomplished unconsciously
inattentional blindness
engaged in one task and completely miss other info
flicker task
shown two images, each followed by a white screen to prevent detection of motion cues
intentional change detection
participants aware of change and actively using selective attention to find it
inhibition
while attention is in one location, brain is actively blocking processes of other parts of the scene
Fatal Familial Insomnia
hereditary disease affecting thalamus where individuals die from a lack of sleep
EEGs
measure activity across brain surface
electrooculograms
measure movement of eyes during sleep
electromyograms
measure tension of muscles of jaw
frequency
number of up/down cycles of wave per second
amplitdues
height of waves
regularity
how consistent/erratic waves appear
beta waves
irregular, mostly low amplitude, desynchronized and erratic
