Cognition and Consciousness Flashcards
(343 cards)
1
Q
How does the cognitive perspective of psychology attempt to understand psychology?
A
How people think
2
Q
Does the cognitive perspective of psychology oppose or support the idea that an environmental stimulus alone evokes a behavioural response?
A
Opposes
3
Q
What intervening variable does the cognitive perspective of psychology include in the idea that an environmental stimulus alone evokes a behavioural response? What does this allow for?
A
The intelligence serves as an intermediary step; allows for the brain to interpret sensory information and respond accordingly
4
Q
What is the information processing model?
A
A conceptual framework to describe how mental processes affect behaviour
5
Q
What is another name for sensory memory?
A
Sensory register
6
Q
How long does sensory memory record information?
A
Less than a second
7
Q
Where does information enter the sensory registry?
A
Sensory organs such as the eyes, ears, nose
8
Q
Where does processed information that entered the sensory memory go?
A
Working memory
9
Q
What is attention?
A
The process of concentrating on a select amount of information from a wide range of available information
10
Q
What are the two types of attention?
A
Selective attention and divided attention
11
Q
What is selective attention?
A
A choice is made to concentrate on a particular stimulus and to ignore the other
12
Q
That is the cocktail party effect?
A
When attending a party, there are many conversations occurring, but due to selective attention, you are able to focus on only one conversation
13
Q
What is searching in selective attention?
A
Scanning the environment for a target stimulus
14
Q
What are distractors in attention?
A
Irrelevant stimuli that divert attention
15
Q
What are the four theories regarding how easily a target stimulus can be found?
A
Display size effect, feature integration theory, similarity theory, and guided search theory
16
Q
What is the display size effect?
A
Refers to the relation between the number of distractors in an array and the time required to locate a target stimulus among them
17
Q
What is the feature integration theory?
A
States that it is easier to perform a feature search than it is to perform a conjunction search
18
Q
What is a feature search?
A
A target stimulus is found by scanning for a single, distinct feature among the distractors
19
Q
What is a conjunction search?
A
The target stimulus is found by scanning for a combination of feature among distractors
20
Q
What is the similarity theory of search?
A
The more similar the target stimulus is to the distractors stimuli, the more difficult the search will be
21
Q
What are the two stages of the guided search theory?
A
1) developing a mental representation of the target
2) evaluating all of the activated energies to find the target
22
Q
What happens in divided attention?
A
Your concentration is split between performing two or more tasks or inputs
23
Q
What is another term for inattentional blindness?
A
Perceptual blindness
24
Q
What is inattentional blindness?
A
Refers to the inability to see something in plain sight because of attending to another stimulus
25
What is change blindness?
A person's inability to detect visual changes in a scene that he or she is directly looking at
26
What is the Stroop effect?
A phenomenon that demonstrates the problem with selective attention. Once a controlled task becomes automated through practice, there are not only benefits but errors associated with increased processing speed
27
What is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder?
A psychological condition characterized by a failure to give close attention to details as well as an inability to sustain attention
28
What are the three main symptoms of ADHD?
Hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention
29
What is another name for spatial neglect?
Hemi- neglect
30
What type of disorder is spatial neglect? What is this disorder characterised by?
Attentional dysfunction; characterized by a lack of attention paid to the contralateral aspect of the brain
31
Any information that we accumulate is organised in our minds as a?
Concept
32
What is a concept in our minds?
A mental representation through which we understand the world
33
What is a category in the mind?
Multiple concepts that have similar characteristics are grouped together in the mind
34
What are the two types of categories?
Natural and artifact categories
35
What are natural categories?
Groupings that occur in the natural world and have predictable properties
36
What are artifact categories?
Human made groupings with ambiguous, imprecise boundaries
37
What is an example of a natural category?
Trees, clouds
38
What is an example of an artifact boundary?
Furniture, clothes
39
How are categories labelled? Example?
Not too general, not too specific; apples for a red/green/yellow fruit on a tree but not Gala apples or too vague like fruit
40
What are the four main theories regarding how a concept becomes a part of a category?
Feature based theory, prototype theory, exemplar based theory, and theory based view of meaning
41
What is the feature based theory?
Concepts are placed into categories based on their defining features
42
How are concepts grouped in the prototype theory?
Concepts are grouped together by their degree of similarity to a prototype
43
What is the ideal or average model based on what we have previously encountered?
Prototype
44
A concept is considered to be part of the prototype theory if it is part of a category based on its?
Graded membership
45
What is a graded membership in the prototype theory?
An object is a better member if it is more similar to the prototype
46
How does the exemplar based learning theory group concepts together?
Concepts are grouped together based on their degree of similarity to an exemplar
47
What is an exemplar?
A specific remembered instance that is most typically thought of when a category is mentioned
48
How does the theory based view of meaning place concepts into categories?
Based on a general idea constructed from an experience
49
Does the theory based view of meaning construct categories based on resemblance?
No
50
How is knowledge in the form of concepts and categories organised within the mind?
Schema
51
What is a broad pattern of what is normal in a given situation?
Schema
52
What is a general depiction of everything that is supposed to happen in a given situation and how to react?
Schema
53
What is a fixed generalised belief about a particular concept?
Stereotypes
54
What is an example of a schema that contains the order in which things should occur?
Script
55
What is the series of events that eventually lead to the solution?
Problem solving cycle
56
What are the seven steps of the problem solving cycle?
1) Identify problem
2) define problem
3) form strategy
4) organise information
5) allocate resources
6) monitor progress
7) evaluate results
57
What are the two types of problems?
Well structured problems and ill structured problems
58
What are well structured problems?
Have a specified goal and a path to the solution
59
What is another name for a well structured problem?
Well defined problems
60
What is another name for an ill structured problem?
Ill defined problems
61
What is an ill structured problem?
Problems that do not have a clear path to solution
62
In what ways can ill structured problems be solved?
Represented in numerous ways and have various alternative solutions
63
Every problem has what?
A problem space?
64
What is a problem space?
A set of all possible states that can be reached to obtain a solution
65
What are examples of paths to problem solving?
Algorithms, heuristics, analogy, trial and error, and insight
66
What is an algorithm?
A series of steps that always produce the right answer
67
What are heuristics?
Mental shortcuts that do not guarantee a correct answer, but effectively narrow down the problem space to simplify the problem in order to speed up the process
68
What are two types of heuristics?
Hill climbing strategy and means end analysis
69
What is the hill climb strategy of heuristics?
Choose the option that leads directly towards the goal
70
What is the drawback of the algorithm problem solving strategy?
Often time and resource consuming
71
What is the drawback of the hill climbing heuristics strategy ?
Sometimes you need to go backwards to get forward
72
What is the means end strategy of heuristics?
Compare the current state to the goal state and then try to decrease this distance by available means
73
How are problems approached in the means end analysis?
The large problem is broken down or simplified into smaller sub problems each with its individual goals to be solved
74
What happens in the analogy approach to problem solving?
A current problem is compared to an already solved problem and the solution is translated
75
What is a trial and error problem solving strategy?
A problem solving strategy in which all possible solitons are tried until one works
76
When applied strategies fail, what strategy may succeed?
Insight
77
What is insight?
A sudden novel solution to a problem
78
What is another term for insight?
The aha moment
79
What are two other names for a problem solving set?
Mental set or Einstellung
80
What is a problem solving set?
The collection of beliefs and assumptions that a person makes about a problem based on previous experiences
81
What is functional fixedness?
Another influence of one's problem solving set is the tendency to be rigid in how they think about an object's function
82
What is confirmation bias?
A type of cognitive tendency in which people search for information that confirms their existing beliefs
83
What is belief perseverance?
The tendency to stick with one's initial beliefs, even in the face of new and contradictory information
84
What is creativity?
The process of producing something innovative and valuable
85
What roles do assumption making and irrelevant information in problem solving?
Barriers
86
What two types of thinking is associated with his or her creativity?
Convergent thinking and divergent thinking
87
What is convergent thinking?
Narrows down the possibilities to find one answer
88
What is divergent thinking?
Attempts to generate a variety of ideas to a problem
89
What are Wallas' four stages of creativity?
1) preparation
2) incubation
3) illumination
4) verification
90
What is the preparation stage of Wallas' stages of creativity?
Information is gathered about the problem
91
What is the incubation stage of Wallas' stages of creativity?
The problem is momentarily set aside and processed unconsciously
92
What is the illumination stage of Wallas' stages of creativity?
A key insight into solving the problem is suddenly realised
93
What is the verification stage of Wallas' stages of creativity?
The creative thinker confirms the new idea does lead to the problems solution
94
What perspective does the most basic model use to describe the process of decision making?
Economic perspective
95
From the economic perspective of cognitive processes, what is subjective utility?
Refers to an individuals judged value of it
96
From the economic perspective of cognitive processes, what is subjective probability?
An individual's estimated likelihood of the events occurance
97
What is the equation to find the expected value of a choice?
Expected value =
| Subjective utility) (subjective probability
98
What are heuristics?
Mental strategies that sacrifice 100% guarantee of accuracy in exchange for efficiency
99
What are the two types of heuristics?
Availability heuristic and representative heuristics
100
What is an availability heuristic?
A judgment is made based on the perceived frequency or likelihood of an event
101
What is a conjunction fallacy?
The mistaken belief that a smaller specific subset of a category is more probable than a larger, more general set
102
What is a representative heuristics?
Ones judgment is based on its similarity to the prototype of the population and its perceived randomness
103
What is the base rate in representative heuristics?
The prevalence of an event
104
What is gambler's fallacy in representative heuristics?
Gamblers believe their previous wins/losses will influence their percentage chance of winning in subsequent rounds when in fact their percentage chance of winning does not change with each round
105
What term describes a tendency to think and perceive something in a particular way?
Cognitive biases
106
What are the three most common types of biases?
Illusory correlation, overconfidence, and hindsight bias
107
What is an illusory correlation?
Phenomenon by which people perceive a relationship between two unrelated variables
108
What is over confidence?
A bias in which a person's evaluation of his or her own judgments is greater than the actual accuracy of those judgements
109
What is another term for hindsight bias?
Knew it all along effect
110
What is hindsight bias?
The idea that when one evaluates a past event, he or she feels that the results were always predictable and should have been obvious
111
What is framing?
A change in how the problem is presented that affects decision making
112
What are the two types of reasoning?
Deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning
113
What is deductive reasoning?
The process of reasoning from a general statement or premise to reach a logical conclusion about specific examples or instances
114
What is inductive reasoning?
The process of reasoning from specific experiences or observations to form a general conclusion
115
What type of reasoning is based upon hypothetical, abstract thinking rather than concrete events
Deductive reasoning
116
What type of reasoning is based on supported evidence, the conclusion is probable but not certain
Inductive reasoning
117
What are the three cognitive theories of intelligence?
Multiple intelligences, triarchic theory or intelligences, and the three stratum model of intelligence
118
What is general intelligence? What is its symbol?
g; people with a higher intelligence will score higher on verbal reasoning or a spatial mathematical task
119
What is the theory of multiple intelligences?
Intelligence is a collection of many abilities rather than just one
120
What is it called when a person is exceptionally skilled in one of the areas of intelligence but cannot function in another?
Savant syndrome
121
What are the eight types of intelligences?
Linguistic, logical mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal, interpersonal, and naturalist
122
What is the triarchic theory of intelligence? What are these components?
Proposes that three intelligences can contribute to cognitive ability; analytical abilities, creative abilities, and practical ability
123
What is another term for analytical abilities in the triarchic theory of intelligence?
Componential
124
What is another term for creative abilities in the triarchic theory of intelligence?
Experiential
125
What is another term for practical abilities in the triarchic theory of intelligence?
Contextual
126
What are analytical abilities in the triarchic theory of intelligence?
Refer to the ability to analyse a problem and to evaluate the possible solutions
127
What are creative abilities in the triarchic theory of intelligence?
The ability to generate novel ideas and to act adaptively in unfamiliar situations
128
What are contextual abilities in the triarchic theory of intelligence?
The ability to fit into a changing environment and perform everyday tasks
129
What component of the triarchic theory of intelligence is most often referred to as street smarts?
Practical abilities
130
What is the three stratum model of intelligence?
Intellectual ability is arranged in a hierarchy consisting of three strata: narrow, broad, general
131
What is the narrow stratum of the three stratum model of intelligence?
Includes specific abilities such as reading comprehension and spelling abilities
132
What is the broad stratum of the three stratum model of intelligence?
Includes Short term memory, retrieval ability and information processing speed
133
What two types of intelligence are included in the broad stratum of the three stratum model of intelligence?
Crystallised intelligence and fluid intelligence
134
What is crystallised intelligence?
Information acquired over a life time through experience
135
What is fluid intelligence?
The ability to apply basic information processing skills
136
What is included in the general stratum of the three stratum model of intelligence?
Contains the g factor
137
What is the most common measure of intelligence?
Intelligence quotient (IQ)
138
What is the equation to find a person's IQ?
IQ= 100* (mental age)/(chronological age)
139
What is the mental age of a person?
The chronological age that most typically corresponds with their level of performance
140
What is the average person's IQ?
Between 85 and 115
141
What are the four stages of Piaget's stages of cognitive development?
1) sensorimotor stage
2) preoperational stage
3) concrete operational stage
4) formal operational stage
142
How long does the sensorimotor stage last?
Birth to acquisition of language (about 2 years old)
143
What happens during the sensorimotor stage of development in Piaget's four stages of cognitive development?
Babies attempt to understand the world through exploring it
144
What is the main developmental phenomenon in the sensorimotor stage of development?
Object permanence
145
What is object permanence?
The awareness that objects continue to exist even when not perceived
146
During what stage of cognitive development does stranger anxiety develop?
Sensorimotor stage
147
What is stranger anxiety? When does it occur?
When babies become more socialised (8 months) they begin to show fear, anxiety and distress toward unfamiliar faces
148
During what age does the preoperational stage range?
Age 2 to 6 or 7 years old
149
What happens during the preoperational stage of development in Piaget's four stages of cognitive development?
Children are not yet able to perform mental operations such as reasoning and begin to think in terms of images
150
During what stage of Piaget's stages of cognitive development do children begin to show signs of pretend and play and assign roles?
Preoperational stage
151
During what stage of Piaget's stages of cognitive development are children considered egocentric?
Preoperational stage
152
What is egocentric?
They have difficulty perceiving other's viewpoints
153
During the preoperational stage of cognitive development, what concept do children have the inability to understand?
The concept of conservation
154
What is conservation?
The concept that the quantity of a substance remains unchanged despite changes in its shape
155
Near the end of the preoperational stage, what do children begin to develop?
Theory of mind
156
What is a theory of mind?
An ability to infer another person's mental state and thus predict their behaviour
157
How long does the concrete operational stage last?
From seven years to eleven years old
158
What characterises the concrete operational stage of development in Piaget's four stages of cognitive development?
The ability to think logically about concrete events but the inability to comprehend hypothetical or abstract concepts
159
During what stage of Piaget's stages of cognitive development does the concept of conservation develop?
Concrete operational stage
160
During what stage of Piaget's stages of cognitive development are children first capable of inductive reasoning?
Concrete operational stage
161
During what stage of Piaget's stages of cognitive development are children capable of inductive reasoning?
Concrete operational stage
162
During what stage of Piaget's stages of cognitive development are children able to fully envision the perspective of another individual?
Concrete operational stage
163
When is the formal operational stage?
Age 12 to adulthood
164
During what stage of Piaget's stages of cognitive development are children able to use deductive reasoning?
Formal operational stage
165
What happens during the formal operational stage of development in Piaget's four stages of cognitive development?
Children are able to think logically about abstract and hypothetical instances; capable of deductive reasoning
166
What describes the directional changes in cognitive development during adulthood?
Multidirectional
167
What cognitive abilities tend to decline with age?
Attention and memory
168
A person's ability to attend to the environment is a basic mental process that facilitates other _____ cognitive processes.
Higher order
169
A person's working memory is a cognitive process that allows for the dynamic manipulation of ____
Information that is currently on the mind
170
What happens to fluid intelligence with age?
It declines
171
What happens to crystallised intelligence with age?
It increases
172
What three factors further influence cognitive development?
Culture, heredity and environment
173
What does the cultural perspective of cognitive development recognise?
Children grow up within a social context surrounded by symbols, language, and material objects
174
How does the cultural perspective suggest that people develop perception, attention, and memory?
Infants are born with rudimentary mental processes (perception, attention, and memory) however through culture, these develop into higher order processes
175
How does the cultural perspective of cognitive development suggest we develop mental processes differently?
Based on our differences in culture we have different developments of mental processes
176
What are the effects of heredity on cognitive development?
The differences in thinking associated with a person's genetic makeup
177
Does heredity or environment play a larger role in cognitive development?
Heredity but environment is very important too and accounts for factors such as economic status and learning opportunities
178
How a person perceives, thinks, evaluates, and plans is believed to originate in structures of the?
Brain
179
Describe the structure of the cerebral cortex. What does the cerebral cortex play a role in?
A thin layer or tissue that covers both hemispheres of the brain and has numerous folds to increase surface area. Plays a large role in cognition
180
The larger the cerebral cortex the _____ functioning cognition
Better
181
What disease is characterized by a loss of neurons and general atrophy leading to a cognitive deficit?
Alzheimer's
182
What is a vascular accident marked by stoppage of blood flow to part of the brain
A stroke
183
What is another term for neoplasms?
Brain tumours
184
What are growths located in certain areas of the brain that can cause severe cognitive dysfunction?
Brain tumours
185
What neurological deficits can strokes cause?
Can cause severe cognitive dysfunction leading to problems with memory and attention; changes in perception of vision and hearing
186
If a patient experiences damage to the prefrontal cortex, what types processes can be impaired?
Judgement, decision making, and working memory
187
What does language play a role in?
Perception, memory, and learning
188
What are the three theories of language development?
Learning perspective, nativist perspective, and interactionist perspective
189
Who created the learning perspective of language development?
BF Skinner
190
What does the learning perspective of language development suggest?
Children develop the use of language through associative conditioning (classical and operant) and observational learning
191
How do children initially learn to speak in the learning perspective of language development?
Parents reinforce the babbling of nonsense syllables when they mimic a real word (i.e. Mom coming when a sound resembles mom)
192
How do individuals learn syntax by the learning perspective of language?
Observational learning
193
What does the nativist perspective of language development suggest?
Language is an innate skill for which people are predisposed
194
What device of the brain did the nativist perspective propose?
Language acquisition device (LAD)
195
What is a language acquisition device?
An area of the brain with a set of innate transformational grammatical rules
196
What does the interactionist perspective of language development suggest?
Language is acquired for social interaction and that children acquire new understandings based on what they want to communicate
197
What area did the interactionist perspective propose?
Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
198
What is the zone of proximal development?
An area of optimal learning in which a child develops language skills through child-adult interaction
199
In the interactionist perspective of language development, what is scaffolding?
The use of superior language by a parent which challenges the child to achieve complex language more quickly
200
What is linguistic relativity?
The idea that speakers of different languages utilise different cognitive processes that influence how they think
201
What is another term for linguistic relativity?
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
202
What is linguistic determinism?
The idea that language entirely determines how we think
203
What is another term for linguistic determinism
Strong Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
204
What is the difference between linguistic relativity and linguist determinism?
Relativity--different language speakers use different parts of their brain which influences how they think
Determinism--language entirely determines how we think
205
What are the two areas of the brain that are strongly associated with language production and comprehension?
Broca's area and Wernicke's area
206
Where is the part of the brain responsible for speech production? What is this area called?
Left frontal lobe, Broca's area
207
What does damage to the Broca's area region result in? What is still functional?
Loss of the ability to speak words, still able to comprehend words
208
What is aphasia?
A language disorder associated with brain injury
209
What is Wernicke's area responsible for?
Language comprehension
210
Where is Wernicke's area located?
Left temporal lobe
211
Are Broca's and Wernicke's area structures or areas?
Areas
212
What is consciousness?
The awareness we have of our environment and the mental processes
213
Is consciousness linear or static?
Neither, it is always shifting and continuous
214
Naturally occurring consciousness ranges from _____ to _____ and includes ____ and ____.
Alertness, sleep, daydreaming, and drowsiness
215
How are the states of consciousness characterized?
Brain waves
216
What are brain waves? What are they recorded by?
Neural oscillations recorded by an electroencephalograph
217
What are the four brain wave types characteristic of the distinctive states of consciousness
Beta waves, alpha waves, theta waves, and delta waves
218
What wave type demonstrates alertness?
Beta waves
219
What is alertness as a state of consciousness?
State of consciousness characterized by being awake; and fully aware of their environment and thoughts
220
What is the frequency of beta waves?
13 Hz and 30 Hz
221
What is daydreaming as a state of consciousness?
A state of consciousness in which one is awake but not fully alert
222
What brain waves characterize daydreaming?
Alpha waves
223
What is the frequency of alpha waves?
8 Hz and 13 Hz
224
What is drowsiness as a state of consciousness?
A state of consciousness associated with even less awareness than daydreaming
225
When is drowsiness experiences?
is often experienced either just before falling asleep or just after waking up
226
What waves are associated with drowsiness?
Theta waves
227
What is the frequency of theta waves?
Between 3 and 8 Hz
228
What is sleep as a state of consciousness?
Inhibition of most voluntary muscles and sensory activity
229
What is the difference between sleep and a coma?
Sleep does not fully close one's sensory and perceptual windows like a coma does
230
What type of waves characterize sleep?
Delta waves
231
What is the wave frequency of delta waves?
1 to 3 Hz
232
What are the five distinct stages of sleep?
Stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, stage 4 and REM sleep
233
How a person perceives, thinks, evaluates, and plans is believed to originate in structures of the?
Brain
234
Describe the structure of the cerebral cortex. What does the cerebral cortex play a role in?
A thin layer or tissue that covers both hemispheres of the brain and has numerous folds to increase surface area. Plays a large role in cognition
235
The larger the cerebral cortex the _____ functioning cognition
Better
236
What disease is characterized by a loss of neurons and general atrophy leading to a cognitive deficit?
Alzheimer's
237
What is a vascular accident marked by stoppage of blood flow to part of the brain
A stroke
238
What is another term for neoplasms?
Brain tumours
239
What are growths located in certain areas of the brain that can cause severe cognitive dysfunction?
Brain tumours
240
What neurological deficits can strokes cause?
Can cause severe cognitive dysfunction leading to problems with memory and attention; changes in perception of vision and hearing
241
If a patient experiences damage to the prefrontal cortex, what types processes can be impaired?
Judgement, decision making, and working memory
242
What does language play a role in?
Perception, memory, and learning
243
What are the three theories of language development?
Learning perspective, nativist perspective, and interactionist perspective
244
Who created the learning perspective of language development?
BF Skinner
245
What does the learning perspective of language development suggest?
Children develop the use of language through associative conditioning (classical and operant) and observational learning
246
How do children initially learn to speak in the learning perspective of language development?
Parents reinforce the babbling of nonsense syllables when they mimic a real word (i.e. Mom coming when a sound resembles mom)
247
How do individuals learn syntax by the learning perspective of language?
Observational learning
248
What does the nativist perspective of language development suggest?
Language is an innate skill for which people are predisposed
249
What device of the brain did the nativist perspective propose?
Language acquisition device (LAD)
250
What is a language acquisition device?
An area of the brain with a set of innate transformational grammatical rules
251
What does the interactionist perspective of language development suggest?
Language is acquired for social interaction and that children acquire new understandings based on what they want to communicate
252
What area did the interactionist perspective propose?
Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
253
What is the zone of proximal development?
An area of optimal learning in which a child develops language skills through child-adult interaction
254
In the interactionist perspective of language development, what is scaffolding?
The use of superior language by a parent which challenges the child to achieve complex language more quickly
255
What is linguistic relativity?
The idea that speakers of different languages utilise different cognitive processes that influence how they think
256
What is another term for linguistic relativity?
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
257
What is linguistic determinism?
The idea that language entirely determines how we think
258
What is another term for linguistic determinism
Strong Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
259
What is the difference between linguistic relativity and linguist determinism?
Relativity--different language speakers use different parts of their brain which influences how they think
Determinism--language entirely determines how we think
260
What are the two areas of the brain that are strongly associated with language production and comprehension?
Broca's area and Wernicke's area
261
Where is the part of the brain responsible for speech production? What is this area called?
Left frontal lobe, Broca's area
262
What does damage to the Broca's area region result in? What is still functional?
Loss of the ability to speak words, still able to comprehend words
263
When a person initially closes their eyes to sleep, what waves are recorded?
Alpha waves (daydreaming) and the person becomes more relaxed
264
How long does stage 1 of the sleep cycle last?
20 minutes
265
What wave type characterizes stage 1?
Decreases alpha waves and increases theta waves
266
What are people most easily wakened by in stage 1 of the sleep cycle?
Hypnic jerks
267
What are hypnic jerks?
Involuntary muscle twitches associated with a sense of falling
268
What happens to the body in stage 2 of the sleep cycle?
Body temperature decreases and breathing and heart rate slow
269
What type of brain waves characterize stage 2 of the sleep cycle?
Theta waves
270
What two types of theta waves characterize step 2 of the sleep cycle?
K complexes and sleep spindles
271
What are k complexes?
Single, large amplitude, high voltage waves that are believed to suppress cortical arousal and aid sleep based memory consolidation
272
What are sleep spindles?
Short bursts of 12 to 24 Hz waves that also suppress cortical arousal
273
What happens to the brain waves in stage three of the sleep cycle?
Decreased theta waves and increased delta waves
274
What is the stage of sleep that is deepest for humans?
Stage 4
275
What wave type comprises stage 4 of the sleep cycle?
Delta waves
276
As one progresses from stage 1 to stage 4 what happens to brain frequency, amplitude, and voltage?
Decrease in frequency; increase in amplitude; increased in brain wave voltage
277
After the sleeper reaches stage 4 of the sleep cycle, what stages follow?
Stages retreat in reverse order back to but not including stage 1
278
What sleep stage does the sleeper reach when they return from stage 1->4->2?
R.E.M.
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What is rapid eye movement sleep? (R.E.M.)
Stage of sleep characterized by low amplitude mixed frequency brain waves similar to those of an alert actively thinking person
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What is another term for R.E.M. sleep?
Paradoxical sleep
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How long does a single sleep cycle last?
90-100 min
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What is the pattern of a single sleep cycle?
1➡️2➡️3➡️4➡️3➡️2➡️1➡️R.E.M.
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What is the pattern for two sleep cycles?
1➡️2➡️3➡️4➡️3➡️2➡️R.E.M. ➡️2➡️3➡️4➡️3➡️2➡️R.E.M.
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How many sleep cycles does the average adult experience?
Four cycles throughout the night
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As the night progresses, what happens to the length of R.E.M. stage? What about the length of the nREM stage?
R.E.M. Stage gets longer nREM gets shorter than (especially stage 4)
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What are the nREM stages?
Stages 1-4
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When does most dreaming occur?
During the R.E.M. stage of sleep
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What region of the brain are dreams associated with?
Prefrontal cortex
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What happens in the prefrontal cortex?
The brain centre where logical thinking and planning take place
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Since dreams are associated with decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex, what traits are associated with dreaming?
Emotionally charged, strange, unorganised, and difficult to remember
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What does Sigmund Freud believe about dreams?
Dreams are the window to our unconscious thoughts and feelings
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What do evolutionary psychologists believe the function of dreams is?
Dreams help us approach problem solving through a different state of consciousness
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What is the physiological function theory of dreaming?
Dreams and R.E.M. sleep provide regular brain stimulation, which helps preserve and develop neural pathways
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What is the information processing theory of dreaming?
Dreams organise the day's events and consolidate memories
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What is the neural activation theory of dreaming?
R.E.M. Sleep activates neural pathways that contain random visual memories, which the brain connects into the form of dreams
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Is R.E.M. sleep is physiologically necessary?
Yes
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When subjects were deprived of R.E.M. Sleep, and then allowed to sleep, what did they experience?
R.E.M. Rebound
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Is R.E.M. Sleep regulated together with or separately from the other stages of sleep?
Separately
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What are the three types of theories that suggest why we sleep?
Adaptation theories, recuperation theories, and consolidation theories
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What are adaptation theories of why we sleep?
Humans evolved to sleep during the nighttime to conserve energy and to avoid predation
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Do adaptation theories focus on when or why we sleep to explain the advantages of animal fitness?
Focus on when not why we sleep
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What do recuperation theories suggest about sleep?
Argue that being awake disrupts the body's homeostasis and sleep is necessary to restore it
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The evidence that muscle growth, protein synthesis, tissue repair, and growth hormone release occur primarily during sleep support which type of sleep theory?
Recuperation
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Since humans are heavily dependent on vision and those who walked at night were more susceptible to predators, what theory of sleep does this support?
Adaptation theory
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Sleep deprived subjects experience decreased immune function eventually leading to death supports which theory of sleep?
Recuperation theory
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What does The consolidation theory suggests?
Sleep is essential to maintain proper brain plasticity
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What is brain plasticity?
Changes in the structure and organisation of the brain
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What type of sleep theory posits that sleep helps process information and experiences learned throughout the day and helps strengthen a memory's neural network within long term storage
Consolidation theory
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What does sleep allow for according to the consolidation theory?
Better stabilized and more readily available for conscious recall
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What is the circadian rhythm?
The internal biological timing mechanism that regulates sleep and other biological processes
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The biological clock works on what time table? What is it controlled by?
24 hours; light
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What is the circadian control centre?
Superchiasmatic nucleus
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What is the superchiasmatic nucleus composed of? Where is it located?
Located in the retina; specialised ganglion cells that respond directly to light and project to a cluster of about 20k neurons in the hypothalamus
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What does the superchiasmatic nucleus do?
Circadian control centre, processes information concerning the length of day and night
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To what gland does the superchiasmatic nucleus send the information it receives concerning the length of day and night?
Pineal gland
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Where is the pineal gland located in relation to the hypothalamus?
Dorsal to the hypothalamus
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When the superchiasmatic nucleus sends information to the pineal glands, what response does this elicit?
Increase or decrease production of the body become more relaxed or sleepy
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What do increased levels of melatonin cause the body to do?
Cause the body to become more relaxed and sleepy
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What does the presence of light eventually cause the pineal gland to do?
Release less melatonin
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What does the absence of light eventually cause the pineal gland to do?
Increases melatonin release
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What does general sleep deprivation cause?
Irritability and impaired learning and memory function
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What are sleep disorders?
Any medical disorder that negatively affects normal, healthy sleep patterns
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What are the two categories of sleep disorders?
Insomnia and hypersomnia
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What type of sleep disorder encompasses all persistent disorders that cause someone to struggle to fall or remain asleep?
Insomnia
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What type of sleep disorder include disorders of excessive sleepiness or excessive sleep?
Hypersomnia
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What do insomniacs do that exacerbates their problem? How does this occur?
Take alcohol/sleeping pills. These reduce R.E.M. sleep; leads to tolerance of drugs and need to take more for the same effects; withdrawal if the drugs are removed
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What is sleep apnea?
A person with sleep apnea will periodically stop breathing then suddenly awake for a gasp of air before falling back asleep
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How many times per night does the sleep apnea cycle occur?
100x per night
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Which is more common hypersomnia or insomnia?
Insomnia
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Is sleep apnea a type of hypersomnia or insomnia?
Insomnia
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What is the most widely studied hypersomnia disorder?
Narcolepsy
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What is narcolepsy?
A disorder characterized by severe daytime sleepiness and brief 5-10 minute bouts of sleep which cause the sleeper to enter slow wave and R.E.M. Sleep
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How are states of consciousness that cannot be naturally induced formed?
Drugs
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What are the induced states of consciousness?
Meditation, hypnosis, and consciousness altering drugs
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What is a mind body practice that focuses attention and induces relaxation?
Meditation
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Meditation enables one to focus on his or her _____ or _____ processes while ignoring _______ distractors
Physical, mental, external
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What type of brain waves does meditation produce?
Alpha and theta waves
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Is meditation self induced or induced by others?
Self induced
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Is hypnosis self induced or induced by others?
Employed by others
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What induced state of consciousness causes a state of relaxation that opens subjects up to the power of suggestion?
Hypnosis
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What are consciousness altering drugs?
A way to induce altered states of consciousness through changing one's sensory perception, thought process, mood, and behaviour
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What is another name for consciousness altering drugs?
Psychoactive drugs
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What are the three types of consciousness altering drugs?
Depressants, stimulants, and hallucinogens
