midterm 2 Flashcards
consciousness
our awareness of our environment/selves
dual processing
brains process info at 2 levels
serial processing (consciousness can only process 1 step at a time
unconscious processes super fast
parallel processing
blindsight
consciously, we are blind
unconsciously, we still have some vision
subliminal stimulation
we’re exposed to a stimulus and the exposure is super fast
–> info gets to brain but never reaches consciousness
cannot see object consciously but can still influence behaviours
serial processing
consciousness can only process one step at a time
parallel processing
processes multiple pirces of info simultaneously
subconscious processing (priming)
we are exposed to a stimulus and are aware of it, HOWEVER we don’t know that the stimulus is unconsciously activating in our brain memories and the information linked to it
–> can affect behaviour
where does consciousness come from
the brain
attention
allow us to focus our awareness on a tiny point of stimulation around us
value (attention)
ability to pay attention to valuable & essential things for survival
(t/f) attention is an unlimited resourse
FALSE
is attention selective
YES. focusing attention on a certain stimuli causes us to disregard other stimuli in the environment
inhibition (attention)
paying attention to a specific stimuli causes the brain to inhibit us from processing other info
–> sharpens attention
cocktail party effect
at a party –> very loud and noisy but can focus attention on an interesting convo
in spite of this, if someone said our name we’re likely to pick it up
dichotic listening
used to study selective attention
2 diff msgs in each ear at the same time –> patients asked to pay attention to one ear only
we still pick up info from he other ear
Corteen and Wood Experiment (1972)
experiment to examine DEGREE we use dichotic listening
conditioned to associate city names with an electric shock
–> city names were played in unattended ear
–> used GSR (galvanic skin response) measurements ( measures arousal in sympathic nervous system)
–> 38% response rate for recognized city names, 10% for unrelated words
passive (attention attraction)
bottom-up process
stimuli in environment grabs our attention bc there is something that stands out about it
active (attention attraction)
top-down
we intentionally chose what we are going to pay attention to
inattentional blindness
we’re going to fail to detect a significant stimulus in our environment
change blindness
we’re engaged with a stimulus but don’t notice the change in the stimulus
intentional change detection
we’re told that the stimulus is going to change, but we still have a hard time detecting the change
divided attention (multitasking)
consciousness can’t multitask, we tend to slow down and make errors
visual neglect
attention disorder
part of the world becomes non existent for us
can happen in the right or left hemisphere depending on what’s dmged
ex. u only shave one side of ur face –> u can see the other side but ur not aware of it
fatal familial insonmia
rare hereditary disease that affects THALAMUS
can die from lack of sleep 12-18 months after symptoms start