States of Consciousness Definitions Flashcards
(55 cards)
What is Consciousness?
Awareness of ourselves and our environment
Awareness
Perceiving, feeling, or behaving, or having knowledge of oneself.
Conscious Experience
Normal, waking consciousness: how you are functioning right now.
Levels of Awareness: High-Level Awareness (3 points)
-Most alert state.
-Highly focused on something.
-When making important decisions.
Levels of Awareness: Low-Level Awareness
-Non-conscious processing (Automatic behaviors)
-Daydreaming
-Sleep
-Coma
-Low awareness can save mental effort.
-Can also be influenced by subtle factors.
Layers of Consciousness: Dual Processing Model (3 points)
Information is simultaneously processed on separate conscious and non-conscious tracks.
-System 1: Implicit
-System 2: Explicit
When we get into the implicit association test
-Way to check for implicit biases.
-Check where your implicit bias is.
What role do you think attention plays in our consciousness and awareness?
-Attention plays a huge role.
-If you aren’t paying attention, you don’t know what the hell is going on.
-Selective Attention
-Attention is “shiftable.”
-Stimuli that is novel, large, vivid, colored, moving, etc.
Inattentional Blindness
-Failure to detect something when engaged in a task.
-Change Blindness
Cocktail Party Effect
The ability to listen to one person talking amongst a group of people talking.
Altered State of Consciousness
Deviation from normal awareness due to sleep, drugs, hypnosis, sleep deprivation, etc.
Sleep (4 points)
-People spend 1/3 of their life asleep.
-All birds and mammals sleep.
-Important restorative functions
-Need to sleep for cellular restorations.
Wakefulness: 2 patterns of activity
Alpha Activity & Beta Activity
Alpha Activity
Regular, medium-frequency waves (8-12Hz)
-Produced while resting quietly, eyes closed.
Beta Activity
-Irregular low-amplitude waves.
-Desynchronous activity.
-Occurs when alert.
Stages of Sleep
-Awake
-Stage 1: Light Sleep
-Stage 2: Moderately light, spindles, K-complexes
-Stage 3: Transitional
-REM: Dream sleep
Time of each sleep cycle
90 min
Stages of Sleep and Brain Waves
-Cycles ~ 90
-SWS most early on decreases through the night.
-REM sleep increases.
Sleep and Learning: REM Sleep Rebound
If we are deprived of REM sleep, we make it up the next time.
-Important during development
-Infants have more REM than adults.
SWS (Slow Wave Sleep) Essential For:
-Rest & Repair of brain
-Consolidation of declarative memory
Sleep Deprivation: Cognitive Deficits
Perceptual distortions, trouble concentrating, even hallucinations.
Sleep Deprivation: Microsleep
Brain shuts down, falling into a sleep state for up to half a minute.
