Unit 3 AOS 1 - Consciousness & Sleep

Question 1

Define States of consciousness

Answer 1

Refers to the level of awarenes of internal and external surroundings.

Question 2

What are the characteristics of William James’ stream of consciousness?

Answer 2

CESHA

• Continuous: Never empty, thoughts can flow easily from one topic to another
• Is ever-changing: It rarely travels across one line of thought
• is a highly personal experience: Relies on our thoughts, feelings and perceptions
• Is selective: We can usually choose to focus on some things and ignore others
• Is active: Consciousness has a purpose to allow us to function in our world

Question 3

Define normal waking consciousness

Answer 3

Can be loosely defined as the states of consciousness you experience when you are awake and are aware of your thoughts, feelings and perceptions from internal events and the surrounding environment

Question 4

Define awareness

Answer 4

Relates to how conscious or aware you are of internal and/or external events

Question 5

Define attention

Answer 5

Relates to the information that you are actively processing, either consciously or even outside your conscious awareness

Question 6

What are the three types of attention?

Answer 6

Selective attention: Refers to the limitations placed on how much we can focus at any given moment on one stimulus or event to the exclusion of others
Selective inattention: Refers to how we can also avoid attending to information that may be relevant but emotionally upsetting
Divided attention: Refers to the capacity to attend to and perform two or more activities at the same time

Question 7

Describe dichotomy listening tasks

Answer 7

• A technique used by psychologists to study divided attention
• Proficient typists had to perform a test in which they had to type the information being presented via headphones in one ear while performing a second task at the same time
• There were multiple conditions, but in each the typist performed more poorly when multitasking

Question 8

What does cocktail party phenomenon refer to?

Answer 8

Refers to how active processing can take place outside ore consciousness
Eg. Hearing someone say your name, but not the rest of the conversation
Shows that much more information is processed in our consciousness than that to which we initially attend

Question 9

What is change blindness?

Answer 9

Refers to a failure to notice a large change that takes place in full view of a visual scene.
It differs from inattentional blindness, as they are related but are different phenomena
It depends on a failure to store the memory of a scene in the first place, or failure to compare the memory from one scene to the next

Question 10

What do perception and cognition refer to?

Answer 10

Perception- The process of organising sensory input and giving it meaning
Cognition- A broad term that relates to mental activities such as thinking, problem solving, language and reasoning

Question 11

What are the different characteristics between normal waking consciousness and altered states of consciousness?

Answer 11

-Level of awareness
-Content limitations
-Controlled and automatic processes
-Perceptual and cognitive distortions
-Emotional awareness
-Self-control
-Time orientation
(For the specific differences between the types of consciousness look in your book you lazy shit)

Question 12

What are the three main devices used to study states of consciousness?

Answer 12

Electroencephalograph- A device that detects, amplifies and records electrical activity in the brain in the form of brainwaves
Electrooculargraph- A device that detects, amplifies and records electrical activity in the muscles that move the eye
Electromyograph- A device that detects, amplifies and records the electrical activity of muscles (usually located under the chin)

Question 13

How to these devices measure brainwaves?

Answer 13

Amplitude- Refers to the height of the peaks and troughs of the curved graph that represents brain wave activity
Frequency- Refers to the number of brainwaves per second

Question 14

What are the different types of brainwaves, and what strange of sleep do they occur in?

Answer 14

• Beta: High frequency, low amplitude (awake, alert)
• Alpha: Reasonably high frequency, low amplitude, but higher than beta waves (Awake, drowsy/relaxed)
• Theta: Medium frequency and mixed amplitude (stage 1&2 NREM)
• Delta: Low frequency, high amplitude (Stage 3&4 NREM)

Question 15

What are the different types of brainwave patterns?

Answer 15

K-complex: Sharp rise and fall in amplitude, lasting for about two seconds (In stage 2)
Sleep spindles: Periodic bursts of rapid frequency (in stage 2)
Sawtooth waves: Resembles waves for being awake but occur among the beta-like waves during REM sleep

Question 16

Define consciousness

Answer 16

Refers to the awareness of our own thoughts, feelings and perceptions (internal stimuli) and our surroundings (external stimuli) at any given moment.

Question 17

What is a sleep laboratory, and what are its advantages and disadvantages?

Answer 17

Refers to a place used for scientific research on sleep, and usually resembles a bedroom. The participant usually stays for one or more nights, and is wired up to record psychological measurements
Advantage:
-Research allows brainwave activity and other other psychological measures to be monitored in a controlled environment
Disadvantage:
-The participant must be able to sleep in artificial environment
-Sleep may be deliberately interrupted
-A participant must agree to be wired up and observed

Question 18

What is video monitoring and what are its advantages and disadvantages?

Answer 18

-Provides an insight to how we behave in different states of consciousness, including normal waking consciousness and sleep.
Advantage:
-The researcher can continuously study the behaviour, at the time of collection or any time after
-If done at home, video monitoring allows the participant to sleep in their natural environment
Diadvantage:
-Cannot tell us what is going on inside the body or what the participant is experiencing
-Observations could be subjective

Question 19

What are self reports, and what are its advantages and disadvantages?

Answer 19

-Statements and answers to questions by the participants concerning their psychological experience in relation to a psychological phenomena, in this case, sleep
Advantage:
-Can provide extremely valuable information about what the participant is experiencing
Disadvantage:
-Participant may not remember to fill out the report over a given time period
-Participants may not describe the experience accurately
-Participants may not tell the truth
-Participants may not remember
-Participants may accidentally leave out key information
-The researcher may not interpret the descriptions accurately and reliably

Question 20

What is the survival theory of sleep?

Answer 20

• Proposes that sleep is a means of increasing an animal’s chances of survival in the environment
• Sleep depends on the need to find food (cows)
• Sleep depends on an animal’s vulnerability to predators (mice)
• Sleep conserves energy (bears)

Question 21

What are the criticisms of the survival theory of sleep?

Answer 21

• The assumption that sleep is useful but not essential. It does does not explain why sleep is necessary for organisms.
• The assumption that sleeping is a way to hide from predators

Question 22

What is the restorative theory of sleep?

Answer 22

• Proposes that sleep allows us to recharge our bodies, recover from the physical and psychological work during the day and allows our body’s growth processes to function
• Sleep repairs and replenishes the body and prepares it for the next day
• Sleep enhances mood
• Sleep activates growth hormone
• Sleep increases immunity to disease
• Sleep increases alertness
• Sleep consolidates memories

Question 23

What are some criticisms of the restoration theory?

Answer 23

• The assumption that sleep is only needed to recover when we are physically active. People who are bed ridden sleep the same amount as active people.
• The assumption that the body rests during sleep. The brain is active during sleep and the body undergoes many processes during sleep.

Question 24

What is the difference between automatic and controlled processes?

Answer 24

• Automatic processes require very little awareness or little mental effort to be performed well and do not interfere with other automatic or controlled processes
• WHEREAS
• Controlled processes require our full attention and mental effort to focus on the required task

Question 25

How are emotional awareness, self control and time orientation presented in normal waking consciousness?

Answer 25

• Emotional awareness: We are generally aware of our feelings and show a range of emotions that are normal for us and appropriate for the situation, and we can usually control our true emotions.
• Self control: We have control over our actions and movements
• Time orientation: We have a good sense of passage of time

Question 26

What is galvanic skin response?

Answer 26

• Refers to the psychological response that indicates the electrical conductivity of the skin
• During NWC events that cause us to perspire such as exercise or strong emotional reactions will increase GSR
• As we relax, the GSR decreases, in some ASC it may rise though

Question 27

What is somnambulism?

Answer 27

Somnambulism refers to sleep walking, and usually occurs in stage 3 and 4 of NREM sleep