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172 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
What is consciousness?
Our awareness of ourselves and our environment.
What is cognitive neuroscience?
The inter-disciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition.
What is dual processing?
The principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks.
Which track processes information in parallel?
The unconscious track
Which track processes information serially?
(p. 88-89)
The conscious track
What is selective attention?
The focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus.
Inattentional blindness?
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere.
Change blindness?
Failing to notice changes in the environment.
What are circadian rhythms?
the biological clock; regular bodily rhythms that occur on a 24 hour cycle.
What is sleep?
Periodic, natural, reversible loss of consciousness.
How do we study sleep?
(figure 3.10)
By measuring brain wave activity, eye movements, and muscle tension by electrodes that pick up weak electrical signals from the brain, eye and facial muscles.
Different stages of sleep:
NREM-1, NREM-2, NREM-3, REM
What brain waves are present in each stage of sleep?
NREM-3, REM: Large Delta waves, often called slow sleep waves occur during this stage of sleep.
NREM-1: Theta waves occur during this sleep stage.
NREM-2: occasional activity called sleep spindles occur here, as well as waves called K-complex.
What is a hypnagogic sensation and in what stage does it occur?
It is sensory experiences that occur without a sensory stimulus (like the sensation of falling, or floating). These sensations occur during NREM-1 sleep.
What stage is deep sleep?
NREM-3.
In what stage do we normally dream?
REM stage
Why is REM sleep called paradoxical sleep?
Because the body is internally aroused, with waking-like brain activity, yet asleep and externally calm.
How long does a sleep cycle last?
90 minutes
How many do people have per night?
Several
How does the sleep cycle change over the course of the night? (figure 3.13)
Deep NREM-1 sleep decreases, and NREM-2 and REM sleep increases
How does light affect sleep?
It disrupts our 24 hour biological clock
What hormone induces sleep?
Melatonin
What are some of the theories of why we sleep?
Sleep protects, sleep helps us recuperate, sleep helps reinforce memories of the day, sleep feeds creative thinking, sleep supports growth.
What is sleep deprivation?
When the body yearns for sleep, but does not get it.
What are the consequences of sleep deprivation?
Difficulty concentrating, diminished productivity, tendency to make mistakes, irritability, and fatigue.
Summarize the Coren study (figure 3.16)
The Monday after the spring time change, this study showed that due to one hour of lost sleep the number of accidents increased compared with the Monday before the time change. Likewise, in the fall, accidents decreased after the time change, which gave people an extra hour of sleep.
What is insomnia?
Recurring problem falling or staying asleep.
What is sleep apnea?
Sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and momentary awakenings.
What is narcolepsy?
Sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks, in which the sufferer may lapse into REM sleep, often at inopportune times.
What are night terrors?
Sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified; unlike nightmares they occur during NREM-3 sleep, and are seldom remembered
In what stage of sleep does sleepwalking usually occur?
NREM-3
What are dreams?
Sequences of images, emotions, and thoughts passing though a sleeping person's mind. Often have strong hallucinatory imagery, discontinuities and incongruities.
What do we tend to dream about? (p 105)
Failing in an attempt to do something, being attacked, pursued, rejected, or of experiencing misfortune. Most commonly the storyline of our dreams incorporates traces of the previous days' experiences.
Can we incorporate external stimuli into a dream? (p 106)
Yes
Can we learn while sleeping?
No
Describe Freud's wish fulfillment theory on dreams.
This theory indicates that dreams express otherwise unacceptable feelings; they contain manifest content and a deeper layer of latent content.
DIfference between manifest and latent content of a dream?
Manifest content is the remembered story line of a dream; latent content is the underlying meaning of a dream.
What is the information processing theory of why we dream?
The theory that dreams help us sort out the days events and consolidate our memories
What is the physiological explanation for why we dream?
Theory that regular brain stimulation from REM sleep may help develop and preserve neural pathways.
What is the neural activation theory of dreaming? (t. 3.3)
Theory that REM sleep triggers neural activity that evokes random visual memories, which our sleeping brain weaves into stories.
What is REM rebound?
The tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation.
What is Hypnosis?
Social interaction in which one person (hypnotist) suggests to another (subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur.
What are some characteristics of people who are highly hypnotizable?
Vivid imaginations, absorbs easily into experiences, respond to suggestions across various situations, process information more automatically, and have expectations that hypnotizing works.
Can hypnosis enhance recall of memories?
No. We do not encode everything that occurs around us, and we permanently store only some of our experiences. Hypnotically refreshed memories combine fact with fiction
Can hypnosis induce people to act against their will?
There is no sound evidence to support the claim that hypnosis can induce people to act against their will.
Can hypnosis be therapeutic?
Yes, and in some cases being under hypnosis reduced pain in patients, and they required less medication post surgery, as well as recovered sooner.
What is posthypnotic suggestion?
a suggestion, made during hypnosis, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized. Used by some clinicians to control undesired symptoms and behaviors.
What is the social influence theory?
An authoritative person in a legitimate context can induce people, hypnotized or not, to perform some unlikely acts; the idea that hypnotic phenomena are an extension of normal social and cognitive processes.
What is dissociation (divided consciousness theory)?
A split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others.
What does each say about if hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness? (f. 3.19)
Social Influence theory: the subject is so caught up in the hypnotized role that the subject ignores outside stimuli.
Dissociation: Hypnosis has caused a split in awareness.
What are psychoactive drugs?
A chemical substance that alters perceptions and moods.
What is tolerance?
The diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug, requiring larger and larger doses before experiencing the drug's effect.
What is withdrawal?
The discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing the use of an addictive drug.
What is physical dependence?
A physiological need for a drug, marked by unpleasant withdrawal symptoms if the drug use is discontinued.
What is psychological dependence?
A psychological need to use a drug, such as to relieve a negative emotion.
What is addiction?
Compulsive drug craving and use, despite adverse consequences.
What are depressants?
Drugs such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates that reduce neural activity and slow body function.
What stage of sleep does alcohol suppress?
REM stage sleep.
What did Abrams and Wilson find happens when people are given a nonalcoholic drink that they think is alcoholic? (p 116)
After giving half a group of men alcoholic drinks, and half non-alcoholic, the group that thought they were drinking alcohol expressed strong sexual fantasies after viewing an erotic movie clip, and reported feeling guilt free. Being able to attribute their sexual responses to alcohol released their inhibitions whether or not they actually consumed alcohol.
What are barbiturates?
Drugs that depress central nervous system activity, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgment.
What are opiates?
Opium and its derivatives, such as morphine and heroin; they depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety.
What are stimulants?
Drugs (such as caffeine, nicotine and the more powerful amphetamines, cocaine, ecstasy and methamphetamine) that excite neural activity and speed up body functions.
What are amphetamines?
Drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes.
What are the physiological effects of nicotine? (p 119, figure 3.20)
Nicotine reaches the brain within 7 seconds, twice as fast as intravenous heroin. It arouses the brain to a state of increased alertness. Increases heart rate and blood pressure. At high levels, relaxes muscles and triggers the release of neurotransmitters that may reduce stress. Reduces circulation to extremities. Suppresses appetite for carbohydrates.
How does cocaine have an effect? (f 3.25)
By binding to the receptor sites that normally reabsorb neurotransmitters, cocaine blocks the reuptake of dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin. The extra neurotransmitters therefore remain in the synapse, intensifying their normal mood altering effects and producing a euphoric rush. When cocaine levels drop, the absence of these neurotransmitters results in a crash.
What is methamphetamine?
A powerfully addictive drug that stimulates the CNS with speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes; over time, appears to reduce baseline dopamine levels.
What neurotransmitter does methamphetamine increase?
Dopamine.
What is ecstasy?
Ecstasy, or MDMA, is a synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen. Produces euphoria and social intimacy, but with short term health risks and longer term effects.
What neurotransmitters does ecstasy impact?
Dopamine and Serotonin.
What are its long term risks?
Harm to serotonin producing neurons and to mood and cognition.
What are hallucinogens?
Psychedelic ("mind manifesting") drugs, such as LSD, that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input.
What is LSD?
Powerful hallucinogenic drug; also known as acid (lysergic acid diethylamide)
Siegel reported the brain tends to hallucinate in common ways. Describe these. (p 121)
Typically begins with simple geometric forms, such as lattice, cobweb, or spiral. Next phase consists of more meaningful images; some may be superimposed on a tunnel or funnel, others may be replays of past emotional experiences. At the peak, people frequently tend to feel separated from their bodies and experience dreamlike scenes so real that they may become panic stricken or harm themselves.
What is THC?
delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol. The major active ingredient in marijuana; triggers a variety of effects, including mild hallucinations.
What are some of the effects of marijuana use?
Enhanced sensations, relief of pain, distortion of time, relaxation. Adverse effects are impaired learning and memory, increased risk of psychological disorders, and lung damage from smoke.
Review the biological, physiological and social cultural influences on drug use, figure 3.28
Bio: genetic predispositions, variations in neurotransmitter systems
Psycho: lacking a sense of purpose, significant stress, psychological disorders, such as depression.
Socio: urban environment, cultural attitude towards drug use, peer influences
What is behavior genetics?
The study of genes and behavior, and the relative contributions they make to behavior.
How to psychologists define environment?
every non genetic influence, from prenatal nutrition, to the things and people that surround us.
What are chromosomes?
Threadlike structures made of DNA molecules that contain genes.
What is DNA?
Deoxyribonucleic acid, a complex molecule containing the genetic information that make up chromosomes.
What are genes?
The biochemical units of heredity that make up the chromosomes; a segment of DNA capable of synthesizing protein.
What is the genome?
The complete instructions for making an organism, consisting of all the genetic material in that organism's chromosomes.
How are identical twins and fraternal twins different?
Identical twins develop from a single (monosygotic) fertilized egg that splits in two, thus they are genetically identical. Fraternal twins are from separate (dyzygotic) eggs, thus they share a womb, but genetically are no different than ordinary siblings.
Why are separated twins studied?
To discern the influences of environment vs heredity.
What is temperament?
A person's characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity.
What are easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up infants like?
Easy babies are cheerful, relaxed, and predictable in feeding and sleeping. Difficult babies are more irritable, intense, and unpredictable. Slow-to-warm-up babies tend to resist or withdraw from new people and situations.
What is molecular genetics?
Subfield of biology that studies molecular structure and the function of genes.
What is heritability?
The proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes.
What is an interaction?
The interplay that occurs when the effect of one factor (e.g., environment) depends on another factor (e.g., heredity).
Explain how genes and environment can interact.
Genes have potential to influence development, environmental triggers can switch them on or off. Environments trigger gene activity, and our genetically influenced traits evoke different responses in others.
How can genes influence the environment?
Our genes can affect how others respond to us, so in that aspect, your genes are influencing your environment.
What is epigenetics?
The study of influences on gene expression that occur without a DNA change
What is evolutionary psychology?
The study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection.
The idea of natural selection?
The principle that among a range of inherited traits, those that contribute to increased reproduction and survival will most likely be passed down.
What are mutations?
A random error in gene replication that leads to a change.
What are some gender differences in sexuality?
Men are more likely than women to initiate sexual activity, men have a lower threshold for perceiving warm responses as a sexual come-on, men are more responsive to visual sexual stimuli, men are more concerned with their partners physical attractiveness, men attribute friendliness to sexual interest.
According to evolutionary psychology, what do women look for in a mate?
Women are attracted to men who seem mature, dominant, bold, and affluent, with a potential for long-term mating and investment in their joint offspring.
What do men look for?
Men look for traits such as a youthful appearance, waists are roughly a third narrower than hips (indicating fertility), age (in ancestral past) associated with peak of fertility.
Why?
The different desired traits for men, indicate a fertile woman and thus an increased chance of perpetuating their genes. For women, the desirable traits in men indicate their capacity to support and protect the family.
What are some critiques on the evolutionary approach? (box 4.7)
Undercuts moral responsibility, blurs the line between genetic legacy and social cultural tradition.
Summarize Rosenweig and Krech's study on how environment can influence rats' cortex. (figure 4.4, p 145)
They raised rats either alone in an environment without playthings, or with other rats in an enriched environment. Rats in the enriched environment developed significantly more cerebral cortex than did those in the impoverished environment.
How much influence do parents and peers have on our lives? (147)
In personality measures, shared environmental influences from the womb onward typically account for less than 10 percent of children's differences. However, parents are important when it comes to education, discipline, responsibility, orderliness, charitableness and ways of interacting with authority figures. Peers are important for learning cooperation, finding the road to popularity and inventing styles of interaction among people in the same age group.
What is culture?
Enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next.
What is a norm?
An understood rule for accepted and expected behavior. Prescribes "proper" behavior.
Difference between collectivism and individualism? (table 4.1)
Individualism is giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications. Collectivism is giving priority to the goals of one's group and defining one's identity accordingly.
Review gender differences (155-157). Who tends to be more physically aggressive, socially dominant? Who is more concerned with social connectedness?
Men tend to be more physically aggressive, and socially dominant. Women are more concerned with social connectedness.
What evidence is there that gender differences are biological? (e.g., testosterone exposure to female embryos p 158)
Animal studies confirm that female embryos given male hormones will later exhibit a typically masculine appearance and more aggressive behavior. Relatively high testosterone levels in prenatal amniotic fluid predict somewhat greater male-typical play and more athletic success for both boys and girls.
What evidence is there that gender is the result of nurture?
Gender identity can be shaped by environment; if someone is treated according to certain gender roles, they may begin to live up to it.
What is a role?
A set of expectations about a social position, defining how those in the position ought to behave.
What is a gender role?
A set of expected behaviors for males and females.
What is a gender identity?
Our sense of being male or female.
What is gender typing?
The acquisition of traditional masculine or feminine roles.
How does social learning theory explain gender differences?
Social learning of gender assumes that children learn gender identity by observing and imitating others' gender-linked behaviors.
What is developmental psychology?
A branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the lifespan.
What are its three main issues?
Nature and nurture, continuity and stages, stability and change.
What is a zygote?
The fertilized egg; it enters a 2 week period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo.
Embryo?
The developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the second month.
What are teratogens?
Literally "monster maker". Agents, such as chemicals and viruses, that can reach the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm.
What is FAS?
Fetal alcohol syndrome is physical and cognitive abnormalities in children, caused by a pregnant woman's heavy drinking. In severe cases, symptoms include noticeable facial misproportions.
What do newborns prefer to look at?
Faces.
Do infants see things better that are close to them or far away?
Closer.
What do infants prefer to hear and smell?
Sights and sounds that facilitate social responsiveness (e.g., their mother's scent)
How to we test what infants prefer?
Through habituation
What is habituation?
Decreasing responsiveness with repeated stimulation. As infants gain familiarity with repeated exposure to a visual stimulus, their interest wanes and they look away sooner.
Infantile amnesia? (p 173)
Inability to retrieve memories from before age 3.
What is cognition?
All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.
What are schemas?
A concept or framework that organizes and interprets information.
What are assimilation and accommodation?
Assimilation is interpreting our new experiences in terms of our existing schemas. Accommodation is adapting to our current understandings (schemas) to incorporate new information.
What are the four stages Piaget proposed?
Sensorimotor stage, Preoperational stage, concrete operational stage, and formal operational stage.
What is thinking like in each stage? (table 5.1
Sensorimotor: infants know their world mostly in terms of their sensory impressions and motor activities.
Preoperational: representing things with words and images; using intuitive rather than logical reasoning.
Concrete: thinking logically about concrete events; grasping concrete analogies and performing arithmetical operations.
Formal: Abstract reasoning
What is object permanence?
The awareness that things continue to exist even when not perceived.
What has recent research shown about when object permanence develops? (p 176, figure 5.12)
5 months
What is conservation? How is it often tested? (figure 5.13)
The principle (Piaget believed was part of the concrete operational reasoning) that properties such as mass, volume, and number remain the same despite changes in the forms of objects. Often tested by pouring fluids into taller and shorter glasses and seeing which glass the child believes has "more" fluid.
What is egocentrism and how can we see it in children in the preoperational stage?
In Piaget's theory, the preoperational child's difficulty taking another's point of view.
What is a theory of mind and when does it develop?
People's ideas about their own and other's mental states - about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behavior these might predict. Develops between 3.5-4.5 years of age.
How do children in the concrete and formal operational period differ?
In the concrete stage children's reasoning is based on actual experiences; in formal stage their reasoning has expanded to include abstract thinking (involving imagined realities and symbols).
How has thinking about cognitive development changed in more recent years? (p 182)
Development is now seen as more continuous than Piaget saw it. By detecting the beginning of each type of thinking at earlier ages, conceptual abilities that Piaget missed have been revealed. Formal logic is seen as a smaller part of cognition.
What is autism?
A disorder that appears in childhood and is marked by deficient communication, social interaction, and understanding of others' states of mind.
How do people with autism have an impaired theory of mind?
They are less capable of understanding others' states of mind.
How does biology influence autism (genes, mirror neurons)?
Studies have shown that if one identical twin is diagnosed with autism the chances are 50 to 70 percent that the co twin will be as well. Random genetic mutations in sperm producing cells may also play a role in autism. Activity in brain areas involved in mirroring others' actions is significantly decreased in autistic people.
What is stranger anxiety?
The fear of strangers that infants commonly display, beginning by about 8 months of age.
What is attachment?
An emotional tie with another person; shown in young children by their seeking closeness to the caregiver and showing distress upon separation.
How did Harlow's study with monkeys demonstrate the importance of comfort?
It showed the importance of comfort because even though the nourishment came from the less comfortable "mother", the monkeys preferred to stay in contact with, and developed attachment too, the comfortable cloth "mother".
What is a critical period?
An optimal period early in the life of an organism when exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produces normal development.
Imprinting?
The process by which certain animals form attachments during a critical period very early in life.
What is a secure attachment?
Infants, in their mothers presence, play comfortably, and happily explore their new environment. When she leaves they become distressed, when she returns they seek contact.
Insecure attachment?
Marked by anxiety or avoidance of trusting relationships. Less likely to explore surroundings, may cling to their mother. When she leaves they cry loudly and remain upset, even when she returns.
What factors influence attachment?
How attentive, sensitive and responsive a child's environment is (e.g., parents, caregivers)
What is self concept?
Our understanding and evaluation of who we are.
How do we test for a self-concept?
One way of testing for self concept is to place a child in front of a mirror and see if it recognizes the image as itself, or as another child.
At what age do humans seem to show self-concept?
At about 6 months of age.
Name and describe the three parenting styles (p 189)
Authoritarian: parents impose rules and expect obedience.
Permissive: parents submit to their children's desires; they make few demands and use little punishment.
Authoritative: parents are both demanding and responsive; they exert control by setting rules, but also explain the reason for the rules.
What part of the brain responsible for planning and judgment is not fully developed in adolescents?
Frontal lobes
Kohlberg's theory of moral development: what are the three stages and how do people reason morally in each stage? (table 5.2)
Preconventional morality: self interest; obey rules to avoid punishment or to gain concrete rewards.
Conventional morality: upholds laws and rules to gain social approval or maintain social order.
Postconventional morality: actions reflect belief in basic rights and self defined ethical principles.
What does the social intuitionist account of morality propose? (p 194-5)
That the mind makes moral judgments as it makes aesthetic judgments - quickly and automatically.
Review Erikson's psychosocial stages of development in table 5.3. What stage occurs in adolescence?
Identity vs. role confusion
What is an identity?
Our sense of self; according to Erikson, the adolescent's task is to solidify a sense of self by testing and integrating various roles.
What is a social identity?
The "we" aspect of our self concept; the part of our answer to "Who am I?" that comes from our group memberships.
What is intimacy?
In Erikson's theory, the ability to form close, loving relationships; a primary developmental task in late adolescence and early adulthood.
Explain how the importance of peer and parent relationships change in adolescence.
Adolescence is typically a time of diminishing parental influence and growing peer influence.
What is emerging adulthood?
For some people in modern cultures, a period from late teens to mid twenties, bridging the gap between adolescent dependence and full independence and responsible adulthood.
Review the physical changes in middle adulthood.
Gradual decline in fertility, visual sharpness diminishes, muscle strength and reaction time decreases, as do sense of hearing and smelling.
How do vision, hearing, smell, and reaction time change with age?
Pupils become shrink with age, requiring more light to expand. Reaction time slows down. Hearing diminishes.
What is Alzheimer's disease and what do we know about what is happening in the brain for those with this disease?
Alzheimer's is a disease that includes loss of brain cells and deterioration of neurons that produce the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is vital to memory and thinking.
What is the difference between a recall and a recognition test of memory?
A recall is remembering information without any clues; recognition is how you respond to a sensory cue.
How do older adults perform on these tests compared to younger adults? (figure 5.29)
Older adults fared significantly worse on the recall tests, but in recognition tests their was only a minimal decline in memory.
Research designs in developmental psychology: longitudinal and cross sectional designs. (p. 207)
Cross-sectional study: a study in which people of different ages are compared to one another.
Longitudinal study: research in which the same people are restudied and retested over a long period.
What is a social clock?
The culturally preferred timing of social events such as marriage, parenthood, and retirement.
Is there evidence for a mid-life crisis?
No, in fact many typical signs of a mid-life crisis do not occur during the midlife stage at all.
How is marriage related to happiness?
It provides intimacy and attachment, which is central to a healthy and happy adulthood.
What is a predictor of marital success?
At least a five-to-one ratio of positive to negative interactions.
Does life satisfaction change in old age? (figure 5.30)
No. Studies conducted showed that age gave no clue to life satisfaction.