Psychology 104 Final Exam Questions & Answers Already Passed!!

Consciousness - Answer-awareness of oneself and one's environment • late 19th century: major subject of study in psychology • early 20th century: behaviourism considered it a mere product of behaviour. • mid-late 20th century: interest in mental processes increases • currently: how does it arise from the functioning of the brain? Gerhard Roth - Answer-• He defined 2 forms of consciousness: Background Stream & Actual Stream. • He also stated that consciousness comprises many states; these lie on a continuum from coma to sleep to alertness (2004). William James - Answer-(1892) He first proposed the concept of a "stream" of consciousness Background Stream - Answer-long-lasting sensory experiences • sense of personal identity • awareness of one's body; control of body and intellect • location in space/time • level of reality of experience; fantasy vs. reality Actual Stream - Answer-concrete, often rapidly alternating states of awareness • awareness of processes in one's body and environment • cognitive activities, emotions, feelings, and needs (e.g., ______) • wishes, intentions, and acts of will • sharpened by processes of attention Association Cortex - Answer-PET/fMRI studies implicate that this part of the brain contains multiple areas of (which organize and integrate sensory information) for these two aspects of consciousness.David J. Chalmers - Answer-(1995): defined two kinds of problems in understanding consciousness, The "easy" problems and the "hard" problems. Is skeptical that neuroscience can provide answers to these "hard" questions. Easy Problems - Answer-According to David Chalmers these are the problems that psychology and neuroscience are trying to answer (and are actually quite challenging): • How can we discriminate sensory stimuli and react to them appropriately? • How does the brain integrate information and use this to control behavior? • How is it that we can verbalize our internal states? Hard Problems - Answer-According to David Chalmers these are the problems that look to answer the question of how physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experience: • Why is it that when our brains process light of a certain wavelength, we have a particular experience (of red, for example)? • Why do we have any experience at all? • Could not an unconscious automaton have performed the same tasks just as well? Selective Attention - Answer-conscious awareness that focuses on a particular stimulus. Divided Attention - Answer-awareness that is spread over two or more stimuli. Innattentional Blindness - Answer-when visual attention is engaged, other events fail to be perceived. Change Blindness - Answer-when a visual stimulus is interrupted and changed, we cannot detect the change Visual Form Agnosia - Answer-person cannot visually perceive global structure (e.g., object identity, shape, orientation), despite intact low-level sensory processing (e.g., acuity, colour, and brightness discrimination) - patient D.F. has diffuse damage to occipitotemporal cortex - cannot recognize, discriminate, or copy complex visual forms, like shapes- but (to her own surprise) she can accurately reach for and grasp objects - implication: holistic visual perception ("what") is different from visually guided action ("how") Visual Object Agnosia - Answer-person cannot visually identify objects, even though they can "see" and describe them - Oliver Sacks' patient Dr. P. has damage in visual association cortex - able to copy pictures, but cannot identify them - described "a continuous surface...infolded on itself...has five outpouchings" = glove - implication: visual perception and identification are different processes Blindsight - Answer-person has no visual experience (i.e., they are blind), but can perform visually guided tasks better than chance level - patient D.B. had primary visual cortex removed - can correctly guess which way a line is moving, and can grasp objects - some patients can identify facial expressions - implication: some aspects of vision are not conscious Circadian Rhythm - Answer-The body's biological sleep/wake cycle - naturally tends to be ~25 hours; believed to be reset by light. Kleitman & Richardson - Answer-Circa 1938: - stayed in Mammoth Cave in Kentucky for 33 days - went to sleep and woke up 1 hour later each day - confound: amount of light exposure Czeisler - Answer-Circa 1999: - carefully controlled amount of light exposure - cycle found to be 24 hours, 11 minutes long - optic nerve connects to Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) reset by light each day- SCN tells pineal gland to produce melatonin, the "sleep hormone" Suprachiasmatic nucleus - Answer-Connects to the optic nerve and is reset by light each day. Melatonin - Answer-Is produced when the suprachiasmatic nucleus tells the pineal gland to release this "sleep hormone". Sleep Cycle - Answer-~90 minutes - brain/muscle activity can measured with electroencephalogram (EEG): electrodes pasted to scalp/face Alpha Waves - Answer-occur in awake, relaxed state; medium amplitude, medium frequency (8-12 Hz) Beta Waves - Answer-occur in awake, active state; irregular, low amplitude, high frequency (13-30 Hz) Stage 1 - Answer-A light sleep, lasts 2-10 min.; transition period - alpha waves; theta waves: irregular, medium amplitude, slower frequency (4-8 Hz) - may experience hallucinations/images, sensation of falling, hypnic _____ Stage 2 - Answer-deeper sleep; 15-20 min. - irregular activity, sleep spindles - k-complex sleep spindles - Answer-bursts of activity in brainwaves during sleep. k-complex - Answer-A brief spike of large-amplitude activity during sleep; can occur in response to sounds (knocking?) on the first presentation, or hearing one's name Delta Waves - Answer-high amplitude, low frequency (1-4 Hz)Stage 3 - Answer-3: ~15 min - some delta waves present. Stage 4 - Answer-deepest sleep, ~15 min. - delta waves predominate; people difficult to awaken - you then return through stages 3 & 2, which is followed by REM sleep Slow Wave Sleep - Answer-Describes stages 3 & 4 wave patterns Rapid Eye Movement - Answer-- sawtooth waves occur; similar to beta waves - heart rate increases, irregular breathing, genitals become aroused, brainstem paralyzes muscles - dreams experienced: have narrative form; often emotional - cycling through stages continues - "REM _______": if REM is interrupted, one returns to it much more quickly REM Rebound - Answer-Describes the reaction when stage 5 of the sleep cycle is interrupted, one returns to it much more quickly. Preservation and Protection - Answer-A theory of sleep: An adaptive significance that helps one avoid dangers and predators (hard to see in the dark) Restoration - Answer-A theory of sleep: - adaptive significance: helps one recuperate physically/mentally - energy conserved; growth hormone released during sleep - amount of sleep is correlated with strength of immune system Learning & Memory - Answer-A theory of sleep: - sleep consolidates recent memories - people are more than twice as likely to discover insight into a numerical cognitive task after 8 hours of sleep (Wagner et al., 2004)Dissomnias - Answer-disturbances in the amount, quality, or timing of sleep Insomnia - Answer-difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep for at least 1 month, not caused by any other disorder - affects 10-15% of population Sleeping Pills - Answer-reduces REM and slow-wave sleep; sleep less satisfying; leads to vicious circle of dependence Sleep Hygiene - Answer-sleep on a regular schedule (even on weekends) • only consume caffeine in morning/early afternoon • don't exercise in evening; just relax before bedtime • don't do anything in bed but sleep Narcolepsy - Answer-symptoms include excessive daytime sleepiness, vivid nightmares, cataplexy (loss of muscle control, often triggered by intense emotions) - REM occurs at sleep onset; periods of REM and non-REM (NREM) sleep are disturbed - normally treated with stimulants's & nap scheduling - affects 0.1% of population Sleep Apnea - Answer-cessation of breathing during sleep, which causes sleeper to awaken to breathe. leads to deprivation of slow-wave sleep Central Sleep Apnea - Answer-breathing control centres in the brain interrupted; can be caused by depressants/sedatives. Obstructive Sleep Apnea - Answer-The physical blockage of airflow; can be caused by upper respiratory infection; linked to obesityParasomnias - Answer-sleep disorders involving abnormal or unnatural movements, behaviors, emotions, perceptions, or dreams somniloquy - Answer-("sleep talking"): - words/gibberish spoken during sleep - occurs during brief arousals from NREM sleep, or during REM - affects 50% of children, 5% of adults