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Consciousness

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our awareness of ourselves and our environment

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Cognitive Neuroscience

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The interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language)

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Dual Processing

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The principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks

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Blind sight

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A condition in which a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it

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Selective attention

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the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

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Inattentional Blindness

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Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere

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Change Blindness

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Failing to notice changes in the environment

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Circadian Rhythm

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the biological clock regular bodily rhythms (for example of temperature and wakefulness) that occurs on a 24-hour cycle

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REM Sleep

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Rapid eye movement sleep a recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur also known as paradoxical sleep because the muscles are relaxed (except for minor tiwtches) but other body systems are active

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Alpha wave

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the relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state

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Sleep

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Periodic natural reversible loss of consciousness- as distinct from unconsciousness resulting from a coma general anesthesia or hibernation (adapted from Dement,1999)

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Hallucinations

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False sensory experiences such as seeing something in the absence of an external visual stimulus

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Delta Waves

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the large slow brain waves associated with deep sleep

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Insomnia

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recurring problems in falling or slaying asleep

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Narcolepsy

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a sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks, the sufferer may lapse directly into REM sleep often at inopportune times

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Sleep Apnea

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A sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep and repeated momentary awakenings

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Night Terrors

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a sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified; unlike nightmares, night terrors occur during NREM-3 sleep within tow or three hours of falling asleep ad are seldom remembered

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Dream

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A sequence of images, emotions and thoughts passing through a sleeping person's mind. Dreams are notable for their hallucinatory imagery, discontinuities and incongruities and for the dreamer's delusional acceptance of the content and alter difficulties remembering it.

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Manifest Content

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According to Freud, the remembered story line of a dream (as distinct from its latent, or hidden content)

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Latent Content

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According to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream (as distinct from its manifest content)

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REM Rebound

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The tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM Sleep deprivation (created by repeated awakenings during REM sleep)

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Hypnosis

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A social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts or behaviors will spontaneously occur

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Posthypnotic Suggestion

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A suggestion made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotizes used by some clinicians to help control undesired symptoms and behaviors

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Dissociation

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a split in consciousness which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others

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Substance use disorders

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continues substance craving and use despite significant life disruption and/or physical risk

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Psychoactive Drug

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A chemical substance that alters perceptions and moods

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Tolerance

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The diminishing effects with regular use of the same does of a drug, requiring the user to take larger and larger doses before experiencing the drug's effects

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Addiction

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Compulsive craving of drugs or certain behaviors (such as gambling) despite known adverse consequences

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Withdrawal

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the discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing and addictive drug or behavior

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Depressants

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drugs (such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates) that reduce neural activity and slow body functions

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Alcohol use disorder

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(popularly known as alcoholism) alcohol use marked by tolerance withdrawal and a drive to continue problematic use

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Barbiturates

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drugs that depress central nervous system activity, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgement

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Opiates

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opium and its derivatives such as morphine and heroin; they depress neural activity temporarily lessening pain an anxiety

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stimulants

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Drugs (such as caffeine, nicotine, and the more powerful amphetamines, cocaine, ecstasy, and methamphetamine) that excite neural activity and speed up body functions

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amphetamines

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drugs that stimulate neural activity causing speeded-up body functions

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Nicotine

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A stimulating and highly addictive psychoactive drug in tobacco

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Methamphetamine

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A powerfully addictive drug that stimulates the central nervous system, with speeded up body functions and associated energy and mood changes over time apprears to reduce baseline dopamine levels

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Ecstasy (MDMA)

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a synthetic stimulant an mild hallucinogen. Produces short-term health risks and longer-term harm to serotonin-producing neurons and to mood and cognition

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Hallucinogens

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Psychedelic ('Mind-manifesting") drugs, such as LSD that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input

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LSD

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a powerful hallucinogenic drug; also known as acid (lysergic acid diethylamide)

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Near-death experience

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An altered state of consciousness reported after a close brush with death (such as through cardiac arret ); often similar to drug induced hallucinations

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THC

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the major active ingredient in marijuana; triggers a variety of effects, including mild hallucinations

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Learning

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The process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information or behaviors

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Associative learning

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learning that certain events occur together. The events may be tow stimuli (as in classical conditioning) or a response and its consequences (as in operant conditioning)

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Stimulus

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and event or situation that evokes a response

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cognitive learning

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the acquisition of mental information, whether by observing events, by watching others, or through language

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Classical Conditioning

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a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events

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Behaviorism

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the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2)

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Unconditional response (UR)

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In classical conditioning an unlearned naturally occurring response (such as salivation) to an unconditioned stimulus (US) (such as food in the mouth)

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Neutral Stimulus (NS)

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in classical conditioning, a stimulus that elicits no response before conditioning

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Unconditioned stimulus (US)

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in classical conditioning a stimulus that unconditionally naturally and automatically triggers a response (UR)

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Conditional response (CR)

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in classical conditioning a learned response to a previously neutral (but now conditioned) stimulus (CS)

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Conditional stimulus (CS)

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in classical conditioning, an originally irrelevant stimulus that, after association with and unconditioned stimulus (US) comes to trigger a conditioned response (CR)

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Acquisition

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in classical conditioning the initial stage, when one links a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus begins triggering the conditioned response. In operant conditioning the strengthening of a reinforced response

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Higher- order conditioning

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a procedure in which the conditioned stimulus in one conditioning experience is paired with a new neutral stimulus creating a second (often weaker) conditioned stimulus. for ex. an animal that has learned that a tone predicts food might then learn that a l light predicts that tone an begin responding to the light alone (also called second-order conditioning)

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Extinction

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the diminishing of a conditioned response occurs in classical conditioning when an unconditional stimulus (US) does not follow a conditioning stimulus (CS) occurs in operant conditioning when a response is no longer reinforced

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Spontaneous recovery

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the reappearance after a pause of an extinguished conditioned response

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Generalization

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the tendency once a response has been conditioned for stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit similar response

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Discrimination

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in classical conditioning the learned ability to distinguish between a conditioned stimulus and stimuli that do not signal and unconditioned stimulus

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Operant Conditioning

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a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforce or diminished if followed by a punisher

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Law of effect

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Thorndike's principle that behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely and that behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely

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Operant Chamber

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in operant conditioning research, a chamber (also known as a skinner box) containing a bar or key that an animal can manipulate to obtain a food or water reinforce attached devices record the animal's rate of bar pressing or key pecking

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Reinforcement

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in operant conditioning any event that strengthens the behavior it follows

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Shaping

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an operant conditioning procedure in which reinforces guide behavior by presenting positive reinforces a stimulus that when presented after a response strengthens the response

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positive reinforcement

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increasing behaviors by presenting positive reinforces. a positive reinforce is any stimulus that, when presented after a response, strengthens the response

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Negative Reinforcement

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Increasing behaviors by stopping or reducing negative stimuli. A negative reinforce is any stimulus that when removed after a response strengthens the response (NOTE: negative reinforcement is not punishment)

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Primary Reinforcer

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an innately reinforcing stimulus such as one that satisfies a biological need

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Conditional reinforcer

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a stimulus that gains its reinforcing power through its association with a primary reinforcer also known as a secondary reinforced

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reinforcement schedule

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a pattern that defines how often a desired response will be reinforced

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continuous reinforcement

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reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs

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Partial (intermittent) Reinforcement

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reinforcing a response only part of the time results in slower acquisition of a response but much greater resistance to extinction that does continuous reinforcement

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Fixed-ratio schedule

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in operant conditioning a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses

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Variable ratio schedule

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in operant conditioning a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses

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fixes-interval schedule

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in operant conditioning a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals

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variable-interval schedule

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in operant condition a reinforcement schedule that reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals

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Punishment

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an event that tends to decrease the behavior that it follows

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Respondent Behavior

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behavior that occurs as an automatic response to some stimulus

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operant behavior

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behavior that operates on the environment producing consequences

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Cognitive Map

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a mental representation of the layout of one's environment for ex. after exploring a maze, rats act as if they have learned a cognitive map of it

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latent learning

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learning that occurs but is not apparent until there is an incentive to demonstrate it

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intrinsic motivation

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a desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own sake

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extrinsic motivation

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a desire to perform a behavior to receive promised rewards or avoid threatened punishment

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Observational learning

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learning by observing others

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modeling

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the process of observing and imitating a specific behavior

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Mirror Neurons

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frontal lobe neurons that some scientists believe fire when performing certain action so when observing another doing so. The brain's mirroring of anther's action may enable imitation and empathy

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Prosocial behavior

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positive constructive helpful behavior the opposite of antisocial behavior

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Memory

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the persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information

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recall

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a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier as on a fill-in-the-blank test

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recognition

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a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned as on a multiple-choice test

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relearning

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a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time served when learning material again

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Encoding

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the processing of information into the memory system for ex. by extracting meaning

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storage

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the retention of encoded information over time

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Retrieval

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the process of getting information out of memory storage

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Sensory Memory

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the immediate very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system

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short-term memory

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activated memory that hold a few items briefly, such as seven digits of a phone number within dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten

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Long-term memory

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the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences

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working memory

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a newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieved form long-term memory

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explicit memory

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memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare" (aslo called declarative memory)

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Effortful Processing

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encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

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automatic processing

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unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space time and frequency and of well learned information such as word meaning

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implicit memory

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retention independent of conscious recollection (also called non declarative memory)

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Iconic Memory

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a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli a photographic or picture image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second

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echoic memory

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a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli if attention is elsewhere sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds

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Chunking

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organizing items into familiar manageable units often occurs automatically

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mnemonic

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memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

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Spacing Effect

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the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long term retention then is achieved through masses study or practice

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testing effect

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enhanced memory after retrieving rather than simply reading information also sometimes referred to as retrieval practice effect or test-enhanced learning

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shallow processing

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encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words

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deep processing

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encoding semantically based on the meaning of the words tends to yield the best retention

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Hippocampus

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a neural center located in the limbic system helps process explicit memories for storage

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Flashbulb memory

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a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or even

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Long term potentiation (LTP)

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an increase in a cells firing potential after brief rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory

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Priming

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the activation often unconsciously of particular associations in memory

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Mood-Congruent memory

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the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with ones current good or bad mood

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Serial position effect

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our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

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anterograde amnesia

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an inability to from new memories

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retrograde amnesia

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an inability to retrieve information from one's past

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Proactive Interference

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the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information

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retroactive interference

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the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information

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Repression

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in psychoanalytic theory then basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety arousing thoughts feelings and memories

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Misinformation effect

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incorporating misleading information in to one's memory of an event

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Source amnesia

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attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced heard about read about or imagines (also called source misappropriation) sources amnesia along with the misinformation effect is at the heart of many false memories

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Deja vu

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that eerie sense that "I've experiences this before" cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval

General Psychology Chapter 3,7,8 Vocabulary – Flashcards

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