Psychology Chapter on Consciousness and Sleep

Consciousness

• Definition: Subjective experience of the world, body, and mind.
• Altered States of Consciousness: Sleep paralysis, out-of-body experiences, near-death experiences, hypnosis, meditation, and drug-induced states.

Sleep

• What is Sleep?: Low physical activity and reduced awareness, associated with hormone secretion.
  • Melatonin: Regulates sleep-wake cycle.
  • Growth Hormone: Essential for development and repair.
  • Follicle Stimulating Hormone and Luteinizing Hormone: Related to reproductive processes.
• Stages of Sleep (90-minute cycles)
  • Stage 1: Brief period transitioning from wakefulness, slowed brain waves.
  • Stage 2: Slowed brain waves further, sleep spindles and K-complexes (65% of total sleep).
  • Stages 3 & 4: Delta waves dominate, growth hormone released, memory consolidation.
  • Stage 5: REM Sleep: Rapid eye movements, vivid dreams, paralysis (brain active), REM rebound after deprivation.

Dreams

• Freudian Perspective: Dreams fulfill unconscious wishes (latent content), actual storyline (manifest content).
• Evolutionary Perspective: Dreams for survival, processing critical information.
• Neuroscience Perspective: Brain creates a story from random activity, emotional centers (limbic system) are active, prefrontal cortex is less engaged (Activation-Synthesis Theory).

Sleep Deprivation

• Effects: Increased stress, emotional overreactions, and impaired cognition, long-term cardiovascular and mental health issues.
• Peter Tripp "wakeathon": Resulted in hallucinations, paranoia, and personality changes.
• Prevention: Maintain a regular sleep schedule, quiet environment, and avoid caffeine before bed.

Psychoactive Drugs

• Types of Drugs:
  • Stimulants: Increase arousal and energy (Caffeine, Nicotine, Amphetamines, Cocaine).
  • Depressants: Slow down CNS activity (Barbiturates, Benzodiazepines, Alcohol, Opioids).
  • Hallucinogens: Alter perceptions and sensory experiences (LSD, MDMA, Marijuana).

Drug Dependence

• Tolerance: Requires more of the drug for the same effect.
• Physical Dependence: Withdrawal symptoms occur without the drug.
• Psychological Dependence: Cravings to handle stress or emotions.

Key Concepts

• Sleep Paralysis: Occurs during REM transitions, linked to cultural influences.
• Circadian Rhythm: SCN and melatonin role.
• Dream Theories: Freud (wish fulfillment), Evolutionary (survival), Neuroscience (activation-synthesis).
• Psychoactive Drug Effects: Differentiate between stimulants, depressants, and hallucinogens.

Learning Basics

• Definition of Learning: A relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge due to experience. Involves conscious and unconscious processes.
• Types of Learning:
  • Habituation: Decreased response to a repeated stimulus.
  • Sensitization: Increased response after repeated exposure to a stimulus.

Unlearned Behaviors

• Reflexes: Automatic, involuntary responses to stimuli (e.g., pupillary light reflex, startle reflex).
• Instincts: Innate drives or patterns of behavior (e.g., migration, sexual activity).

Classical Conditioning

• Overview: Learn to associate stimuli to anticipate events (Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS), Unconditioned Response (UCR), Neutral Stimulus (NS), Conditioned Stimulus (CS), Conditioned Response (CR)).
• Process: Acquisition, Extinction, Spontaneous Recovery, Stimulus Generalization, Stimulus Discrimination.
• Examples: Pavlov's dogs, Marketing (pairing products with appealing stimuli), Little Albert.
• Special Cases: Taste aversion, Fetishes.

Operant Conditioning

• Law of Effect: Behaviors followed by positive outcomes are more likely to recur.
• Key Components:
  • Reinforcement (increases likelihood): positive (add pleasant stimulus), negative (remove unpleasant stimulus).
  • Punishment (decreases likelihood): positive (add unpleasant stimulus), negative (remove pleasant stimulus).
• Issues with Punishment: Only teaches what not to do. Can cause anxiety or encourage sneaky behavior.

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous Reinforcement: Reward every occurrence.
• Partial Reinforcement: Reward intermittently, slower learning, greater resistance to extinction.

Biological Influences on Learning

• Limits of Learning: Evolutionary predispositions (e.g., fear of snakes), Instinctive drift (revert to natural behaviors).
• Applications: Operant principles, partial reinforcement, abusive relationships.

Cognitive Approaches to Learning

• Latent Learning: Learning occurs without reinforcement and is demonstrated when needed (cognitive maps).
• Observational Learning: Learning by watching others (attention, retention, reproduction, motivation).

Media Violence and Learning

• Impact of Media: Frequent exposure to violence can lower inhibitions, distort perceptions and desensitize individuals, studies link violent video games to aggression and delinquency.
• Examples: Columbine shooters, children exposed to violent TV shows modeling aggressive behavior.

Memory

• Memory Misconceptions: Memory is reconstructive and dynamic, not a recording device.
• Three-Stage Model of Memory:
  • Sensory Memory: Brief storage of sensory input (Iconic, Echoic).
  • Short-Term Memory (STM): Temporary system (~30 seconds), 7 +/- 2 items.
  • Long-Term Memory (LTM): Continuous, limitless storage.
• Working Memory: More dynamic version of STM, stores, and manipulates actively information, a 'mental whiteboard'.
• Types of Long-Term Memory:
  • Declarative (Explicit): Conscious recollection (Semantic, Episodic).
  • Nondeclarative (Implicit): Unconscious influence (Procedural).
• Neuroscience of Memory: Hippocampus (consolidation of declarative memory), Amygdala (emotional memories), Long-Term Potentiation (strengthening neural connections).
• Retrieval Failures: Decay, Interference.
• Encoding Failures: Lack of attention.
• False Memories: Fabricated through suggestion ("Lost in the Mall", Shaw & Porter).
• Memory Techniques: Levels of processing, effective methods for encoding specificity, context-dependent, state-dependent.
• Memory as Reconstructive: Schemas & Scripts. Stereotypes influencing recall; Suggestibility; Misinformation Effect.
• Amnesia: Anterograde (inability to form new memories), Retrograde (loss of pre-trauma memories).

Language, Thinking, and Reasoning

• Language: Communication through symbols, rule-based.
  • Components: Phonemes (smallest sound units), Morphemes (smallest meaningful units), Syntax (rules for sentence construction).
• Language Acquisition & Development: Critical period (early in life), stages (babbling, first words, sentences), theories (learning, nativist, interactionist).
• Thinking: Manipulating mental representations, cognitive economy.
• Concepts: Mental categories (e.g., prototypes).
• Reasoning & Problem Solving: Algorithms, Heuristics, types (representativeness, anchoring).
• Framing Effects: Decisions influenced by how information is presented.
• Obstacles to problem solving: Mental sets, Functional fixedness, biases (confirmation bias, hindsight bias).

Explore the fascinating concepts surrounding consciousness, sleep, and dreams in this comprehensive quiz. Delve into altered states of consciousness, the stages of sleep, and the psychological perspectives on dreaming. Test your knowledge on the intricate workings of the human mind and body during these states.