Stages of Sleep and Brain Waves

Stages of Sleep

• Stage 1 (S1): Lightest sleep stage, marked by theta waves.
• Stage 2 (S2): Slightly deeper sleep, characterized by sleep spindles and K-complexes.
• Stage 3 (S3): Transitional stage between light and deep sleep; delta waves start to appear.
• Stage 4 (S4): Deepest stage of sleep; primarily delta waves.
• REM (Rapid Eye Movement): Brain activity resembles wakefulness; vivid dreams and muscle paralysis occur.

Brain Wave Patterns

• Alpha waves: Relaxed wakefulness.
• Beta waves: Active wakefulness, alertness, and mental engagement.
• Theta waves: Present in drowsiness and light sleep, but also present in deep meditation and relaxation.
• Delta waves: Slow and high-amplitude waves characteristic of deep sleep (stages 3 and 4).
• Sleep spindles: Short bursts of rapid brain activity seen in stage 2 sleep.

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus

• Located in the hypothalamus; acts as the body's internal clock, regulating circadian rhythms.

Substance Effects

• Narcotics: Pain relief, euphoria, slowed breathing and heart rate.
• Alcohol: Depressant, impairing judgment, coordination, and memory.
• Cannabis: Euphoria, relaxation, altered perception.
• Stimulants: Increased alertness, energy, and focus; can also lead to anxiety, insomnia, and dependence.
• Hallucinogens: Altered perception, hallucinations, and changes in mood.
• Sedatives: Reduce anxiety and induce sleep, but can slow breathing and heart rate.

Circadian Rhythms Impacts

• Social Jet Lag: Disruption of circadian rhythm due to social activities conflicting with natural sleep-wake patterns.
• Work Shift Schedule: Long hours, night shifts, or unpredictable schedules can negatively affect circadian rhythm and sleep quality.

Theories of Dreaming

• Activation-Synthesis Theory: Dreams are random neural activity interpreted by the brain.
• Cognitive Theory: Dreams reflect waking thoughts, concerns, and problem-solving.
• Neurocognitive Theory: Similar to the cognitive theory, but emphasizes the evolutionary significance of dreams and their role in memory consolidation.

Dependence

• Psychological Dependence: Craving a substance for emotional reasons—to cope with stress or improve mood—rather than physical withdrawal symptoms.
• Physiological Dependence: Physical need for a substance, leading to withdrawal symptoms when not using it.

Structuralism and Functionalism

• Structuralism: School of psychology that focused on breaking down mental processes into basic elements.
• Functionalism: School of psychology that focused on the purpose and function of mental processes in adaptation to the environment.

Sleep Concerns/Disorders

• Insomnia: Difficulty falling or staying asleep.
• Narcolepsy: Excessive daytime sleepiness, sudden sleep attacks, cataplexy (sudden muscle weakness), sleep paralysis, and hypnagogic hallucinations.
• Sleep Apnea: Repeated pauses in breathing during sleep.
• REM Sleep Behavior Disorder: Muscle paralysis during REM sleep is absent, leading to acting out dreams.

Devices

• EMG (Electromyography): Records muscle activity.
• EKG (Electrocardiogram): Records heart activity.
• EOG (Electrooculogram): Records eye movements.
• EEG (Electroencephalogram): Records brain activity.

Sleep & Age; Sleep & Health

• Sleep and Age: Older people typically experience less deep sleep and shorter sleep durations.
• Sleep and Health: Insufficient or poor-quality sleep is associated with several health problems, such as obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and mental health issues.

Culture and Dreams

• Cultural Influences: Cultural beliefs and experiences can shape dream content.
• Common Dreams: Regardless of culture, dreams involving falling, being chased, or feeling lost are common.

Hypnotic Phenomena

• Hypnotic Suggestibility: Increased susceptibility to suggestions under hypnosis.
• Amnesia: Inability to recall events that occurred under hypnosis.
• Age Regression: Experiencing or reliving events from a past age.
• Hypermnesia: Enhanced memory recall under hypnosis.

Classical Conditioning

• Key Principles: Pairing a neutral stimulus (CS) with an unconditioned stimulus (US) that elicits an unconditioned response (UR) repeatedly leads to the neutral stimulus eliciting a conditioned response (CR).
• Higher-Order Conditioning: Pairing a neutral stimulus with a conditioned stimulus to establish a new conditioned response.
• Example: Imagine a bell (CS) is paired with food (US) which triggers salivation (UR), leading to salivation at the sound of the bell (CR). Later, a light (CS2) is paired with the bell (CS1) which causes salivation (CR), making the light (CS2) also elicit salivation.

Operant Conditioning

• Key Principles: Behaviors are learned through consequences: reinforcement increases behavior; punishment decreases behavior.
• Schedules: The patterns of reinforcement delivery.
  • Fixed Ratio (FR): Reinforcement after a fixed number of responses.
  • Fixed Interval (FI): Reinforcement after a fixed period of time since the last response.
  • Variable Ratio (VR): Reinforcement after an unpredictable number of responses.
  • Variable Interval (VI): Reinforcement after an unpredictable period of time since the last response.
  • Least Likely to Experience Extinction: Variable Ratio (VR)
  • Most Likely to Experience Extinction: Fixed Interval (FI)
• Positive Reinforcement: Adding a pleasant stimulus to increase behavior.
• Negative Reinforcement: Removing an aversive stimulus to increase behavior.
• Punishment: Adding an aversive stimulus or removing a pleasant stimulus to decrease behavior.
• Applying Reinforcement/Punishment: Using reinforcement to encourage desired behaviors and punishment to discourage undesired behaviors.
• Escape Learning: Learning to terminate an aversive stimulus.
• Avoidance Learning: Learning to prevent contact with an aversive stimulus.
• Superstitions: Develop through coincidental reinforcement.

Observational Learning

• Key Principles: Learning by observing and imitating the behavior of others.
• Four Processes:
  • Attention: Focusing on the model's behavior.
  • Retention: Remembering what was observed.
  • Motor Reproduction: Being able to physically perform the behavior.
  • Motivation: Having a reason to perform the behavior.
• Applying Observational Learning: Demonstrating and encouraging desired behavior.

Memory Concepts

• Extinction: The weakening of a conditioned response over trials without reinforcement.
• Renewal Effect: The reappearance of a conditioned response in a new context.
• Spontaneous Recovery: The reappearance of a conditioned response after a period of rest.
• Shaping: Gradually reinforcing closer approximations of the desired behavior.
• Stimulus Generalization: Responding to stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus.
• Stimulus Discrimination: Responding differently to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus.

Sensory, Short-Term, and Long-Term Memory

• Sensory Memory: Briefly holds sensory information (visual, auditory).
• Short-Term Memory: Holds information for a few seconds to a few minutes; limited capacity (~7 items).
• Long-Term Memory: Relatively permanent storage of information.

Declarative and Non-Declarative Memory

• Declarative Memory (Explicit): Conscious recall of information.
• Non-Declarative Memory (Implicit): Unconscious recall of information, often procedural memories (e.g., riding a bike, playing a musical instrument).

Chunking

• Grouping information into meaningful units to increase short-term memory capacity.

Levels of Processing

• Shallow: Processing information based on its physical characteristics (e.g., font, size).
• Intermediate: Processing information based on its meaning (e.g., understanding words).
• Deep: Processing information by relating it to prior knowledge and thinking about its significance.

Working Memory

• Visual-Spatial Sketchpad: Processes visual and spatial information
• Phonological Loop: Processes verbal and auditory information.

Ebbinghaus' Curve of Forgetting

• Shows that forgetting occurs rapidly at first and then levels off over time.

Long-Term Memory Structure

• Hippocampus: Plays a key role in the formation and consolidation of new long-term memories.

Interference

• Proactive Interference: Old information interferes with the retrieval of new information.
• Retroactive Interference: New information interferes with the retrieval of old information.

Memory Phenomena

• Misinformation Effect: The incorporation of misleading information into memory.
• Hindsight Bias: The tendency to overestimate one's ability to have predicted an event.
• Source Monitoring Error: Inability to remember the source of a memory.
• Flashbulb Memory: A vivid and detailed memory of a significant event.
• Repression: A defense mechanism involving pushing traumatic memories into the unconscious.

Encoding and Retrieval Techniques

• Link Method: Creating a chain of associations between items to be remembered.
• Acronym: Using the first letter of each word in a phrase to form a memorable word.
• Acrostics: Creating a sentence where each word's first letter corresponds to an item to be remembered.
• Method of Loci: Visualizing items in a familiar location to aid recall.
• Rehearsal: Repeating information to keep it in short-term memory.
• Elaboration: Connecting information to prior knowledge and creating meaningful associations.
• Visual Imagery: Creating mental pictures to aid encoding and retrieval.
• Motivation to Remember: Having a strong reason to retain information.
• Retrieval Cues: Stimuli that trigger retrieval of a memory.
• Context Cues: Environmental cues associated with the learning experience.

Repressed Memories and Controversy

• Controversy: Debate over the validity of repressed memories, particularly in cases of childhood trauma.
• Supporters: Believe that repressed memories can be recovered through therapy and should be considered in legal cases.
• Skeptics: Doubt the reliability of repressed memories, worrying about false memories being created during therapy, which could lead to wrongful accusations and injustice.

Explore the various stages of sleep and the corresponding brain wave patterns associated with each stage. This quiz delves into the characteristics of light sleep, deep sleep, and REM sleep, as well as the role of the suprachiasmatic nucleus in sleep regulation.