Exam 2: Study Guide

Consciousness- an awareness of one’s surroundings and of what’s in one’s mind at a given moment; includes aspects of being awake and aware

Flow- Where we may become so involved in what we are doing that we lose a sense of time and forget where we are

Mindfulness- a heightened awareness of the present moment, whether of events in one’s environment or in one’s own mind

“Spotlight” of consciousness- idea that conscious “shines a light” on certain neural processes (sight, sound, touch, etc.) more than others

Attention- the limited capacity to process information that is under conscious control

Coma- a state of consciousness in which the eyes are closed and the person is unresponsive and unarousable

Reticular formation- a network of nerve fibers that runs up through both the hindbrain and the midbrain; it is crucial to waking up and falling asleep

Amygdala- small almond shaped structure located directly in front of the hippocampus; has connections with many important brain regions and is important for processing emotional information, especially that related to fear

The cocktail party effect- the ability to filter out auditory stimuli and then to refocus attention when you hear your name

Perceptual load model, Lavie et al. (2004) – we do not notice potential distracters when a primary task consumes all of our attentional capacity

Circadian rhythms- the variations in physiological processes that cycle within approximately a 24-hour period, including the sleep-wake cycle

Melatonin- a hormone that plays a role in relaxation and drowsiness

Infants & REM- infants might spend a total of 8 hours in REM sleep per day, helping brain growth and development

Insomnia- a sleep difficulty characterized by difficulty falling and staying asleep, as well as not feeling rested

Sleep walking- sleep difficulty characterized by activities occurring during non-REM sleep that usually occur when one is awake, such as walking and eating

Sleep apnea- a sleep disorder in which the airways become blocked and the person has trouble breathing and actually stops breathing momentarily

Restless leg syndrome- a condition that is characterized by intense disagreeable feelings in the legs at rest and repose with compulsion to move the legs to get relief from symptoms

Hypersomnia- sleep difficulty characterized by sleeping more than 10 hours a day for 2 weeks or more; includes urge to nap during inappropriate times

Freud & dreams- the unconscious level is more important than the surface level

Manifest- Freud’s surface level of dreams, recalled upon waking

Latent- Freud’s deeper, unconscious level of dreams; their meaning is found at this level

Cognitive Psychology & Sleep- sleep helps process things we have learned during the day and allow them to move and cement them into long-term memory

Lucid dreaming- an ability to know when you are dreaming and can therefor control the events and outcomes of the dreams

Memory- the ability to store and use information; also the store of what has been learned and remembered

Short-term memory- the part of memory that temporarily (2 to 3 seconds) stores a limited amount of information before it is either transferred to long-term storage or forgotten

Sensory memory- the part of memory that holds information in its original sensory form for a very brief period of time, usually about half a second or less

False memory- memory or events that never happened, but were suggested by someone or something

Long-term potentiation- strengthening of a synaptic connection that results when synapse of one neuron repeatedly fires and excites another neuron

Tactile memory- systems that are involved in the storage and retrieval of information about stimuli that impinge on the body surface and objects that people explore hectically

Iconic memory- a visual sensory memory that lasts up to about a second

Echoic memory- a type of sensory memory that briefly holds audio information for about