Chapter 10

A circadian rhythm lasts about how long?

a day

In the phenomenon of binocular rivalry, what do you see?

alternation between what the left eye sees and what the right eye sees

In which condition does the brain show low, steady rate of activity and no response to any stimulus

coma

what characterizes someone in a coma?

low brain activity with no response to any stimulus

what evidence indicated that a woman in a vegetative state are conscious?

Her brain activity responded to commands such as "imagine playing tennis"

researches wanted to present a stimulus that would become conscious on some trials and not on others, while

They presented interfering stimuli before and after the stimulus

what evidence shows that our 24- hours waking cycles results from a built in mechanism

people in a near- polar region generate close to a 24 hour sleep wake cycle.

researches present a stimulus under two conditions -- one in which people are conscious of it and one when they are not. What characterizes the occasion when people are conscious of the stimulus

the signal spreads more widely in the brain

some people describe themselves as "morning people" while others describe themselves as "evening people" what statement is true regarding that distinction

"evening people are at their intellectual and physical peak around 9-11 am

in a unchanging environment (such as a cave or submarine), people becomes sleepy about once every __ hours

12-13

when researcher measure brain activity during a binocular rivalry task, what did they find?

A consciously perceived image activated large proportion of the brain

In binocular rivalry, you might view green and black vertical strips in one eye while viewing red and black horizontal stripes in the other eye. What would you probably ecperience

Alternations: first one, then the other, the the first again

people watched a clock- like device and made a spontaneous decision of when to flex a wrist, remembering the time of decision and reporting it later. What was the key result?

Brain activity preparing the movement began before the decision

A very brief masked visual stimulus is not perceived consciously at all. However, a slightly longer stimulus is perceived, and appears to have lasted the entire duration of the stimulus, What conclusion follows

We sometimes construct a perceptions after a stimulus, not simultaneously with it.

what is a characteristic of the "minimally conscious state"

brief periods of purposeful action and speech comprehension

what often produces spatial neglect for half of the body

damage in the right hemisphere of the brain

when brain damaged patients show spatial neglect, is the problem mainly a loss of sensation or deficit in attention? what evidence supports this conclusion

the problem is in attention. Evidence: They ignore the left side when describing thing from memory

people watched a dot moving around a clock and spontaneously decided when the flex their wrist, remembering and later reporting the location of the dot at the time of the conscious decision. Researched also measured the time activity increased in the promoter cortex, and the time of the wrist movement. Why were the results theoretically important

the suggest that conscious thought does not control our actions

what evidence suggested that some people in a vegetative state are conscious

Instructions to imagine something activated the same brain areas as in intact people.

when people go without sleep for three days, what happens to their alertness

it declines every night, but partally recovers the next morning.

people note the moment when they decide to flex their wrist, and they report it later. Researchers record the time of the movement, the time of the reported decision, and the time when activity began to increase in the promoter cortex of the person's brain. Which comes first?

the increase in brain activity