Psychology - Chapter 10 Consciousness

Name two practical applications of hypnosis.

Hypnosis can relieve pain, and posthypnotic suggestions help some people break unwanted habits, such as smoking.

Nonuses

Hypnosis does not give people special strength or unusual powers. It does not improve memory accuracy. When asked to report their memories under hypnosis, people report a mixture of correct and incorrect information with much confidence.

Nature of hypnosis.

Hypnosis is a condition of increased concentration and suggestibility that occurs in the context of a special hypnotist-subject relationship. Psychologists distinguish the genuine phenomenon, which deserves serious study, from exaggerated claims.

Hypnosis as an altered state.

Hypnosis is not greatly different from normal wakefulness, but it is also not just something that people pretend.

Hypnosis induction

To induce hypnosis, a hypnotist asks a person to concentrate and then makes repetitive suggestions. The first steps toward being hypnotized are the willingness to be hypnotized and the belief that one is becoming hypnotized.

jet lag

period of discomfort and inefficiency while your internal clock is out of phase with your new surroundings

melatonin

the pineal gland's secretions of the hormone melatonin

What evidence shows that déjà vu does not always indicate that an experience was actually familiar?

A person with temporal lobe epilepsy reported an intense déjà vu experience immediately before his seizures, regardless of where he was or what he was seeing at the time.

REM sleep

A special stage known as REM sleep replaces the stage 1 periods after the first one. REM sleep is characterized by rapid eye movements, a high level of brain activity, and relaxed muscles. Dreams are common in this stage but not limited to it.

Uncertain limits

Although many hypnotists insist that hypnotized people will not do anything that they would refuse to do when not hypnotized, little evidence is available to support this claim.

How does dreaming differ from other thinking? Answer

Dreaming resembles other thinking, but it occurs during a time of decreased sensory input and loss of voluntary control of thinking.

Meditation.

Meditation increases relaxation, decreases anxiety, and enhances attention.

narcolepsy

condition characterized by sudden attacks of sleepiness during the day

sleep apnea

condition in which someone fails to breathe for a minute or more during sleep

periodic limb movement disorder

condition marked by unpleasant sensations in the legs and repetitive leg movements strong enough to interrupt sleep

insomnia

condition of not getting enough sleep to feel rested the next day

activation-synthesis theory of dreams

theory that dreams occur because the cortex takes the haphazard activity that occurs during REM sleep plus whatever stimuli strike the sense organs and does its best to make sense of this activity

sleep spindles

waves of brain activity at about 12 to 14 per second

Brain mechanisms of circadian rhythms

An area of the brain generates an approximately 24-hour rhythm. Sunlight does not generate this rhythm, but it does reset it.

What experience reflects the fact that part of the brain can be awake while another is asleep?

Any of the following: waking up but finding oneself unable to move, sleepwalking, or lucid dreaming

Sleep stages.

During sleep, people cycle through sleep stages 1 through 4 and back through stages 3 and 2 to 1 again. The cycle beginning and ending with stage 1 lasts about 90 to 100 minutes.

Circadian rhythms

Even in an unchanging environment, people become sleepy in cycles of approximately 24 hours.

Do blind people have visual dreams?

It depends. People who were born blind or who became blind in early childhood have no visual imagery in their dreams. Instead, they dream of sounds, touch, smells, and tastes

Dream content

More dreams are threatening than pleasant. Freud proposed that dreams are the product of unconscious motivations. Modern theorists describe dreaming as a kind of thinking that occurs under conditions of low sensory input and no voluntary control of thinking.

Déjà vu.

People sometimes feel that the current experience is uncannily familiar. In some cases (probably not all) it relates to abnormal activity in brain areas responsible for memory.

Name two important functions of sleep.

Sleep conserves energy, and memories strengthen during sleep.

The need for sleep

Sleep serves several functions, including conservation of energy and an opportunity to strengthen memories. Sleep-deprived people have difficulty maintaining attention.

Morning and evening people.

Some people arouse quickly and reach their peak alertness early. Others increase alertness more slowly and reach their peak in late afternoon or early evening. Evening people are at a disadvantage if they need to start work or school early in the morning.

During which sleep stage is the brain least active? During which stage are the muscles least active?

The brain is least active during stage 4 sleep. The muscles are least active during REM sleep.

How is the content of dreams similar to waking thoughts, and how is it different?

We mostly dream about the same topics we think about, but dreams usually feature less happy emotions

Suppose someone with intact retinas becomes blind because of damage to the visual cortex. Will that person nevertheless synchronize the circadian rhythm to the time of sunlight? Explain.

Yes, someone with blindness because of cortical damage nevertheless tends to waken during times of sunlight. The average amount of bright light activates certain ganglion cells that send their output not to the visual cortex, but to the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which controls the circadian rhythm.

manifest content

according to Freud, content that appears on the surface of a dream

latent content

according to Freud, hidden ideas that a dream experience represents symbolically

hypnosis

condition of increased suggestibility that occurs in the context of a special hypnotist-subject relationship

night terror

condition that causes someone to awaken screaming and sweating with a racing heart rate, sometimes flailing with the arms

polysomnograph

device that combines an EEG measure with a simultaneous measure of eye movement

REM behavior disorder

fail to inhibit their muscular activity during REM, and as a result, they sometimes walk around flailing their arms.

déjà vu experience

feeling that an event is uncannily familiar

posthypnotic suggestion

instruction to do or experience something after coming out of hypnosis

electroencephalograph (EEG)

measures and amplifies tiny electrical changes on the scalp that reflect patterns of brain activity.

circadian rhythm

rhythm of activity and inactivity lasting approximately one day

rapid eye movement (REM) sleep

stage characterized by rapid eye movements, a high level of brain activity, and deep relaxation of the postural muscles; also known as paradoxical sleep

Insomnia.

subjectively unsatisfactory sleep—results from many influences. Sleep abnormalities include sleep apnea and narcolepsy.

The circadian rhythm of sleep and wakefulness is generated within the brain by a tiny structure known as

suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

meditation

systematic procedure for inducing a calm, relaxed state