PSYC 2410 Study Guide - Reward System, Sexual Fantasy, Aversion Therapy
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Published on 23 Nov 2011
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PSYCH*1100 FINAL REVIEW 22/11/2011 22:34:00
CHAPTER SIX: state of consciousness
Unconscious effects
•Brain damage:
oBlind sight, split-brain, Amnesia (pinprick)
•Self-fulfilling prophecies:
oPlacebo effect: active placebos- if you feel a side effect, you know you’re in a
treatment group.
•Unconscious mimicry:
oAnecdote: coughing, posture shifts
oExperiment: confederate face-rubbing> face-rubbing in participants.
Subliminal messages
•Subliminal: stimulus so weak/brief that can’t be perceived consciously
•Popcorn/coke study: increased sales
oPublic outcry- never really happened
•CBC TV: no increased calls
•Backward masking: affect behaviour, teenage behaviour as a result
oLittle evidence we can perceive it or that it affects behaviour
Inattentional blindess/ change blindness
•Were blind to changes at scene cuts or during eye movements.
oFailure of short-term memory
oWhy store something right in front of us?
Unconscious: usefull & accessibility
•Sometimes unconscious can be superior to consciousness
oWhen thinking hurts performance (millipede/ ‘in the zone example)
•Trusting your gut: conscious decision is needes, but unconscious can’t contribute.
oArt fraud example
•Unconscious is sometimes inaccessible:
oCard game example.
The cognitive unconscious
•Cognitive psychologists
oreject the notion of an unconscious mind driven by instinctive urges and
repressed conflicts
oview conscious and unconscious mental life as complementary forms of
information processing
Controlled versus automatic processing
•Controlled processing: the voluntary use of attention and conscious effort
o(ex. planning a vacation or studying)
oRequires effort and is slower, but it’s more flexible and open to change
•Automatic processing: can be performed with little or no conscious effort.
oDisadvantage: reduce our chances of finding new ways to approach problems
ofaster and economy of effort
Divided attention
•The ability to perform more than one activity at the same time
•More difficult when tasks require similar mental resources.
Circadian Rhythms
•daily biological cycles which our state of consciousness changes depending on the time
of day.
Keeping time: brain and environment
•Most rhythms are regulated by the brain’s suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), in the
hypothalamus
•The pineal gland secretes melatonin, a hormone that relaxes the body
•SCN neurons become active during daytime and reduces secretion of melatonin, raising
body temp & heightening alertness
oNight = opposite
•Free-running circadian rhythm: a longer natural cycle if dark all the time or with no
communication to outside world
odesynchronized with the 24 hour day night cycle, so participants in these
“isolation studies” tend to go to bed and wake up later.
oex. Blind people experience this- insomnia.
•Early birds and night owls
oCircadian rhythms influence our tendency to be as “morning person” or a “night
person”
oMorning people’s temperature, blood pressure and alertness peak earlier in the
day
Perform better earlier in the morning