States of Consciousness

Sleep - State of consciousness - less aware of surroundings
Biological Rhythms

• Annual - Seasonal Variations (Hibernate, SAD)
• 28 Day - Menstrual
• 24 H - Circadian Rhythm
• 90 min - Sleep Cycles

Circadian Rhythm - Bio Clock; Bodt temperature & awareness change throughout the day

Sleep Stages

5 stages; takes 90-100 min; brain waves change depending on the stage.

1st 4 stages -> Non REM Sleep        5th stage -> REM sleep

1. Stage 1 - Awake-ish & asleep-ish; small duration during the night. eyes slightly roll, Theta waves
2. Stage 2 - Baseline, part of 90 min. cycle (45-60% of sleep); more theta waves -> slows down; show sleep spindles - short bursts of brain activity
3. Stages 3 and 4 - Slow wave sleep w/delta waves; if awakened, very groggy; restores body's growth hormones and good overall health. IMPORTANT
• 15-30 min.; slows brain activity -> delta waves have higher amp; DEEPEST SLEEP; Delta sleep needed by sleep-deprived; 40% of sleep time in children ("dead asleep")
4. REM Sleep - Very active sleep; stage of sleep; body paralysis; 20-25% of sleep; breathing, brain activity, and heart rate increase; REM -> Stage 2

Sleep Disorders

• Insomnia - Recurring problems falling asleep or staying asleep; not from avg. amount of sleep
• Narcolepsy - Uncontrollable sleep attacks; Directly to REM sleep (from joy or fear)
• Sleep Apnea - Temporary cessations in breathing while asleep and consequent momentary awakenings
• Night Terrors - High arousal and terrified appearance in stage 4; forgotten
• Sleepwalking - During deep nonREM sleep early in the night

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Dreams - Sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts through a sleeping person's mind

• Manifest - Remembered storyline of a dream
• Latent - Underlying meaning of a dream

Theories 

• Freud - Key to understand hidden conflicts; ideas and thoughts hidden in unconscious
• Information Processing - Dreams act to understand and sort out memories of the day
• REM sleep increases after stressful events
• Activation Synthesis - Brainstem reduces random neural activity, dreams try to interpret that activity.

Language

Language - Our spoken, written, or gestured words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning.

-emes

• Phonemes - Spoken language - smallest distinctive sound unit [chug - ch, u, g]
• Morphemes - Smallest unit that carries meaning; a word or part of a word

Grammar - System of rules in a language that allows us to communicate and understand others.

• Semantics - Set of rules by which we derive meaning in a language. EX: -ed = past tense
• Syntax - Rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences

Language Development

1. Babbling Stage - 3-4 mo.; infant makes sounds, not limited to phonemes
2. One word stage - 1-2 yrs.; one word to communicate meanings
3. Two word stage- 2 yrs.; two words to comm.- telegraphic speech

Social Learning Theory - Skinner; Pick up through socialization

Chomsky - Acquire language too quickly to learn it; "Learning box" in head allows us to learn any human language [Inborn Universal Grammar]

Whorf's Linguistic Relativity - Language determines the way we think

Thinking

Cognition - Thinking, knowing and remembering

• Concepts - To think about the world, mental grouping of similar objects, ideas, people
• Like schemas
• Based on prototypes - mental image or best example of category

Solving Problems

• Trial & Error
• Algorithms - Methodical logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem.
• Heuristics - Strategy that allows us to make judgement and solve efficiently; shortcut prone to errors
• Insight - Sudden and novel realization of solution to problem

Obstacles

• Confirmation bias - Likelihood to search for info to confirm self perceptions
• Fixation - Cannot see problem from other view
• Mental Set - Likelihood to approach problem in a particular way esp. if it worked in the past.
• Functional Fixedness - Likelihood to think of many things only in terms of their usual functions

Types of Heuristics

• Representativeness - Rule of thumb for judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they match our prototype; can make us forget important info.
• Availability - Est. the likelihood of events based on avail.; memory comes into mind easily = common

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Overconfidence - Likelihood to be more confident than correct; overestimate accuracy of beliefs and judgements.

Framing - Why issue is posted -> drastically affects decisions and judgements

Belief Bias - Likelihood for one's initial beliefs to distort logical reasoning; makes invalid conclusions valid or vice versa.

Belief Perseverance - Clinging to your initial conceptions after basis of being discredited.

Memory

The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information

Recall vs. Recognition

• Recall - Retrieve info from memory
• Recognition - Identify target from possible targets

Memory Process

1. Encoding - Processing of information
2. Storage - Retention of encoded material over time
3. Retrieval - Getting info out of storage

Sensory Memory - A half second holding tank for all sensory info; Iconic/Echoic Memory

Short Term Memory - Encoded from STM; encoded visually, acoustically, or semantically; holds 7 items for 20 seconds; works better with numbers

Methods to convert STM to LTM

• Chunking - Organizing items into familiar, manageable units.
• Mnemonic Devices
• Rehearsal

Long Term Memory - Limitless storehouse of information

• Explicit (declarative) memories; includes episodic and semantic memories
• Implicit (non-declarative) memories; includes procedural and conditioned memories

Encoding Information - Serial positioning effect 

• Primary - We remember the first items the best
• Recency effect - We remember the last items after just hearing them 

Spacing effect - Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve

Encoding ways

• Visual - Encoding pictures
• Acoustic - Encoding of sound, esp. sound of words
• Semantic - Encoding meaning

Flashbulb Memories - Memories of significant events

Mood Congruent Memory - Memories retrieved match current mood

State Dependent Mood - Memories retrieved match current state

Forgetting

• Retroactive interference - New info blocks out old info
• Proactive interference - old information blocks out new information

Long Term Potentiation

• Long-lasting improvement in signal transmission between two neurons that results fro stimulating them synchronously
• Improved efficiency creates memories

Train your memory!

Developmental Pyschology

Study of you from womb to tomb.
Nature vs. Nurture - Way you were born / Way you were raised

Physical Development (Or the Way You Grow)

Prenatal - Begins with egg and sperm fertilized = zygote

1. Zygote - Lasts two weeks with rapid cell division.

• Less than half of all zygotes survive first two weeks
• Attaches to uterine wall after ten days
• Placenta - Outer part of zygote; Filters oxygen and nutrient
  

     2.  Embryo - After two weeks, lasts for six weeks.

• Heart beats and organs develop

     3.  Fetus - After nine weeks; Organs formed enough for independent survival.

Teratogens - Chemicals that can harm prenatal environment. EX: Alcohol (FAS), STDs, HIV, Herpes, Drugs.

Reflexes

Inborn automatic responses

• Rooting - When a newborn infant is touched on the cheek, infant turns its head toward the source of stimulation.
  
• Grasping - If an object is placed into a baby's palm, baby will try to grasp object with fingers.
• Moro - When startled, baby will fling limbs out and quickly retract them.
• Babinski - When a baby's foot is stroked, it will spread its toes.

Maturation - Physical growth processes enable orderly changes in behavior, regardless of environment.

Cognition - Mental activities w/thinking, knowing, and remembering.

Cognitive Development

Researched by Jean Piaget

• Schemas - Way to interpret world
• Assimilation - Incorporating new experiences into existing schemas
• High School - Meet someone -> assimilate into schema.
• Accomadation - Changing an existing schema to adapt to new information.

Piaget

• Sensorimotor - Experience world through senses
• Object Permanence - 6-8 months of age
• Preoperational - 2- 6 or 7 - Use language to represent objects and ideas; "Magical Thinking" 
• Conservation - Quantity is the same despite changes in appearance; part of logical thinking.
• Concrete Operational - Demonstrate conservation, logic think, understanding of reversibility.
• Formal Operational - Abstract reasoning, hypothesis testing, reasoning with metaphors and analogies.
• Criticisms
• Information-Processing Model - Children learn in continuous growth pattern
• Underestimates children's ability; Attention span grows over time.

Social Development

• > 1 year - infants indifferent to stranger
• Stranger anxiety - After one year, common in infants.

Attachment

• Most important social construct (bond with caregiver)
• Animals form attachment through imprinting (Konrad Lorenz)
• Origins - Harry Harlow used monkeys; needed touch or body contact to form attachment. (Cloth vs. Wire)

Critical Period - After birth organism's exposure to certain stimuli or experiences produce proper development.

Types of Attachment

• Secure - Some distress when parent leaves, seek contact at the reunion, explore when parent gone, play and greet when parent present.
• Separation Anxiety - Anxiety when infant loses object of attachment. 14 to 18 months

Parenting Styles

• Authoritarian - Strict standards for behavior
• Permissive - Allows freedom, lax parenting, don't enforce rules consistently
• Authoritative - Reasonable standards of expectation, encourage independence.

Stage Theorists

Believe we travel from stage to stage throughout lives.

Freud - Libido, travels though body in development.

1. Oral (0-1) - Pleasure by mouth
2. Anal Stage (1-3) - Controlling & Expelling waste
3. Phallic Stage - Recognize gender, Oedipus/Electra complex
4. Latency (6-11) - Cooties
5. Genital Stage - Libido in genitals, feelings toward others.

Adolescence

Transition from childhood to adulthood

• Puberty - Sexual maturation -> becomes capable of reproducing
• Primary Char. - Body structures that make production possible
• Secondary Char. - Non-reproductive sexual char.
• Landmarks - Menarche, Spermarche

Adulthood

Physical abilities peak by mid-twenties

• Milestones
• Menopause - Ending of woman's ability to reproduce

Intelligence

• Crystallized - Accumulated, increases with age
• Fluid - Ability to solve problems quickly and think abstractly; Peaks in 20s and then decreases.

Alzheimer's - Progressive and irreversible deterioration of memory, language, and physical functioning. Caused by less ACH.

Life Expectancy

Around 75; Women outlive men by 4 years; Men conceived 126 to 100; 105 to 100 by birth.

Death

Stages of Death/Grief

1. Denial
2. Anger
3. Bargaining
4. Depression
5. Acceptance

The Brain

Accidents - Story of Phineas Gage - Accident changes personality
Lesions - Removal or destruction of some part of the brain (Frontal Lobotomy)
Electroencephalogram (EEG) - Detects brain waves thru electrical output. Used in sleep research.
CAT Scan - 3D X-ray of brain. Useful in locating tumors, but not its functions.
MRI - Detailed picture of brain using magnetic fields. Results in movie of multiple images.
PET Scan - Measures chemical use of brain (glucose common) with injection of chemicals

Hindbrain

Top; controls basic biological structures

• Medulla Oblongata - Above spinal cord; controls blood pressure, heart rate, breathing.
• Pons - Above Medulla; connects hind to mid and fore; controls facial expressions
• Cerebellum - Bottom rear "little brain"; controls fine muscle movements.

Midbrain

Coordinates simple movements w/sensory information

• Reticular Formation - Controls arousal and ability to focus our attention

Forebrain

Largest; "humanity" - Thalamus, Limbic system, and Cerebral Cortex.

• Thalamus - Switchboard; Interp. sensory signal and sends to forebrain; every sense except smell.

Limbic System

• Hypothalamus - Important; controls and regulates body temp., sexual arousal, hunger and thirst, Endocrine.
• Hippocampus - Processing and storage of memories.
• Amygdala - How to process memory, involved in volatile emotions

Cerebral Cortex - Made up of densely packed neurons (grey matter) Glial cells: support brain cells. 

Fissures - Wrinkles in the cerebral cortex.

Hemispheres and Lobes

Contralateral Control - Right controls left and vice versa.

• Left - Logic and sequential tasks
• Right - Spatial and creative tasks

Frontal Lobe

• Motor Cortex - Sends signals to our body controlling muscles
• Broca's Area - Controls muscles producing speech
• Aphasia -  Damaged; unable to make movements to talk.

Parietal Lobe

• Sensory Cortex - Receives incoming touch sensations from body
• Made up of Association Areas - Not associated with receiving sensory info or coordinating muscle mov.

Occipital Lobe

Vision - Vision Cortex - Interp. messages from eyes into understandable messages.

Temporal Lobe

Process sound sensed by our ears with Auditory Cortex

• Wernicke's Area - Interp. written and spoken speech
• Aphasia - Unable to understand language; poor syntax and grammar.

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Brain Plasticity - When the brain is damaged, it will try to find new ways to reroute messages.

Corpus Callosum - Bridge of nerve fibers that connects or divides the two hemispheres.

Cerebrum - Largest part - Divided left, right, and lobes, Contains Cerebral Cortex, Controls voluntary movement, Coordinates mental activity; Center for all conscious living.

Biological School

Nervous System

• Starts with the neuron

Firing Methods

• Resting Charge - Slightly neg charge
• Reach threshold if enough neurons reach dendrites
• Go into Action Potential (firing)

All or None Response - Fires or not; no in-between

Neurotransmitter - Chemical messages released by terminal buttons

• Acetylcholine (ACH) - Motor movement and memory. Less = risk of Alzheimer's
• Dopamine - Motor movement and alertness. Less = Parkinson's  /  Excess = Schizophrenia
• Serotonin - Mood control. Less = Clinical depression
• Endorphins - Pain control. Addictive drugs deal with endorphins.
• Norepiinephrine - Alertness and arousal. Less = Depression  /  Excess = Mania
• GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) - Major inhibitory neurotransmitters. Less = Tremors, seizures, and isomnia.
• Glutamate - Major excitatory neurotransmitter; involved in memory. Excess = Migraines (MSG avoidance)

Types of Neurons

• Sensory - Take information from the senses to the brain
• Inter - Messages from sensory neurons to other parts of brain or to motor
• Motor - Send info from brain to body

Types of Nervous Systems

• Central - Spine and Brain
• Peripheral - Nerves outside of bone; somatic and autonomic
• Somatic - Voluntary muscle movement, uses motor neurons
• Autonomic - Automatic functions (Sympathetic, Parasympathetic)
• Sympathetic - Fight or flight, heart rate up, breathing up, pupil dilation, slow digestion
• Parasympathetic - Slows after event, heart rate down, breathing down, pupils constrict, speeds digestion.
• Reflex - Sensory take info up thru spine to brain. Reactions when sensory reach spinal cord.

Endocrine System - System of glands that secrete hormones (Like neurons, but slower)