May involve thoughts, sensations, perceptions, moods, emotions, and dreams.

It's a type of mental state.

Deals with the relationship between self and other; our awareness of ourselves and our environment

Focusing of conscious awareness on a specific stimulus

A lot of incoming stimuli all the time, only some captures our attention

The ability to do things without focus, or occupying the mind

Things we don't notice consciously influence our behaviors

We react to stimuli we don't attend to

We can perform well-learned tasks automatically (like driving a stick shift)

Based on divided attention, fail to see visible objects when attention is directed elsewhere

(Ex: The Gorilla/Basketball Video)

when we don't notice a change after a visual interruption

(Ex: the video where the man at the desk drops down and a different man appears, not many notice, except the different color of the shirt)

We are on auto pilot, keeps us from thinking and doing everything at once

(interplay between conscious and unconscious perception)

Natural periodic reversible loss of consciousness.

It protects, helps recuperate, helps memory, growth process.

Mental and physical changes occuring throughout the day.

Linked to the light and dark cycle (structure in hypothalamus, regulates melatonin production).

Influenced by external time cues (alarm, garbage truck, meal times)

Your body is pretty much on this rhythm so it knows when to go to bed and when to wake up, sometimes going overseas or into different time zones affect it.

Lasts 1-10 minutes

Theta waves released

Transitional, often maintain awareness

Hypnagogic sensations

(this is the stage where you dream you are falling then jerk awake)

Lasts about 15 minutes

Sleep spindle, Theta waves are released

Still awakened easily

Sleep talking can occur

Lasts only a few minutes

Delta transition waves

Lasts about thirty minutes

Delta waves

Difficult to awaken

Sleepwalking and bedwetting may occur

Lasts about ten minutes

Beta Waves

Paradoxical sleep (don't move)

Dreams occur in this stage

REM - Rapid Eye Movement

When you get less sleep than normal, you accumulate debt.

It must be made up in three nights, not made up equally for all stages.

Difficulty sleeping, can't get to sleep, wake up frequently, waking up too early

25% of people have occasional insomnia, 9% have it regularly

Can be affected by aging and growing demands, caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, anxiety, depression, situational stress

This has to occur most nights for 3 - 4 weeks

"sleep attacks"

Every 1 in 2000 people

Hypnagogic hallucinations - vivid dreams that occur just before falling asleep

Paralysis (cataplexy) - lingers from REM when awake

When you quit breathing while asleep, central nervous system stops working, throat closes

Usually wake up after 1 to 1 1/2 minutes

Can awaken as many as 500 times a night

Sleep deprivation.

More common in children

Tends to run in families

4-5 times a night

We spend 1/3 of our life asleep

We spend a total of 5 years asleep

Information processing (sift info, consolidate memories)

Physiological function (REM sleep preserves neural pathways)

Activation synthesis (make sense of random neural activity)

Wish fulfillment (dream symbols reflect unconscious drives)

Based off the Anglo-Saxon word "mare" meaning demon

Disturbing emotions (anger, guilt, sadness, fear)

More common in children with exaggerated sensitivity

Causes: medications, illness/fever, traumatic events, sress

Remedies: write about them, imagine a better ending

What are they? Lighter stage of sleep, you know you are dreaming and can have some control over the course of events.

Why are they beneficial? You experience adventures, helps overcome fears.

Can you learn it? Recount your dreams, reminders, set your clock.

Discuss a few common dream theme meanings and what Freud would think.

(Discuss taking a test, nakedness, losing teeth, animals, falling, being chased)

Taking a test: general feeling of uncertainty, part of you knows. Freud: examiner = parents, don't meet expectations, guilt from sexual misconduct

Nakedness: you are anxious or vulnerable, reaction to others = what you feel about yourself. Freud: actual memory, wish to return to exhibitionist tendencies of your childhood

Losing teeth: loss of power, fear of old age, injury (physically or emotionally). Freud: castration anxiety, men are 3X more likely to have this dream

Animals: dogs - friendship, relationship growing or fading. cats - feminine, cultural expectations of female, untamed female energies. eagles - raising of spiritual awareness, feeling less than. horses - beast of burden, a stallion is sexual.

Falling: fall from grace, loss of status or control, pay attention to the situation

Being Chased: running away from something in self. Freud: fulfill wish for sexual encounter

principles of social influence: want to be the good subject

allow hypnotist to direct attention

hynotized people are role playing

perform behaviors on cue if someone is around

Split in consciousness: separation of sensation from conscious experience, separation of behavior from conscious control

Support: brain has distinct activity, sometimes perform behaviors when no one is watching

Stanford Center on Stress and Health

uses hypnosis for pain, blood pressure, stress, depression, etc.

He notices when brain wave patterns change, uses PET scan for mental imagery (he did a study of shown color rectangles vs. black and white rectangles)

Enhance memory recall? NO - hypnotically refreshed memories often combine fact with fiction

Act against will? NO - people's willingness is more likely due to social influence

Aleviate pain? YES - acute pain more so than chronic pain

Everyone to some extent

Depends on their ability to focus attention totally on task

20% are highly suggestible (rich fantasy life, get absorbed in books or movies)

Nature - Nurture: evidence indicates that experience forms part of who we are

Social psychology: we establish norms, and many behaviors and beliefs based on watching others

Disorders: phobias, we associate something bad with certain stimuli

Therapies: what we have learned can be cahnged by new learning

A Russian neurologist who studied digestion in dogs. Won Nobel prize in 1904. Famous for incidental study of learning. Classical Conditioning.

Whenever a dog saw the person that brought out their food, they would start salivating.

phase when learning occurs by associating a conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus so that the unconditioned stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response.

Strict behaviorist. Recommended the study of behavior without and reference to unobservable mental processes.

He did the Baby Albert Experiment. Asked is human emotion a conditioned response? The baby was afraid of loud noises by not white rats, Watson made a loud noise come on while the baby saw the rat, he then paired lous noises with a white rat. Everytime he saw a white rat, he jumped thinking he would hear a loud noise

Said not all learning can be explained by classical conditioning. Practiced conscious learning.

Came up with the Law of Effect (behaviors followed by favorable consequences become more likely, and behaviors followed by unfavorable consequences become less likely)

Operant conditioning.

elaborated Thorndike's Law of Effect.

developed behavioral technology.

created the Skinner box; chamber with bar that animal manipulates to obtain food or water reinforcer, contains devices to record responses (cat video)

Addition of an aversive stimulus.

Ex: spanking, parking ticket

Subtraction of a desirable stimulus

Ex: getting grounded, taking away the car or your cellphone

reinforcing the desired response each time it occurs.

Ex: each instance of a smile

reinforcing a response only part of the time.

 more likely, saves time and reinforces, builds behavior slowly, more resistant to extinction

ratio: reinforcement based on the number of behaviors required

interval: reinforcement based on passage of time

fixed: requirements of reinforcement always the same

variable: requirements for reinforcement change randomly

fixed number of responses always required.

responding: high

ex: factory work, frequent flyer miles

specified amount of time is always required.

responding: low

ex: packing up a few minutes before the end of class, checking the mail when it comes at a certain time

The number of responses varies randomly.

responding: high

ex: gambling, fly fishing

The amount of time varies randomly.

Responding: low

ex: waiting for a cab, radio station give-aways

Neurological basis for learning.

discovered in monkeys, fire when they act and when they see others doing it. similar in humans

Look and learn.

bobo doll experiments - had children tested on aggression

Information processing model.

encoding-the way we get info into memory

storage-retention of that info over time

retrieval-process of getting that info out

Event/Stimuli->sensory memory->short term-> long term

sensory memory: register incoming info

short term: rehearse selected info

long term: store collected info for later

fleeting, holds about 12 pieces of memory

Iconic - visual memory, lasts a few 10ths of a second

Econic - sounds, 3-4 seconds

lasts 2-3 minutes

Can hold 7 pieces of info

lasts indefinately

can hold billions of pieces of info

unconscious processing of incidentals, well rehearsed info (difficult to turn off, ex: word meaning), can be learned (ex: writing, driving, reading music)

-time: sequence of events, time of day

-frequency:times encountered

-space: place on the page

John Stroop (1935)

said what has become automatic will be retrieved more quickly

why is the task hard? (saying the color of the word, like GREEN) speed of processing

requires conscious effort

how do we process with effort? rehearsal, conscious repetition of info, maintains info in working memory, provides more time for encoding to occur

nonsense syllables, rehearsed on day one until perfect recall, tested and rehearsed on day two, tried many variants with timing and repetitions

Came up with the Serial Position Effect (See slide 82)

by Ebbinghaus

where info is within a grouping.

Primacy Effect- tendency to recall first things in a list

Recency Effect- tendency to recall last things in a list

"those who learn quickly also forget quickly"

distributed practice yields better results than cramming

Robust: many situations and types of learning

Dependable: always makes a difference

Bahrick(1993):

13 sessions over 56 days, 26 sessions over 14 days, they both learned the same amount but the second one took less time

We put items into manageable units

Chunking - grouping together

Ex: we group phone numbers together to remember better

1 9 0 7 5 6 3 7 6 2 4

1-907-563-7624

Imagery:

Ever wonder why it's easier to remember faces than names?

It is easier to remember mental pictures, helps effortful processing

Meaning:

we encode the meaning not the actual workds, the more meaningful the easier to encode (10X easier)

memory aids (verbal, visual, kinesthetic, auditory)

rely on associations (easy to remember)

First letter mneumonics - easily remembered acronym or phrase

Method of Loci - link system based on places

long-term potentiation (LTP)

learning creates/changes neural synapses

sequence of activation creates a stored memory (must activate to remember, more access = stored pathways)

Implicit (procedural) Memory - procedures and skill acquisition, independent of consciousness

Explicit (declarative) Memory - facts and experiences

must retrieve info learned earlier

ex: fill in the blank

must only identify items previously learned

ex: multiple choice

amount of time saved when learning material a second time

Ex: studying this I suppose

Context examples:

-smell, temperature, time of day

-kinesthetic sense-recall of word lists while lying or sitting

-music-recall of info while listening to music

-Current context serves as retrieval cue

-external factors

-recall: better if tested in classroom where you initially learned info

-mothballs: recall better if test room smells the same

-current state serves as retrieval cue

-internal factors

-recall: better if testing in same state as when you initially learned info

ex: alcohol, caffeine, nicotine

-Emotions or moods serve as retrieval cues

-current mood helps recall of mood-congruent material

ex: depressed, happy, angry, etc.

"already seen"

-current situation has a multitude of cues similar to an earlier experience

-well-educated, young adults are more likely to have

Encoding failure: info never enters long term memory

Storage decay: Ebbinghaus forgetting curve over thirty days, initially rapid then levels off with time

Retrieval failure: forgetting can result from failure to retrieve info from long term memory

Proactive interference: forward acting, prior learning disrupts recall

Retroactive interference: backwards acting, new learning disrupts recall

-we filter info and fill in missing pieces

-misinformation effect: misleading info into one's memory of the event

-misattribution (source amnesia): attributing to the wrong source of an event that we experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined

Retrograde: unable to recall events that occurred before the onset, may remember what a piano is but not how to play it, relearning is faster, often caused by trauma

Anterograde: unable to recall events that occurred after the onset, can't form new explicit memories, can sometimes form new implicit memories, often caused by trauma or drugs

Epileptic

2/3 of Hippocampus removed

no long term storage

no new explicit memories

could learn new skills

Ivan Pavlov notices dogs salivating when they see the person that normally brings food. This is an example of a:

UCS? UCR? CS? CR?

A flatworm contracts when exposed to light by pairing it with a shock. This is an example of:

UCS? UCR? CS? CR?

Luke gets paid after every four pianos he fixes. This is an example of:

FI? FR? VI? VR?