Download - Psychology Key Knowlage Unit 3
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Amberlee Peti
Psychology Key Knowledge-
Area of Study 1
States of ConsciousnessConsciousness-Is the awareness of objects and events in the external world
and of our own existence and mental processes (internal environment) at any
given moment.
It is:
Personal
Selective
Continuous
Changing
Rene Descartes
Descartes describes consciousness as everything we are aware of; including
our own existence (but our senses cant be trusted, so we have to rely on
thinking). Also consciousness is of the mind and can exist in the body as it does
not take up space.
The mind and body are separate and different things but interact via the pineal
gland (DUALISM).
William James
James describes consciousness as everything we are aware of; including ourown existence and like a stream: it is continually changing, personal and
selective.
Normal Waking Consciousness-
Attention: Selective/Divided
Awareness: Controlled/Automatic processes
Content limitations
Controlled Processes-Involves information processing in which the individual
focuses their attention on achieving a particular goal. (They use SELECTIVE
ATTENTION).
Automatic Processes-tasks that require little conscious awarenessand mental
effort , minimal attention and DO NOTinterferewith the performance of other
tasks .Tasks performed in parallel. (These tasks use DIVIDED ATTENTION).
Altered States of Consciousness
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es ¦ emotional awareness
Changes in self -control
Examples alcohol induced, daydreaming, meditative state, coma, sleep.
Sleep
(See power points and sheet).
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Amberlee Peti
Purpose of Sleep
Sleep-wake cycle shift-is during adolescence, when there is a hormonallyinduced shift of the body clock forward 1-2hrs; making adolescents sleepier 1-
2hrs later.
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Amberlee Peti
Sensory (Afferent) Neurons
To carry info from the senses TO
the CNS
Motor (Efferent) Neurons
Carries info FROM the CNS to
the PNS and the body,
The Nervous System
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Amberlee Peti
A. B.ig M.an S.ings V.ery
W.ell Cortexs and Areas
The Brain
Behaviours Associated With Lobes-
The Frontal Lobe:
y (M) Controls voluntary bodily movements
y performs complex cognitive functions such as planning, initiating, evaluating
and thinking.
y is involved with attention, personality, control of emotions and expression of
emotional behaviour
y (B) Plays a crucial role in speech production as well as the meaning of words
and the structure of sentences.
The Parietal Lobe:
y (S) Receives and processes information from the body and sensory receptors in
the skin.
y is also involved in attention and spatial reasoning
(F) Frontal Lobe (S) Primary Somatosensory Cortex(M) Primary Motor Cortex
(B) Brocas Area
(T) Temporal Lobe
(A) Primary Auditory Cortex
(P) Parietal Lobe
(O) Occipital Lobe
(V) Primary Visual Cortex
(W) Wernickes Area
FPOT (Lobes)
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Amberlee Peti
The Temporal Lobe
y involved in memory as it contains the hippocampus
y is also involved in visual perception such as ob ject identification and facial
recognition
y also contains Wernic e ! s area in the left hemisphere, which is crucial in speech
comprehension.
The Occipital Lobe "
y Receives and processes vision
y integrate visual information with other information
Corpus Callosum-is a bridge of nerve fibres that connect the 2 hemispheres # it
allows the transf er of information and coordination of activities between the
two hemispheres.
Hemisphere Specialisation
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Amberlee Peti
The Reticular Activating System (RAS)
A network of neurons located in the brain stem that extends from the reticular
formation up to different parts of the cerebral cortex and down to the spinal
cord.
Selective Attention-the RAS bombards the cortex with stimulation to arouse
specific cortical areas when something demands attention. Neurons within the
RAS network detect and filter out weak or familiar incoming sensory
information.
Wakefulness- the RAS maintains and regulates cortical arousal. So the degree
to which we are awake and alert depends on the extent of the stimulation of
the cerebral cortex which is provided or
denied via the RAS.
The ThalamusIt sits on top of the brainstem in the middle
of the brain and in the left and right
hemispheres.
It filters information coming up from all the
major senses (except for smell) and
transmits that information to the relevant
part of the cerebral cortex.
Directing Attention: by actively filtering
sensory input, highlighting and giving more
weight to some inputs and giving less
weight to others.
Sensory Input On and Off: it closes pathways of incoming sensory information
during the sleeping state (input off) and opens them during waking state
(input on).
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Amberlee Peti
Perceptual Anomalies
Perceptual Anomalies-an irregularity in perception (usually involves an
inconsistency or mismatch between the perceptual experience and physical
reality).
Motion after-effect:the illusion of movement of a physically stationary visual
stimulus appears to move in the opposite direction to the original (physically
moving) stimulus. Change Blindness- the difficulty observers have in noticing a large change in a
visual science.
Synaesthesia-a perceptual experience in which stimulation of one sense
produces additional unusual experiences in another sense.
Cognitive Process Studies