PSY 1101 MODULE 6 EXAM QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS
What is consciousness? - ANSWER direct relationship between the workings of the
brain and the experience of thinking, feeling, and acting.
- an awareness of ourselves and/or our environment
Ingestion of ______ can alter subjective awareness, and a ______ _____ _____
_______ can drastically alter personality - ANSWER Ingestion of DRUGS can
alter subjective awareness, and a BUMP ON THE HEAD can drastically alter
personality
Dualism - ANSWER the idea that the mind and body are fundamentally different
entities
Split-brain - ANSWER a condition resulting from surgery that isolates the brain's
two hemispheres by cutting the fibers (mainly those of the corpus callosum)
connecting them
- two hemispheres are unable to share information across the cortex, and several
regions associated with perception are isolated from parts of the brain involved in
language.
- Because some portions of the brain can no longer communicate with other parts,
awareness of behavior is altered.
- left side of the body seems to act alone
corpus callosum - ANSWER large band of axons that connect the two brain
hemispheres (and carries messages between them)
left brain - ANSWER language and logic, controls right side of body
right brain - ANSWER creative and spatial, controls left side of the body
hemispheric specialization - ANSWER Refers to the idea that the two hemispheres
in your brain (right and left) have different functions.
,Left temporal lobe - ANSWER the location of several important language-related
structures.
shown an image on the right visual field - ANSWER message would travel to the
left visual cortex and forward to the left temporal lobe
shown an image on the left visual field - ANSWER message travels to their right
occipital lobe, then eventually sent to the left temporal lobe
- in split-brain patients, message never arrives at the "language" portion of the brain
(temporal lobe and Wernicke's area)
Consciousness is the result of... - ANSWER several processes in the brain that can
operate independently and interact with one another depending on what the task
demands
conscious content - ANSWER the subjective experiences of your internal and
external world
- sense of self, plans, dreams, and day-to-day perception of space and time all
reside from conscious content
- heavily dependent on your state of consciousness
states of consciousness - ANSWER different levels of arousal and attention
- can be influenced by factors beyond your "control"
passive attention - ANSWER Bottom-up information from the external
environment requires a response
- eg: something took your attention via a shock
active attention - ANSWER when attention is directed by goals and top-down
processing
- eg: explicitly looking for something, so putting attention on that thing
Attention - ANSWER process of selecting information from the internal and
external environments to prioritize for processing.
- can be voluntary (active) or involuntary (passive)
, selective attention - ANSWER A form of attention that occurs when a person
attends to some information while ignoring other information.
- in other words, when you attend to one source of information while
simultaneously ignoring other stimuli
stimulus salience - ANSWER Refers to the idea that some stimuli in the
environment capture attention by their physical properties.
- some elements are simply more noticeable based on their qualities.
attentional capture - ANSWER When attention is diverted because of the salience
of a stimulus
cocktail party effect - ANSWER Describes a situation associated with selective
attention. At a party, a person can be engaged in a conversation and suppress/ignore
all the information going on around them and attend to the conversation, or if your
name is said at a party
Change blindness - ANSWER the tendency to ignore or tune out information that
isn't relevant to our current focus
- failing to notice changes in the environment (gorilla)
dichotic listening task - ANSWER participants are asked to wear a pair of
headphones that will play one message in one ear and a second, different, message
in the other
- tune out one input, and describe the other in much detail
- can still recall basic information such as gender or language from the ignored
input
You often see shifts of attention when.... - ANSWER When something surprising,
personally relevant, or emotionally engaging occurs.
Galvanic skin response (GSR) - ANSWER measure of arousal level of the
sympathetic nervous system and responds when you hear something startling or
emotionally engaging.
divided attention (multitasking) - ANSWER when we simultaneously attend to two
ANSWERS
What is consciousness? - ANSWER direct relationship between the workings of the
brain and the experience of thinking, feeling, and acting.
- an awareness of ourselves and/or our environment
Ingestion of ______ can alter subjective awareness, and a ______ _____ _____
_______ can drastically alter personality - ANSWER Ingestion of DRUGS can
alter subjective awareness, and a BUMP ON THE HEAD can drastically alter
personality
Dualism - ANSWER the idea that the mind and body are fundamentally different
entities
Split-brain - ANSWER a condition resulting from surgery that isolates the brain's
two hemispheres by cutting the fibers (mainly those of the corpus callosum)
connecting them
- two hemispheres are unable to share information across the cortex, and several
regions associated with perception are isolated from parts of the brain involved in
language.
- Because some portions of the brain can no longer communicate with other parts,
awareness of behavior is altered.
- left side of the body seems to act alone
corpus callosum - ANSWER large band of axons that connect the two brain
hemispheres (and carries messages between them)
left brain - ANSWER language and logic, controls right side of body
right brain - ANSWER creative and spatial, controls left side of the body
hemispheric specialization - ANSWER Refers to the idea that the two hemispheres
in your brain (right and left) have different functions.
,Left temporal lobe - ANSWER the location of several important language-related
structures.
shown an image on the right visual field - ANSWER message would travel to the
left visual cortex and forward to the left temporal lobe
shown an image on the left visual field - ANSWER message travels to their right
occipital lobe, then eventually sent to the left temporal lobe
- in split-brain patients, message never arrives at the "language" portion of the brain
(temporal lobe and Wernicke's area)
Consciousness is the result of... - ANSWER several processes in the brain that can
operate independently and interact with one another depending on what the task
demands
conscious content - ANSWER the subjective experiences of your internal and
external world
- sense of self, plans, dreams, and day-to-day perception of space and time all
reside from conscious content
- heavily dependent on your state of consciousness
states of consciousness - ANSWER different levels of arousal and attention
- can be influenced by factors beyond your "control"
passive attention - ANSWER Bottom-up information from the external
environment requires a response
- eg: something took your attention via a shock
active attention - ANSWER when attention is directed by goals and top-down
processing
- eg: explicitly looking for something, so putting attention on that thing
Attention - ANSWER process of selecting information from the internal and
external environments to prioritize for processing.
- can be voluntary (active) or involuntary (passive)
, selective attention - ANSWER A form of attention that occurs when a person
attends to some information while ignoring other information.
- in other words, when you attend to one source of information while
simultaneously ignoring other stimuli
stimulus salience - ANSWER Refers to the idea that some stimuli in the
environment capture attention by their physical properties.
- some elements are simply more noticeable based on their qualities.
attentional capture - ANSWER When attention is diverted because of the salience
of a stimulus
cocktail party effect - ANSWER Describes a situation associated with selective
attention. At a party, a person can be engaged in a conversation and suppress/ignore
all the information going on around them and attend to the conversation, or if your
name is said at a party
Change blindness - ANSWER the tendency to ignore or tune out information that
isn't relevant to our current focus
- failing to notice changes in the environment (gorilla)
dichotic listening task - ANSWER participants are asked to wear a pair of
headphones that will play one message in one ear and a second, different, message
in the other
- tune out one input, and describe the other in much detail
- can still recall basic information such as gender or language from the ignored
input
You often see shifts of attention when.... - ANSWER When something surprising,
personally relevant, or emotionally engaging occurs.
Galvanic skin response (GSR) - ANSWER measure of arousal level of the
sympathetic nervous system and responds when you hear something startling or
emotionally engaging.
divided attention (multitasking) - ANSWER when we simultaneously attend to two
