Katelyn Decker

AP Psychology period 5

Review Sheet #5 - States of Consciousness

1. consciousness - one’s awareness of internal and external life (themself and the world)
2. define and explain how a person may acquire the following disorders
a. prosopagnosia - the inability to read faces due to brain trauma or genetic
mutations (can vary in degrees of severity)
b. blindsight - visual processing without visual awareness due to damage to the
primary visual cortex
c. anterograde amnesia - inability to form new memories, including being unable to
recall how one acquires a new skill, due to damage to the thalamus
3. compare and contrast the following levels of consciousness
a. conscious - current awareness of occurring events
b. unconscious - complete unawareness, filled with sexual and aggressive thoughts,
feelings, and memories
c. nonconscious - something don't have to think about or are unaware of
d. preconscious - outside of awareness, consisting of feelings and memories one can
easily recall into their conscious mind
4. what is an EEG and what does it measure
a. measures brain activity and processes
b. reflection of behavioral and mental changes portrayed through waves of differing
heights (amplitudes) and speeds (frequencies)
5. explain what occurs in each stage of sleep and how they would look in an EEG
a. stage 1
i. EEG: similar to stage 0 - slower wave frequencies
ii. eyes begin to roll, deep breathing, calm heart beat, low blood pressure
b. stage 2
i. EEG: sleep spindles and K complexes - very high frequencies
c. stage 3
i. EEG: delta waves - higher amplitudes, slower frequencies
d. stage 4
i. EEG: primarily delta waves
ii. deepest sleep occurs here, making it difficult to wake someone up
1. if someone is awoken from this stage they are typically very
groggy and / or confused
e. REM (paradoxical) sleep
i. rapid eye movement - active sleep
ii. EEG: similar to awakened state
 iii. heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing all return to normal
iv. muscles are in an extremely relaxed state, the tone being decreased to
almost paralysis
v. 80% of dreams occur here
6. REM sleep is also referred to as paradoxical sleep because the muscles are immobilized
yet the brain is very active
7. what sleep stages do we spend most time in during the following periods
a. beginning of the night - primarily stages 3 and 4, and some minutes in REM
b. late in the night / early morning, close to waking up - stage 2 and REM
8. compare and contrast delta and alpha waves
a. delta - deep sleep
b. alpha - awake
9. infants need so many hours of sleep because they are growing and developing
10. define insomnia and the treatments for such
a. difficulty falling asleep and/or maintaining sleep
b. most common sleeping problem
c. related to mental illness, but unsure which causes which
d. relieved temporarily by sleeping pills and alcohol, though these can be dangerous
and cause immense tiredness
e. stress relieving techniques can help those who have insomnia cope
f. sleep restriction therapy
11. explain narcolepsy and the causes of and treatments for such
a. sleeper abruptly switches from an active, awakened state to REM sleep (close to
paralysis)
b. possible causes - genetics, lack of a chemical-hypocretin in the brain, infection,
brian injury, contact with toxins (pesticides), and autoimmune disorders
c. treatments - stimulants and naps
12. explain sleep apnea and the causes of and treatments for such
a. sleeper repeatedly stops breathing for periods around a minute or longer
b. carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs, signalling the body to wake up, and the
person awakens with a “gasping snort”
c. cause - blockage in airway
d. symptom - excessive snoring
e. treatments - breathing mask for sleeping, weight loss program
f. risk factors - being male, overweight, and / or over the age of 40
13. explain SIDS and how to prevent it from occurring
a. leading cause of death of infants aged 1 month to 1 year
b. no known cause
c. preventative measures - put infant to sleep on their back, do not expose infant to
cigarette smoke
14. nightmares
a. REM sleep
b. causes - stress or anxiety, sleep deprivation
15. night terrors
a. horrific dreams that cause a sleeper to wake up abruptly in a state of immense fear
b. stage 4
16. somnambulism - sleepwalking
a. stage 4
b. safe to wake someone up while they are experiencing it
c. cause - genetics
17. REM behavior disorder
a. loss of the paralysis that usually occurs in REM sleep, causing one to act out their
dreams while asleep
b. no known cause
c. treated most effectively by clonazepam
18. circadian rhythms
a. biological clock (wake-sleep cycle that occurs every 24 hours)
b. controlled by hypothalamus
c. aided by environmental cues
19. how often do our circadian rhythms cycle if we have the correct and incorrect
environmental cues
a. correct - every 24 hours
b. incorrect - every 25 hours
20. Seasonal Affective Disorder and treatments for such
a. shorter duration of daylight causes one to feel more fatigued and and unmotivated
to leave bed, possibly causing them to experience weight gain and depressive
episodes as the seasons change from fall to winter
b. unknown cause
c. treatment - light therapy (shutting off melatonin production)
21. name and explain the theories of dreams
a. sleep theory 1 - to rest
b. sleep theory 2 - to heal
c. sleep theory 3 - to learn: helps the brain get better organized, retaining important
information and getting rid of that which is unwanted
d. sleep theory 4 - to dream
22. lucid dreaming - awareness of what you are dreaming
23. hypnosis - altered state of consciousness, though hyper attentive
24. Dissociation Theory
a. hypnosis allows us to voluntarily divide consciousness - one part following and
listening to the hypnotist, the other remaining aware of reality
 b. theory created Ernest Hilgard
25. meditation
a. commonly used for relaxation and stress reduction (mind-body medicine)
b. allows one to focus their attention and release any thoughts that may be crowding
the mind and causing stress
c. positive effects - enhanced physical and emotional well-being
d. causes decreased heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension, headaches,
cholesterol levels, and PMS symptoms
e. aids in allergies and arthritis
f. enhances the immune system
26. psychoactive drugs - change the brain’s psychological processes (studied in
psychopharmacology)
27. Blood Brain Barrier
a. prevents foreign materials from blood from entering the brain
28. agonists vs. antagonists
a. agonist - drug that mimics neurotransmitters, fitting into the receptor sites on a
neuron that would typically receive the neurotransmitter and allowing such to
function as normal
b. antagonist - block neurotransmitters, preventing the neurotransmitter from using
its receptor site therefore altering and lessening the amount of natural
neurotransmitters in the brain
29. psychoactive drugs work by entering our blood stream (whether through ingestion,
inhalation, injection, or absorption through mucus in mouth or nose) and altering the
normal function of the CNS
30. four categories of psychoactive drugs
a. depressants
b. stimulants
c. opioids
d. hallucinogens
31. define tolerance and withdrawals
a. tolerance - one must continue increasing the dosage they take of a drug in order to
produce the same effect
i. functional - develops as a result of reducing or altering the number of
receptors in the neuron
ii. metabolic - liver adapts to repeated use of a particular drug, speeding up
the production of enzymes to metabolize the drug
b. tolerance results in dependence, meaning once a person stops taking the drug they
will fall into withdrawal
c. withdrawal - unpleasant effects caused by physical and psychological dependence