Question 1

Describe the steps involved in stimulus control therapy and explain how they work to reduce sleep problems.

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Question 2

List four strategies designed to help deal with sleep problems and explain how they work.

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Question 3

In a now classic study by Simons and Chabris (1999), participants watched two teams pass a basketball to their teammates. One team was wearing white shirts and the other team was wearing black shirts. Participants were told to count how many times the team wearing the white shirts passed the basketball, thereby directing their attention to the white shirts and ignoring the black shirts. Interestingly, more than half of the participants failed to notice when a man wearing a black gorilla suit walked right past the two teams. This phenomenon is known as:

Accepted Answer

The phenomenon described in the passage, where participants fail to notice a gorilla walking past the basketball players due to focused attention, is known as inattentional blindness. This is the inability to perceive something that is in plain sight due to selective attention. The other options (B, C, and D) do not accurately describe this phenomenon.

Question 4

The famous American psychologist _____ described consciousness as being like a river or a stream.

Accepted Answer

William James is often credited with coining the metaphor of consciousness as a river or stream, in his book "The Principles of Psychology."

Question 5

Laura was driving home from school and she stopped at an intersection. She looked to her left and right for oncoming cars and then made a left turn, pulling out right in front of a motorcycle. Even though she looked in that direction, she failed to see the motorcycle, likely because she was looking only for cars. Her inability to see the motorcycle is a phenomenon known as:

Accepted Answer

Inattentional blindness is the phenomenon of not being able to see things in plain sight because our attention is focused elsewhere. In this case, Laura was focused on looking for cars and did not notice the motorcycle.

Question 6

Magicians exploit a phenomenon known as _____, which occurs when we fail to notice something in our clear field of view because our limited attentional resources are devoted to another task or object in the environment.

Accepted Answer

Inattentional blindness occurs when we fail to notice something in our clear field of view because our limited attentional resources are devoted to another task or object in the environment, which is exactly what magicians rely on to perform their tricks. Change blindness refers to the failure to notice changes in an environment or scene when our attention is not specifically focused on those changes. The cocktail party effect refers to the ability to selectively attend to one voice among many in a noisy environment. Mindfulness refers to the state of being fully present and engaged in the present moment.

Question 7

Which of the following statements best explains why consciousness has been viewed as a "stream" or "river"?

Accepted Answer

Consciousness has been compared to a "stream" or "river" because, despite its constantly changing contents, we subjectively experience it as a continuous and unbroken phenomenon, similar to how water flows continuously in a river.

Question 8

How does marijuana appear to affect the brain?

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Question 9

What steps can you take to improve the quality of your sleep?

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Question 10

_____ is the capacity to selectively focus awareness on particular stimuli in your external environment or on your internal thoughts and sensations.

Accepted Answer

Attention is the capacity to selectively focus awareness on particular stimuli in your external environment or on your internal thoughts and sensations. Consciousness is a broader concept that includes awareness, attention, and perception, as well as other cognitive processes such as memory and emotion regulation. Awareness is a general sense of being conscious of something, but it does not necessarily involve selective focus or attention. Rehearsal is a memory strategy that involves repeating information in order to remember it better.

Question 11

List and describe the psychedelic drugs, including their effects on the brain.

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Question 12

Identify two drugs that are classified as dissociative anesthetics, the effects they produce, and the dangers associated with them.

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Question 13

What are the effects and potential dangers of MDMA (ecstasy)?

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Question 14

Attention is:

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Attention is the capacity to selectively focus awareness on particular stimuli in your external environment or on your internal thoughts and sensations. Option A describes awareness and option C describes meditation technique. Option D describes hypnosis.

Question 15

At any given moment, we are faced with more information than we can effectively process, and consequently we focus our attention on the information that is most relevant to our immediate or long-term goals. This suggests that attention is:

Accepted Answer

The statement suggests that attention is limited in the amount of information we can effectively process, indicating that attention has a capacity limit. Option A is incorrect because multitasking also requires attention. Option B and C are both incorrect, as they do not accurately reflect the concept of attention as presented in the statement.

Question 16

Because attention is limited in capacity, we tend to:

Accepted Answer

Our brains have limited attentional resources, so we tend to focus on information that is most relevant to our immediate or long-term goals. This helps us conserve energy and process information more efficiently.

Question 17

Dr. Castro is at a faculty party, attentively listening to Dr. Chavez talk about her latest research on selective attention, when he suddenly becomes aware of someone else mentioning his name on the other side of the room. This phenomenon is known as:

Accepted Answer

The described phenomenon is known as the cocktail party effect, where a person suddenly becomes aware of their own name or other relevant information while in the midst of attending to other stimuli. Option A, inattentional blindness, refers to the failure to notice a completely unexpected stimulus in one's visual field. Option B, change blindness, refers to the difficulty in detecting differences between two visual stimuli presented sequentially. Option D, mindfulness, refers to a state of conscious awareness and focus on the present experience, which is not directly related to the described phenomenon.

Question 18

In a now classic experiment, Simons and Levin (1998) had a research assistant ask a pedestrian for directions. During their conversation, two people carrying a door rudely walked between the assistant and the pedestrian. However, this was part of the experiment. While the door passed in front of the research assistant, another person took his place and continued the interaction after the door passed. Half of the pedestrians didn't even notice that it was not the same person asking for directions after the door had passed by. This phenomenon is known as:

Accepted Answer

This phenomenon is known as change blindness, where people fail to notice major changes in their visual environment, such as a person being replaced by someone else during a conversation. This highlights the limitations of visual attention and perception.

Question 19

As you are taking this test right now, you are aware of your thoughts, sensations, memories, and different aspects of the surrounding environment. Collectively, this awareness is referred to as:

Accepted Answer

Consciousness refers to the state of being aware of one's thoughts, sensations, and the environment, which is the case when taking a test. Dissociation involves a disruption in this awareness, while hypnagogic perception refers to the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep. Delta brain wave activity is a type of brain wave associated with deep sleep.

Question 20

Yair failed to notice when his girlfriend Lena got her hair cut because he wasn't paying attention to her hair. Not noticing that Lena cut her hair is an example of:

Accepted Answer

Change blindness is the inability to notice changes in a visual scene, even when they are significant. In this case, Yair failed to notice that Lena had cut her hair because he wasn't paying close attention to her physical appearance. This is an example of change blindness, as he was unable to detect a significant change in Lena's appearance.

Quiz 4: Consciousness and Its Variations