Deck 6: Consciousness

Question 1

Researchers who engage in consciousness studies often define consciousness as

A) An objective experience of reality
B) A phenomenon that defies a single consensus definition
C) An experience caused by specific neurons in the cortex
D) A well-defined physiological state

Answer 1

B

Question 2

According to philosopher John Searle, consciousness consists of

A) Inner, qualitative, subjective states and feelings or awareness
B) Outward behaviour and the internal representations of actions
C) Intentional, qualitative, and objective states of being
D) Mental imagery during waking and dreaming

Answer 2

A

Question 3

Consciousness is described as subjective, meaning that it cannot

A) Exist independent of its "owner"
B) Be derived from objective experience
C) Exist without external stimulation
D) Be totally innate

Answer 3

A

Question 4

The hard problem of consciousness is that scientists must explain how it is that

A) the brain's processes lead to a subjective conscious state
B) the brain integrates sensations from different sensory modalities
C) the mind evolved from the primitive brains of Neanderthals
D) the brain and the mind are distinctively different

Question 5

Temporary and sometimes radical changes in the pattern of a person's subjective experience are called

A) hallucinations
B) altered states of consciousness
C) virtual reality
D) heightened states of consciousness

Question 6

Sleep deprivation causes all of the following symptoms, EXCEPT:

A) brief, mild hallucinations
B) irritability
C) impaired decision making
D) heightened awareness

Question 7

Although she may believe that we are getting enough sleep, the average African-American female sleeps about

A) 6 to 7 hours a night
B) 8 to 10 hours a night
C) 5 to 6 hours a night
D) 3 to 4 hours a night

Question 8

Any biochemical, physiological, or behavioral cycle that adheres to a near-24-hour schedule is known as a

A) circadian rhythm
B) natural biological rhythm
C) homeostatic rhythm
D) pacemaker rhythm

Question 9

The suprachiasmic nuclei of the hypothalamus synchronize and maintain our

A) circadian rhythm
B) motivation to sleep
C) perception of time
D) homeostatic mechanism

Question 10

One time of day when sleepiness is usually at its strongest is during mid-afternoon, at about 3:00 p.m. Researchers have found that

A) it is during these hours that sleep-related traffic accidents peak
B) cultures in which afternoon naps are common exhibit a better quality of life
C) this is the time that our internal body temperature is at its peak
D) this period of the day is associated with a reduction in the rate of business transactions

Question 11

The coordinated biological functions that keep track of how much sleep (particularly deep sleep) you have had the previous night versus how long you have been awake on a given day is called the

A) Sleep clock
B) Sleep generator
C) Sleep homeostat
D) Sleep apnea

Question 12

In addition to rapid eye movements and vivid dreaming, REM sleep is generally characterized by

A) an increase in the incidence of sleep walking
B) the urge to act out one's dreams
C) a decrease in activity in the pons region of the brain
D) an increase of activity throughout the brain and nervous system

Question 13

The different brain waves associated with the five stages of sleep can be recorded by this imaging technique

A) fMRI
B) MRI
C) EEG
D) PET

Question 14

When a person is in deep sleep, the corresponding brain waves are slow and wide, which means that they are

A) Beta waves
B) Alpha waves
C) Theta waves
D) Delta waves

Question 15

Stage 2 sleep lasts only about 10 to 20 minutes and is characterized by these sudden short bursts of higher voltage brain activity

A) k-complexes
B) Sleep spindles
C) REM dreams
D) Hypnogogia

Question 16

Also known as Stage 5 sleep, most of the dreaming that we remember occurs during this part of the sleep cycle

A) NREM
B) REM
C) Hypnogogia
D) AREM

Question 17

Which of the following is true regarding the distribution of stages of the sleep cycle throughout an entire night?

A) Stage 2 sleep is typically the longest lasting sleep stage at the end of the cycle
B) The end of a night's sleep corresponds with the disappearance of NREM Stages 3 and 4
C) REM sleep is most prevalent early in the night, when the sleeper has just begun sleeping
D) NREM takes up about 50% of the sleep cycle as sleep progresses

Question 18

If you had been thinking during sleep about material on a test scheduled for the following day or making a list of things you needed to take care of over the weekend, this type of sleep mentation had occurred

A) sleep thinking
B) lucid dreaming
C) apex dreaming
D) normal cognition

Question 19

When she is in the midst of a lucid dream, Lucia will not

A) ask herself if she is really dreaming
B) look at her hands to verify the conscious experience
C) accept irrational events as being real
D) be aware of her real conscious self

Question 20

Which of the following best describes Freud's theory regarding why people dream?

A) People dream to fulfill their unconscious wishes and desires
B) People dream to help solve problems or regulate mood disturbances during the previous day
C) People dream because REM sleep elicits random activation of memories
D) People dream because it allows them to rehearse responses to threating situations

Question 21

Despite the cultural changes throughout the 20th century, young adults tend to dream about various forms of this more than anything else

A) Sex
B) Aggression
C) Social exclusion
D) Verbal abuse

Question 22

All of the following describe true statements about the content of dreams, EXCEPT:

A) Most of the time, people dream about things that they hardly ever experience
B) There is a large amount of continuity between the content of dreams and people's waking thoughts
C) If one falls asleep in front of the television or with the radio on, the external stimuli can invade the dream
D) Much of the content of dreams is stable across cultures, with a few predictable cultural differences

Question 23

This sleep disorder is defined as the chronic difficulty to fall asleep, stay asleep, and/or obtain a restful sleep

A) Narcolepsy
B) Parasomnia
C) Insomnia
D) Sleep apnea

Question 24

The sufferers of this sleep disorder experience hundreds of episodes a night, during which the brain and body do not receive enough oxygen

A) Narcolepsy
B) Obstructive sleep apnea
C) REM sleep behaviour disorder
D) Insomnia

Question 25

If you awaken to find your roommate seemingly acting out his dream by knocking things off of his nightstand, attempting to jump around the room, and talking, he likely has this parasomnia

A) Somnilogy
B) REM sleep behaviour disorder
C) Somnambulism
D) Night terrors

Question 26

Judah is 5 years old, and his parents are concerned because they have found him cleaning up his toys late at night several times this week. When they try to ask him what he is doing he is unresponsive, but after a few minutes he will walk back to his room and sleep on the floor. Judah most likely has this parasomnia

A) Somnambulism
B) REM sleep behaviour disorder
C) Narcolepsy
D) Night terrors

Question 27

Which of the following statements regarding narcolepsy is FALSE?

A) Narcolepsy sufferers may begin to dream vividly the moment they fall asleep
B) Narcolepsy is associated with a dysfunction in the ability of the brain to produce the hormone hypocretin
C) Narcolepsy sufferers may fall asleep while driving a car or operating machinery
D) During narcoleptic sleeps the normal progression from NREM to REM occurs in only 60 minutes

Question 28

Sociocognitive theorists who argue that hypnosis is similar to a placebo response, meaning that hypnosis is dependent on a person believing that he or she is being hypnotized, take this view

A) Nonstate
B) Special state
C) Imagination
D) Magical thinking

Question 29

All of the following are examples of techniques that transcendental meditation might recommend, EXCEPT

A) noticing the way the breath enters and leaves the body at the point of the nostrils
B) repeating a sound or word continuously
C) placing one's attention on a specific part of one's body
D) focusing one's attention on everything rather than one thing, but to responding to nothing

Question 30

Any substance with properties that affect mental life or consciousness is called a(n)

A) Illicit drug
B) Psychoactive drug
C) Psychedelic drug
D) Psychiatric drug

Question 31

Because of a variety of scientific and public biases, this drug was mistakenly thought to lead to Parkinson's disease

A) Cocaine
B) MDMA
C) Methamphetamine
D) Heroin

Question 32

Which of the following is not among the classic set of defining characteristics of addiction?

A) Withdrawal
B) Tolerance
C) Craving
D) Toxicity

Question 33

Tolerance refers to the fact that the effect of a drug

A) increases as a person uses higher doses
B) becomes more toxic as a person increases the dos
C) decreases as a person uses the same does
D) becomes less toxic as a person increases the dose

Question 34

This classic effect of drug addiction is sometimes the result of the body experiencing removal of the drug as a harmful event

A) Withdrawal
B) Tolerance
C) Craving
D) Toxicity

Question 35

The term narcotic generally refers to these drugs

A) Opioids
B) Barbiturates
C) Benzodiazepines
D) Hypnotics

Question 36

Use of this class of hypnotic drugs along with heroin increases the risk of overdose nearly 28 times

A) alkaloids
B) benzodiazepines
C) anti-psychotics
D) beta-blockers

Question 37

Compared to cocaine, the effects of amphetamines are said to be harsher because

A) the highs are longer-lasting
B) the withdrawal is more psychological than physical
C) the experience is less likely to result in euphoria
D) the increased energy lasts about 15 minutes

Question 38

Which of the following statements is evidence that caffeine is not "addictive" in the classical sense of the word?

A) Some caffeine users have attempted to quit or cut down and found it quite difficult
B) Caffeine users generally do not typically take serious risks to obtain the drug
C) Caffeine users devote most of their time in attempts to locate caffeine
D) Non-fatal overdoses on caffeine are uncommon

Question 39

The percentage of people who begin smoking after age 18 is approximately

A) 50%
B) 40%
C) 20%
D) 10%

Question 40

All of the following statements about adolescents and smoking are true, EXCEPT:

A) Cigarette advertisers historically have targeted adolescents
B) Adolescents are more prone to risky behaviour
C) Adolescents understand the importance of long-term consequences of behaviour
D) Adolescent smokers "infect" their friends though peer influence and peer selection

Question 41

Alcohol tends to produce some positive benefits like feelings of relaxation, well-being, interest in conversation, and sociability when

A) a person is drinking wine
B) the dose of alcohol is small
C) the primary drink is beer
D) a person ingests three to four drinks in an hour

Question 42

This depressant drug had initially been marketed as a food supplement for body builders until it was discovered that it was being abused as a psychoactive drug

A) GHB
B) Rohypnol
C) Xanax
D) Ephedrine

Question 43

The psychedelic drugs peyote, LSD, and mushrooms are similar in that

A) the potential for dependence on these drugs is exceptionally low
B) the psychological effects are invariant from one person to the next
C) use of the drugs is much more common in an urban cultural setting
D) the experience of using has many psychological benefits

Question 44

All of the following statements about the safety of Ecstasy are supported by research, EXCEPT:

A) Most of these risks of Ecstasy use appear to result from extremely heavy use
B) Ecstasy has not been proven to cause brain damage in humans
C) There have been very few deaths reliably attributed to Ecstasy taken alone
D) Ecstasy is the safest drug to be taken along with alcohol

Question 45

The psychoactive ingredient in all types of cannabis is known as

A) 5HT-2
B) GHB
C) THC
D) LSD

Question 46

Which of the following statements regarding the potential for harm following from use of cannabis is true?

A) No evidence exists that marijuana use leads to an increased risk of mortality from lung disease
B) Dependence on cannabis is likely to occur after very heavy long-term recreational use
C) Marijuana smoke does not contain as much of hazardous tar that cigarette smoke contains
D) Cannabis has a safety ratio about equal to alcohol

Question 47

Opium is one of the oldest psychoactive substances known to mankind; however, it is not a drug itself, but contains a number of

A) Alkaloids
B) Opioids
C) Metaboloids
D) Lipids

Question 48

Most modern researchers and practitioners prefer to use this word instead of the word addiction

A) Tolerance
B) Dependence
C) Withdrawal
D) Craving

Question 49

Though neuroscientific studies of the brains of meditators have revealed significant differences between meditating brains and non-meditating brains, one can be skeptical of the fact that

A) the research also showed an increase in cortical activation in meditators
B) the research demonstrated that meditators must practice meditation before it has an effect on the brain
C) the research represents a correlation between meditation and brain changes, but not a causal link
D) the research suggests that consciousness changes substantially during meditation

Question 50

More users who try this stimulant ultimately become dependent upon it than any other drug, including heroin and cocaine

A) Amphetamine
B) Nicotine
C) Ecstasy
D) Methamphetamine

Question 51

Even when two people have the same experience-say, listening to the same piece of music-the experience is different because each person has her or his own consciousness

Question 52

According to the "hard problem" of consciousness, even if we grant that consciousness is a property of the brain, we still have no idea how consciousness arises from the brain.

Question 53

The pervasive use of cell phones and computers at bedtime among young people has increased sleep time and decreased daytime sleepiness

Question 54

Melatonin inhibits the brain's mechanisms for promoting wakefulness-allowing various other sleep-related mechanisms to do their work "unopposed" by a drive for wakefulness.

Question 55

During Stage 4 sleep you may be vaguely aware of your environment, and some of you may experience hypnogogia.

Question 56

It is easy to know the difference between being asleep and being awake because the sleep homeostat helps us understand when we have passed from waking into sleep.

Question 57

During REM sleep you do not act out your dreams because the motor muscles of the body are inhibited.

Question 58

Each stage of the sleep cycle lasts 90 minutes and occurs only once during a full night's sleep.

Question 59

Evidence shows that sleep improves memory for events one has experienced as well as for facts and skills.

Question 60

Sigmund Freud believed that dreams are the brain's attempt to solve problems during sleep or regulate mood carried over from the previous day.

Question 61

_________means that consciousness can only be experienced by some sort of being and cannot exist independent of its "owner."

Question 62

In human beings, sleep and wakefulness are regulated in part by the numerous cycles experienced each day (body temperature, hormonal activity, mental alertness, etc.). These rhythms are kept on schedule and synchronized with one another by the __.

Question 63

If not enough sleep occurs on a given night relative to the amount you normally require, __________is built up, and you will feel pressure to "make up" the lost sleep

Question 64

During normal wakefulness, brain waves tend to be of the _________type-very rapid, relatively narrow oscillations. In some extremely relaxed wakeful states where eyes are closed, however (e.g., meditation), lower-frequency _________waves may predominate

Question 65

Because it is not always clear exactly what should or should not be considered a "dream," researchers often use the term ________________to describe any and all mental activity that occurs during sleep.

Question 66

In a(n) _____________________there is a sense of being one's "real self" in the dream with a consciousness similar to that of waking consciousness.

Question 67

As many as 30 percent to 50 percent of all Americans experience at least symptoms of ____________________at some point, but only about 2 percent to 10 percent Americans suffer from the chronic form of the sleep disorder

Question 68

REM typically begins immediately at sleep onset for people with _______________, rather than following 90 minutes of NREM as would normally be the case

Question 69

The larger the _____________________of a drug, the less toxic the drug is given the dosages normally used

Question 70

Research suggests that ____________________is less addictive than smoking, with true addiction occurring only at very high doses taken over prolonged periods

Question 71

Describe the three characteristics of consciousness known as qualitativeness, subjectivity, and unity. In doing so, provide examples of the "hard problem" of understanding consciousness and its relationship to the notion of dualism.

Question 72

During the course of the sleep cycle, our brain activity changes in stages. Describe all five stages of sleep, including the characteristic brain waves and sleep disorders that might accompany each stage. Make sure to distinguish between the four NREM stages and REM sleep.

Question 73

Hypnosis and meditation are less understood then some other altered states of consciousness. Describe the special-state vs. nonstate debate using examples of studies of hypnotic induction procedures. Also, comment on how meditation differs from hypnosis.

Question 74

Scientific and societal understanding of drugs and expectations about drug use vary. Use cigarette smoking, drinking, and marijuana smoking as examples to describe some of the myths of drug use as well as some of the evidence for harmful effects.