1. William James was interested in studying ____________, which he described as a “stream” that provides day-to-day continuity.

d. consciousness

2. A great deal of information is available in our internal and external environments, but we can only focus on a small portion of it. This narrow focus on specific stimuli is known as:

b. selective attention.

3. ____________ refers to the ability to block out the chatter and noise in a busy environment so that you can pay attention to your ongoing conversation with someone.

a. The cocktail-party effect

4. The daily patterns of our physiological functioning, such as our temperature, roughly follow the 24-hour cycle of daylight and darkness. This pattern is driven by our:

d. circadian rhythm.

5. The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) can be thought of as a master clock for our daily rhythm. The SCN sends messages to the ____________, which regulates patterns of hunger and temperature, and the ____________, which regulates alertness and sleepiness.

c. hypothalamus; reticular formation

6. Shift workers can have problems with their sleep–wake cycles, sometimes resulting in ____________, which refers to difficulty falling asleep and sleeping soundly.

a. insomnia

7. If we hook you up to an electroencephalogram (EEG) as you become drowsy, the EEG would begin to show ____________ waves.

b. alpha

8. The fifth stage of sleep is known as ____________, when brain activity looks similar to that of someone who is wide awake.

d. REM sleep

9. Depriving people of REM sleep can result in:

a. REM rebound.

10. According to Sigmund Freud’s theory, dreams are a form of:

b. wish fulfillment.

11. People with damage to specific areas of the limbic system and forebrain do not have dreams or experience abnormal dreams. Which of the following explains this finding?

d. the neurocognitive theory

12. ____________ such as caffeine, alcohol, and hallucinogens can cause changes in psychological activities, for example, sensation, perception, attention, and judgment.

c. Psychoactive drugs

13. Methamphetamine stimulates the release of the brain’s pleasure-producing neurotransmitter ____________, causing a surge in energy and alertness.

a. dopamine

14. Which is the number one cause of premature death worldwide?

b. tobacco

15. Drug use can be fueled by dependence. ____________ dependence means the body no longer functions normally without the drug, and one sign of this type of dependence is ____________, as indicated by the symptoms that occur when the drug is withheld.

c. Physiological; withdrawal

16. Give an example showing that you are still conscious when asleep.

Answers will vary. If someone walks into your room while you are asleep, you wake up immediately if there is a noise. You hear a text message come in during the night and quickly wake up to answer the message.

17. Describe automatic processing, and give two reasons why it is important.

Without one’s awareness, the brain determines what is important, what requires immediate attention, and what can be processed and stored for later use if necessary. This automatic processing happens involuntarily, with little or no conscious effort. It is important because our sensory systems absorb large amounts of information that needs to be processed, and we could not possibly be consciously aware of all of it. Automatic processing also enables sensory adaptation, which is the tendency to become less sensitive to and less aware of constant stimuli after a period of time.

18. Interns and residents in hospitals sometimes work 48-hour shifts. Why would you not want a doctor keeping such a schedule to care for you at the end of her shift?

We might not want a doctor with such a schedule to care for us because staying up for 48 hours can result in problems with memory, attention, reaction time, and decision making, all important processes that doctors use in caring for patients. Sleep deprivation impairs the ability to focus attention on a single activity, such as delivering medical care.

19. Name and describe four different sleep disturbances. Differentiate them by describing their characteristics.

Answers will vary. See Table 4.1 for information on sleep disturbances and their defining characteristics.

20. Give four examples of drugs that people use legally on a daily basis.

Answers will vary. There are many different drugs that people use legally on an everyday basis. Caffeine is a psychoactive drug found in coffee, soda, tea, and some medicines. Over-the-counter painkillers are legal drugs used to treat minor aches and pains. Nicotine is a highly addictive drug found in cigarettes or cigars. Alcohol is a legal psychoactive drug used on a daily basis by many people, as they drink a glass of wine or beer with an evening meal.