AOS1 NS
Describe one similarity and one difference between the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system
The sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system are both divisions of the autonomic nervous system. However, the sympathetic nervous system prepares the body to respond to a threat or stressor, whereas the parasympathetic nervous system returns the body to optimal and balanced functioning once the threat or stressor is no longer present.
• other similarities between the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system, such as that both involve the activity of visceral muscles, organs, and glands.
• other differences between the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system, such as that the sympathetic nervous system activates visceral muscles, organs, and glands, whereas the parasympathetic nervous system maintains visceral muscles, organs, and glands at optimal and balanced functioning.
The flight-or-flight-or-freeze response is a biological response to chronic stress.
False. The flight-or-fight-or-freeze response is a biological response to acute stress, not chronic stress.
Describe classical conditioning as a three-phase process of learning.
Before conditioning is the first phase of classical conditioning, whereby the neutral stimulus produces no significant response and the unconditioned stimulus produces the unconditioned response. During conditioning is the second phase of classical conditioning, whereby the neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus, producing the unconditioned response. After conditioning is the third and final stage of classical conditioning, whereby the neutral stimulus has become the conditioned stimulus, producing the conditioned response.
Aristotle was having a conversation with his school friend, Plato, about their experiences together at primary school, which they attended more than 10 years earlier. While talking, he remembered a funny story from year four and started to tell the story. Identify and explain the process of memory which is involved in Aristotle remembering and telling his story from primary school.
The process of memory involved in Aristotle remembering and telling his story from year four is retrieval. Retrieval involves accessing previously stored information from long-term memory and using it in short-term (working) memory at a later time, as Aristotle is doing by retrieving his memory from year four and sharing it with his friend.
Explain the role of the neuron in the nervous system and list all types of neurons.
A neuron is a nerve cell that receives and transmits neural information. There are three types of neurons, which are interneurons, sensory neurons, and motor neurons. The neuron is the basic structural and functional unit of the nervous system. This is because the nervous system is made up of neurons arranged in neural pathways. It is along these neural pathways that both sensory and motor neural messages are transmitted around the body, enabling various divisions of the nervous system to communicate with one another.
Describe how the nervous system could coordinate the conscious response of putting on a jacket after feeling the cold weather.
Sensory receptors on the person’s skin would detect the sensation of the cold weather. This sensory information would be transmitted via sensory neural pathways in the somatic nervous system and afferent tracts in the spinal cord to the brain. The brain would receive and process this sensory neural message of the cold weather, and coordinate and initiate a conscious motor response to put on a jacket. This motor neural message would be transmitted via efferent tracts in the spinal cord and motor neural pathways in the somatic nervous system to skeletal muscles, which would carry out the motor movement of putting on a jacket in response to the cold weather.
The same stressor can cause one person to experience eustress and another person distress. What does this demonstrate about stress?
I. Stress can be subjective. II. Stress can involve physiological responses, such as experiencing sadness. III. Stress can involve psychological responses, such as experiencing different emotions. IV. Stress is always the same experience for everyone.
I; III. Eustress and distress demonstrate that stress is subjective because it can involve people experiencing different emotional states in response to the same stressor.
Bethany was disappointed by her most recent school report. In order to improve her grades, she decided to ask her parents if she could stop taking the bins out each week, so long as she spent at least an hour each night studying after school. The strategy works and Bethany finds that she is studying much more frequently in order to avoid the experience of taking the bins out each week. Using the language of operant conditioning, describe how Bethany learnt to spend more time studying
The antecedent in this scenario is Bethany wanting to improve her grades after receiving a disappointing school report. The behaviour is that Bethany studies for at least one hour each night in order to improve her grades. The consequence is that Bethany no longer has to take the bins out each week, which acts as negative reinforcement and increases the likelihood that Bethany will continue to study for at least one hour during the week.
Suggest how Songlines can help encode and retrieve information.
Songlines are songs sung as a family or community travels through Country and spaces in the landscape that record journeys, link important sites, and describe ways to live, care for, and nurture Country. Songlines use rhythm and narrative to communicate necessary cultural information linked to different stories placed in the landscape, which can enhance the encoding of this information. When Songlines are sung and individuals walk through the landscape, individuals are able to retrieve the information that is linked to the different stories and places.
Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome involves how many stages and substages and what are they called?
Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome involves three stages and two substages. Alarm reaction, resistance, and exhaustion are the three stages, and shock and counter shock are the two substages of Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome.
With reference to glutamate, describe the process involved in the successful transmission of neural information across a neural synapse.
Glutamate is released from the axon terminals of the presynaptic neuron into the synaptic gap. Glutamate binds to corresponding receptor sites on the dendrites of the postsynaptic neuron that match its specific molecular structure. Once bound, glutamate can successfully have its excitatory effect on the postsynaptic neuron, making it more likely to fire an action potential.
Using an example, outline how having coping flexibility can help a person deal with a stressor.
Coping flexibility refers to the ability to change coping strategies to best suit the changing demands of a stressor. This helps to reduce stress, as the strategies used more accurately target the stressor. For example, if someone has the stressor of an upcoming football game and begins to cope by exercising, but then finds out a good player on their team won’t be able to play the game, they might show coping flexibility by scheduling more training sessions with their teammates.
A new advertising campaign for a perfume targeted at teenage girls features a celebrity. In the campaign, the celebrity is shown to be attracting men by wearing the perfume. Name two different stages involved in observational learning that demonstrate the strength of using a celebrity to advertise the perfume. Justify your response for each stage.
Attention is a stage of observational learning. The viewers of the ad are more likely to actively focus on the perfume and encode information about it if it is associated with someone famous. Motivation is another stage of observational learning. The viewers of the ad are more likely to be motivated to wear the perfume because they may desire to be like the celebrity.
Dr Tsumi wants to investigate whether she can produce a classically conditioned memory of fear of clowns in young infants. Hiro is an infant who is staying at the hospital she works at. Without asking Hiro’s mother for permission, Dr Tsumi decides to conduct her little experiment on Hiro. Dr Tsumi uses an old jack-in-the box clown toy that makes a very loud screeching noise every time it opens and the clown pops up. When she presents the box to Hiro, he starts crying immediately when he hears the loud screeching noise after the clown pops up. Dr Tsumi continues presenting the jack-in-the-box to Hiro and he continues to be afraid of it. Later, when the hospital runs a charity day and Hiro is visited by a friendly clown entertainer, he immediately starts crying. When Hiro’s mother finds out about the experiment, she is very upset. She tries to take Hiro away from the experiment, but Dr Tsumi insists that it is a standard procedure all infants go through before they are discharged from the hospital.
Identify the type of memory that Hiro’s emotional response to the clown represents. Outline the role of the amygdala in the formation of Hiro’s memory.
Hiro’s emotional fear response represents an implicit classically conditioned memory. The amygdala is the brain structure that is involved in encoding the emotional components of the memories, such as the fear Hiro felt when he was presented with the jack-in-the-box.
Describe operant conditioning as a three-phase process of learning.
Operant conditioning is a three-phase learning process that involves an antecedent, behaviour, and consequence, whereby the consequence of a behaviour determines the likelihood that it will occur again in the future. The antecedent refers to the circumstances that prompt a particular behaviour. The behaviour then refers to the actions the follow the antecedent. Finally, the consequence refers to the outcome of the behaviour, which determines the likelihood that it will occur again.
Duncan is the leader of a technology company and is always interested in ways to improve the efficiency of his employees as they do their work. Duncan read an article that described a new typing method that increases typing accuracy and speed. He asked his employees to use this new typing method throughout the next two months and see whether their typing speed and accuracy improves.
Explain the role of long-term potentiation and long-term depression when Duncan’s employees learn the new typing method over two months.
The role of long-term potentiation is to strengthen synaptic connections between neurons responsible for performing the new typing method that are regularly coactivated as Duncan’s employees use the new typing method. This strengthens the memory trace representing the new typing method. By contrast, the role of long-term depression is to weaken synaptic connections between neurons responsible for performing the old typing method that are not regularly coactivated, as Duncan’s employees are no longer using this typing method. This weakens the memory trace representing the old typing method.
Compare the resistance stage and the exhaustion stage of Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome
Resistance is the second stage of Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome involving the maintenance of heightened bodily arousal, resulting in an increased ability to cope with the stressor.
In comparison, exhaustion, which is the third stage of Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome, involves the depletion of energy levels and bodily resources. This results in a decreased ability to cope with the stressor.
The 8 ways of Aboriginal learning framework is an example of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander approach to learning.
With reference to the 8 ways of Aboriginal learning framework, explain what is meant by the multimodal nature of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ways of knowing and learning.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander approaches to learning are multimodal by nature, meaning that they use a variety of methods. This is reflected by the 8 ways of Aboriginal learning framework, which demonstrates that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander approaches to learning use several different methods, such as story-sharing, learning maps, non-verbal methods, symbols and images, land links, non-linear methods that do not separate pieces of knowledge into distinct points, breaking down a concept into different components through the strategy of deconstruct/reconstruct, and community links.
Before Loki goes to work, he has a lot of things to do. Loki has to remember to water his plants, pack his lunch, drop his suit off at the dry cleaners, and fill up his car with petrol. The night before, Loki fears he will forget to do one of these things. Explain how Loki can use the method of loci technique to help him remember his list of things to do.
Loki can use the method of loci by converting his list of things to do in mental images that he can associate with familiar locations in his mind. First, Loki must visualise a familiar route or place, such as his house. Secondly, Loki will need to select several memorable places in his house, such as his bedroom or kitchen. Loki will then need to create visual imagery for his list of things to do, such as a giant glittery suit to help him remember to go to the dry cleaners. Then Loki will need to link each item to one of the identified landmarks, for example by imagining the giant glittery suit sitting at his table in the kitchen. When Loki needs to retrieve his list of things to do, he can mentally walk through his house and retrieve each item by observing them at the locations he placed them.
Explain how long-term depression may impact the information stored in long-term memory.
Long-term memory has a relatively permanent duration. This duration may be impacted by the process of long-term depression which refers to the repeated low-intensity co-activation of post-synaptic neurons, resulting in the long-lasting weakening of synaptic connections. This may negatively impact the memory store of long-term memory which stores information for later use. Therefore, long-term depression may at times affect the information stored in long-term memory by reducing the duration of long-term memory, causing some memories which are meant to be relatively permanent to become lost due to the weakening of synaptic connections associated with this memory.
Explain how dopamine may contribute to addiction.
Dopamine is a neuromodulator that is released when a person does a behaviour that has a rewarding or pleasurable consequence. These behaviours are consequently more likely to be repeated asthe person attempts to experience the pleasurable reward again, triggering the release of dopamine once again. This is how dopamine contributes to addiction by being released when a person engages in addictive behaviours, such as gambling and drug use, and motivating them to repeat the behaviour.
Billy has irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a health condition related to the gut, and an anxiety disorder. Sometimes Billy’s irritable bowel syndrome will get worse when he is feeling anxious. With reference to the gut-brain axis, describe how Billy’s two health conditions may impact each other.
The gut-brain axis refers to the bidirectional connection between the gut and the brain through the enteric and central nervous systems.
The bidirectional nature of the gut-brain axis means communication can occur both ways, therefore both Billy’s conditions can impact each other.
In this way, Billy’s irritable bowel syndrome suggests his gut is unhealthy which may influence the neural messages his enteric nervous system sends to the brain, potentially contributing to the existence of his anxiety disorder.
Furthermore, Billy’s anxiety disorder may influence the neural messages his central nervous system sends to the gut, potentially contributing to the presence of his irritable bowel syndrome.
Asahi is trying to teach his daughter, An, how to use chopsticks when eating noodles. Asahi recently watched a video on classical conditioning and wants to try it to teach An how to use noodles. In order to do this, Asahi presents her noodles on her placemat and then gives her the chopsticks. When she uses chopsticks successfully, Asahi will give her dessert. By doing this, he hopes that An will learn that when she sees noodles, she will know to use chopsticks.
With reference to the five stages of observational learning, explain how An could successfully learn how to use chopsticks by watching her dad use chopsticks.
An will need to progress through the stage of attention by actively focusing on how her dad uses chopsticks, such as watching how he holds them. She would then need to progress through the stage of retention, by forming a mental representation of how her dad uses chopsticks. An will then need to progress through the stage of reproduction, meaning she needs to have the physical and mental capabilities to replicate her dad’s behaviour, such as having adequate motor skills in her hands. An will also need to progress through the stage of motivation, in which An needs to have the desire to learn how to use chopsticks. If An successfully uses chopsticks and is reinforced by receiving dessert, she is likely to use chopsticks again in the future as she has progressed through the reinforcement stage.
Yusuf is an 80-year-old man who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. His granddaughter, Zoya, has aphantasia. Zoya is telling her grandfather how they went to her school together last week for a Grandparent’s day celebration. Yusuf is struggling to remember the event.
With reference to the hippocampus, explain how Alzheimer’s disease may impact Yusuf’s ability to remember autobiographical events.
Using an example, discuss how Zoya’s retrieval of the event may be impacted by her aphantasia.
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease that involves the progressive loss of neurons in the brain and is characterized by memory decline. Alzheimer’s involves lesions that contribute to the degeneration and loss of neurons in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is involved in the retrieval of autobiographical memories, therefore due to damage to the hippocampus, Yusuf may be unable to retrieve autobiographical memories. Zoya has aphantasia, which means she lacks the capacity to generate visual forms of mental imagery. Due to her inability to generate visual forms of mental imagery, she will be unable to retrieve the vividly, detailed visual components of the autobiographical event, such as the visual image of her grandfather at the celebration.
By consulting with a fellow teacher, Bindi learns that systems of knowledge have developed through many generations and by communities working together to share traditional expertise and knowledge. She also learns that they consist of information that is highly interconnected. Using examples, explain how Bindi can teach using the relationships through which learning can occur.
Bindi can teach using a relationship between concepts. For example, she can link a geographical landmark in their community to a historical event significant to the Indigenous community. She can also teach using a relationship between learner and teacher. For example, she could foster trust in her students, take the time to get to know each of her students, and respond to their needs well, so that their learning is facilitated through her being their teacher. Finally, Bindi can teach using relationships between an individual and their wider community. She can take her class to watch ceremonial dances or listen to an Elder telling Dreaming stories to help them learn more in-depth about their culture.