Consciousness

Consciousness

Consciousness
1. our moment to moment awareness of ourselves and our environment
  1. Subjective and private
  2. Dynamic (ever changing)
  3. Self-reflective and central to our sense of self
  4. Intimately connected with
    1. Selective Attention: process that focuses awareness on some stimuli to the exclusion of others
2. measuring states of consciousness
  1. Self report - inner experiences
  2. Behavioural measures - performance special tasks. Gordon Galup (1970) slot machine. Plotnik et al. (2006) elephant self-recognition
  3. Physiological measures - bodily processes and mental states, EEG
3. Levels of Consciousness
  1. Freudian
    1. Conscious mind: thoughts and perceptions currently aware
    2. Preconscious mental events: outside current awareness, recalled certain conditions
    3. Unconscious events: cannot be brought into consciousness in ordinary circumstances
    4. Silverman SPA (subliminal psychodynamic activation) beating dad is ok, darts. Silverman and Weinberger (1985) mommy and I are one
  2. Cognitive
    1. Controlled (Conscious) Processing: conscious use of attention and effort,
      1. Repetition of action, parts of brain less active
        Automatic (Unconscious) Processing: activities performed unconsciously, fast, routine actions
        Divided Attention: more than one activity at same time
        :( prevents new ways to approach problems but faster
      2. :( slower but more flexible
  3. Unconscious perception and influence
    1. Blindsight
      1. part of visual field, still respond to stimuli but say cannot see it. Kentridge et al., 2004
      2. Weiskrantz (1974) DB
    2. Priming
      1. Krosnick et al. 1992
      2. exposure to stimulus affects response to same or other stimulus
    3. Visual Agnosia
      1. Prosopagnosia: faces but not objects
      2. John, HJA, Humphreys and Ridoch 1987
    4. Emotional Unconcious
      1. Chartrand et al 2002 students sublimnal message changed mood
4. Why do we have it
  1. summary of internal and external simuli
    1. Brain regions in planning and decision making
      1. Override dangerous behaviours
      2. Novel tasks and situations
Sleep
1. 90 min cycle 1-2-3-4-3-2-REM, although REM becomes longer and 3 drops out
2. Stages
  1. Awake and Alert - beta waves
    1. Relaxed and Drowsy - alpha waves
      1. Stage 1 - light, easily awakened, waves irregular, theta inc. (3.5-7.5), vivid images, body jerks, dreams
        Stage 2 - deep sleep, sleep spindles (12-15)m more relaxed, breathing and heart rate slower, dreams, harder to wake
        Stage 3 - slow and large delta (0.5-2)
        Stage 4 - deepest level, delta dominate, brain dec., dreams, hard to wake
        Slow-wave sleep
        REM - high arousal, dreaming
        Sleep paralysis
        Paradoxical sleep
        heart rate fast, breathing irregular and fast, brain wave like wakefulness, penile erections and vaginal lubrication, muscles relax, activity in limbic system, visual cortex and motor cortex
      2. alpha waves: low freq (8-12)
    2. beta waves: high freq. (15-30 cycles/sec), low amplitude
3. Spectral sex
  1. paralysis
  2. nightmares
  3. sexual arousal
4. Dreams
  1. Hynagogic State: wakefulness --> early stage 2, visual hallucinations, dreams
  2. Content
    1. strange
      1. may be due to dec in prefrontal to do with planning etc.
    2. 80% negative
    3. men 2/3
    4. cultural backrgound
    5. life experiences
    6. concerns
    7. most not sexual
    8. 50% aggressive
    9. 1/3 misfortune
  3. Purpose
    1. Freud Psychoanalytic Theory
      1. Wish Fulfillment: unconscious desires - sexual and aggressive urges
      2. Dream Work
        Latent (disguised meaning)
        Manifest (surface story)
    2. Activation Synthesis Theory
      1. no function, by-product of REM neural activity
      2. Activation - random neural activity in REM
        Synthesis - cerebral cortex creates story
    3. Cognitive Theories
      1. Problem-solving dream models: create solution
      2. Cognitive-process dream theories: focus on processes, similar dreaming and waking thought
  4. Daydreams
    1. waking consciousness, stimulation in boredom
    2. Fantasy-prone personality, most female
    3. best visual imagery
  5. REM 80-85%, NREM 15-50%
5. environment, culture, individual diff and age e.g. in winter 15-60mins longer asleep
6. sleep deprivation can affect confidence
7. restoration model: sleep recharges our run down bodies and allow us to recover from physical and mental fatigure
8. evolutionary/circadian sleep models: sleeps main purpose is to inc. change of survival
9. Memory consolidation: gradual process by which the brain transfers info to LTM
10. REM sleep disorder: loss of muscle tone that causes normal REM
11. sleepwalking: stage 3 and 4
12. night terros
13. sleep apnea: stop and start breathing
Hypnosis
1. state of heightened suggestibility, some people experience imagined situs as if real
  1. Hypnotic Induction: one person leads another into hypnosis, 10% always non responsive, 10% always pass, rest in between
    1. Fixed-gaze, progressive relaxation and imagery
    2. monozygotic twins similar sucesptibility
  2. Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale
2. Theories
  1. DIssociation Theories
    1. hypnosis = altered state, division of consciousness
      1. 1 responds to hypnotist's , other background but aware (hidden observer)
  2. Social-Cognitive Theories
    1. Expectations of people who are motivated
  3. Orne 1959 55% dominant hand
3. Brain imaging
  1. different state of brain activation in hypnosis
  2. Kosslyn et al 2000 drain colour or add colour, right hemisphere activated when adding colour
4. pain tolerance, hypnotic amnesia, post-hypnotic amnesia, distort memories, improve memory
Attention
1. focused attention
  1. the ability to respond to stimuli
  2. the cocktail party phenomenon
  3. filter models, dichotic listening
  4. early filter model (Broadbent, 1958)
  5. subliminal material
  6. late selection model (Deutsch and Deutsch, 1967)
  7. attenuation model (Treisman, 1964), other info in room is reduced
    1. selective attention: maintaining a focus of attention on a specific item even when faced with alternatives and distractions
  8. Posner (1980) targets, correct arrow. O'Craven et al. (1999) face and horse
  9. automaticity: reached when a task no longer requires conscious control
2. the process of concentrating on some features of the environment to the possible exclusion of others
3. Divided attention
  1. the ability to respond, seemingly simultaneously to multiple tasks or demands
  2. rehearsal, practice and difficulty
  3. similarity
  4. endogenous and exogenous control
  5. cross-modal effects in attention
4. Inattention and change blindness
  1. inattention blindness - gorilla video Simons and Chabris
Circadian rythms: daily biological cycles
1. suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN): regulates most circadian rythms
2. melatonin: hormone that has a relaxing effect on the body
3. early birds and night owls
4. environmental disruptions of circadian rythms
  1. seasonal affective disorder (SAD): a cyclic tendency to become psychologically depressed during certain seasons of the year

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	Created by isabella.stokes almost 9 years ago