Consciousness | PS10086

Consciousness

Our moment-to-moment awareness of ourselves and our environment.

3 Characteristics of consciousness

1) Subjective and private. 2) Dynamic - go into different states of consciousness. 3) Self-reflective and central to our sense of self. The idea that we are aware that we are experiencing consciousness.

Selective attention

The process that focuses awareness on some stimuli to the exclusion of others. Consciousness is like a spotlight.

Self-report measures

Ask people to describe their inner experiences (introspection). People may not always be honest or accurate. Some states of consciousness are inaccessible.

Behavioural measures

Record performance on special tasks.

Example of behavioural measure

To work out whether people self-reflect - paint a red dot secretly on participants nose. Present them with a mirror, and interested in knowing whether the human/animal is aware that they are the reflection - see how they respond (tap their own nose if the

Physiological measures

Establish correspondence between bodily processes and mental states. Use of EEG and brain imaging to form a correlation between what is going through someone's mind when performing a task and their brain activity in certain areas. This has progressed slow

Freudian levels of consciousness - conscious mind

Thoughts and perceptions of which we are currently aware.

Freudian levels of consciousness - Preconscious mental events

Outside current awareness by easily recalled under certain conditions.

Freudian levels of consciousness - Unconscious events

Cannot be brought into conscious awareness under ordinary circumstances. Past events, emotions, needs, wants and emotions that are socially unacceptable or could cause distress. Argues that normally we are not aware of them.

Criticism of Freudian levels of consciousness

Lack of scientific methods, empiricism and hard to operationalise concepts.

Cognitive viewpoint - Controlled (Conscious) Processing

Conscious use of attention and effort. Slower but more flexible (e.g., writing down bank details). More awareness because don't want to get them wrong.

Cognitive viewpoint - Automatic (Unconscious) Processing

Activities that can be performed without conscious awareness or effort. Fast, routine actions.

Cognitive viewpoint - Divided Attention

The capacity to attend to and perform more than one activity at the same time. This has limits, and is worsened if one or both tasks require conscious attention, or if the tasks are similar.

Blind-sight

Reported blindness in part of the visual field; individuals still respond to stimuli. Eyes are intact but the visual cortex at the back of the brain is damaged so vision is impaired. If damage comes to one half of the cortex then blindness could occur for

Type 1 blind-sight

Where individual can make the distinction but it doesn't feel like anything.

Type 2 blind-sight

Individual's can do the same thing but it produces a feeling of doing something (an experience) but it is not like seeing in their parts of their sighted parts of the visual field.

Priming

Exposure to a stimulus influences how you subsequently respond to that same or another stimulus. Presented below perceptual level or very quickly and then see how this affects response to something.

Purpose of consciousness

Provides summary of various internal and external stimuli perceived in a given moment. This is then available to brain regions involved in planning and decision making. Making quick decision through a running commentary. Allows us to override potentially

Sleep

We cycle through stages approximately every 90 minutes.

Beta waves

Pattern of waves that are present when you are awake and alert. High frequency, low amplitude.

Alpha waves

Pattern of waves present when you are feeling relaxed and drowsy.

Stage 1 of sleep

Light sleep and easily awakened. Brain wave pattern becomes more irregular. Presence of slower theta waves increase. Can experience very vivid images, or to have muscle twitches.

Stage 2 of sleep

Deeper sleep characterised by sleep spindles (periodic bursts of rapid brain wave activity). Harder to wake up.

Stage 3 of sleep

Regular appearance of slow and large delta waves. Slow wave of sleep.

Stage 4 of sleep

Deepest level of sleep during which delta waves dominate the EEG pattern. Possible for dreams to occur. Slow wave of sleep.

REM sleep

Characterised by rapid eye movements, high arousal (comparable to daytime levels) and frequent dreaming. Brain wave activity is similar to beta wave activity - are highly aroused. Occurs after reversal of sleep patterns and replaces stage 1.

REM sleep paralysis

An inability to move muscles (from below eye movement) during REM sleep.

Paradoxical sleep

Body is highly aroused, but very little movement.

Spectral sex

Reports of being sexually aroused while asleep, by some supernatural creature. explained by 1) Paralysis. 2) Nightmares (hypnopompic and hypnogogic hallucinations). 3) Sexual arousal. 4) Reports of supernatural creatures differ culturally.

Pattern of sleep

1-2-3-4-3-2-REM. REM periods increase in length. 3 & 4 decrease in lenth.

Hypnagogic state of dreaming

The transitional state from wakefulness through early stage-2 sleep. Visual hallucinations are common. Dreaming most often occurs during REM sleep. About 25% of the vivid dreams we have each night occur during Non-REM sleep.

Content of dreams

Commonly contain negative content. Women dream of men and women equally but 2/3 of men's dream characters are male. Cultural background, life experiences and current concerns can shape dream content.

Freud's psychoanalytic theory - wish fulfilment

The gratification of our unconscious desires and needs. Includes sexual and aggressive urges that are too unacceptable to be consciously acknowledged.

Freud's psychoanalytic theory - manifest content

The surface story that the dreamer reports

Freud's psychoanalytic theory - latent content

The dream's disguised psychological meaning.

Freud's psychoanalytic theory - dream work

The process by which a dream's latent content is transformed into the manifest content.

Activation-synthesis theory

Dreams do not serve any particular function - they are merely a by-product of REM neural activity. Brain is bombarded with random neural activity during REM sleep (activation). The cerebral cortex creates a plausible story from these random firings (synth

Cognitive theories - Problem-solving dream models

Dreams aren't constrained by reality so can help us find creative solutions to our problems and ongoing concerns.

Cognitive theories - Cognitive-process dream theories

Focus of the process of how we dream and propose that dreaming and waking thought are produced by the same mental systems in the brain. Similarity between dreaming and waking mental processes.

Daydreams

Significant part of waking consciousness - provides stimulation during periods of boredom. Greater visual imagery than other waking mental activities. Less vivid, emotional and bizarre than nighttime dreams.

Daydreams - fantasy-prone personality

Individuals who often live in a vivid, rich fantasy world that they control. Most are female.

Hypnosis

A state of heightened suggestibility in which some people are able to experience imagines situations as if they were real.

Hypnotic Induction

The process by which one person leads another person into hypnosis.

Hypnotic Susceptibility Scales

Contain a standard series of pass-fail suggestions that are read to a subject after a hypnotic induction. People differ in how susceptible they are to hypnotic suggestions.

Theories of hypnosis - Dissociation theories

View hypnosis as an altered state involving a division (dissociation) of consciousness. Person experiences two streams of consciousness, cut off from each other. One stream responds to the hypnotist's suggestions, while the other stream remains in the bac

Theories of hypnosis - Social-cognitive theories

Propose that hypnotic experiences result from expectations of people who are motivated to take on the role of being hypnotised. A number of mundane psychological functions can explain most, if not all, aspects of hypnosis - imagination, relaxation, role-e

Theories of hypnosis - Orne (1959)

One group of students told prior to being hypnotised that a common feature of a trance is stiffening of the muscles in the dominant hand. This information was false. When the students were hypnotised, of those who had been told about the hand stiffening 5

The hypnotised brain

Brain-imaging studies reveal that hypnotised people are experiencing a different state of brain activation that matches their verbal reports. Does not imply that hypnosis is an altered state of dissociation.