thinking 7-8 - consciousness

Inattentional blindness

Salient events in environment go unnoticed if not in focus of attention.

Change blindness

Drastic changes in environment go unnoticed if not in focus of attention (approx 50% don't notice change).

Cocktail party phenomena

Case for selective attention, enhances relevant info and filters out distractions (task created by Broadbent 1958).

Posner paradigm

Probabilistic cueing event where participants have to keep eyes fixed and this is measured (eye tracking).

Exogeneous attention

Attention captured by external events in environment, driven by cue that has physical similarity with task relevant stimulus.

Endogeneous attention

Attention allocated according to behavioral goals about event in environment, driven by explicit instructions which stimulus is relevant.

Dorsal system

Goal driven, based on predictions of what will happen in environment and what's relevant to achieve behavioral goal.

Ventral stream

Stimulus driven, responds to event in environment and is important for breaking up current attentional allocation.

Hemispatial neglect

Loss of sensory awareness for left visual/auditory field due to lesions in right parietal, frontal, and temporal areas.

Blindsight

Patient has intact eyes but loss in vision/conscious awareness, may affect part or all of visual field.

Where pathway

Involved in spatial analysis of scenes (location/spatial relations between objects) and sensorimotor functions like grasping.

What pathway

Involved in detailed object recognition and semantic analysis.

Blindsight pathway

Bypasses V1, providing some spatial information in the collicular-pulvinar-dorsal pathway.

Split brain

Condition where the corpus callosum is severed, leading to distinct consciousness and differing functions between hemispheres.

Left hemisphere

Dominant for language/verbal behavior, serial processing, and complex motor planning (especially in right-handers).

Right hemisphere

Dominant for geometric/spatial imagery, emotion lateralization/processing, and holistic processing.

Vicary 1958

Conducted study showing subliminal messages ('drink coke' and 'eat popcorn') increased consumption by 50% and 20%.

Dissociation paradigm

Method to assess if participants consciously perceive stimulus through direct or indirect measures.

Libet experiment 1985

Found that readiness potential time rises before conscious decision to move wrist, indicating a delay in awareness.

Global workplace hypothesis

Weak stimuli progress through brain hierarchy without awareness, while stimuli in center of attention elicit large-scale coherent network activity.

Neurophysiology of consciousness

Study of how brain activity correlates with conscious awareness, including findings from Libet's experiment.

Subliminal stimuli effects

Research indicates semantically congruent vs incongruent primes affect response preparation, implying semantic processing.

Meta contrast masking

Technique used to reduce visibility of primes in experiments, affecting participant performance.

Holender 1986

Concluded that unconscious semantic processing is not possible, citing flaws in evidence methodology.

Conscious awareness transition

Characterized by ignition of frontal cortex/network activity, allowing flexible mental operations and complex decisions.