Consciousness Key Concepts

Consciousness

Awareness of internal & external stimuli

Properties of Consciousness

• Intentionality — Directed towards an object

• Unity — Resistance to division (we like things to make sense)

• Selectivity — Cocktail party phenomenon

• Transience — Tendency to change (“stream” of thoughts)

Subliminal Perception

Unaware of exposure to stimuli but still impacted by it

Filter Theory

Attention is like a gate that opens for important information and closes for irrelevant information

Levels of Processing

Automatic Processing — Can do a task without thinking much

Controlled Processing — Have to concentrate but allows for completion of complex tasks

Inattentional vs Change Blindness

Inattentional Blindness — Failure to perceive objects that aren’t focused on

Change Blindness — Failure to detect changes in the environment

Freud’s 3 Levels of Consciousness

• Conscious: Mental events we’re aware of

• Preconscious: Mental events that can be brought to our awareness

• Unconscious: Mental events unaccessible to our awareness

Functions of Sleep

• Restore bodily functions

• Memory consolidation

• Energy conservation

• Circadian Rhythm Theory (evolutionary benefit of inactivity at night?)

Stages of Sleep

1) Light sleep — Irregular / alpha waves

2) Deeper light sleep — Theta waves

3) Deep sleep — Delta waves

4) REM — Fast / random