conciousness

what are the 4 basic properties of the nature of conciousness

structuralists

• intentionality

• unity

• selectivity

• transcience

intentionality

needs to be directed toward an something, youre concious of something, attention, concentration

day dreaming relates to the _____ network

default

youre not rlly conscious of anything

unity

integrates info from all of the body’s senses into one coherent whole

• the linking together of the senses to create one idea in the mind

selectivity

the capacity to include somethings, but not others

• we cant be concious of everything

• limited capactity

• dichotic listening and cocktail party

transcience

tendancy to change

• stream of conciousness

• necker cube

dichotic listening

can concentrate on info coming in from one ear at a time

• auditory spotlight

the cocktail party effect

almost the exemtion to the rule of dichotic listening

• not paying attention to other convos until someone says your name, it grabs youre attention even if you werent looking for it

levels of conciousness

• minimal

• full

• self

minimal conciousness

• low level of awareness

• BUT the mind can still input sensations and output behaviour

• like when youve been driving for a bit and you suddenly think back “did i just completely blow that red light” you were minimally concious during that time until you clocked the feeling now youre paying attention - full conciousness

full conciousness

• you know and are able to report your mental state

self conciousness

youre attention is drawn to the self as an object

• metacognitive state

• conscious of being conscious

what do the functionalists say abt conciousness?

functionalist, why does she need to be conscious to do certain things but not others?

• the problem of other minds

the problem of other minds

the fundamental difficulty we have in perceiving the consciousness of others.

• there is no way to tell if someone else is conscious

• there is no way to tell if another persons experience is anything like yours

what is an example of a task that measures consciousness?

libets clock and free will

libets clock and free will

• participants task is to sit there and press the button whenever he feels like it

• asks one thing: whenever you have that desire, note what time is was on the clock

• partcicpant wired up in EMG; detect signal in the emg when botton is pressed

• brian wired up to EEG; the question was really, when do the rain waves start to change?

what resulted from libets clock and free will

the conscious clock time is about 200 ms before we see muscle activity.

• the conscious desire to act happens a little bit BEFORE we start seeing muscle movement

• the brain is incharge here

• the brain activity starts to change over half a second before the hand muscle activity — which is 300 ms before report that conscious thought

what does libets clock and free will tell us about brain activity

• theres stuff going on in the brain before we become aware of it.

• the conscious activity is just the “tip of the iceberg” as to whats actually going on in the mind

“deliberation without awareness” test

• choose between 6:

  • cars

  • appartments

  • roomates

• easy task: 4 dimensions

  • 6 cars that differ in 4 dimensions (ex. price, reliability, safety, economic)

• difficult task: 12 dimentions

• that is then crossed with participants either being given 4 minutes to think or 4 minutes of anagrams

what was shown from the “deliberation without awareness” test

• people were actually found to do better they are distracted to thinking about it without the 4 minutes

• deliberation without awareness

explain “deliberation without awareness”

• youre consciousness has a limited capacity, that can only juggle 7 ± 2 things in stm

• BUT, your unconscious, has a pretty much unlimited capacity

• we need to force our brain to process this using the unlimited power of unconciousness

• we have some processing capacity of the unconsciousness

wegner et al (1987) says what

if you try not to think about something, it actually tends to backfire

• deliberate thought suppression backfires

• makes it more likely to enter your consciousness

• dont think of a white bear

ironic monitor

• your inner voice chanting no white bear, no white bear

• wegner says this is not necessarily conciousness

the barrier here is actually trying to suppress your ______

consciousness

• the ironic monitor is not actually in our consciousness but actually at the threshold, or at the barrier between conciousness and unconsciousness

what does wegner say about white bear

• when people have these kind of backfire effects, its not a battle inside your conciousness its about what gets into your consciousness

“Deliberation without awareness” refers to which effect in consciousness research?

A. Stimuli can be suppressed from conscious awareness by deliberate control

B. Participants show EEG activity in advance of conscious awareness of a decision

C. Participants can show superior decision making when they are distracted from conscious processing

D. Patients in a vegetative state can sometimes show predictable changes in brain activity in response to verbal questions

C

disorders of consciousness

• coma

• vegetative state

• minimally-concious state

• locked in syndrom

coma traits

• do not open eyes

• no evidence of sleep wake pattern

• no evidence of awareness

• no communication

vegetative state

• open eyes

• sleep wake pattern

• no evidence of awareness

• no communication

minimally conscious state

• open eyes

• sleep-wake patter

• inconsistent awareness

• variable communication

locked in syndrome

• open eyes

• sleep awake cycles

• fully aware

• communication consistent with eye movements

adrian owen scanned a lot of patients using fMRI to evidence ______

consciousness

• some patients in a vegetative state (5/54) can generate differential brain responses on command

• indicates primary deficit is with communication

• capable of some communications through their brain patterns

components of consciousness overlap with ______. (ex. selectivity)

attention

psychologists have designed ingenious experiments to measure aspects of _______.

consciousness

much of our knowledge about consciousness is based on demonstrations of what people can do in its _______. examples:

absence

• eeg activity in libets clock experiment

• decision making when distracted