Consciousness

Puzzle of Consciousness:

What is consciousness?

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

Puzzle of Consciousness:

What are the characteristics of consciousness?

1. subjective and private

2. dynamic (what you want now is different with what you want in 10 seconds)

3. self-reflective and central to sense of self

Puzzle of Consciousness:

What is consciousness intimately connected with?

Consciousness is intimately connected with selective attention process

Puzzle of Consciousness:

What are the ways to measure states of consciousness? Are they subjective or objective?

• self-reports

  • subjective because the officer can pull you over if you are drunk and ask if you are drunk, and you say no

• physiological measures (objective)

• behavioral measures (objective)

  • both objective because the officer can make you do tests such as breathalyzer or walking in a straight line

Puzzle of Consciousness:

What are the levels of consciousness (Freud)?

• conscious

• preconscious

• unconscious (unaware and cannot be directly called out)

Puzzle of Consciousness:

What is the cognitive unconscious? What are the two types?

Conscious and unconscious processes are complementary, and work in harmony (as in it is easier to show somebody how do to something than tell them how to do it)

• controlled processing: conscious use of attention, effort (for example, learning to ride a bike)

• automatic processing: perform tasks with little or no conscious awareness or effort (for example, riding a bike while talking)