Psychology 1100- Consciousness (Chapter 5)

What is consciousness and phenomenology?

Consciousness is a person’s subjective experience of the world and the mind

Phenomenology: the study of how things seem to the conscious person

What is the problem of other minds?

The philosophical puzzle of how we can be certain that other people actually have conscious thoughts and feelings (restricted to each individual)

One can only observe direct, physical behaviours

Philosophical zombie: a physically normal human but responding to stimuli w/o feeling pain

How do people perceive other minds?

Capacity for experience: how much are you able to experience the world around you

Capacity for agency: you as an individual can exert some agency on the world around you

What is the mind-body problem?

The philosophical/scientific dilemma of explaining how our intangible mental states (thoughts, feelings, consciousness) relate to our physical bodies and brains

Mental processes are the direct result of the brain’s physical and biological activity, rather than separate non-physical entity (The brain is what the mind does)

What is the issue of free will?

Free will is thought of as an illusion by philosophers, and the action is already thought of but happening at an unconscious level (clock reading that ended w/ pushing a button experiment)

What are the four basic properties of consciousness?

Intentionality: consciousness is always directed at an object of focus (despite environment being rich in stimuli)

Unity: ability to integrate information from all the body’s senses into a coherent whole (i.e integrating parts of a painting to see it as a whole)

Selectivity: the capacity to include some objects in conscious awareness, but not others (i.e hearing your name being called at a loud party)

Transience: the tendency to change (mind wanders akin to a stream)

What are the ranges of consciousness?

Minimal consciousness: a low-level kind of sensory awareness and responses, occurring when the mind inputs sensations and may output behaviour

Full consciousness: you know and can report your mental state (i.e driving on a familiar road and forgetting the past 15 min)

Self-consciousness: distinct level of consciousness in which the person’s attention is drawn to themselves (i.e when you do something embarrassing and can only think about yourself)

How can people report their conscious experiences?

Using the experience-sampling technique or ecological momentary assessment (EMA)

Used to study the human experience by focusing on different aspects of consciousness (positive aspects and daily activities, boredom) and show consciousness is dominated by immediate environment

What is daydreaming?

A state of consciousness in which a seemingly purposeless flow of thoughts comes to mind, with fMRI suggesting the brain is active during daydreaming.

Default network: specific areas of the brain which light up when you’re bored and linked to social life, self, past/future. Activates when people daydream while engaging in familiar mental tasks

What is thought suppression and its consequences?

Thought suppression is attempted conscious avoidance of a thought

rebound effect of thought suppression: Tendency of a thought to return to consciousness with greater frequency following suppression

What are ironic errors?

Ironic processes of mental control: ironic errors occur because the mental process that monitors errors can itself produce them

Example: unconscious monitoring, such as trying to force yourself to go to sleep which activates mental processes that keep the brain in an alert state

What is dynamic unconscious?

Active system encompassing lifetime of hidden memories, person’s deepest instincts and desires, and person’s inner struggle to control these forces (Freudian slips found in speech)

Repression: mental process that removes unacceptable thoughts and memories from consciousness and keeps them in the unconscious

What is cognitive unconscious?

All mental processes that give rise to a person’s thoughts, choices, emotions, and behaviour even though the person does not experience them

Dual process theories: Two different systems in the brain for processing information

System 1: fast, automatic, unconscious processing

System 2: slow, effortful, conscious processing

What are the states that sleep can be categorized into?

Hypnagogic state: Pre-sleep consciousness. Busy, task-oriented thoughts of the waking mind are replaced by wandering thoughts, images and odd juxtaposition

Hypnic jerk: sudden quiver or sensation of dropping. Hypothesized to come from when humans slept in trees, but also from stress levels or caffeine consumption before bed

Hypnopompic state: Post-sleep consciousness (foggy and groggy state after waking up)

What are the different stages of the sleep cycle and their brain wave patterns?

Awake: beta waves, no pattern, small waves

Drowsy: alpha waves, in hypnagogic state. Waves closer together and grow in amplitude, more rhythmic-patterns

Stage 1 sleep: theta waves, more in sync, still woken up easily, experience hypnic jerks during this stage

Stage 2 sleep: sleep spindles-squished waves, processing memoires. K complexes-jagged spikes happen spontaneously, protect brain from info that could wake it

Stage 3/ 4 sleep: delta waves, even bigger and rhythmic. Dominate deepest stage of sleep for healing, immune function, tissue repair, and brain cleaning with cerebrospinal fluid. Toxins can buildup if you don’t sleep enough

REM sleep: fast, random waves, small-signify neural activity, brain processing info while making it seem like you’re awake, dream state

What does sleep help with?

Consolidation of memories takes place during sleep and the glymphatic system operates to eliminate potentially neurotoxic wastes products; distributes necessary compounds.

What are some factors which determine how much sleep an organism should get?

Brain structure, body size, metabolic needs, development at birth (ex. humans develop from birth whereas giraffes are already born developed)

What are some sleep disorders?

Insomnia: difficulty falling or staying asleep

Sleep apnea: person stops breathing for brief periods while asleep

Somnambulism: sleepwalking

Narcolepsy: sudden sleep attacks occur in the middle of waking activities

Sleep paralysis: experience of waking up unable to move

Sleep terrors: abrupt awakenings with panic and intense emotional arousal

What is dreaming referred to as and characterized as?

It’s often referred to as an altered state of consciousness departing significantly from the normal world/mind

Characterized by: intense emotion, illogical thought, meaningful sensation, uncritical acceptance, difficulty remembering dream on waking

What did Freud believe about dreams?

They represented wishes, which were so taboo, unacceptable, anxiety-inducing the mind could only express them in a disguised form

Manifest content: dream’s apparent topic or superficial meaning

Latent content: dream’s true underlying meaning

Sleep theories

Activation-synthesis model: Dreams are produced when the brain attempts to make sense of random neural activity during sleep

Neurocognitive theory: Dreaming enabled by default network, which supports imagination and daydreaming while awake and leads to experience of embodied simulations

Threat-simulation theory: purpose of dreams is to simulate threatening situations that a person is likely to experience and practice escape and avoidance from those situations

Which parts of the brain are and aren’t active during sleep?

Motor cortex: active, movement in dreams

Visual association areas: active, lights up when we imagine things

Amygdala: active, emotional

Brainstem: active, conduit to neural activity

Frontal lobe: not active, which is why you are accepting of dream content (no planning, judgment, thinking)

What are psychoactive drugs?

Influence consciousness or behaviour by altering brain’s chemical message system (increases or decreases activity of neurotransmitters)

Most common: serotonin, dopamine, GABA, acetylcholine

Depressants

Reduce activity of central nervous system: can produce both physical and psychological dependence

Most commonly used: alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, toxic inhalants

Effects: sedative or calming effect, tendency to induce sleep un hgh doses, can arrest breathing in high doses

Alcohol

Worldwide acceptance and use as socially approved substance

Effects:

Initial: euphoria, reduced anxiety, positive feelings

Increased quantities: intoxication, slowed reaction, poor judgment, reduced thought, and action effectiveness

Expectancy theory: effects can be produced by people’s expectations of how alcohol will influence them

Alcohol myopia: hampers attention

Barbiturates, Benzodiazepines, Toxic inhalants

Barbiturates: Sleeping aids and surgical anesthetics: Seconal and nembutal

Benzo: minor tranquilizers/anxiety drugs: valium and xanax

Toxic inhalants: glue, hair spray, nail polish remover, gasoline

What are stimulants?

Substances that excite CNS, heightening arousal and activity levels (caffeine, amphetamines, nicotine, cocaine)

Increases levels of dopamine and norepinephrine

Withdrawal symptoms involve depressive effects, fatigue and negative emotions

Narcotics

Highly addictive drugs derived from opium that relieve pain (heroin, morphine, methadone)

Effects: pain relief, euphoria, drowsiness, respiratory depression, nausea, constipation, confusion

Hallucinogens

Drugs that alter sensation and perception; cause visual and auditory hallucinations (LSD, mescaline, shrooms, PCP, ketamine)

Lead to reduced sense of self and altered perceptions

Effects are dramatic and unpredictable, potential therapeutic use

Marijuana

Leaves/buds of hemp plant that contain psychoactive drugs called THC

Affects judgment and short-term memory/impairs motor coordination

Medicinal use controversial; pain relief, relaxation, nausea reduction. In young men (15-25) risk of developing anxiety or schizophrenias

What is hypnosis?

Social interaction in which one person makes suggestion that lead to a change in another persons subjective experience of the world

Main componentes:

leading people to expect certain things will happen outside their will

Works by inducing deep state of relaxation and focused concertation, making person more receptive to suggestions

What is hypnotic analgesia?

Reduction of pain through hypnosis in people who are susceptible to hypnosis

Ex. a woman was a singer and needed throat surgery, but didn’t want to damage her vocal cords so she was put under hypnosis during the operation so she could sing and let doctors know where her vocal cords were