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Chapter 6 - Slides_students

Chapter 6: Consciousness

Definition of Consciousness

  • Consciousness: Awareness of internal and external stimuli

    • Subjective awareness of oneself and the environment.

Characteristics of Consciousness

  • Subjective and Private:

    • Personal reality that others cannot fully know.

  • Dynamic:

    • Constantly changing.

  • Self-reflective:

    • Mind is aware of its own consciousness.

Testing for Consciousness

  • Self-reports:

    • Individuals describe inner experiences, providing insight into subjective experiences, yet these cannot be verified.

    • Example: Satisfaction scale.

  • Physiological Studies:

    • Connects biological processes to mental states.

    • Provides objective measures (e.g. EEG for sleep stages), but not subjective experience.

  • Behavioral Studies:

    • Observe behavioral responses to situations which require inferring the state of mind.

    • Example: Rouge test (self-recognition in a mirror).

The Psychodynamic View

  • Conscious:

    • Mental events currently in awareness.

  • Preconscious:

    • Events outside of current awareness that can be recalled easily.

  • Unconscious:

    • Mental events typically not accessible to awareness.

  • Criticisms:

    • Behavioralists critique reliance on unconscious processes.

    • Cognitive psychologies question specific aspects, especially the focus on sexual and aggressive urges.

The Cognitive View

  • Contrast to Psychodynamic View:

    • Conscious and unconscious are complementary processing forms.

    • Controlled processing:

      • Effortful, voluntary attention; slow but flexible.

    • Automatic processing:

      • Minimal conscious processing; fast but fixed.

Awareness and Attention

  • Awareness:

    • Ability to know and perceive events; a state of cognizance.

  • Attention:

    • Concentration on a specific phenomenon while ignoring others; limited mental resources.

Divided Attention

  • Adaptive but limited; harder with tasks requiring similar resources (e.g., multitasking).

    • Example: Listening to lecture while reading.

Directing Attention

  • Can be conscious (choosing to focus) or unconscious (attention-grabbing stimuli).

    • Example: Sirens on a fire truck.

Testing Attention

  • Shadowing:

    • Participants repeat audio from one side while ignoring another.

Inattention Blindness

  • Unfocused stimuli can register but do not enter consciousness.

Factors Influencing Attention

  • Nature of Stimuli:

    • Novelty, movement, intensity, and contrast attract attention.

  • Personal Factors:

    • Individual's internal state and motivation influence focus.

Attentional Predispositions

  • Tendency to quickly notice specific stimuli (e.g., attractive or angry faces).

Peripheral Attention

  • Vision is more precise when focusing on direct stimuli, yet humans have specialized peripheral vision for natural stimuli.

Sleep

Sleep Regulation

  • Regulated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN):

    • Signals pineal gland for melatonin release, essential for biological clocks.

Signal and Rhythms

  • Circadian rhythms governed by changes in body temperature and melatonin levels across the day.

Electroencephalogram (EEG)

  • Measures brain surface activity, especially during sleep, noting brain waves and muscle tension (EMG, EOG).

Stages of Sleep

  1. Stage 1: Transition to light sleep, alpha/beta to theta waves.

  2. Stage 2: Deeper sleep, characterized by sleep spindles and relaxation.

  3. Stages 3 and 4: Slow-wave sleep; restores physical restfulness.

  4. Stage 5 (REM sleep): Occupies 20-25% of sleep time; critical for cognitive function and dreams.

Why Do We Sleep?

  • Hypotheses:

    1. Conserves energy.

    2. Reduces danger through immobility.

    3. Restores bodily resources and energy.

Sleep Disorders

  • Insomnia: Difficulty falling/staying asleep; can be conditioned or idiopathic.

  • Hypersomnia: Excessive sleepiness.

  • Narcolepsy: Uncontrollable sleep episodes.

  • Sleep Apnea: Reflexive gasping that interrupts sleep.

  • Nightmares vs. Night Terrors: Distinctions based on arousal and content during REM or non-REM sleep.

Dreaming

  • Nature of Dreams: Mental experiences; often remembered if odd or interesting.

    • Freud's interpretation includes waking life spillover and integration of stimuli.

Cultural Perspectives on Dreams

  • Varies between cultures; Western cultures less likely to see dreams as important compared to non-Western cultures.

Theories on Why We Dream

  • Freud's Dream Protection Theory: Dreams guard sleep by disguising psychological urges.

  • Activation-Synthesis Theory: Dreams reflect brain activation and neural firing.

  • Cognitive Theories: Dreams help in problem-solving and use the same frameworks as waking thoughts.

Alterations of Consciousness

Hypnosis

  • Systematic procedure that enhances suggestibility with various effects like sensory distortions and posthypnotic suggestions.

Meditation

  • Practices to train attention and awareness; includes various styles like yoga and mindfulness.

Psychoactive Drugs

  • Chemicals that alter consciousness and are affected by psychological and environmental factors.

Drug Classifications

  • Agonists: Increase neurotransmitter activity.

  • Antagonists: Inhibit neurotransmitter activity.

  • Tolerance: Decreased responsiveness to drugs over time.

  • Withdrawal: Compensatory reactions after stopping use lead to strong opposite effects.

Categories of Drugs and Their Effects

  • Narcotics: Pain relief, high tolerance risk.

  • Sedatives: Induce sleep, high tolerance risk.

  • Stimulants: Increase CNS activity, moderate to high tolerance.

  • Hallucinogens: Distort perceptions, gradual tolerance.

  • Cannabis: Mild euphoria, low tolerance risk.

  • Alcohol: Relaxed euphoria, varying dependence risks.