Ch. 5: consciousness

• Consciousness: subjective experience of thought, feeling and sensation

  • William James: stream of consciousness is continuous flow of changing thoughts, feelings, sensations, etc.

• Meta-cognition: reflecting on one’s own thinking processes, thinking about how you think

• Theory of mind: everyone perceives things differently

  • Develops around 2-4 years

• 5 levels of awareness:

  1. Higher-level consciousness: controlled processing, actively focused

  2. Lower-level consciousness: automatic processing

  3. Altered states: produced by drugs/alcohol, trauma, fatigue

  4. No awareness: unconscious thought

• Circadian rhythm: biological 24h clock (body temp and hormone production changes)

  • regulated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus, part of the limbic system