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02-26-25+consciousness+CANVAS

Consciousness and the Unconscious

  • Date: 26 February 2025

Twin Biology

  • Understanding the influence of genes vs. environment:

    • Identical twins share 100% of genes.

    • Fraternal twins share ~50% of genes.

Twin Studies

  • Focus of behavior geneticists:

    • Aim to determine genetic bases of psychological traits.

    • Identical twins show greater similarity on various traits compared to fraternal twins, indicating genetic influence.

    • Identical twins have higher similarity in traits such as IQ, shyness, and divorce rates.

Studies of Separated Twins

  • Minnesota Twin Study:

    • Compares identical and fraternal twins raised together versus apart.

    • Findings show that identical twins raised in different environments are still more similar in personality, aggression, achievement, and intelligence.

    • Critics point out:

      • Environmental factors like cultural and economic similarities play a role.

      • Identical twins can elicit similar responses from those around them due to their shared genetics.

Complicating “Nature-Nurture”

  • Individuals with differing genotypes can react differently to the same environmental conditions:

    • Example: Some mistreated children commit violent crimes while others do not.

    • Caspi et al (2002) study:

      • Examines vulnerability to maltreatment in boys with different alleles of the monoamine oxidase gene.

      • Boys with one allele variant are more sensitive to violence, while others are less prone to violent behavior.

Epigenetics

  • Environmental influences can activate or deactivate genes:

    • Differences in epigenetic history can occur even in identical twins.

    • Examples of environmental influences include stress, diet, and pollution.

    • Epigenetic changes can be inherited by subsequent generations.

Consciousness Overview

  • Defined as the moment-to-moment subjective experience of the world.

    • Characterized as subjective and includes various states of consciousness:

      • Normal waking state.

      • Altered states (e.g., meditation, daydreaming).

    • Conscious experience is primarily a unified stream limited to a specific amount of information.

Change Blindness

  • Describes failure to notice significant changes in the environment.

    • We are generally blind to information not consciously processed.

    • Change blindness is often noted for changes that do not carry meaningful information.

Attention and Its Limits

  • Attention:

    • Refers to the mental resources focused on specific information.

    • Selects what information is consciously processed while unattended information may be lost.

Selective Attention

  • The concept of multitasking is misleading:

    • What people think of as multitasking is actually rapid switching between tasks.

    • This habitual switching reduces efficiency and slows reaction times.

Types of Attention

  • Endogenous Attention:

    • Deliberately directed attention, voluntary in nature.

  • Exogenous Attention:

    • Involuntarily directed attention triggered by external stimuli (e.g., names, alarms, flashlights).

Capturing Attention

  • Certain sensory information is inherently attention-grabbing:

    • Examples include significant events like a baby's cry or intense pain.

Consciousness and Brain Activity

  • Patterns of neural activity correlate with specific conscious experiences;

    • fMRI technology allows observation of active brain areas during thought processes.

Beyond Conscious Awareness

  • Priming:

    • Recent experiences enhance responsiveness to related stimuli.

    • Example: Completing words based on context or prompts.

Subliminal Perception

  • Perception occurring below the level of conscious awareness:

    • Its ability to affect behavior is minimal and generally transient.

    • It may have a brief priming effect on information but doesn't influence complex behaviors.

Automatic vs. Controlled Processing

  • Automatic Processing:

    • Tasks performed with little attention (well-practiced).

  • Controlled Processing:

    • Tasks that require focused attention with higher cognitive load.

Overview of Consciousness and Attention

  • Consciousness is adaptive:

    • Limits on conscious processing are beneficial, reducing mental resource waste on irrelevant information.

    • Exogenous attention mechanisms ensure focus on vital stimuli and events.