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.