Consciousness

Consciousness and Cognitive Processes

Course Information

• Course: Cognitive Psychology (PS21820)

• Date: 11th November 2024

• Instructor: Dr. Ioana Mihai

• Contact: iom7@aber.ac.uk

• Office: Room 1.29, P5

Today's Lecture Overview

• Topics Covered:

  • Definitions

  • Functions and roles

  • Assessment and issues

  • Brain damage

  • Theories and the brain

  • Consciousness and perception

  • Consciousness and attention

  • Preconsciousness

Understanding Consciousness

Definitions

• Consciousness: Sense of being alert, aware of thoughts and surroundings.

  • Subjective Quality: The unique quality of individual experience.

  • Conscious Content vs. Conscious Level:

    • Content: Information including perception, feelings, thoughts, and self-awareness.

    • Level: State alterations required for conscious experience.

  • Multi-Dimensional: Includes behavioral and neural evidence.

Types of Consciousness

• Access Consciousness: Information available for cognitive processes and communicable.

• Phenomenal Consciousness: Raw experiential features, harder to assess yet richer in experience.

Functions and Role of Consciousness

Cognitive Functions

• Transversal nature: Consciousness involved in many cognitive processes such as:

  • Stimuli categorization and detection

  • Information integration

  • Access to internal states/memories

  • Behavioral control

Problematic Aspects

• Self-Consciousness vs. Primary Consciousness.

• Qualia: The subjective quality of experiences.

• Distinction between easy and hard problems of consciousness; it is more than the sum of experiences.

Specific Functions

• Perception: Processing sensory information.

• Social Communication: Enables interaction and understanding.

• Action Control: Ability to regulate behavior based on internal states.

• Detachment from the Present Moment.

Consciousness Assessment

Methods

• Behavioral and Introspective Methods:

  • Verbal reports and yes/no decisions for assessing consciousness.

  • Limitations:

    • Conscious experience often richer than what is verbally reported.

    • Under-reporting and change blindness issues.

Consciousness and Brain Damage

Stages of Degraded Consciousness

• Coma

• Vegetative State

• Minimally Conscious State

• Importance of brainstem connections to cortical areas.

Theories of Consciousness

Global Workspace Theory

• Proposed by Baars (1988), refined by Dehaene & Changeux (2011):

  • Theatre Metaphor: Consciousness as the stage for active content (cortex and thalamus involved).

Integrated Information Theory

• Tononi (2016): Richness of conscious experience relies on integrated activation in brain networks, with specific structures.

Consciousness and Perception

Overlapping Brain Regions

• Explores how different brain areas contribute to conscious experience and cognitive processes.

• Techniques used to differentiate between conscious awareness and physical stimulation.

Key Phenomena

• Blindsight: Ability to respond to stimuli without conscious awareness.

• Subliminal Perception: Processing information without conscious awareness.

• Backward Masking: Interrupting conscious processing.

Consciousness and Attention

Interrelationship

• Change Blindness and Inattentional Blindness: Show the limits of conscious awareness.

• Natural Scene Perception: Understanding gist and distinguishing visual pop-out effects.

Preconsciousness

Conceptual Understanding

• Information that is available for processing but not currently conscious.

• Instances include:

  • Priming: Activation of memory.

  • Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon: Retrieval failure.

  • Automatic Actions: Actions carried out subconsciously.

Conclusions on Consciousness

• Elusive concept, critical across various cognitive functions.

• Involves social communication, agency sense, and action control.

• Assessment challenges with reliance on language; behavioral methods help differentiate overlap with attention and perception.

• Current theories propose either unitary or complex understandings of consciousness.