States of Consciousness
States of Consciousness
Introduction to Consciousness
At its inception, psychology primarily described and explained states of consciousness.
The complexity of studying consciousness led behaviorists to focus solely on observable behavior.
By the 1960s, psychology was predominantly considered the "study of behavior."
Defining consciousness proved difficult, complicating the understanding of its neural basis across species (e.g., dogs vs. humans).
Advancements in Understanding Consciousness
Significant progress has been made in understanding consciousness due to:
Brain Imaging Studies: Revealed significant differences in brain activation patterns linked to consciousness.
Cognitive Neuroscience: Offered insights into the nature of awareness and its relationship to consciousness.
Key distinction: Being aware vs. being aware that we are aware.
Understanding Consciousness
Consciousness is defined as one’s moment-by-moment personal, subjective experiences.
Knowledge of consciousness arises from experiencing the outside world through senses and being aware of thoughts.
Qualia: Refers to subjective experiences of sensations (e.g., color, taste) that are unique to each individual.
The subjective nature makes empirical study challenging.
Example: Reflecting on the color of walls or the taste of an apple highlights the personal nature of sensory experiences.
Conscious experiences include sensations, thoughts, and memories; consciousness is the awareness of both the self and the environment.
Dual Processing in Consciousness
Two main components of consciousness:
Awareness: Involves perception that can dictate behavior; lacks the language mechanism to rationalize experiences.
Consciousness: Associated with language, which catalogs experiences into rational schemes linked to memory.
The Freudian Perspective vs. Modern Views of Consciousness
Freud's Model of Consciousness
Freud compared the mind's structure to an iceberg:
Conscious Awareness: The part above water (current experiences).
Preconscious: Just below the surface; includes thoughts easily retrieved (e.g., phone number).
Unconscious: The largest part; holds repressed primal urges and memories that influence behavior.
The Biological Perspective on Consciousness
The mind regulates numerous functions (e.g., breathing, body temperature) without conscious awareness, indicating unconscious processes operate continuously.
Nature of Conscious Experience
Coherence of Consciousness
Conscious experiences are generally unified and coherent; thoughts and perceptions transition smoothly.
The stream of consciousness can be hindered when trying to focus on multiple stimuli simultaneously (e.g., reading while watching TV).
Limits of Consciousness
Change Blindness: Inability to notice significant changes in the environment due to selective focus on particular stimuli.
Consciousness, therefore, has limitations in perceiving all information at once, impacting our environmental awareness.
Role of Attention in Consciousness
Defining Attention
Attention allows selective focus on specific stimuli while ignoring others, acting as a gateway to conscious experience.
Examples: Focusing on a friend's voice in a noisy party; difficulty processing unattended information.
E.C. Cherry's Shadowing Experiment
Cherry’s study involved participants wearing headphones, tasked with shadowing attended messages while ignoring distractors.
Finding: Participants noticed details of the unattended sound but had poor recall of its content.
Theories of Attention
Filter Theory (Donald Broadbent, 1958): Attention acts as a gate screening incoming information to allow only significant material through.
Endogenous vs. Exogenous Attention:
Endogenous: Attention is directed intentionally.
Exogenous: Attention is captured involuntarily by stimuli.
Unconscious Processing
Influence on Behavior
Evidence indicates that unconscious thoughts influence behavior, as seen in Freudian slips and selective listening experiments.
Studies show even unattended information can shape perceptions and interpretations (e.g., word association in ambiguous sentences).
Priming
Priming refers to the reaction to stimuli being influenced by preceding exposure to related stimuli, affecting perception and response ease.
Example: Associating "table" with "chair" through prior reading.
Subliminal Perception
Subliminal perception occurs when stimuli are perceived without conscious awareness due to weak or fast exposure.
Popular myths assert significant effects from subliminal messages; however, evidence suggests minimal actual influence on behaviors.
Processing Mechanisms of Consciousness
Automatic vs. Controlled Processing
Automatic Processing: Tasks performed with little attention, such as reading for experienced individuals.
Controlled Processing: Requires focused attention, often in new or complex tasks.
Demonstrated through the Stroop Task: Difficulty naming ink colors of words corresponding to different color names due to automatic reading interference.
States and Alterations of Consciousness
Altered States of Consciousness
Occur when subjective perception differs from normal waking consciousness. Examples include meditation, immersion in activities, and hypnosis.
Meditation
Can produce relaxation and alter consciousness by focusing attention.
Types of Meditation:
Concentrative: Focusing on a single object or thought.
Mindfulness: Allowing thoughts to flow without judgement.
Health benefits reported in studies relate to reduced stress and improved focus, although research validity is debated due to sample sizes and controls.
Flow States
A state of complete immersion and enjoyment in a task, leading to diminished self-awareness and time perception, often referred to as being "in the zone."
Hypnosis
A social interaction marked by suggestibility and changes in memory or perception.
Posthypnotic Suggestion: Recommendations given during hypnosis affecting behavior later.
Varied effectiveness across individuals; subjects must willingly participate.
Hypnotic Analgesia: Reduction of pain perception during acute or chronic pain through hypnosis.
Circadian Rhythms
Governed by a biological clock regulating sleep, alertness, and physiological processes over 24-hour cycles.
Influenced by light via specialized cells in the retina that signal the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in the brain.
Sleep begins as free-running cycles and can be synced through entrainment, adjusting to environmental cues such as light.
Sleep and Its Importance
Sleep Stages
Overview of Sleep Cycle
Sleep consists of various stages, typically lasting about 90 minutes per cycle.
REM Sleep: Characterized by rapid eye movement, can lead to vivid dreaming; paradoxically active while externally inactive.
NREM Sleep: Comprises stages 1-4, with restorative functions, particularly in deep sleep stages.
Brain Activity During Sleep
Different brain wave patterns characterize stages of sleep, affecting awareness levels and processing capacities:
Stage 1: Theta waves, hypnagogic sensations.
Stage 2: Sleep spindles and K complex.
Stages 3-4: Delta waves indicating deep sleep.
Transition between stages reveals a cyclical pattern impacting overall sleep quality and duration.
Sleep Disorders
Common Disorders
Insomnia: Difficulty in initiating or maintaining sleep; common causes include anxiety, stress, and sedative dependence.
Sleep Apnea: Characterized by interruptions in breathing during sleep, leading to poor sleep quality and exhaustion.
Narcolepsy: Uncontrollable sleep attacks during wakefulness, often involving cataplexy.
Sleepwalking (Somnambulism): Involves complex behaviors during NREM sleep; often benign but can lead to injuries.
Effects of Sleep Deprivation
Consequences include cognitive deficits, emotional instability, increased accident risk, and in severe cases, mortality. Health effects can range from temporary symptoms to long-term impairments.
Brain Injury and Consciousness
Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)
Refers to impairments resulting from external impacts to the head, resulting in a variety of cognitive, emotional, and physical disturbances.
May lead to conditions such as coma, unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, and minimally conscious state, challenging the understanding of consciousness and recovery.
Coma and Consciousness Disorders
Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome vs. Minimally Conscious State: Key differences in responsiveness and the feasibility of recovery.
Brain Death: Defined by irreversible loss of brain function, with contrasting characteristics from unresponsive conditions.
Psychoactive Drugs
Alter consciousness by interacting with neurotransmitter systems:
Stimulants: Increase alertness and activity (e.g., cocaine, amphetamines).
Depressants: Suppress CNS activity (e.g., alcohol, benzodiazepines).
Opioids: Pain relief and pleasure (e.g., heroin, morphine).
Hallucinogens: Alter perception and cognition (e.g., LSD).
Summary and Key Topics
Study Guide Questions
1. What is consciousness?
consists of one’s moment-to-moment personal, subjective experiences
2. What are qualia?
the qualitative experiences of your conscious state
3. What is the difference between consciousness and awareness?
Awareness is perception influencing behavior without language; Consciousness involves language to catalog experiences into memory.
4. Describe Freud’s iceberg theory of consciousness.
mind likened to an iceberg: Conscious (above water, current experiences, i.e., whatever we were experiencing at the moment)
Preconscious (just below, easily retrieved thoughts, i.e., your phone number)
unconscious (the largest part, repressed urges and memories, i.e., primal sexual and aggressive urges as well as traumatic)
5. What does it mean when we say that consciousness is limited? What is change blindness?
Consciousness is limited in perceiving all information at once.
Change blindness is the inability to notice significant environmental changes due to selective focus.
6. What is attention?
Attention is a selective focus on specific stimuli, acting as a gateway to conscious experience.
7. What was E.C. Cherry’s shadowing experiment?
Participants in Cherry's study shadowed an attended message while ignoring distractors through headphones. They noted unattended sound details but couldn't recall the content.
i.e., you can focus on a single conversation in the midst of a chaotic party; however, a particular pertinent stimulus, such as hearing your name or a juicy piece of gossip mentioned in another conversation, captures your attention
8. What is filter theory?
Filter Theory (Donald Broadbent, 1958) states that attention screens incoming information, allowing only significant material through.
9. What is the difference between endogenous and exogenous attention?
Endogenous attention is intentionally directed; exogenous attention is involuntarily captured by stimuli
10. Describe how unconscious processing can influence behavior.
Unconscious thoughts, as in Freudian slips or selective listening, can shape perceptions and behaviors even if not consciously attended.
11. What is priming?
Priming is when the reaction to a stimulus is influenced by prior exposure to related stimuli (e.g., associating "table" with "chair").
12. What is subliminal perception? Does it work? When may subliminal cues be most effective?
Subliminal perception is sensing stimuli without conscious awareness. Evidence shows minimal actual influence on behavior. Cues may be most effective when consistent with existing motivations, not compelling against will.
13. What is the difference between automatic and controlled processing? What is an example of each? How does the Stroop Task show the difference between them?
Automatic processing (e.g., reading) requires little attention; controlled processing (new tasks) requires focused attention. The Stroop Task shows automatic reading interfering with consciously naming ink colors.
14. What is altered consciousness?
Altered consciousness occurs when subjective perception differs from normal waking consciousness (e.g., meditation, flow states, hypnosis).
15. What is the difference between concentrative and mindfulness meditation?
Concentrative meditation focuses on a single object; mindfulness meditation observes thoughts without judgment.
16. How may meditation affect cognitive processing and the immune system?
Meditation may improve focus and reduce stress, indirectly supporting immune function, but research validity is debated.
17. What is a flow experience?
A flow experience is a state of complete immersion and enjoyment in a task, leading to diminished self-awareness and time perception.
18. What is hypnosis? What is a posthypnotic suggestion? How effective are posthypnotic suggestions?
Hypnosis is a social interaction involving suggestibility and perception changes. A posthypnotic suggestion is a post-hypnosis recommendation affecting later behavior; effectiveness varies.
19. Can everyone be hypnotized? What are the qualities of people who can be hypnotized?
Not everyone can be hypnotized to the same extent. Openness to suggestion, vivid imagination, and focused attention are qualities of susceptible individuals.
20. What is the sociocognitive theory of hypnosis? What is the neodissociation theory of hypnosis? What evidence supports the neodissociation theory?
Sociocognitive theory: hypnotic behavior is role-play. Neodissociation theory: hypnosis is a dissociated state, with a "hidden observer" remaining aware. Evidence: hypnotized individuals reporting pain when specifically asked, even when consciously denying it.
21. What is hypnotic analgesia?
Hypnotic analgesia is the reduction of pain perception using hypnosis.
22. What is a circadian rhythm?
A circadian rhythm is a biological clock regulating sleep, alertness, and physiological processes over 24-hour cycles.
23. What are free-running cycles? What is entrainment?
Free-running cycles are natural sleep rhythms without external cues. Entrainment is synchronizing these cycles to environmental cues like light.
24. How do photosensitive ganglion cells tweak the circadian clock?
Specialized retinal photosensitive ganglion cells detect light, signaling the SCN to reset or adjust the circadian clock to external day-night cycles.
25. What is the suprachiasmatic nucleus? What two areas of the brain does the SCN send signals to and how? What do these signals cause the brain areas to do?
The SCN is the brain's primary biological clock, influenced by light. (The note only states it's influenced by light via retinal cells; it does not detail the specific two brain areas or their actions).
26. What is the role of the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus and what neurotransmitters does it release to promote sleep?
The note does not explicitly detail the ventrolateral preoptic nucleus's role or its specific neurotransmitters.
27. What are beta waves? When do we see them? What are alpha waves and when do we see them?
Beta waves: alert, wakeful state. Alpha waves: slower waves, appear when awake and relaxed, eyes closed, preceding sleep.
28. In stage 1 of sleep what brain waves are shown? What are hypnagogic sensations?
Stage 1 shows theta waves. Hypnagogic sensations are vivid sensory experiences at sleep onset (e.g., falling).
29. In stage 2, what are sleep spindles and the K complex? What might these signals be doing?
Stage 2 has sleep spindles (rapid brain wave bursts) and K-complexes (large, slow waves). They are thought to suppress external stimuli and aid memory consolidation.
30. What brain waves are indicative of stages 3 and 4 of sleep?
Delta waves indicate stages 3 and 4 of sleep (deep sleep).
31. After stage 4, what happens?
The sleep cycle typically reverses, moving back through Stage 3, then Stage 2, before entering REM sleep.
32. Describe REM sleep and why it is often called paradoxical sleep.
REM sleep involves rapid eye movement, vivid dreaming, and active brain waves, yet the body muscles are largely paralyzed, making it paradoxical.
33. What is a sleep cycle?
A sleep cycle consists of various sleep stages, lasting about 90 minutes, repeating throughout the night.
34. What is the difference between REM dreams and non-REM dreams?
The note mentions vivid dreaming in REM sleep but does not specify the difference from non-REM dreams.
35. What happens in the brain when we dream?
The note states vivid dreaming occurs during REM sleep, characterized by specific brain wave patterns, affecting awareness and processing capacities.
36. In Freud’s theory of dreams, what is the difference between manifest and latent content? Why did Freud believe dreams were important?
The note does not provide details on Freud's manifest/latent dream content or beliefs on dream importance.
37. What is the activation synthesis theory of dreams? What are some criticisms of this theory? How do Freud’s theory and the activation synthesis theory differ in the significance that they place on the meaning of dreams?
This theory and its criticisms are not detailed in the note. The note does not cover how it differs from Freud's theory on dream meaning.
38. What is the evolved threat rehearsal theory of dreams?
This theory is not presented in the note.
39. What do we mean when we say that REM sleep is important for the consolidation of learning? What do hippocampal cells do during REM?
REM sleep contributes to learning consolidation. (The note does not elaborate on hippocampal cell activity during REM).
40. What happens when people are deprived of REM? What is REM rebound?
REM deprivation has negative consequences. REM rebound is an increase in REM sleep following deprivation.
41. What does deprivation of stages 3 and 4 of sleep do?
Deprivation of deep sleep (stages 3 and 4) likely hinders restorative functions, leading to fatigue and impaired cognition.
42. What is the restorative theory of sleep? What evidence supports this? What is the circadian rhythm theory of sleep?
Restorative theory: sleep repairs body/mind (supported by deep sleep functions). Circadian rhythm theory: sleep keeps animals inactive when activity is dangerous/inefficient.
43. What is insomnia? Why are sedatives not a good long-term sleep solution?
Insomnia is difficulty initiating/maintaining sleep. Sedatives aren't long-term due to dependence risk and diminishing effectiveness.
44. What is sleep apnea? What are ways to treat sleep apnea?
Sleep apnea involves breathing interruptions during sleep, causing poor sleep and exhaustion. (The note does not specify treatments).
45. What is somnambulism? When does it occur?
Somnambulism (sleepwalking) involves complex behaviors during NREM sleep, typically in deep sleep stages (3 and 4).
46. What is narcolepsy?
Narcolepsy is uncontrollable sleep attacks during wakefulness, often with cataplexy.
47. What is sleep paralysis?
This condition is not defined in the note.
48. What are night terrors and how are they different from nightmares?
Neither night terrors nor their distinction from nightmares are covered in the note.
49. What is restless leg syndrome?
This condition is not defined in the note.
50. What is traumatic brain injury? What is a concussion? How might they have a cumulative effect?
TBI is impairment from head impacts. A concussion is a mild TBI from head movement. Multiple TBIs or concussions can have cumulative, long-term cognitive/neurological effects.
51. What is unresponsive wakefulness syndrome? What is a minimally conscious state
Unresponsive wakefulness syndrome: awake but no awareness signs. Minimally conscious state: some inconsistent self/environmental awareness.
52. What is brain death?
Brain death is the irreversible loss of all brain function, including the brainstem.
53. What are psychoactive drugs?
Psychoactive drugs alter consciousness by interacting with neurotransmitter systems.
54. What are stimulants? Depressants? Narcotics? Hallucinogens?
Stimulants: increase alertness (e.g., cocaine). Depressants: suppress CNS (e.g., alcohol). Opioids: pain relief/pleasure (e.g., heroin). Hallucinogens: alter perception (e.g., LSD).