20 Consciousness (chapter 6)

Question 1

Consciousness def

Answer 1

David Chalmers - discovery moment to moment awareness of selves and environment

Question 2

Selective attention

Answer 2

Shifts in focus to stimuli/ exclusion to others

Question 3

Means of measuring states of consciousness:

Answer 3

Self report measures: ask people of self insight into their consciousness - not verifiable (lying/ not fully aware), + simple, - language needed to communicate data

Behavioural measures: monitoring behaviour + verifiable, + useful on animals, young children, and others

Psychological measures: correspondence between body status and mental state eg recognition in a mirror/ corresponding brain imaging activity with sleep states

Combination of above methods to triangulate weakness of methods

Question 4

levels of consciousness: Freudian viewpoint: psychoanalytic theory:

Answer 4

3 levels
Conscious mind: current aware thoughts

Preconscious mental events: events not currently aware of but easily recallable

Unconscious events: not easily brought to awareness/ subconscious biases - antisocial concepts

Question 5

levels of consciousness: cognitive viewpoint

Answer 5

3 levels
Controlled processing:
conscious control - slow, more flexible

Automatice processing:
autopilot actions - fast, routine actions

Divided attention:
attend to + perform multiple activities at once

Question 6

Blindsight

Answer 6

neural partial blindness, but can still respond to stimuli eg position of stimuli

Question 7

Priming

Answer 7

subliminal stimuli presented, then influences later conscious perceptions
= our conscious thought can be influenced by subconscious stimuli
Consciousness use is to be selective of environment

Question 8

purpose of a conscious mind

Answer 8

• learning for planning + decision making
• override dangerous impulses
• rationalise for new situations

Question 9

Sleep waves types

Answer 9

Beta waves: wide awake alert - high freq, low amp.

Alpha waves: relaxed lower freq, higher amp
If alpha waves continue, sleep occurs

Question 10

Sleep phases

Answer 10

stage 1: light sleep, irregular brain wave pattern, dream like images while feeling of awakeness

Stage 2: deeper sleep sleep spindles: periods of high brain wave activity

Stage 3: slow large rhythmic waves (slow waves)

Stage 4: deep sleep hard to wake - mostly delta waves (slow waves)

REM sleep (‘Paradoxical sleep’): dream state, High arousal as if awake - similar to beta wave activity, eyes move fast

• REM sleep paralysis: during rem, you are paralysed so don’t sleepwalk/ act out on dreams
• Paradoxical sleep: active/aroused, little movement

Question 11

Progression through sleep phases

Answer 11

1, 2 , 3, 4, 3, 2, REM

REMs gets longer, 3,4 get shorter - more awake

Question 12

when does dreaming happen

Answer 12

mostly during REM but also can during all other stages (25% in others)

Question 13

Hypnagogic state

Answer 13

transition mindstate from awake to asleep - more delusional, lower consciousness. Still can see/ hear but slipping into stages 1,2

Question 14

Purpose of dreaming: Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory

Answer 14

Purpose of dreams: Wish fulfilment: indulgent in our unconscious urges - often aggressive/ sexual/shunned = nightmares/bizarre

2 types of dream content:

1) Manifest Content: surface story that dream reports/ remember (ego)
2) Latent Content: hidden meanings of those events - fuelled by innate desires (id)

The translation of Latent content into Manifest content is called: Dream Work

Question 15

What is Freud’s dream work concept?

Answer 15

The translation of Latent content into Manifest content by the ego to make acceptable sense of obscene subconscious thoughts.

Question 16

Freud’s 2 types of dream content

Answer 16

1) Manifest Content: surface story that dream reports/ remember (ego)
2) Latent Content: hidden meanings of those events - fuelled by innate desires (id)

Question 17

Purpose of dreaming: Activation synthesis theory

Answer 17

Purpose: dreams serve no purpose/ have no significance, are a byproduct of the brain sorting information during sleep

• Cerebral cortex (area that makes sense of environment) tries to make sense of random neural activation during REM sleep = creates storyline.
• therefore bizarre - random activation, narrative - CC makes storyline

Flaws: only explains REM sleep dreams, what about dreams that occur during other stages, dreams often hold some relationships to the days events/ what the person is often thinking about = not random activity

Question 18

my personal theory on dreams

Answer 18

that you need some sort of prose to be kept asleep especially in lighter sleep stages

Question 19

Purpose of dreaming: Cognitive models

Answer 19

Problem-solving dream models:
The subconscious free from constrains of reality can help find creative/ new solutions to our problems.
- But this does not explain all dreams - rare

Cognitive-process dream theories:
Dreams are just observable forms of our waking thinking processes e.g, jumps form one topic to another/ scene changes, that are more obvious as we do not have sensory deprivation/ time to think during the day.

Question 20

Daydreams

Answer 20

are a significant part of waking consciousness, provide stimulation during boredom, particularly common among people with fantasy prone personalities.
- are visually focused but less vivid + emotional, bizarre than nightie dreams - may be bc nighttime dreams are unaware of it not being real

Question 21

Fantasy prone personalities

Answer 21

have vivid visual based imaginations, often daydream, often confuse reality with dreams, majority are female, more prone to hypnosis, religious/ spiritual experiences (martyrs) can easier convince their bodies of a different reality to their current surroundings.

Question 22

Hypnosis

Answer 22

• its own state of consciousness (controversial): focused attentions + reduces peripheral awareness, more susceptible to suggestions

Question 23

Hypnosis Induction

Answer 23

process of 1 person leading another into hypnotic state

Question 24

Hypnotic susceptibility scales

Answer 24

• measures how susceptible individuals are to hypnosis - differs among people
• tests whether they take in a suggestion while hypnotised - do/don’t follow direction

Question 25

2 theories explaining hypnosis

Answer 25

Dissociation theories: it splits your consciousness - part of it experiences the hypnotic state while part of it is aware of the real environment, but it is your choice (susceptibility) that determines whether you ignore the conscious part. e.g., pain/temperature

Social cognitive theories: not a unique level of consciousness, just you under the influence of various psychological factors: relaxation, imagination, compliance, role-enactment, conformity, attention, attitudes + expectations - still going along with suggested environment.

Question 26

Orne 1959

Answer 26

study supporting Social cognitive theories of hypnosis:
- 1 group told your dominant hand stiffens when hypnotised - 55% of this group experienced this, none of control group
= there is no universal ‘state of consciousness’ you are just under the influence of a certain belief system

Question 27

What do brain scans show about hypnotisation?

Answer 27

Brain activity when hypnotised is different than voluntarily/ consciously doing the same behaviour
- does not prove a different state of consciousness, - could just be different thought process/ asked vs ‘forced’