5 - Consciousness Flashcards
Consciousness
a person’s subjective experience of the world and the mind
Defining feature of consciousness
experience
phenomenology
how things seem to the conscious person
problem of other minds
the fundamental difficulty we have in perceiving the conscious of others
two dimensions of mind perception
expereince, agency
mind-body problem
the issue of how the mind is related to the brain and body
what is rene decartes famous for proposing?
that the human body is a mahine made of physical matter but the human mind is a separate entity made of a thinking substance (pineal gland; mind is what brain does)
explain steps of experiment: eeg, clock reading, emg
brain activity begins, conscious wish to act is expereinced, finger movement occurs; shows that the brain gets started before either thinking or doing, preparing the way for both thought and action (page 181)
Four basic properties of consciousness
intentionality, unity, selectivity, transcience
property of consciousness: intentionality
the quality of being directed towards an object
property of consciousness: unity
resistance to division, or the ability to integrate information from all the body’s senses into one coherent whole
property of consciousness: selectivity
the capacity to include some objects but not others
dichotic listening
(study in which) people wearing headphones hear different messages in each ear. participants were to repeat aloud the words they herd in one ear while a different message was presented to the other. When they focused on one message, they didn’t realise that the message they were not focues on changed from english to german. they did notice when voice changed from man to woman’s voice
cocktail-party phenomenon
people tune in one message even while they filter out others nearby
people’s names + consciousness
people are more likely to tune in when their own name is spoken, or wake up when their name is called.
property of consciousness: transience
the tendency to change. (necker cube)
what does the necker cube demonstrate
the stream of consciousness flows even when the target is a constant object
minimal consciousness
low-level kind of sensory awareness and responsiveness that occurs when the mind inputs sensations and may output behaviour (being poked in sleep and rolling over)
full consciousness
you know and are able to report your mental state
self-consciousness
distinct level of consciousness in which the person’s attention is drawn to the self as an object
Gallup experiment
testing self-consciousness of animals, put dye on chimpanzee’s eyebrow, the chimp reached towards itself, and not the mirror, meaning it interpreted the mirror image as a representation of itself, and not of another chimp
when does a baby gain self recognition?
18 months
T or F?
We spend nearly one third of our daily activities mind wandering
False: nearly one half (46.9%)
T or F?
We stay in the same emotional state when mind wandering
False: people are significantly less happy when mind wandering compared to when they are thinking about what they are currently doing
describe the test on mind wandering and creative problem solving
participants were asked to generate as many uses as they could everyday objects before and after engaging in a task (demanding or undemanding). Undemanding task facilitated higher levels of mind wandering, lead to improvements on their performance on the previously worked on tests, but not the new tests, showing that allowing our minds to wander while remaining active can enhance our ability to think creatively and solve difficult problems
ways to learn what is on people’s minds
think aloud, experience sampling technique
experience-sampling technique
people are asked to report their conscious expereinces at particular times. people euipped with beepers are asked to record their current thoughts when asked at random times throughout the day. shows that consciousness is dominated by the immediate environment
current concerns
what a person is thinking about repeatedly
default network
parts of the brain that show widespread pattern of activation when people are not budy
mental control
the attempt to change conscious states of mind
thought suppression
the conscious avoidance of a thought
rebound effect of thought supression
the tendency of a thought to return to consciousness with greater frequency following suppression
ironic processes of mental control
ironic errors occur because the mental process that monitors errors can itself produce them
champion of the unconscious mind
freud
dynamic unconscious
an active system encompassing a lifetime of hidden memories, the person’s deepest instincts and desires, and the person’s inner struggle to control these forces
according to freud’s theory, how is unconscious held in check?
repression
repression
a mental process that removes unacceptable thoughts ad memories from consciousness and keeps them in the unconscious
what would happen with repression?
people might think, do, or say every unconscious impulse or animal urge, no matter how selfish or immoral
freudian slips
evidence of unconscious mind in speech errors and lapses of consciousness, like forgetting the name of someone ou dislike
cognitive unconscious
all the mental processes that give rise to a person’s thoughts, choices, emotions, and behaviour even thought they are not experienced by the person
subliminal perception
thought or behaviour is influenced by stimuli that a person cannot consciously report perceiving ex: flashing eat popcorn and drink coke supposedly increased concession sales
elderly walk slower experiment
people were exposed to set of words commonly associated with old people (grey, wrinkled, Florida) and even though they didn’t report being aware of this trend, they walked slower when they left the experiment
roommate experiment
participants were told to chose a roommate, one of which was objectively better than everyone else. 1 group was told to make a conscious decision in 4 minutes, another group was told to make an immediate decision, and another group was told to make an unconscious decision, given 4 minutes like the first group but had to do an annagram during this time. the last group chose the best roommate more than any other group. the immediate decision performed the worst.
altered state of consciousness
a form of experience that departs significantly from the normal subjective experience of the world and the mind. can be accompanied by changes in thinking, disturbances in sense of time, feeling loss of control, changes in emotional expression, alterations in body image and sense of self, perceptual distortions, changes in meaning or significance
sleep and dreams = what perspectives on conscious
mind wihtout consciousness, consciousness in an altered state
hypnogogic state
presleep consciousness
hypnic jerk
a sudden quiver or sensation of dropping, as though missing a step on a staircase; no one is sure of the cause
hypnopompic state
postsleep consciousness
circadian rhythm
a naturally occurring 24 hour cycle, from latin circa (about) and dies (day)
25.1 hours
when people are in underground buildings without clocks who are allowed to sleep when they want tend to have rest-activity cycle of about 25.1 hours. it seems to underlie the tendency many people have to want to stay up a little later wach night and wake up a little later each day. we’re 25.1 hour people living in a 24 hour world
beta and alpha waves and theta waves
high frequency activity during alertness and lower frequency activity during relaxation, theta waves are even lower than alpha waves
sleep spindles and k complexes
short cursts of activity in stage 2
delta waves
during the deepest stages of sleep (3 and 4) with very slow waves
REM sleep
a stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements and high level of brain activity. pulse quickens, blood pressure rises, telltale signs of sexual arousal. sleeper is very still except for eye movements
sawtooth waves
during REM sleep, similar to beta waves, suggesting that the mind is as active during REM as during waking
EOG
electrooculograph; an instrument that measures eye movements
do dreams happen in real time?
yes (woken up 5 or 15 minutes after onset of REM sleep, asked to estimate time based on how long dream was, 92/111 guessed correctly)
over a lifetime, what is the ratio of hours spent awake to spent sleeping?
2:1
craming for exams: effective?
no; sleep seems to be essential for consolidating memories
when rats are forced to stay awake for really long periods of time
trouble regulating body temperature and lose weight even though they eat a lot more than normal
“nature’s soft nurse”
shakespeare’s take on sleep
sleep and evolution
sleeping may be costly in the course of evolution because sleeping animals are such easy prey, so the habbit of sleep wouldn’t have developed so widely across species unless it had significant benefits that made up for this vulnerability
insomnia
difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep, probably one of the most common sleep disorders. causes include self-induced insomnia (working night shifts), secondary insomnia(depression, anxiety), primary insomnia (no obvious causal factors
the realtionship between time before falling asleep and amount worrying about falling asleep
the desire to sleep initiates an ironic process of mental conrol – a heightened sensitivity to signs of sleeplessness – and this sensitivty interferes with sleep. participants in experiment who were instructed to go to sleep quickly took longer to than those who were told to take their time
problems with sleeping pills
long term use is not effective, addictive, people become dependent on the pills to sleep, may need to increase the dose over time to achieve the same effect, sedatives can interfere with the normal sleep cycle, reduces time spent in REM and slow wave sleep, stopping using them can produce worse insomnia than before the pills were taken
sleep apnea
a disorder in which the person stops breathing for brief periods while asleep. involuntary obstruction of the breathing passage, can occur several times over night for ten seconds at a time, can cause many awakenings and sleep loss or insomnia.
somnambulism
sleepwalking, occurs when a person arises and walks around while asleep. tends to happen early in night, during slow wave sleep, eyes usually open in glassy stare, not usually linked to additional problems. not a problem unless they start engaging in strange or unwise behaviour. aren’t very coordinated and can trip over things or fall.
narcolepsy
a disorder in whcih sudden sleep attacks occur in the middle of waking activities. REM intrudes in waking, accompanied by unrelenting excessive sleepiness and uncontrollable sleep attacks lasting from 30 seconds to 30 minutes. has genetic basis, can be treated with meds.
sleep paralysis
the experience of waking up unable to move, sometimes associates with narcolepsy. usually happens as you are awakening from REM sleep but before you regain motor control. lasts only few seconds or minutes, may accompanied by jupnopmpic or hypnagogic hallucinations in which dream content may appear to occur in the waking world.
night terrors
aka sleep terrors; abrupt awakenings with panic and intense emotional arousal. happen most often in non REM sleep early in the sleep cucle, do not usually have dream content that sleeper can report.
dream consciousness
intensely feel emotion; thought to be illogical, continuities of time, place, and person don’t apply; sensation is fully formed and meaningful, visual sensation is predominant, may also deeply experience sound, touch, and movement, although pain is very uncommon; uncritical acceptance, as thought everything is normal even if it is very bizzare; have difficulty remembering the dream after it is over
day residue
prioir waking expereinces often dreamt about as mundane topics that reflect them
freud’s idea of confusing dreams
proposed that dreams are confusing and obscure because the dynamic unconscious creates them precisely to be confusing and obscure. unacceptable, tabbo, or anxiety producing wishes can only be presented in disguised form. ex: tunnel representing sexual intercourse
manigest content
a dream’s apparent topic or superficial meaning
latent content
a dream’s true underlying meaning
experiment on supressing thougths
some participants were told to supress thoughts about certin person, some were told to think about that person, and others were told to think about anything at all. participants in the first group experienced more dreams about that person, suggesting that freud was right in saying that dreams harbour unwanted thoughts
activation synthesis model
dreams are produced when the brain attempts to make sens of random neural activity that occurs during sleep.
difference between freudian theory and activation-synthesis theory
in the significance they place on the meaning of dreams. freud: dreams begin with meaning
activation synthesis theory: dreams begin randomly but meaning can be added as the mind lends interpretations in the process of dreaming
amygdala during dreaming
very active; involved in responding to threatening or stressful events, which makes sense because dreams often showcase dangerous/emotional situations
visual perception during dreaming
areas of the brain responsible for visual perception are not activated, visual association areas in the occipital lobe that are responsible for visual imagery do show activation, meaning that the brain realizes that it’s to really seeing bizarre images but acts like it’s imagining them
prefrontal cortext during dreaming
relatively less arousal than during waking consciousness. associated with planning and executing actions, which is why dreams often don’t have sensible story lines – they’re “scripted” by an “author” whose ability to plan is inactive
motor cortex + spinal neurons during dreaming
motor cortex = activated, spinal neurons running through brain stem inhibit the expression of this motor activation, which is good because otherwise, sleeper would act out every dream. people who are moving in sleep are probably not dreaming
psychoactive drugs
chemicals that influence consciousness or behaviour by altering the brain’s chemical message system
benzodiazepine
Valium; induces sleep but prevents dreaming and so creates a state similar to slow-wave sleep
Rats + cocaine experiment
rats given free access to cocaine increased their use over the 30 day study. they binged themselves to the point of convulsions, stopped grooming themselves and eating until they lost about aone third of their body weight. 90% of the rats died at the end of the study.
drug tolerance
the tendency for larger drug doses to be required over time to acheive the same effect
physical dependence
pain, convulsions, hallucinations, other unpleasant symptoms when drug use is discontinued ex: caffine headache
psychological dependence
strong desire to return to the drug even when physical withdrawwal sympotms are gone ex: ex-smokers wanting an after-dinner smoke years after quitting
soldiers in vietnam and heroin
only 12% remained addicted once they returned home. the return to attractions and obligations of normal life, as well as the absense of the familiar places and faces associated with their drug habbit made it possible for returning soldiers to successfully quit
Types of drugs
depressants, stimulants, narcotics, hallucinogens
depressants
substances that reduce the activity of the central nervous system. have sedative and calming effect, tend to induce sleep in high doses, can arrest breathing in extremely high doses.
alcohol
king of the depressants. worldwide history of use, easy availability in most cultures, widespread acceptance as socially approved substance. increased activity of GABA
expectancy theory
alcohol effects can be produced by people’s expectations of how alcohol will influence them in particular situations
balanced placebo design
behaviour is observed following the presence of absence of an actual stimulus and also following the presence or absence of placebo stimulus
alcohol myopia
alcohol hampers attention, leading people to respond in simple ways to complex situations
stimulants
substances that excite the CNS, heightening arousal and activity leels. ex: caffeine, amphetamines (speed), nicotine, cocaine, modafinil, Ecstasy
Ecstasy
aka MDMA, X, or E; amphetamine derivative, stimulant with added effects like those of hallucinogens. suggested association with damge to serotonergic neurons and potentially associated problems with mood, attention, memory, and impluse control
cocaine
derived from leaves of coca plant; coca cola contained cocaine until 1903 and still may use coca leaves with the cocaine removed; freud tried cocaine and wrote effusively about it for a while.
nicotine
at first, not much of a high, with dizziness or queasy feeling. use is motivated far more by the unpleasantness of quitting than by the pleasantness of using. The positive effects people report from smoking like relacation and improved concentration come chiefly from relief from withdrawal symptoms.
narcotics
aka opiates; highly addictive drugs derived from opium. often induce danger of diseases such as HIV when users share syringes. Mimics brain’s own internal relaxation and well-being system – the brain produces opiods and endorphins (nt) that are closely related to opiates.
hallucinogens
drugs that alter sensations and perception and often cause visual and auditory hallucinations. more of a cultural trend than dangerous attraction.
LSD
first made by chemist albert hofman in 1938, leading to a rash of experimentation that influenced pop coluture in 1960s.
what is the main class of drugs that animals won’t self-administer?
hallucinogens. humans also don’t find them addictive. Do not induce significant tolerance or dependence, and overdose deaths are rare.
marijuana
aka cannabis; plant whose leaves and buds contain a psychoactive drug called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC); when smoked or eaten, either as is or in concentrated form as hashish, produces an intoxication that is mildly hallucinogenic.
anandamide
nt naturally produced in brain, involved in the regulation of mood, memory, appetite, and pain percption; responds to THC
addiction/tolerance/withdrawal potential to marijuana
addiction not strong, tolerance doesn’t seem to develop, physical withdrawal minimal, psychological dependence is possible and some people become chronic users
gateway drug
a drug whose use increases the risk of the subsequent use of more harmful drugs
harm reduction approach
a response to high risk behaviours that focuses on reducing the farm such behaviours have on people’s lives. originated in netherlands and england with tactics such as eliminating criminal penalties for some drug use or providing intravenous drug users with sterile syringes to help them avoid contracting HIV, etc.
hypnosis
a social interaction in which one person makes suggestions that lead to a change in another person’s subjective experience of the world
posthypnotic amnesia
the failure to retrieve memories following hypnotic suggestions to forget
hypnotic analgesia
the reduction of pain through hypnosis in people who are suceptible to hypnosis
the stroop test + hypnosis
the stroop effect is completely eliminated with hypnosis
“i’ve become the legs of a chair!”
hallucinogens
“dude, where’s my bulldozer?”
marijuana
the diagnoses of sleep apnea
most often occurs in middle age over weight men, may go undiagnosed because it is not easy for the sleeper to notices. bed partners are most likely to be the ones who notices the snowing and noisy gasping for air, or slepeer may seek treatment because of excessive sleepiness during the day.
treatment of sleep apnea
can be treated with weight loss, drugs, sleep masks that push air into the nasal passage, or surgery
is it safe to wake a sleepwalker?
yes
this may explain instances of “alien abductions”, etc
sleep paralysis
dependence potential of depressants
psychological and physical dependence
examples of depressants
alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, toxic inhalants like glue and gasoline
effects of alcohol
initial effects: euphoria, reduced anxiety, feeling of positivity. in greater quantities, brings slowed reactions, slurred speech, poor judgement, and other reductions in the effectiveness of thought and action.
effects of Ecstasy
Known for making users feel emphatic and close to those around them. cases jaw clenching and interfers with regulation of body temperature. potentially associated problems with mood, attention, memory, and impluse control
symptoms of cocaine
prdouce hilaration and euphoria, seriously addictive; withdrawal takes form of unpleasant crsah, dangerous side effects include psych problems like insomnia, depression, aggresion, paranoia, and physical problems like death from heart attack or hyperthermia. enjoyed popularity as party drug, extraordinary potential to create dependence and potentially lethal side effects
effects of narcotics
relieve pain; induce feeling of well-being and relacation that is enjoyable but can also induce stupor and lethargy;
dependence potential of narcotics
addictive properties are powerful, long term use produces both tolerance and dependence.
effects of hallucinogens
produce profound changes in perception, sensations may seem unusally intense, stationary objects may seem to move or change, patterns or colours may appear, and these perceptions may be accompanied by the exaggerated emotions ranging from blissful transcendence to abject terror.
effects of marijuana
experience of euphoria, with heightened senses of sight and sound and perception of a rush of ideas. affects short term memory, judgement, impairs motor skills and coordination.
some chemicals in dark chocolate also mimic?
anandamide, although weakly, perhaps accounting for the well-being some people claim after they eat chocolate
why do harm reduction strategies do not always find public support?
because they challenge the popular idea that the solution to drug and alcohol problems must always be prohibition.
