Chapter 14- Conscious Thought, Unconscious Thought

Question 1

Cognitive Unconscious:

Answer 1

Mental activity that you’re not aware of but makes your ordinary interactions with the world possible

Question 2

Blind Sight:

Answer 2

People with brain damage and can’t see, but are able to answer questions about shape and movement of visual targets…etc

Question 3

Action Slips:

Answer 3

• Do something different from what you intend to
• Slips involve doing what is normal in a situation rather than what you want to do
i.e. driving to the store, want to turn left but turn right out of habit

Question 4

Mental Reflexes:

Answer 4

• Unconscious process act as a set of reflexes
• Guided by circumstances are, generally appropriate for the circumstances
Inflexible because they are guided by circumstances

Question 5

Control:

Answer 5

• Unconscious processes can operate without supervision, can run many processes at the same time
• Allows you to focus your attention on other things
When first learning a new task, need to monitor each step, but over time the overall routine is stored in memory

Question 6

Prerequisites For Control:

Answer 6

• Executive control needs a way to launch desired actions and override unwanted actions (output)
• Needs means of representing goals and subgoals
Needs to know what is going on in the brain (input)

Question 7

Metacognition:

Answer 7

• People’s knowledge, awareness of, and control over their memory
i.e. Focusing less time studying for something you know well, more time studying something you don’t know very well

Question 8

Brain Areas and Consciousness:

Answer 8

• Thalamus and reticular activating system controls cycling between sleep and wakefulness, influence sensitivity to stimuli (degree of awareness)
• Different set of brain sites influence content of consciousness
i.e. dreaming- well defined content, low degree of awareness, sleep walking- sensitive to environment, but content of consciousness not well defined

Question 9

Neuronal Workspace Hypothesis:

Answer 9

• Workspace neurons connect one area of the brain to another (don’t carry content, just connect neurons that do carry content)
• Allow for neurons in one area of the brain to influence neurons in other (maybe far away) neurons
• Selective process, various processes compete with one another, most activate process communicates with other brain area
Attention increases activity in one area, ensures that that area outcompetes other brain areas (flow of info is controllable based on what you pay attention to)

Question 10

Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC):

Answer 10

• Structure linked to frontal cortex and connected to structures involved in emotion, motivation, and feelings of reward
• Assists in conflict detectin
Neuronal workplace works with ACC to detect and resolve conflict between 2 brain areas

Question 11

Neuronal Workspace and Sleep:

Answer 11

• Brain activity not coordinated with each other during sleep
Neuronal workspace crucial for consciousness, sleeping people who have lost this connection are not conscious of their state

Question 12

Access Consciousness:

Answer 12

• One’s sensitivity to certain types of information, and thus one’s access to that information
Supported by neuronal workspace hypothesis

Question 13

Phenomenal Consciousness/ Qualia:

Answer 13

• What it feels like to have certain experiences
• What distinguishes a conscious being from a computer that might have access to the same information, but no “inner experience”
i.e. can describe the taste of chocolate (access consciousness) but someone who has never tasted chocolate will not have the quale of chocolate taste

Question 14

Processing Fluency:

Answer 14

• Confidence expressed in a particular memory influenced by fluency of retrieval, repeated retrieval increases memory confidence whether the memory is accurate or not
Only you can experience your own fluency

Question 15

Mind-Body Problem:

Answer 15

Mind is an entirely different sort of entity from the physical body, but the two can influence each other