Conciousness

Question 1

What is consciousness?

Answer 1

The subjective awareness of mental events.

Being aware of internal and external stimuli.

Question 2

How did James describe consciousness?

Answer 2

A constantly moving stream of thoughts, feelings and perceptions. The consciousness of the self, any conscious thought is accompanied by the thought that the self is the author.

Question 3

Discuss the two primary functions of consciousness-monitor and control?

Answer 3

To monitor mental events from the self and the environment.
To regulate thoughts and behaviors.

Question 4

What are states of consciousness?

Answer 4

Qualitatively different patterns of subjective experience including ways of experiencing both internal and external events.

Question 5

What is attention?

Answer 5

Where we focus our conscious awareness.
It is a filter in which important information passes.
Guided by external stimuli which leads us to relevant sensory information and activated goals.

Question 6

What does the cocktail party syndrome highlight?

Answer 6

The implicit processing of allot more information that what our consciousness receives.

Question 7

What are the three functions of attention?

Answer 7

Orientating to sensory stimuli.
Controlling behavior and the contents of consciousness.
Maintaining alertness.

Question 8

What is divided attention?

Answer 8

The process of splitting attentions between two tasks.

One task can be controlled automatically (automatisation).

Question 9

How do researchers examine the phenomenom on divided attention?

Answer 9

Dichotic listening tracks.

Question 10

What is daydreaming?

Answer 10

Tuning attention away from external stimulus into internal thoughts and imagined scenario.
A major part of the normal flow of consciousness.

Question 11

What three systems comprise consciousness according to Freud?

Answer 11

Conscious
Preconscious
Unconscious

Question 12

According to Freud what is the conscious system of consciousness?

Answer 12

Mental events of which you are aware.

The subjective awareness of stimuli.

Question 13

According to Freud what is the preconscious system of consciousness?

Answer 13

Mental events that can be brought into awareness.

Question 14

According to Freud what is the unconscious system of consciousness?

Answer 14

Mental events that are inaccessible to awareness.
Events actively kept out of awareness.
Repressed as they are anxiety provoking.

Question 15

What is the basis of psychoanalysis?

Answer 15

Exploring the unconscious.

Question 16

How did Freud see consciousness.

Answer 16

Like a censor, censoring unwanted or unhappy information in the unconscious.

Question 17

What is dynamically unconscious?

Answer 17

Kept unconscious for a reason,
The regulating of emotions.
Many other processes are not harmful however.

Question 18

What does the psychodynamic perspective maintain?

Answer 18

That motivational and emotional processes can also be unconscious.
People can respond to people or situations without knowing why.

Question 19

What is subliminal perception?

Answer 19

The perception of stimuli below the threshold of consciousness.

Question 20

How do cognitive psychologists view conscious and unconscious processes?

Answer 20

Unconscious cognitive and perceptual processes can influence behavior.

Question 21

What is the cognitive unconscious?

Answer 21

Consciousness is comprised of information processing mechanisms that operate outside of awareness (Implicit memory)
Occurring implicitly in the subconscious regardless of motivation.
Paralleled by multiple networks.

Question 22

What do information processing models now distinguish.

Answer 22

Explicit memory (conscious) 
Implicit memory (unconscious) 
Cognition (such as conscious problem solving as apposed to automatic unconscious heuristics)

Question 23

What do connectionist models propose?

Answer 23

Information processing occurs at the same time in the brain in multiple quite separate networks which are mostly in the unconscious.

Question 24

What is preconscious awareness?

Answer 24

Associations that are activated below the threshold of consciousness (eg: stereotypes when we meet people.)

Question 25

What does cognitive theory examine?

Answer 25

The role that each of the cognitive processes plays, how they compliment each other, the differences between them, and there strengths and weaknesses.

Question 26

How does the cognitive approach see the making of associations?

Answer 26

A very fast and efficient process in the unconscious.

Question 27

What is blindsight?

Answer 27

Damage to a neural pathway.
Damage to the central portion of the occipital cortex
Blind in the sense that they are unable to see objects before them.
Able to provide partial information about the geometric shape before them when asked where the object is. They can describe the object without being able to see it.

Question 28

What do the neural pathways have to do with blindsight?

Answer 28

There a two neural pathways. One old and one new. Despite damage to the newer neural pathways some information gets through via the older pathway.
The second pathway is also found in other animals that do not have as highly developed neural pathways as humans.

Question 29

What structures are involved in consciousness?

Answer 29

The hindbrain and midbrain for sleep and arousal
Largely distributed throughout the brain.
Different structures for different levels of consciousness.