Consciousness Flashcards
Consciousness
A person’s subjective experience of what the world is, and what their mind is
Phenomenology
How things seem to the conscious person/how someone experiences something during consciousness
Problem of the Other Mind
Difficulty perceiving consciousness of someone else. People judge minds according to the capacity for experience and agency (experience vs agency)
4 properties of consciousness
INTENTIONALITY: Being directed towards an object (focused or alert to something)
UNITY: Consciousness tries to resist division of senses (merge them into one experience)
SELECTIVITY: Capacity to include some objects while excluding others
- Dichotic Listening: different messages in each headphone side (changing languages problem)
- Cocktail Party Phenom: People tune in one specific message while filtering others out
TRANSIENCE: consciousness has tendency to change
Necker Cube/Reversible Perspective
Example of property of transience where consciousness flows even when the target is a constant object
Levels of Consciousness
MINIMAL: low-level kind of sensory awareness and responsiveness (mind inputs sensation and MAY output behaviour)
FULL: when you are able to report and act on your mental state
SELF: When an individual’s attention is drawn to the self as an object. (mirror recognition)
Sleep states
Hypnagogic state: Pre-sleep consciousness (minimal consciousness)
Hypnic jerk: Sudden quiver or sensation as of dropping
Hypnopompic state: Post-sleep consciousness
Sleep Cycle Waves
Beta waves: awake and alert
Alpha: relaxed (pre-sleep)
Theta/Delta: Deep Sleeps (stage 3/4)
REM sleep: 5th stage or its own category
REM Sleep
Rapid Eye Movement.
Body is immobilized during REM to prevent movement or enactment or dreams => Spinal neurons inhibit muscle movement/reflex behaviours
Stage 1 Sleep
Theta waves (light sleeping)
Stage 2 Sleep
K complex & Sleep Spindle
Stage 3/4 Sleep
Delta waves, deep sleep
Each time you enter REM from these stages, the depth of Stage 3/4 gets shorter, REM gets longer.
Stage 5 Sleep/REM
Sawtooth waves
Sleep Disorders
Insomnia: Difficulty falling asleep/staying asleep
Sleep Apnea: person stops breathing for brief periods while asleep
Somnambulism: Person arises and walks around during sleep => usually in slow-wave sleep (3/4)
Sleep Disorders pt. 2
Narcolepsy: Sudden attacks of sleep during waking activities
Sleep paralysis: Experience of waking up unable to move (spinal neurons might not be active)
Night Terrors: abrupt awakenings with panic and intense emotional arousal
Dreams
Intense Emotion Illogical Thought Meaningful Sensation Uncritical Acceptance Difficulty remembering dream on waking
Freud’s View
Manifest Content: How dream appears in topic
Latent Content: Underlying symbolism of the topic
Activation-Synthesis Model
Brain imposes meaning on random neural activity happening while we sleep.
Dreaming Brain Figure
Deactivation of frontal lobe.
Activation of Motor Cortex, Visual Association areas, Amygdala
Drugs and Consciousness
Agonists to increase neuro, or antagonist inhibiting/blocking.
Drugs work in synapses.
Drug Tolerance
Tendency for larger doses of a drug to be required over time to achieve the same effect
Physical Dependence
Unpleasant physiological symptoms accompanying withdrawal from drug use
Psychological Dependence
Desire to return to drug use even when physical symptoms are gone (craving in mind)
Withdrawal Symptoms
Include physical dependence and psychological dependence. (deep psychological crash)
