Consciousness

Question 1

Brain is sometimes similar to other species! Why are humans so much smarter than any other species?

Answer 1

Big difference in humans and chimps is frontal cortex

Question 2

What does frontal lobe rely on?

Answer 2

Frontal lobe relies on conscious awareness of experience

Question 3

frontal lobe region for

Answer 3

This is region for higher order functions–lang, abstract thought

Question 4

percentage of brain frontal lobe

Answer 4

17% of cortical volume in chimps

40% in humans

Question 5

Modularity–

Answer 5

mind is collection of parts, not one big mind

Question 6

Module

Answer 6

part of brain

Question 7

Consciousness

Answer 7

experiences ur consciously aware of rn
The module that makes humans so unique
we’re totally unaware that were doing all these things at once

Question 8

Freud’s theory of consciousness

Answer 8

Freud first person to say mind could be divided into conscious and unconscious
(freud overstated the importance of consciousness and thought unconscious drives the things we need to suppress/animalistic like aggression, sex, food etc
Freud believed we need defense mechanisms to protect from these drives but this is all untrue

Question 9

Limits of consciousness

Answer 9

Most human behavior comes from unconscious/unconsciousness essential to everything we do
Consciousness not able to control whole mind/will never experience unconsciousness
Refrigerator light problem–Like thinking light is always on in fridge bc whenever u open the fridge it turns on so its hard to tell when we’re conscious
We zone out a lot
Most of our life is unconscious and thats the way we like it bc our consciousness isnt efficient enough
Like driving – stop thinking about so much detail all the time

Question 10

Power of conscious processing

Answer 10

Consciousness is conductor (but cant play every instrument or see everything so he makes choices about what to pay atten to and contro and the rest keeps playing)
Module of consciousness influences A LOT but not all of other modules

Question 11

Evidence of unconscious processes

Answer 11

Unconscious learning

Unconscious filtering

Unconscious priming

Question 12

Unconscious learning

Answer 12

Amnesia__
Eduoard claparde–patient did not base not wanting to shake hand on conscious memory bc he had amnesia
Pattern detection__
Chicken sexing is really hard but experts can do it super quick and cant explain why
Train other experts by telling them whether they are right or wrong but not conscious of the difference
Nick Turk Browne

Question 13

Nick Turk Browne

Answer 13

–if u present with random sequences and give rewards for some and not others and the participant doesnt know theres a pattern theyll predict correctly

Question 14

Unconscious filtering

Answer 14

“Cocktail party” phenomenon–really loud room u hear if someone says ur name
Our brains filter out any irrelevant sound/air conditioners

Question 15

Unconscious priming

Answer 15

Influencing people’s thoughts by putting patterns and having them finish pattern
Best predictor of happiness was weather

Question 16

Stroop effect

Answer 16

–read before seeing color
Word reading is a skill weve improved a lot more than color naming
Word reading can beat color naming and take control of phonological control
Can get better at it by using consciousness
this is why consciousness is so limited why do we have it

Question 17

Cognitive/conscious control:

Answer 17

ability to flexibly alter or suppress automatic or prepotent responses

Question 18

Quirks of conscious control

Answer 18

Failure to control

Illusion of control

Question 19

Failure to control

Answer 19

Sometimes we are conscious and still can’t stop ourselves.
Addiction etc
Conscious and unconscious can relate in a few ways; sometimes unconscious pushes back
Sometimes unconscious has total control (if you see a giraffe, u cant stop urself; thyroid producing hormones)
Fail to suppress conscious mental processes–stress
Ironic rebound

Question 20

Illusion of control

Answer 20

lottery/people who choose their numbers rate their likelihood as higher
Gamblers will bet more against slob then clean cut

Question 21

ironic rebound

Answer 21

Ironic process theory, ironic rebound, or the white bear problem refers to the psychological process whereby deliberate attempts to suppress certain thoughts make them more likely to surface. An example is how when someone is actively trying not to think of a white bear they may actually be more likely to imagine one.
Have to think about something to tell urself not to think about it

Question 22

Why do we overestimate control?

Answer 22

Having sense of control has overall positive benefit