Consciousness, Naturally Altered

Question 1

Consciousness III

Answer 1

Our consciousness naturally changes throughout the day - Selective attention and Divided attention

Question 2

Selective Attention

Answer 2

Selective attention is the ability to select certain stimuli in the environment to process, while ignoring distracting information.
Example: Having a conversation at a cocktail party.

Question 3

Four Models of Selective Attention

Answer 3

1. Broadbent’s filter model
   - People select information on the basis of physical features.
2. Treisman’s Attenuated model
   - suggested that we do monitor the unattended information to some degree on the basis of its meaning.
3. Late Selection model
   - All information is processed, but only the pertinent information enters consciousness.
4. Multimode model
   - The stage at which selection occurs changes by task.

Question 4

Divided Attention

Question 5

Low Awareness

Answer 5

Cost:- Influenced by subtle factors
Benefits:- Saves mental efforts

Question 6

High Awareness

Answer 6

Costs:- Uses mental effort
Benefits:- Can overcome some biases.

Question 7

Priming

Answer 7

Can change all sorts of behavior
- Increase our intellectual performances
- Affect our energy levels
- Increase our sales
- Make us cleaner

Question 8

Unconscious

Answer 8

Freud - Motivating us
Wundt - Preprocessing thought

Stage 1: Attending to a problem consciously
- allows then necessary information to be gathered and organized

Stage 2: Is the incubation stage during which people think unconsciously
- leads to a “eureka experience” whereby the creative product enters consciousness.

Stage 3: Conscious Evaluation

Question 9

EEGS

Answer 9

If the line is when your finger moves as measured through an EMG, the EEG shows brain activity before your finger moves.

2008: through the different brain activity; predict which button a participant was going to press next up to ten seconds in advance.

Libet used three measures:
1. EMG (electromyography) to measure brain waves.
2. EEG to measure brain movements.
3. and the participants saying when the desire to move occurred to them.

Question 10

Libet 1985

Answer 10

He added: conscious awareness of the decision to act.
The unconscious decides to act, and we then become consciously aware of wanting
to execute the action, and finally, we act.

after the experiment he stated that the conscious mind still has veto power.

Question 11

Stereotyping and Prejudice

Answer 11

Patricia Devine
- We unconsciously activate cultural stereotypes, and this is true for all of us, even for people who are not
explicitly prejudiced, or, in other words, for people who do not want to stereotype.

Question 12

Creativity

Answer 12

How the creative process works…

• Stage 1: Consciously attending to a problem.
  (Attending to a problem consciously. Allows the necessary information to be gathered and organized.)
• Stage 2: Incubation
  (People think unconsciously, the problem is put aside for a while.)
• Stage 3: Conscious Evaluation
  (Conscious attention plays a role; the creative product needs to be verbalized and communicated.)