Exam 3 - Consciousness Flashcards
Consciousness
A person’s subjective experience of the world and the mind (inner + outer world) resulting from brain activity
Phenomenology
The study of how things seem to the conscious person
Problem of other minds
The fundamental difficulty we have in perceiving the consciousness of others - so we can never know if two people experience the world in exactly the same way
Philosopher’s zombie
A hypothetical non-conscious person that could talk about experiences and even seem to react to them, but without having any experience (i.e. consciousness)
Can we tell whether someone is a “zombie”?
No, we can’t due to the problem of other minds
What are the two dimensions of mind perception?
Experience and agency
Experience (mind perception dimension)
The ability to feel pain, pleasure, hunger, etc.
Agency (mind perception dimension)
The ability for self-control, planning, memory
mind-body problem
the issue of how the mind is related to the brain and body
What is the order of electrical signals (for conscious movement)?
Brain activity begins (-525 msec), then a conscious wish to act is experienced (-204 msec), then finger movement occurs (0 msec)
i.e. Brain activity precedes conscious awareness of thought/action/desire
What are the five basic properties of consciousness
Subjectivity intentionality unity selectivity transience
Intentionality
Quality of being directed toward an object - consciousness is always about something
Unity
Refers to the ability to integrate information from all of the body’s senses into one coherent consciousnous
Selectivity
The capacity to include some objects but not others - consciousness filters out some information while tuning in to others
Dichotic listening
A task in which people wearing headphones hear different messages presented to each ear
Cocktail-party phenomenon
A phenomenon in which people tune in one message even while they filter out others nearby
How does consciousness decide what to filter in and what to tune out?
Consciousness is inclined to select information of SPECIAL INTEREST to the person.
transience
tendency to change; Consciousness is always going from “right now” to the next “right now”
Why does the stream of conscious flow transiently?
Likely due to the limited capacity of the conscious mind - so when we get new info, our attention must change
Levels of consciousness
Distinguish the different “levels” of awareness; one is sometimes more aware at one time than another
Minimal consciousness
A low-level kind of sensory awareness and responsiveness that occurs when the mind inputs sensations and may output behaviour
Example of minimal consciousness
Being poked while you are asleep, and turning over
Full onciousness
A level of consciousness in which you know and are able to report your mental state
i.e. thinking about things and also thinking about the fact you are thinking about things
Self-consciousness
A distinct level of consciousness which the person’s attention is drawn to the self as an object
Disorder of consciousness
When a patient (of severe brain injury) is not able to demonstrate either full consciousness or self-consciousness
Experience-sampling technique
A technique where people are asked to report their conscious experiences at particular times
What does the fact that humans daydream indicate?
It indicates that even if the mind isn’t actively doing something, the brain is still thinking about social life, self, past and future - it’s still active in the background.
Mental control
The attempt to change conscious states of mind
Though suppression
The conscious avoidance of thought
Rebound effect of thought suppression
The tendency of a thought to return to consciousness with greater frequency following suppression
What does the rebound effect of though suppression suggest?
It suggests that the act of suppressing a though may itself cause that thought to return to consciousness
Ironic processes of mental control
a mental process that can produce ironic errors because monitoring for errors can itself produce them
What part of the brain is active during daydreaming?
Default network - areas of the brain that are known to be involved in thinking about social life, about the self, about the past and future
Dynamic unconscious
An active system encompassing a lifetime of hidden memories, and the person’s inner struggle to control these forces - i.e. contains hidden thoughts
Who came up with the dynamic unconscious as an idea?
Sigmund Freud
What holds dynamic unconscious at bay?
Repression
What is repression?
A mental process that removes unacceptable thoughts and memories from consciousness and keeps them in the unconscious
Freudian slip
A speech error or lapse in consciousness - Freud argued that these errors are non-random and is made by some intelligent unconscious mind
Is there any validity to Sigmund Freud’s theory?
Freud’s prediction were not predicted in advance; these predictions can be wrong. Suggesting a pattern to a series of random events is not the same as scientifically predicting and explaining when and why an event should happen.
cognitive unconscious
All the mental processes that give rise to a person’s thoughts, choices, emotions, and behaviour even though they are not experienced by the person
Dual process theories
Theories that suggest that we have two different systems in our brains for processing information: one dedicated to fast, automatic, and unconscious processing (System 1), and the other dedicated to slow, effortful, and conscious processing (System 2)
Subliminal perception
Thought or behaviour that is influenced by stimuli that a person cannot consciously report perceiving
i.e. information is being processed without conscious awareness
altered state of consciousness
A form of experience that departs significantly from the normal subjective experience of the world and the mind.
hypnagogic state
The consciousness experience before sleep; i.e. presleep consciousness
hypnic jerk
sudden quiver or sensation of dropping
hypnopompic state
postsleep consciousness state
circadian rhythm
A naturally occurring biological 24-hour cycle
circa (Ltn.; “about”) and dies (Ltn.; day)
Waves that occur when you are awake?
Alpha and beta waves
Waves that appear when awake and alert?
Beta waves
Waves that appear when you are awake but drowsy and relaxed?
Alpha waves
How many sleep “stages” are there?
5 stages
What indicates the first stage of sleep? (+ duration)
Theta waves (waves even lower that alpha waves)
hypnagogic imagery (dream-like images)
Light sleep
5-10 minutes duration
What indicates the second stage of sleep?
Difficult to awaken, but still can
Appearances of bursts of activity (sleep spindles & K complexes, see lec. 8, slide 12)
20 min duration
What indicates the 3 and 4th stages of sleep?
slow-wave sleep; EEG shows delta waves (see lec. 8, slide 13)
30 minutes duration
What is the deepest stage of sleep?
The 3rd and 4th stages of sleep
REM sleep
A stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements and a high level of brain activity - see high-frequency sawtooth saves (see lecture 8), looks similar to beta waves
10-20 minute duration
Electrooculograph (EOG)
An instrument that measured eye movements
WHen are dreams more common?
REM sleep but can occur at other times
REM sleep physical indicators?
sexual arousal
increase in pulse
increase in blood pressure
no muscle movement except for side-to-side eye movement
Which is more “wild”, REM dreams or regular dreams?
REM dreams
What does the pattern of sleep during the night look like?
A wave, decending and climbing the stages of sleep, peaking with REM sleep
How many cyles of sleep are made a night (in the usual 8-9 hours of sleep recommended
4-5 (note that REM periods become longer, and deeper stages of sleep become absent as the cycles continue)
What crucial process occurs during sleep?
Memory encoding - thus, sleep is required to remember learning
What is the most crucial stage of sleep?
REM
What happens if you are woken up during REM sleep?
You have memory problems, become aggresive, and also causes a “rebound” of REM sleep; forcing your body to sleep MORE REM sleep the next night you sleep
Deprivation from slow-wave sleep (3-4) does what?
Physical effects of fatigue and hypersensitivity to muscle and bone pain
Insomnia
Difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep
What are some causes of insomnia?
self-induced insomnia (lifestyle choices)
response to depression, anxiety, or other condition (secondary insomnia)
no obvious causal factors (primary insomnia)