Leary ch 1

Question 1

5 functions/ consequences of consciousness

Answer 1

• planning
• decision making and self control
• self conceptualization: allows us to evaluate our behavior and monitor our progress on certain goals
• introspection:
• perspective taking

Question 2

two ways self-awareness and perspective taking are linked

Answer 2

• self awareness allows us to imagine the world from other people’s perspective, including the ability to imagine how one is perceived and evaluated by others
• self awareness leads to being able to demonstrate reactions (e.g., empathy) that require the ability to adopt the perspective of other people

Question 3

self awareness brain regions

Answer 3

prefrontal cortex

Question 4

specific cortical areas

Answer 4

• prefrontal

- parietal

Question 5

general brain networks

Answer 5

• salience network
• central executive network
• default mode network

Question 6

mirror-self recognition task

Answer 6

Involved putting a red mark on the forehead to test whether the animal would recognize the mark by touching its own body

Question 7

what animals appear to recognize themselves

Answer 7

• dolphins
• elephants
• apes (chimps, gorillas, orangutans)
• corvids (e.g., crows)

Question 8

Does mirror recognition suggest that these animals’ sense of sense is the same as our own? Why or why not?

Answer 8

no, their sense of self serves their needs

Question 9

When does Leary believe that the modern human self emerged?

Answer 9

• Later on after homo erectus

- With homo sapiens

Question 10

What changes in human lifestyle led archaeologists to label the period around 40,000 years ago the “cultural big bang”?

Answer 10

• see the first evidence of sophisticated cultural practices
• First body adornments – suggesting that, for the first time, people could think about how they were being perceived by others

Question 11

alternative theory about when the self emerged

Answer 11

• Late pleistocene era
• Homo erectus
• Brain capacity increased and hunting became an increasingly important form of food procurement

Question 12

why would the self be adaptive for early humans

Answer 12

• ecological pressure: to help adapt to environment

- social pressure: to aid in cooperation and maintain group bonds, reproduction

Question 13

self awareness

Answer 13

• Cognitive process that involves perceiving oneself as a continuous, conscious entity; having an autobiographic memory; aware of one’s traits and feelings, etc.
• being aware of oneself as a thinking being