Module 8 - Consciousness (Test 2) Flashcards
Current definition of consciousness
Awareness of self and environnement
How was psychology viewed in the late 1900s
States of consciousness
Focus of psychology in the 1st half of 20th century
Behaviorism
Focus of psychology after 1960
Consciousness now supported by neuroscience
Features of consciousness
- Allows assemblage of multiple information sources
- Focuses attention when learning a complex concept or behaviour
Types of consciousness
- Occur spontaneously
- Physiologically induced
- Psychologically induced
Examples of consciousness that occur spontaneously
Daydreaming, drowsiness, dreaming
Physiologically induced consciousness
Hallucinations, orgasm, food or oxygen starvation
Psychologically induced consciousness
Sensory deprivation, hypnosis, meditation
What is cognitive neuroscience
Interdisciplinary study of brain activity linked with mental processes
Conscious experiences
arise from synchronized activity across the brain
Selective attention
-Conscious awareness focused on a particular stimulus (ex: Cocktail party effect)
Accidents related to selective attention
- Rapid switching between activities degrades sustained, focused attention
- Digital device use while driving increases the risk for traffic accidents
Innatentional blindness
Failing to see objects when attention is directed elsewhere
Change blindness
Failing to notice changes in our environnement
Dual processing
Simultaneous information processing on separate conscious and unconscious tracks
Blindsight
Responding to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it:
- Visual action track - guides moment-to-moment movements
-Visual perception track allows us to recognize and plan future actions
Parallel processing
Processing many aspects of a stimulus or problem at once (ex: driving a car)
Sequential Processing
Processing one aspect of a stimulus or problem at a time; new information processing or difficult problem solving
