Stages of consciousness Flashcards
What is the difference between conscious content and states of consciousness?
CC - the subjective experience of your internal and external world. Thinking, aware of, perceptions make us,
- etc. knowing we like a song.
SC - the different levels of arousal and attention an individual can experience.
- awareness, alertness
What is the left and right side of the brain responsible for and why is it important that they are connected?
L - language and detail
R - big picture and emotion
- split brain means that they can’t communicate, understanding deals with both sides
What is the difference between passive and active attention and examples?
PA - automatic - when attentional priorities are set by bottom-up information from the environment.
- etc. loud noise will pull our attention immediately (bottom up - senses to brain)
AA - takes all our attention - when attentional priorities are set by top-down goals of an individual (brain to senses)
- looking for keys
what is dualism?
the mind and body are fundamentally different entities, is a direct result of their experience
What is split brain and what was it used for?
surgery that cuts the connection between the two hemispheres
- to stop seizures (successful)
What is hemispheric specialization and how did split brain affect its communication?
HS - the two hemispheres in your brain (right and left) have different functions
- hemispheres are unable to share information and several regions associated with perception is isolated from parts of the brain involved in language
What is attention?
process of selecting information from the internal and external environments to prioritize for processing
what is selective attention?
attention that occurs when a person attends to some information while ignoring other information
What is stimulus salience(importance) (bottom up)?
some stimuli in the environment capture attention by virtue of their physical properties
- ex. low-level: bright light, loud noise
What is attentional capture?
occurs when attention is diverted because the salience of the stimulus
- will capture our attention of a little but not for long. Ex, bright red rose in the middle of a picture
How is top down processing related to attention?
As we develop expertise in a given area, we are better able to allocate attention to the more important features of the scene and ignore information that is less relevant
- Ex. Knowing where to look when watching sports
- Ex. Spotting the difference between 2 animals that look similar
What is the cocktail party effect?
situation associated with selective attention. At a party, a person can be engaged in a conversation and suppress/ignore all the information going on around them and attend to the conversation.
What is dichotic listening?
An attention task where one stream of information is presented to one ear, and a different message is played in the other ear. The participant is asked to attend to only one message. Later the participant is asked information about the unattended message.
What is divided attention?
When a person engages in two or more tasks at the same time
- Dividing attention means that there is a higher chance of making a mistake in one
- When we become so good at something, multitasking is easy. Ex walking and talking
What is automaticity and explain how it relates to talking and driving?
fast, effortless processing of information without conscious though.
- Automatic when performance is not impaired by other tasks
- Driving when talking on the phone impairs driving which means it is not an example of automaticity
What is inattentional blindness?
The tendency to miss changes to some kinds of information when your attention is engaged elsewhere.
- When asked to look for something, you are more likely to disregard everything else
What is the flicker task and explain how this effect change blindness?
A change attention task used to study intentional change detection and inattentional blindness.
- CB: when it is challenging to see the difference between things even though you still are looking for it
What is intentional change detection and how does it apply to the flicker test?
An attention task that requires the participant to actively search or a change made to the stimulus
- Used in flicker tasks and selective attention
- Some degree of processing is occurring but it is selective based on something that is seen as prioritized.
What is subliminal stimulus?
a sensory stimulus that is processed, but does not reach the threshold for conscious perception
What is the difference between subvisual ad subaudible messages?
SV - visual images that are presented too quickly for the brain to perceive in conscious awareness
- hidden messages in ad example
SA - auditory messages that are played too quietly or in such a way that the brain cannot be consciously aware of the content
- weight loss audio example
What is subconscious processing?
Occurs when we are aware of information from the environment that are not aware that it is influencing our behavior
- Liquor store and music example
Attention disorders - explain visual neglect?
Damage on the right parietal lobe lose awareness of stimulus on the left
- Ex drawing half a clock
- Still able to report some on the visually neglected stimuli. Ex. One half of house on fire, pick the house that is not on fire example