Week 2 - Wakefullness

Question 1

Who is Wilhelm Wundt?

Answer 1

• German professor
• Founder of psychology in late 19th century
• Recognized that the data of science about objective phenomena were derived from the experiences of scientists
• Rejected that scientists could understand experience through self-observation (Hilgard, 1987)
• Confined to research concerning sensation and perception
• Introspection!!!!

Question 2

What did Franz Brentano consider

Answer 2

• Inner perception - the discrete noticing of what was happening to mental events as they occurred
• Inner observation - the direct focusing on one’s inner mental life

(tracking the thoughts not interfering with them)

Question 3

Who is William James?

Answer 3

• Psychologist in the 1800’s
• Accused the experimentalists of being boring
• “introspective observation is what we have to rely on first and foremost and always”
• The part before the thunder is different than the thunder

Question 4

Define introspection

Answer 4

• The looking into our own minds and reporting what we there discover (James, 1890/1983)
• Trying to catch up the present with the past
• Mental states could only be examined and reported once they had already occurred
• A part of the normal process of our consciousness whereby we explicate what is that is occurring in our awareness (Howe, 1991)
• The awareness of our own experiences

Question 5

Describe the information theory (computational approach)

Answer 5

• Computes in the 1950s brought new ways of thinking about psyche (Hilgard, 1987)
• Mental processes were conceptualized as operations on mental representations (Jackendoff, 1987)
• Concerned with memory, language, problem-solving
• Concluded that introspection is not possible (Nisbett & Wilsen, 1977)

Question 6

Is introspection possible?

Answer 6

Must have two things:

1. unproblematic: Do I know the contents of my own experiences?
2. Problematic: What is the nature of the mind? Can I examine how it works? Need to train the mind

Question 7

Describe the Computation model

Answer 7

• Concerns human cognition
• Aspects that cannot be calculated such as imagination or emotions are downplayed (Aanstoos, Hillgard)
• Not clear how information processing can give rise to subjective experiences
• Way of thinking about the mind has remained dominant in psychology

Question 8

Define metacognition

Answer 8

• Our ability to know something of our own cognitive processes
• A persons own evaluations of themselves (BC2)

Question 9

When is introspection involved?

Answer 9

• Asked to respond to the perception of external stimuli, report one’s experience or to fill out a questionnaire about oneself

Question 10

What is an experienced sampling method?

Answer 10

• Participants wear an electronic pager that goes off at random intervals as they go about their lives.
• When it gDoes off, participants “give a high resolution description of their mental states as they are happening” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1988)

Question 11

What is the scientists metaphor?

Answer 11

• A dispassionate search for accurate self-knowledge (Robins & John, 1997) constrained only by actual perceptual and informational limitations

Question 12

Describe the different seekers of consciousness

Answer 12

1. Truth seeker - the scientists
2. Consistency seeker - reduce inconsistency by selective events even when self-views are negative
3. Politician - defines, constructs and negotiates self-concept
4. Egoist - motivated toward self-enhancement

Question 13

Describe the principles of psychology (William James)

Answer 13

5 characteristics of thinking

1. Every thought tends to be part of a personal consciousness
   - Thoughts do not float freely (thoughts are always for someone or something
2. Within each personal consciousness thought is always changing
   - Changes in the brain translate into changes in experience
3. Thought is sensibly continuous
   - They all flow together
   - Stream of thought (move from one substantive thought to another)
   - FOK and FOR
4. Thoughts always appear to deal with objects independent of itself
   - A real world where we can encounter our thoughts (removed from book)
   - Thoughts are always about something else
   -
5. Thoughts are interested in some parts of these objects to the exclusion of others and welcomes or rejects others
   - thoughts are selective
   - We are constantly choosing between alternatives

Question 14

Define Substantive and transitive parts of consciousness (William James)

Answer 14

1. Substantive - Constant thoughts (rocks in the stream)

2. Transitive - Move from one substantive thought to another (the water between the rocks)

Question 15

Define FOK and FOR

Answer 15

1. FOK - Feelings of knowing
   - Tip of the tongue phenomena
   - Don’t have the actual object
2. FOR - Feelings of reality
   - Qualia - inherent way something is
   - Mental disease disrupts this

Question 16

Define intentionality

Answer 16

• A direction upon an object (not deliberateness)

Question 17

Who is Eric Klinger, what did he do?

Answer 17

• Psychologist who studied thinking using a version of the experience sampling method where participants were asked to record the last thoughts that went through their mind
• Created a number of dimensions that identify along which thinking can vary
  (list of qualities in the persons mind)

Question 18

What are Eric Klingler’s dimensions of thinking

Answer 18

1. Thinking can be deliberate or spontaneous
2. Thinking can be either externally or internally focused
3. Thoughts can be strange along three dimensions
   - finical/realistic
   - well-integrated or degenerated
   - disconnected

Question 19

Describe Klinger’s first dimension of thinking

Answer 19

1. Thinking can be deliberate or spontaneous
   - (deliberate) specific content that is intentionally directed toward certain goals
   - (spontaneous) thoughts that just pop into our minds
   * ** 1/3 of a person’s thoughts are more spontaneous than deliberate***

Question 20

Describe Klinger’s second dimension of thinking

Answer 20

2. Thinking can be externally or internally focused
   - (external) what is going on in the environment around us
   - (Internal) thoughts away from what is happening in our environment
   * *1/3 are focused on another place or on the past or the future

Question 21

Describe Klinger’s third dimension of thinking

Answer 21

3. Thoughts can be strange along three dimensions
   a) Fanciful or realistic
   - fanciful (social role expectations are violated
   - 21% of thoughts depart at least to some degree of being physically possible
   b) Disconnected
   - thoughts jump from one to another
   - nearly half of the participants said their thoughts were disconnected
   c) Well- Integrated or degenerated
   - images often flow without beginnings or endings
   - nothing seems to make sense. no structure to the thoughts
   - 25% of thoughts had a dream like mentation

Question 22

What are the characteristics of thoughts (Klinger)

Answer 22

1. Self talk (most common)
   - we are only silent in only about one quarter of our thoughts, we usually communicate to ourselves in full sentences
2. Visual imagery
   - two thirds of our thoughts have visual elements
3. Other sounds
   - 1/4 we think about other people and relationships
   - 3% on anxiety-provoking or worrisome thoughts

Question 23

Describe emotions in ASOC

Answer 23

• Emotions are often part of our multidimensional subjective experiences (either accompanying or triggering thoughts)
• Changes of emotional expressions can be associated with ASOC
• Sometimes suppress thoughts to escape SC2
• Suppression of pain = greater pain
• Suppress thoughts = anxiety

Question 24

Describe Daydreaming

Answer 24

• Klinger found that participants in a ESM were engaged in active, focused problem-solving thought only 6% of the time
• Subjective life = irrational thinking
• Allows us to learn from them by replaying events of the past
• “A channel of info about ourselves to ourselves”
• Assist with personal growth
• An important aspect of our subjective lives

Question 25

Definitions of daydreaming

Answer 25

• Klinger = thoughts that are spontaneous or at least partially fanciful
• William James = the essence of daydreams was their spontaneity
• Thoughts that are spontaneous rather than deliberate
• Sigmund Freud = daydreams were those thoughts that violate the rules normally imposed on us by reality (early 20th)
• Jerome Singer = the pioneer of modern daydreaming research, do not pertain to immediate environment
• • 70% of our thoughts are daydreams by these criteria
• • with Klinger’s = 50% of thoughts are daydreams
• • if all criteria is met then only 3% of our thoughts

Question 26

What are the 3 daydreaming styles?

Answer 26

1. Positive-Constructive daydreaming
   - Vivid, playful, and wish-fulfilling, used for problem solving and are enjoyed
   - Happy daydreamers
2. Guilty-Dysphoric daydreaming
   - Bizarre in nature, hallucinatory vividness
   - Ambition, fear, failure, regrets
   - Dysphoric
3. Poor Attentional control
   - Difficulty concentrating, anxious, distractible
   - Can be unpleasant or pleasant

Question 27

What is the 5 factor model of personality

Answer 27

1. Extroversion - being sociable, lively, and outgoing
2. Agreeableness - humane, caring, emotionally supportive
3. Conscientiousness - self-control, will to achieve (poor attention control - negative end)
4. Neuroticism - poor vs good, emotional adjustment (Guilty-Dysphoric daydreaming)
5. Openness - imaginative, intelligent, curious (Positive-constructive daydreaming)

Question 28

How can daydreaming styles change?

Answer 28

• Study: 5th grade Dutch children, 3 daydreaming styles emerged
• positive-intense daydreaming - pleasant, childlike and fanciful
• aggressive-heroic - hero’s, what we want to do to unpleasant people
• dysphoric daydreaming - unpleasant day dreaming about things that could happen to oneself or family
• • non-violent tv = increased positive-intense daydreaming, non-violent dramas = inhibited aggressive-heroic daydreaming , violent dramas inhibited positive-intense daydreaming

Question 29

Describe imagination

Answer 29

• Imagery is linked with memory and pattern recognition, the notion of imagination implies the presence of a creative aspect of mind

Question 30

Describe guided imagery

Answer 30

• Process of actively directing images in a symbolically meaningful sequence
• Psychosynthesis (Roberto Assagioli, 1910) - nonconscious aspects of our psyche include not only a subconscious but also a superconscious

Question 31

What is psychoneuroimmunology

Answer 31

• Sometimes our thoughts can have effects on our immune system (O’Reagan, 1983)
• If you make a change symbolically you can make a change physically

Question 32

Describe the psychoneuroimmunology study

Answer 32

• Rats are given a good tasting drink 30 minutes before being injected with an immunosuppressant (cyclophosphamide) (association between the way something tasted and the activity of the immune system - suppresses immune system)

Question 33

Describe neutrophil study

Answer 33

• participants who were asked to suppress their thoughts had decreased levels of WBCs (Petrie, Booth & Pennebaker, 1998)
  1. John Schneider study:
• 10 studies examined the effects of guided imagery on the immune system of neutrophils
• neutrophils have an adherence which is capable of being increased “migrate from the blood stream to a particular site of infection”
• 16 healthy students given a lecture about neutrophils and a 2 hour imagery training session - asked to imagine that their neuts were responding as if there were a crisis so that the nets would increase their adherence and migrate out of the bloodstream to the site of infection
• blood was taken before and after
• found a 60% drop for # of neuts only, a decrease in the adherence despite prediction
  2. same study with 27 medical students were asked to keep the neuts in their bloodstream while decrease adherence
• found: no change in WBC, increase in the adherence of the neuts and a positive correlation between increased neuts adherence and quality of imagery ratings

Question 34

What did the neutrophil study prove?

Answer 34

• the ability of a specific type of WBC to conform to imagined changes
• Suggests that there is a more intimate connection between he physiological, cognitive and experiential aspects of our nature

Question 35

Who is John Lilly?

Answer 35

• Researcher of sensory restriction
• Wanted to know what would happen if sensory input were to be reduced (1954)
• Built the underwater tank with breathing mask in the dark, soundproof room
  “the most profound relaxation and rest that he had ever had”
• “Without a changing sensory environment the brain ceases to function in an adequate way

Question 36

Describe the study of sensory restriction

Answer 36

• Participants were exposed to a stressful environment, control group encountered a more relaxed atmosphere
• both confined to a well-lit room for 4 hours
• after 4 hours the participants in the experimental group had greater decrements in cognitive and more frequently reported intellectual dullness and restlessness (Orne & Scheibe, 1964)

Question 37

What are the types of sensory restriction?

Answer 37

• 1970 Lilly invented a flotation tank of Epsom salts, stimulus reduction, was a highly effective treatment in habit modification
• restricted environmental stimulation technique or therapy REST
• 2 types of REST
  1. flotation rest
• floats on back, can daydream
  2. Chamber rest
• lies on a bed in a dark room with reduced sound for 24 hours

Question 38

What are the effects of sensory restriction?

Answer 38

• Provide relief from the stressors
• think more deeply than usual
• uncover disturbing aspects about themselves
• depressed may not benefit from REST
• improvement in mood
• development of flexibility of mind
• addiction sensation - 47% were abstinent at a 19 month follow up (smoking)
• Athletic enhanced performance

Question 39

What is a sensed presence?

Answer 39

• a feeling that another being is present when not other being is actually physically present (Lilly, 1978)
• occurs in social isolation
• Charles Lindbergh sense presences during flight from Boston to Paris in 1927

Question 40

Describe the Laying on the Hands study…

Answer 40

• mice with 100% fatality in 14-17 days
• treats mice 1 hour per 1 day for 1 month
• tumours became blackened, ulcerated, imploded and closed
• cure rate of 87.9 %for 3 mice
• Bengston Article