week 3 Flashcards
What are the three meanings of consciousness according to Pinker (1997)?
Sentience, access to information, and self-awareness.
What is the hard problem of consciousness, as described by Chalmers?
Understanding why subjective experience arises from physical processes.
What does sentience refer to in consciousness?
Subjective experience or phenomenological awareness
What does access to information mean in the context of consciousness?
The ability to report subjective experiences
What is self-awareness in consciousness?
The narrative self, where one recognizes oneself as experiencing feelings and thoughts
Who proposed the narrative self is adaptive for social navigation?
Nicolas Humphrey
What profound idea did Velmans propose about the outside world?
It is a stream of visual consciousness inside our skulls, constrained by sensory information
What are the easy and hard problems of consciousness as defined by Chalmers?
Easy problems relate to functions of conscious systems; hard problems address why experience arises
What is the Global Neural Workspace theory?
It states that information integrated in a global workspace becomes the content of consciousness
What do Dehaene and Naccache’s theory states about conscious states?
Conscious states require activation in visual areas and top-down attention
What are the three states of consciousness in Dehaene and Naccache’s model?
Conscious, Pre-conscious, and Subliminal
What is the primary critique of consciousness theories in addressing the hard problem?
They do not explain why integrated cortical information is consciously experience
What experiment by Wegner explores the illusion of will?
The “I Spy” experiment
What are the conditions that enhance the illusion of conscious will?
Priority, consistency, and exclusivity
What did Libet’s readiness potential study show about free will?
The brain initiates actions before conscious decisions are reported
What advancement did Soon et al. provide on Libet’s experiment?
Predicting decisions using multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) fMRI
What is the WWW model by Brass and Haggard?
It characterizes stages of free decision-making: What, When, Whether
What is the definition of qualia?
Introspectively accessible, phenomenal aspects of mental lives
What did Melloni et al. find about cortical integration?
It involves synchronization of cortical oscillations
What brain areas are associated with consciousness according to Rees (2007)?
Superior parietal and dorsolateral prefrontal areas
What does selective attention influence according to Baars?
Selective attention integrates information into the global workspace
What is the key feature distinguishing consciousness from selective attention?
Attention can occur without consciousness, enhancing or inhibiting unconscious processing
What did split-brain studies by Gazzaniga and Sperry reveal?
The left hemisphere controls speech, and split-brain patients adapt to integrate information
What is the role of the left hemisphere in split-brain patients?
It is considered the home of the narrative self and superior consciousness
What are some of the brain areas activated during shifts in visual awareness?
Superior parietal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
What is the role of the corpus callosum in consciousness?
It integrates information between hemispheres, critical for unified consciousness
What profound message does Velmans’ perspective suggest about visual experience?
Visual experience is as internal as a dream
What does the readiness potential indicate about conscious decisions?
Actions are initiated pre-consciously
What did Baars and Franklin contribute to consciousness theory?
The Global Neural Workspace theory
How is visual consciousness often studied in research?
Through integration and synchronization of information in cortical areas
What does the term “qualia” specifically refer to?
Subjective sensory experiences
What does the split-brain phenomenon demonstrate about the sense of self?
The narrative self may be localized in the left hemisphere
How do theories of consciousness address free will?
They suggest conscious actions may be pre-prepared unconsciously
What does the Global Neural Workspace theory highlight about attention?
Attention is necessary for integrating information into conscious awareness
What are some indirect measures of consciousness used in studies?
Verbal reports and subjective judgments
How do subliminal stimuli compare to conscious stimuli in brain processing?
Both activate networks, but activation is higher during consciousness
What happens when cortical oscillations synchronize according to Melloni et al.?
This synchronization likely contributes to consciousness
Why is the left hemisphere considered dominant in split-brain patients?
It is responsible for speech and the narrative self
What is the “hard problem” of consciousness according to Chalmers?
Explaining why and how subjective experience arises from brain processes
