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BCS > Week 5 lecture > Flashcards

Week 5 lecture Flashcards

1
Q

Leading theory on consciousness at start of 20th century

A

Behaviourism

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2
Q

What took over from behaviourism

A

Cognitive psychology

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3
Q

Ecological fallacy

A

Group data cannot be applied to every individual in this group

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4
Q

3 perspectives on consciousness

A
  1. Philosophy: Analytical philosophy, phenomenology (Meaningful terms, what it looks like and feels like)
  2. Neuroscience: Anatomy and functional processes (Can only show correlation so still a bit hypothetical)
  3. Cognitive Science: Experimental psychology and computer science
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5
Q

6 features of consciousness (Philosophy)

A
  1. Qualitative character: Raw, what if feels like, phenomenal content
  2. Intentionality: Being about something, Representing something, Aspects of consciousness that can be put into language
    -Not to be confused with intentions (Intentionality doesn’t always lie in the power of the individual)
  3. Subjectivity/ privacy: Epistemic stance (Notion that consciousness can only be known from the inside, that our conscious processes are private)
  4. Unity: Integrated experience- We see things as a complete whole
    -Psychedelic drugs reduce unity
  5. Transparency: Like seeing through glasses without being able to recognise them, we dont experience the process giving rise to consciousness
  6. Dynamic flow: Ever changing process that cannot be stopped
    -Paying attention to/ reporting on consciousness changes it
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6
Q

New thought experiment

A

If you record action potentials and replated these exact signals on their brain
-Would subject experience the same conscious states?

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7
Q

Disciplinary frame of consciousness (reductionistic and neurobiological)

A

-Dominant research at the moment
-Subjective phenomenon of consciousness cannot be studied within the objective framework of science

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8
Q

3 dimensions for neurobiological theories

A
  1. Mode of explanation (Aim):
    -Mechanism (Using smaller parts)
    -Unification (Looking at bigger picture)
  2. Mechanism of explanation (Tool):
    -Causal vs functional (Difference doesnt make sense because functional is also causal
  3. Target of explanation
    - Quality vs quantity of consciousness
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9
Q

Access consciousness

A

Consciousness as availability for information processing
-Thirst has a function to prevent death of organisms
-This info has to be made available to the system

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10
Q

Conclusion of Signorelli’s paper
-How do we explain consciousness

A

To fully explain what it means to be conscious we first need to know what it means to explain something

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11
Q

2 most common consciousness theories

A
  1. Global Workspace Theory: Consciousness arises when info is made available to many systems- Access consciousness and content
  2. Integrated Information Theory (IIT): Favoured by neurologists, explains consciousness as complexity of info processing (Higher the complexity and the lower the predictability of brain processes, the higher the correlation with consciousness)
    -Said to implicitly express some form of panpsychism
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12
Q

Neuroscience of consciousness

A

-Many masked visual paradigms not investigating consciousness but experimenting reportability
-New tasks done not requiring to report consciousness (Targets posterior rather than frontal areas)
-To understand consciousness look at temporal and parietal lobes (back of brain)

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13
Q

Consciousness explanandum- What you want to explain

A

-Access
-Content
-Emotion
-Phenomenal features
-Self-conscious
-State

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14
Q

Functions of consciousness

A

-Attention
-Emotion
-Interoception
-Metacognition
-Perceptual binding
-Self
-Task relevance
-Working memory

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15
Q

Different perspectives on consciousness and their parts of the brain

A

IIT: Posterior- phenomenal consciousness
GWT: Frontal- Access consciousness

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16
Q

Problem of introspection

A

-Consciousness is constantly changing- Difficult to empirically inspect
-Paying attention to a conscious state changes it and memory of states will be distorted

17
Q

Monk case study tasks

A

-Focus on external sensory perception, episodic memory and bodily sensations
-Formal meditation to reach a state of content-minimised awareness

18
Q

Results from the monks meditation

A

-Subjective report: Monk was not aware of any mental content or sensory events, Didn’t experience self, time and space
-Could be classified as a state of disconnected consciousness )Sharp decrease in alpha EEG power and decoupling between dorsal attention network and sensory cortex)
-These states lack internal mentation and associated with interrupted self-related processes
-Stable attentional state associated with increase in connectivity within the dorsal attention network and increase in theta power

19
Q

Hard problem of consciousness (Chalmers)

A

-Finding a third-person explanation of the subjective experience
-Based on intuitions/ lack of imagination
-We will never have a reductionist account (Never be able to explain the phenomenal aspects)
-Advocated for natural dualism: Argue reality is composed of 2 sets of irreducible properties of info- Functional/psychological structure of info and the phenomenal structure of consciousness
-Argued for panpsychism: Belief that consciousness is everywhere and that it served the irreducible intrinsic nature that grounds physical properties
-Dual aspect monism (related to panpsychism): Consciousness and physics as 2 aspects of a single underlying reality

20
Q

IIT assumptions

A

Consciousness has a physical basis and can be mathematically measured

21
Q

How consciousness emerges according to IIT

A

From the way in which info is processed within a system (eg. networks of neurons)- The more connected systems have higher levels of consciousness

22
Q

Lebniz’s monadology

A

Machine that can think, feel and perceive like humans
-So big that you can walk around in it and see its mechanical parts but non of these explain perception
-Perception can only be understood by the whole and not the sum of its parts
-No reductionistic account for consciousness therefore we cannot understand it by looking at the cells and neurons

23
Q

Watson (behaviourist) and consciousness

A

Said introspection and words like “feeling” had no clear definition and therefore no place in science

24
Q

Wundt and consciousness

A

Similar view to Watson (behaviourist) but said at least some perceptions could be observed scientifically

25
Q

Neurophenomenology and meditation research

A

Sustained attention meditation may introspectively investigate consciousness- One can perceive emotions and thoughts without identifying them (There is anger without interpreting “I am angry”)
-Regular meditators may become neutral observers of their own behaviour

Sustained attention would facilitate stable consciousness that doesn’t move- ‘Pure consciousness’

26
Q

Aims of models of consciousness

A

Describe how the physical domain relates to conscious experience

27
Q

Disagreements between models of consciousness

A

-Neural correlates (Prefrontal cortex or posterior areas)- Due to different assumptions

28
Q

Thomas Nagel

A

The purely objective, scientific study of an entity doesnt allow for any inference about the subjective character of being such an entity

29
Q

Daniel Dennett-Illusionism

A

Contesting the idea that phenomena consciousness should be the end-all of any scientific theory of consciousness
-Illusionists typically deny the existence of a non-physical essence of conscious experience (the qualitative nature of experience, but not the experience itself)
-Put forward the multiple drafts model of consciousness

30
Q

Phenomenal consciousness

A

‘What its likeness’
‘Minimal sense’ of conscious experience
Doesn’t require reportability

31
Q

Access consciousness

A

Centralised availability for processing of info and the reportability of conscious experience
-Also refers to other phenomena that are close to consciousness eg. attention, meta-cognition

32
Q

John Searle- Biological naturalism

A

-Consciousness is a product of the brain in the same way that bile is a product of the liver
-No viable mechanism for this process (Common problem for all physicalist/materialistic approaches)

33
Q

Idealistic theories of consciousness

A

Physical world is a process of consciousness
-Matter only exists insofar that it is represented in consciousness
-Was the dominant worldview until 20th century

34
Q

Francisco Valera

A

Regarded consciousness and brain processes as ‘mutually constraining phenomena’ that ground an empirical approach to consciousness

35
Q

Neurophenomenology

A

Adaptation of phenomenology
-Seeks to undercover the necessary structures of all experiences
-Questions still remain about how brain dynamics and conscious experience mutually constrain each other

36
Q

Scientific models of consciousness include

A

Concrete hypotheses, predictions, mechanisms and explanations of associated phenomena

37
Q

Theories of consciousness include

A

-Set of explicit (often formalised) systemic premises
-Concrete model to enable testing of predictions and eventually its implementation and manipulation
-Mostly operate on implicit assumptions and dont resemble proper theories

38
Q

How to understand models of consciousness

A

Make their underlying philosophical assumptions explicit

BCS (6 decks)

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