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Consciousness
Chapter 3
Consciousness
What is consciousness?
Consciousness
What is consciousness?
A slippery concept, which psychologists have tried to define for more than a century…
Consciousness
What is consciousness?
Our awareness of ourselves and our environment
States of Consciousness
Consciousness
What is consciousness?
There is also some agreement on what some of the key functions consciousness serves…
Consciousness
The Brain and Consciousness
Cognitive Neuroscience – the interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with our mental processes, including consciousness
Brain activity in a patient showing no outward signs of conscious awareness after being asked to imagine playing tennis and moving around her home.
Consciousness
The Brain and Consciousness
Dual Processing
Perception, memory, thinking, language, and most all other aspects of psychological functioning operate on two levels…
The “High Road” – conscious, deliberate processing, of which we are aware
The “Low Road” – unconscious, automatic processing, of which we are unaware
One of the first psychologists to recognize this was Sigmund Freud. Freud argued that much of our behavior is driven by unconscious drives.
Credit: Max Halberstadt
Patients with a condition called blindsight have no awareness whatsoever of any stimuli—like the square above—but are able to process aspects of a visual stimulus, such as location.
Did the object appear to the left or right?
Participants watch a computer clock sweep through a revolution every 2.56 seconds. They note the time at which they decide to move their wrist.
About 1/3 of a second before the decision, brain wave activity jumps, indicating a readiness to move. The brain makes a decision to move before we are consciously aware of that decision.
Consciousness
The Brain and Consciousness
Dual Processing
Selective Attention
Everyone knows what attention is. It is the taking possession by the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one out of what seem several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization, concentration, of consciousness are of its essence. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others, and is a condition which has a real opposite in the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state which in French is called distraction…
- William James
Selection attention is a mental “spotlight” that focuses conscious awareness on a very limited aspect of all that your experience.
Selective Attention
Selection attention is a mental “spotlight” that focuses conscious awareness on a very limited aspect of all that your experience.
Selective Attention
Selection attention is a mental “spotlight” that focuses conscious awareness on a very limited aspect of all that your experience.
Selective Attention
Imagine trying to study for this course in a busy coffee shop. Selective attention is what allows you to concentrate on what your trying to study and to filter out irrelevant sights and sounds.
Selective Attention
Discussing the War in Paris Café, Frederick Barnard
Inattentional Blindness
If we are distracted, we can even miss things that happen right before our eyes, a phenomenon called inattentional blindness.
Inattentional Blindness
In one experiment, participants were shown a video in which people in white shirts and black shirts were passing a ball back and forth.
Inattentional Blindness
Participants who were asked to count the passes of the white team members didn’t even notice when a research assistant in a gorilla suit passed through the circle of players, pausing for 5 seconds to beat its chest!
Change Blindness
While a man (white hair) provides directions to a supposed construction worker, two experimenters rudely pass between them carrying a door…
Change Blindness
During this interruption, the original worker switches places with another person wearing different colored clothing. Most people do not notice the switch.
Selective Attention and Accidents
Research by psychologist David Strayer indicates that driving while talking on a cellphone is as dangerous as driving drunk.
Selective Attention and Accidents
Research by psychologist David Strayer indicates that driving while talking on a cellphone is as dangerous as driving drunk.
http://www.psych.utah.edu/lab/appliedcognition/
Selective Attention and Accidents
Research by psychologist David Strayer indicates that driving while talking on a cellphone is as dangerous as driving drunk.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=yCD-brlpy7o&vq=medium
Selective Attention and Accidents
Research by psychologist David Strayer indicates that driving while talking on a cellphone is as dangerous as driving drunk.
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=113035255&m=113088199
Selective Attention and Accidents
Research by psychologist David Strayer indicates that driving while talking on a cellphone is as dangerous as driving drunk.
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=113035255&m=113088199
Selective Attention and Accidents
Selective Attention and Accidents
If each saw the clown, counted as 2.
Consciousness
Sleep and Dreams
Soft embalmer of the still midnight…
From To Sleep by John Keats
Credit: Meena Kadri
Consciousness
Sleep and Dreams
Biological Rhythms and Sleep
Circadian Rhythm
Occur on a 24-hour cycle and include sleep and wakefulness. Termed our “biological clock,” it can be altered by artificial light.
Light triggers the suprachiasmatic nucleus to decrease (morning) melatonin from the pineal gland and increase (evening) it at nightfall.
Consciousness
Sleep and Dreams
Biological Rhythms and Sleep
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Measuring sleep: About every 90 minutes, we pass through a cycle of five distinct sleep stages, which researchers identify by measuring brain activity, eye movements, and muscle tension.
Sleep Stages
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Measuring sleep: About every 90 minutes, we pass through a cycle of five distinct sleep stages, which researchers identify by measuring brain activity, eye movements, and muscle tension.
Sleep Stages
Sleep Stages
Awake But Relaxed: When an individual closes his or her eyes but remains awake, brain activity slows down to a large amplitude and slow, regular alpha waves.
Sleep Stages
Stages 1-2: During early, light sleep the brain enters a high-amplitude, slow, regular wave form called theta waves. A person who is daydreaming shows theta activity.
Sleep Stages
Stages 3-4: During deepest sleep, brain activity slows down. There are large-amplitude, slow delta waves.
Sleep Stages
Stage 5: After reaching the deepest sleep stage (4), the sleep cycle starts moving backward towards Stage 1. Although still asleep, the brain engages in low-amplitude, fast and regular beta waves, much like awake-aroused state.
Sleep Stages
Sleep Stages
Dreams can occur in any sleep stage, but the most vivid dreams are reported in Stage 5 (REM). During this stage, you are essentially paralyzed. The brain stem blocks messages of the motor cortex.
The Knight’s Dream, Antonio de Pereda (1655)
Consciousness
Sleep and Dreams
Why Do We Sleep?
The Effects of Sleep Loss
Thanks to Thomas Edison’s bright idea, we sleep less than our ancestors. Teens, for example, need 8 or 9 hours per night, but average only 7.
Credit: KMJ , alpha masking by Edokter
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The Effects of Sleep Loss
1. Impaired concentration
2. Emotional irritability
3. Depressed immune system
4. Greater vulnerability
5. Death
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=Co94aQDs3ek&vq=small#t=29
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The Effects of Sleep Loss
(Canadian Traffic Accidents)
Consciousness
Sleep and Dreams
Sleep Disorders
Sleep Disorders
1. Insomnia: A persistent inability to fall asleep or to stay asleep.
2. Narcolepsy: Overpowering urge to fall asleep that may occur while talking or standing up.
3. Sleep apnea: Failure to breathe when asleep.
4. Fatal familial insomnia: An extremely rare disease that prevents a person from sleeping, resulting in death
