Chapter 3Consciousness and the Two-Track Mind

Syllabus

Exam2 8, 9, 10 Consciousness18, 19, 20 Sensation & Percep

Syllabus

Exam329,30,31,32 Intelligence11,12,13 Nature/Nurture46,47,48 Personality

Chapter Topics

1. Defining ConsciousnessDual-track mind

2. Sleep and Dreams

3. Drugs and Consciousness

In the text, consciousness is defined as: “our awareness of ourselves and our environment.”

Aren’t animals aware of their environment? If so, is our awareness different?...Possibly…because we have (uniquely?) a narrative experience of that awareness.

Consciousness is… alertness; being awake

vs. being unconscious self-awareness; the

ability to think about self

having free will; being able to make a “conscious” decision

a person’s mental content, thoughts, and imaginings

To explore the nature of consciousness, it helps to first choose a definition.

Are animals “conscious”?

2012 Cambridge Declarationon Consciousness

“Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical and neurophysiologial substrates of conscious states, along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviours.”

Forms of Consciousness

http://jezebel.com/5859785/watch-the-worlds-first-movie-of-the-female-brain-during-orgasm

Forms of Consciousness

Psychology’s Relationship to this TopicPsychology was once defined as “the description and explanation of states of consciousness.”Now, consciousness is just one topic among many for psychologists.

Cognitive neuroscience allows us to revisit this topic and see how the brain is involved.

Brain and Consciousness: Findings and Debates

FindingSome rare

“unconscious” patients have brain responses to

conversation.

ImplicationDon’t judge a book by its cover when it

comes to consciousness.

DebateWhat is going on in the brain that

generates our experience of

consciousness?

One ViewSynchronized, coordinated

brain activity generates consciousness, or at least

is a sign that conscious activity is occurring.

Conscious vs. Unconscious Activity: The Dual-Track Mind

Conscious “high” track:our minds take deliberate actions we know we are

doing Examples: problem solving, naming an object, defining a

word

Unconscious “low” track:our minds perform automatic actions, often without being

aware of themExamples: walking, acquiring phobias, processing sensory details into perceptions and

memories

Conscious:

“I saw a bird!”

Unconscious:

Think before you act? Libet (1985) Brain activity BEFORE conscious

of wanting to push the button

Think before you act?

Why Have Two Tracks?Benefit? SLOW Thinking Action controlled processing FAST Perception Action automatic processing

Examples You can hit or catch a ball without having to consciously

calculate its trajectory. You can speak without having to think about the definitions

of each word. You can walk and chew gum AND carry on a conversation.

Unusual Consequences of Having a Dual-Track Mind

Blindsight

Selective Attention

Selective Inattention

Inattentional blindness

Change blindness Choice blindness

Case StudyA woman with brain damage, but NO eye damage, was unable to use her eyes to report what was in front of her.BUT, she was able to use her eyes to help her take actions such as putting mail in slots.

What are the two mental “tracks” in this case?

Blindsight

Judging size and distance well enough to put the mail in the slot: the “low road,” or unconscious, automatic track, in this case known as the visual action track

Describing the mail and the slot:the “high road,” or conscious track, in this case known as the visual perception track

Blindsight

Hollow Face Illusion

Perception versus Action

Kroliczak et al. (2006)

millions of information bits every second.

Selective attention e.g., Cocktail Party Effect

Selective Attention

Selective Attention and Social Conversation

Good news: focus on a conversation

Bad news: Inattention blindness to serious threats

DrP’s “wasp” story

Cellphones and Texting

Distracted driving: huge problem….

Selective Attention

Texting Is Really Recent: 2008

Texting instantly became

Huge

Peak Texting Frequency (UW)

Peak Texting Frequency (2013)

Typical day: Receive (2013)

Texting While Driving

Texting While Driving48%

16%

Texting While Driving36%

12%

Texting While Driving

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz90K20Dufk

Texting While Drivinghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zz90K20Dufk

Selective inattention refers to our failure to notice part of our environment when our attention is directed elsewhere.

Selective Inattention: inattentional blindness change blindness choice blindness

Selective Inattention:what we are not focused

on, what we do not notice

Selective Attention: what we focus on,

what we notice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkrrVozZR2c

Inattentional Blindness Various experiments show that when our attention is

focused, we miss seeing what others may think is obvious to see (such as a gorilla, or a unicyclist).

Some “magic” tricks take advantage of this phenomenon.

Change Blindness

Two-thirds of people didn’t notice when the person they were giving directions to was replaced by a similar-looking person.

The Switch

By the way, did you notice whether the replacement person was in the same

clothes or different clothes?

Choice BlindnessIn one experiment, people chose their favorite among two jams. But when the jar’s contents were deceptively reversed and tasted again, people described the same jar’s contents as their chosen jam.

The researcher flips the divided containers, so that the next taste from that jar is actually the other jam.

And now, to SLEEP--

perchance, to Dream

How Do We Learn About Sleep and Dreams?

We can monitor EEG/brain waves and muscle movements during sleep.

We can expose the sleeping person to noise and words, and then examine the effects on the brain (waves) and mind (memory).

We can wake people and see which mental state (e.g. dreaming) goes with which brain/body state.

Sleep as a State of Consciousness

Consider that: we move around, but how do

we stop ourselves from falling out of bed?

we sometimes incorporate real-world noises into our dreams.

some noises (our own baby’s cry) wake us more easily than others.

When sleeping, are we fully unconscious and “dead to

the world”?

Or is the window to consciousness open?

Sleep and Biological Rhythms

24 hour biological “clock”

90 minute sleep cycle

.

Understanding Biological Rhythms

Biological rhythmsA periodic, more or less regular fluctuation in

a biological system; may or may not have psychological implications

EntrainmentBiological rhythms are synchronized with

external events such as changes in clock time, temperature, and daylight

Circadian RhythmsOccur about every 24 hoursExample: The sleep-wake cycle

Infradian RhythmsOccur less often than once a dayExamples: birds migrating, bears hibernating

Ultradian Rhythms greater than 1/day, e.g., about every 90mineg: stomach contractions and hormone levels

Circadian Rhythms

"Circa" (around), "-dias" (day)

Human cycle=24-25 hours

Controlled by: "biological clocks"Suprachiasmic Nucleus (in hypothal.)

Light--Optic Nerve--SCN-->hormones

Adapts body to environment cycles

Light > retina > suprachiasmatic nucleus > pineal gland > secretion of melatoninMelatonin regulates circadian rhythm

50

51

Which bird are you?

A Night bird ( OWL )B Morning bird ( LARK )C Odd bird (Ardvark)

D Big Bird

Circadian Rhythms

Your degree of alertness depends where you are in your circadian rhythm.

Are you are morning person or an evening person?

Morningness-Eveningness

Alertness is correlated with temperaturetemperature average peak/trough:

Highest at 8pm, Lowest at 6am

Individual differencesLark (morning) vs Owl (evening)very stable over timechanges with agewide individual differences (16-50 hr cycles)

Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire

-0.50 correlation with daily body temp peak

Watts (1982): match improves relationship quality

Monk & Leng (1986): test time matching improves mental performance (reasoning, serial search tasks)

Morningness-Eveningness

Bodenhausen (1990)mismatched showed higher stereotypingcognitive load is higherless cog resources = schematic thinking

Kruglanski & Pierro (2008)Tested Freud’s concept of transferenceFreud.Unctrans= deep emotional activationCog.Unc trans= simple memory screw-up

Morningness-Eveningness

Kruglanski & Pierro (2008)Cog.Unc trans= simple memory screw-upOwl/Larks can help test which is correct.

Prediction: Higher “transference” when tested

during mismatched time of day. (i.e, opposite to Owl-Lark score)

Morningness-Eveningness

Kruglanski & Pierro (2008)

Time1: “List traits of a signif. person in your life.” “ SO Traits”

Time2:Test Evening OR Morning.Given description of testing partner (traits) Memory quiz: Which were traits of partner?Prediction? Mismatched group will show

more false alarms for SO Traits

Kruglanski & Pierro (2008)

Cunia et al. (2014)

Cunia et al. (2014) Honesty requires self-control Self-control is related to alertness

Q: Does chronotype affect honesty?

Time of day ethicality ? Time of day x Chronotype ethicality ?

Cunia et al. (2014) Study:

Online questionnaire (Owl-Lark) ALSO “Roll dice” to enter a lottery Self-report dice result (might lie!) Actual dice result recorded secretly.

Results: Chronotype x Time of Day interaction !Lying? Larks in evening, Owls in morning.

Fig. 1. Results for Study 2: mean reported die roll as a function of session for morning and evening people.

Gunia B C et al. Psychological Science 2014;0956797614541989

Copyright © by Association for Psychological Science

Menstrual Cycles and Mood Does the menstrual cycle influence

women’s mood at certain times?

Yes, physical symptoms are common No, emotional symptoms are rare

Irritability and depressionFewer than 5% of womenPremenstrual dysphoric disorder

(PMDD)

Cause? Leading theory= Serotonin drop From changes in progesterone, estrogen, and

testosterone changes in late luteal phaseVariants in the estrogen receptor alpha gene

that are associated with PMDDVariants in COMT gene (mood regulator)Abnormal sensitivity to their own natural

hormone changes.Symptoms do correlate with drop in serotonin

precursors (in brain) as measured by PETSSRIs work, supports serotonin theory

Research Conclusions about “PMS” No gender differences

exist in monthly mood

No relation between menstrual cycle and mood !

No consistent “PMS” pattern exists across menstrual cycles

No connection exists between “PMS” and behaviour

Why Women Overestimate “PMS”Selective attention: Notice depression or

irritability when occurs premenstrually but overlook times when moods are absent

Selective attribution: prementrual irritability to mentruation but attribute it to other things at other times.

Influenced by normative beliefs about PMS

CONFIRMATION BIAS

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) Depression that is seasonal (winter) Fatigue as winter approaches Depression onset in winter Spring… symptoms go away

Cause ?Hyper-reactive circadian regulation of serotonin

Darkness MelatoninMelatonin lowers serotoninLow serotonin depression

SAD Treatment Time outdoors Brighter illumination in home & workplaces Exercise, (particularly outdoors) Fruits and vegetables Light therapy (phototherapy) Anti-depressants Cognitive therapy

Phototherapy

Night Work, Sleeping, & Health

Jet Lag stressful, cortisol is elevated

Rotating night shifts are much worse than constant night shift

As study of railroad engineers found 60% had dozed off at the controls during night trips.

20-30% of traffic accidents per/year are associated with driver sleepiness or fatigue

Effect of napping or coffeeHorne & Rayner

(1996)Driving Simulator 15-min breakCaffeine vs Nap

vs Placebo

RESULTCaffeine & nap both significantly reduced line crossing (compared to placebo)