Consciousness

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Consciousness
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Consciousness

• We are aware of ourselves
• We are aware of our actions, perceptions,
  thoughts, memories, and feelings
• Consciousness is the awareness of complex
  processes such as, perceiving thinking, and
  remembering

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Philosophical Positions

• Not a natural phenomenon
• Something supernatural that cannot be understood
• Natural phenomenon that cannot be understood
• Nature of the human brain
• Poorly defined, not enough instruments, etc.
• Can be understood
• Just another activity of the brain

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Most likely explanation

• Consciousness does not exist
• The ability to be conscious does
• We are not conscious of everything
• Ability to communicate provides self-awareness
• Evidence that thinking is talking in a smaller
  scale (covertly)

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Consciousness

• Are animals conscious?
• Can a computer have consciousness?
• What do you think?

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Does thought cause action?

• Thought and action go together, but it is only a
  correlation
• Thought and action can both be caused by another
  variable

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Attention

• We are not conscious of all stimuli detected by
  our sensory organs
• Selective attention Process that controls our
  awareness of particular categories of events in
  the environment with exclusion of others
• Divided attention Decision process of the brain
  that determines how our awareness will be
  apportioned to different experiences

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Attention

• Our verbal mechanisms can contain only a limited
  amount of information at one time
• We cannot be aware of everything
• Selective attention determines what will be
  noticed
• Novelty, verbal instructions, significance
• Parts of the brain are temporarily sensitized

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Hypnosis

• Verbal control
• Ideomotor suggestions particular action occurs
  without awareness (raising arm)
• Challenge suggestions particular action cannot
  be performed
• Cognitive suggestion Distortions of sensory
  experiences
• Altered activity in the verbal system
  (consciousness)

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Hypnosis

• Posthypnotic suggestibility Follows an
  instruction given during hypnosis after returning
  to the normal state
• Posthypnotic amnesia Ignorance of what happened
  during hypnosis

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Hypnosis

• Sociocognitive approach (Spanos)
• Not a different state of consciousness
• Hypnotic behaviors are social actions that
  reflect what the individual believes
• Expectations play an important role
• Participation in stories

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Hypnosis

• Dissociation approach
• Distinction between implicit and explicit memory
• Perception may occur without awareness (visual
  agnosia)
• Unawareness of events
• Absent minded episodes
• Intention is dissociated from actions

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The Ponzo illusion and hypnotic blindness The
short horizontal lines are the same length. Even
when a hypnotic suggestion made the slanted lines
disappear, the visual system still perceived the
illusion
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Uses of Hypnosis

• Can be used in Psychological treatment
• Effective tool in desensitizing phobic patients
• Relaxation
• Smoking cessation
• Pain management (endorphins are not responsible)

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Altered States of Consciousness

• Techniques for withdrawing attention
• Meditation
• Directs attention to a single object, phrase
  (mantra), sound, or movement (breathing)
• Heightening of awareness and increase in
  attention
• Increasing consciousness or Dishabituating

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Altered States of Consciousness

• Sleep Serves to repair the wear and tear on our
  bodies caused by moving and exercising
• Collect data on electrical activity of the brain
• Stage 1 Slow electrical activity similar to
  awake state
• Stage 2 Short bursts of electrical activity
• Stage 3 Slow waves, heart rate and breathing
  slows down
• Stage 4 Electrical activity increases and
  sleeper climbs back up through the stages
• Sleeper enters REM sleep

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REM

• Rapid Eye Movement
• About every 90 minutes we enter the REM stage for
  20-30 minutes, then NREM.
• 4-5 cycles
• NREM no mental activity
• REM vivid cognitions and sleep paralysis

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Dreams

• Psychological and Psychobiological
• Freud (1900). The interpretation of dreams
• Very influential despite lack of scientific
  evidence to support it
• Dreams play a role by relieving tensions
• Harmlessly fulfill a desire
• Manifest content
• Latent content symbolic meaning of the dream

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Dreams

• Activation Syndrome Theory
• Brain trying to make sense of spontaneous bursts
  of activities
• Cortical activation is random
• Brain pulls together the messages by creating a
  coherent story
• Internal activation promotes the growth and
  development of the brain
• Story is influenced by culture, gender,
  personality factors, and recent events

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Sleep

• Sleep deprivation has an effect on cognitive and
  motor functioning
• It is required for normal brain functioning
• Sleep debt makes you stupid (Dement Vaughan,
  1999, p.231)

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Biological Clocks

• Circadian Rhythms
• Changes in activity in the hypothalamus control
  daily cycles of sleep and wakefulness
• Rhythms are synchronized with those of the sun
• Basic rest-activity cycle - slow wave and REM
  sleep

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