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