States of Consciousness

States of Consciousness Chapter 5

Consciousness • “The process by which the brain creates a model of internal and external experience.” • The part of the mind that we can potentially retrieve a fact, an idea, an emotion, or a memory, and recombine them in the process, “thinking.” • This part of the mind helps us combine both reality and fantasy.

Consciousness • Core Concept: • Consciousness can take many forms, while other mental processes occur simultaneously outside our awareness. • What is does for us: • Restricts our attention. • Combines sensation with learning and memory. • Allows us to create a mental model of the world that we can manipulate.

Cognitive Neuroscience • A field composed of variety of specialties—but they are all interested in how the brain processes information and creates conscious experience. • They believe the brain acts like a “biological computing device with vast resources—capable of creating the complex universe of imagination and experience, we think of as consciousness.

Levels of Consciousness Conscious Nonconscious Preconscious Unconscious

Consciousness/Nonconscious • Consciousness: Brain process of which we are aware • Takes on a variety of roles • But, consciousness must focus sequentially. • Meaning, first on one thing, then on to another. • Consciousness is not good at multi-tasking. • Nonconscious- any brain process that does not involve conscious processes • Is very good at multi-tasking. (walking, chewing gum, and breathing.)

Tools for studying consciousness • High-tech tools, such as the MRI, PET, EEG have opened new windows through which researchers can look into the brain to see which regions are activated, but these high-tech forms can answer, HOW.

Mental Rotation • An experiment done by Roger Shepard and Jacqueline Metzler in 1971/ • Wanted to see if “people turn things over” when comparing objects. • They reasoned that if the mind actually rotates these images when comparing them, people will take longer to answer. • This is exactly what they found. Mentally we rotate objects in our minds to compare and contrast them.

Zooming in with the Mind • Stephen Kosslyn found that we can use our conscious minds to “zoom in” on the details of our mental images. • He first asked people to think of objects, such as an elephant or a cat. • Then he’d ask questions like, “Is it a black cat?” “Does it have a long tail?” • He recorded how long it took the subjects to respond. • He found that the smaller the detail he asked for, the longer the subjects needed for a response

Experiments • Both of these experiments suggests that we consciously manipulate our visual images in much the same way that we might manipulate physical objects in the outside world.

Levels of a Conscious Mind • Restriction • Combination • Manipulation

Restriction • Consciousness restricts our attention. • Because it works serially, it limits what you think about. • This keeps your brain from being overwhelmed by stimulation. • Example- You stop reading and focus on the music playing in the background.

Combination • Consciousness provides a mental “meeting place” where sensation combines with memory, emotion, motives, and other psychological processes. • Consciousness is a canvas where we create a meaningful picture from stimulation from our external and internal worlds. • Ex- connects the emotion of joy with seeing an old friend’s face.

Manipulation • We can use a conscious model of our world that draws on memory, bringing both the past and future into awareness. • We can think and plan by manipulating our mental world to evaluate alternative responses and imagine how effective they will be. • Example: Keeps you from being too honest with a friend wearing clothes you don’t like.

Levels of the Nonconscious Mind • Preconscious • Unconscious

Levels of Consciousness • Preconscious – Information that is not currently in consciousness, but can be brought into consciousness if attention is called to it. • Unconscious – Many levels of processing that occur without awareness.

Preconscious • Memories of events, (a date last week, facts, etc) can return to consciousness with relative ease when something cues their recall. • Otherwise, the lay in the background of our mind, just beyond boundary of consciousness till needed.

Unconscious • “Cognition occurring without awareness.” • Consists of many levels of processing that occur without awareness, like brain systems to breathing. • Example: You follow the same route to school everyday, but you don’t have to think about every turn you take.

Unconscious • D E F _ _ _ • What is this word? • Defend • Define • Defeat

Priming • A technique psychologist use to that have some influence on the answers people give with their being conscious that they were influenced.

Cycles of consciousness • Consciousness changes in cycles that correspond to our biological rhythms and to the patterns of stimulation in our environment.

Daydreaming • Turns our attention inward to memories, expectations, and desires—often with vivid mental imagery. • Occurs most often when people are alone, relaxed, or bored. • It is normal, young adults report the most frequent daydreams. • Can be healthy and help solve problems/concerns.

Daydreams • They can feature persistent and unwelcome wishes, worries, or fantasies. • Deliberate efforts to suppress unwanted thoughts are likely to backfire. • Trying to get a song out of your head. • “White Bear Experiment” • Students were asked to speak on a tape recorder about anything that came to mind. Their only instruction was to not say “white bear”. • Students said “white bear” about once every minute.

Daydreams • Trying to suppress a thought or put something out of your mind can result in an obsession with the very thought you are trying to forget. • The best thing to do is to allow your mind to roam freely, thoughts usually become less intrusive and finally cease.

Daydreams vs. Night Dreams • Daydreams are less vivid • Less mysterious • And do not occur under the influence of biological cycles.

Sleep • If you live to be 90, you will have slept for nearly 30 years! • Has become a vibrant field of study so we can understand our natural biological clocks.

Circadian Rhythms • All creatures fall under the influence of nature’s changes, especially the pattern of light and darkness. • Circadian Rhythms: bodily patterns that repeat approximately every 24 hours. • Internal control of these recurring rhythms reside in a “biological clock” • Biological clock- set the internal control of metabolism, heart rate, body temp.

Biological Clocks • Most people settle into a circadian cycle of about 25 hours. • But under more “normal” circumstances, the pattern undergoes daily readjustment by our exposure to light and by our habitual routines. • Anything that throws off your biological clock affects how you feel and behave. • Example: Nurses switching from day shifts to night shifts.

Main Events of Sleep • Sleep has been a mystery for most of human history—until 1952. • Eugene Aserinsky decided to make recordings of his sons brave waves and muscle movements of the eye. • He was one of the first to witness and record the events that happen while we are sleeping.

Sleep Stages • We don’t just fall down and get tired and go to sleep. • Sleep is much more complicated than that • There is multiple stages to sleep

Sleep Stages

REM Sleep • REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement) • During this stage, the brain fires furiously, blood pressure zooms upward, eyes move rapidly, breathing and heart rate are accelerated…all within a PARALYZED body! • This paralyzed body is called, sleep paralysis. • REM sleep occurs about every 90 minutes. Throughout the night they last longer. • REM is associated with dreaming/

NREM Non-Rapid Eye Movement- Normally occurs in deeper stages of sleep. -Brain is still active, providing partial thoughts, images, and stories. (but stories aren’t organized) -Reoccurring periods of deeper levels of sleep.

Brain Waves • Beta Waves- Rapid brain waves appear when a person is awake • Alpha-Fairly relaxed brain waves that occur during stage 1, just before we go to sleep. • Delta- Slow, lazy, deep sleep brain waves.

Sleep Cycle on an EEG • Stage 1- EEG displays some slower (theta) activity, along with fast brain (beta) waves similar to waves we see while we are awake. • Stage 2- Generally shows slower “sleep spindles”– short bursts of fast electrical activity • Stage 3 and 4- Sleeper enters a progressively deeper state of relaxed sleep. Heart rate and breathing slow down, brain waves slow dramatically , delta waves appear for the first time. • Stage 4- Deepest sleep, but at the end of the cycle, brain activity increases and the sleeper starts back through the cycles.

Sleep Cycles • As the sleeper re-enters stage 1, the sleeper now enters REM sleep for the FIRST time. • Over the course of an average night sleep, most people go through sleep stages 4-6 times. • In each successive cycle, the amount of time in deep sleep (stages 3-4) decreases and the amount of time spent in REM increases. • Our 1st round of REM lasts about 10 mins. Our last REM period can last up to an hour.

REM Rebound • REM rebound occurs when a person is deprived of a substantial amount of REM sleep. -The first time we go to sleep after being deprived of REM sleep, both the length and number of our dreams increases as well as the dramatics. (in order to make up for missed dreams)

Views of the Function of Sleep • 1. Evolutionary Psychologist- sleep may have evolved because it enables animals to conserve energy and stay out of harms way. • View 2. - Sleep aids mental functioning for problem solving and memory. • View 3.- Sleep may have a restorative function for the body and mind.

Need for Sleep • The amount of sleep we require is linked to our personal characteristics & habits. • Those who sleep longer than average tend to be more nervous, worrisome, artistic, creative, and nonconforming. • Short sleepers tend to be more energetic and extroverted. • The amount of physical activity or working out a person does effects the amount of sleep needed.

Developmental Perspective • Sleep duration and the shape of sleep cycle change over one’s lifetimes. • Newborns sleep about 16 hours a day, with half that time devoted to REM sleep. • During childhood the amount of sleep gradually declines. • Young adults typically sleep 7-8 hours with about 20% REM. • By old age, we sleep less with only about 15% of REM

Sleep Debt • A sleep deficiency caused by not getting the amount of sleep that one requires for optimal functioning. • Normally people do not realize this is happening. • People wake up and feel energized, but then it catches up with them, • With chronic sleep debt you are never as mentally efficient and alert as you should be.

Dreams • We know that the brain and brain stem are involved in dreaming. But, scientist want to know what function do dreams have? • Biological view- dreams maybe necessary for healthy brain functioning. • Cognitive View- see dreams as meaningful mental event, serving pressing cognitive needs or reflecting on important events or fantasies in the dreamers world. • Other views- Argue that dreams are merely the brain’s random activity during sleep—and therefore have no special meaning.

Freud and Dreams as Meaningful Events • Two Main Theories: • 1. To guard sleep. • Believed dreams play their guardian role by relieving psychic tensions created during the day. • 2. Serve as sources of wish fulfillment • Allow the dreamer to work through harmless unconscious desires.

Freud and Dreams • Latent Content- He analyzed his patients dreams because he thought he was able to find clues about their inner thoughts and forbidden impulses. He believed dreams were symbolic expressions of our unconscious conflicts. • Manifest Content- story line of a dream is taken at face value without interpretation.

Dreams Vary by Culture, Gender, & Age • With research, a more objective approach to dream diagnosis has been made. Dreams are said to vary by: • Culture • Gender • Age

Age Example • Children are more likely to dream about animals. In their dreams, these animals are more likely to be large and threatening. • College students are more likely to dream as animals as pets. • Adults don’t often dream of animals. • May mean that children feel in less control of their world than adults do.

Gender Example • Woman are more likely to dream children. • Men are more likely to dream of weapons, aggression, and tools. • Example: 40% of women dream about the sea or bodies of water, while only 27% of men do. • Falling or being chased occurs about equally for males and females. • Occur frequently btw normal males and females: romance, violence, talking to a dead friend or family member, embarrassing moments.

Culture Example • In Ghana– dreams often feature attacks by cows. • Americans– frequently dream of public embarrassment.

Dreams and Recent Experience The content of our dreams frequently connect with recent experience. • Ex- if you are struggling with your taxes all day, you are most likely to dream about taxes at night. Especially during your first REM sleep. • Typically the 1st dream of the night connects with with events from the previous day. Then dreaming in the 2nd REM tend to build on that dream theme. • The final dream that emerges may have a connection, but normally the last dream is most likely to be remembered so we might not see the connection to the previous day.

Dreams and Cognition • This may happen in REM to help remember and solve problems. • Also helps us to weave experiences into old and new memories.

States of Consciousness