PSY 2012 General Psychology Chapter 3: States Consciousness

1. PSY 2012 General PsychologyChapter 3: States Consciousness Samuel R. Mathews, Ph.D. Associate Professor The Department of Psychology The University of West Florida

2. States of Consciousness • Think of your walk to class. What do you see? • Think of your last time to eat in a restaurant off campus. • What did you have to eat? • What did the main course taste like?

3. States of Consciousness • What is consciousness? • Where is consciousness located? • What does it mean to alter our state of consciousness? • What does it mean to lose consciousness?

4. What is consciousness? • Zimbardo et al. (2006): • “The process by which the brain creates a model of internal and external experience.” pg. 90

5. What is consciousness? • Vaitl, et al. (2005): Dimensions of consciousness: • Activation: • highly aroused to highly relaxed state of the organism • Awareness span: • wide-ranging focus to narrowly focused attention

6. What is consciousness? • Self awareness • Absorption of sense of self in the present to forgetting oneself • Sensory dynamics • Intense sensory experience to unaltered sensory experience

7. Factors Impacting States of ConsciousnessVaitl, et al. (2005) • Intact brain tissue • Changes can come from injury, drugs, etc. • Balanced metabolic system • Brain chemistry, nutrients, etc. • Moderate level of arousal • Balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic systems

8. Factors Impacting States of Consciousness Vaitl, et al. (2005) • Balance between excitatory and inhibitory networks • Neurotransmitters and neuroinhibitors functioning normally (see chapter 2; can be impacted by drugs or disease) • Midrange environmental conditions • Intensity, frequency, & duration are within the working and adaptive range of the sense organs • Alteration of any one or combination of these conditions can lead to an altered state of consciousness

9. The Conscious, Preconscious and Unconscious Mind • Conscious mind • Contains the contents of our immediate experiences (Vaitl’s awareness span) • Information in the conscious mind can be purposefully manipulated • Distractible yet can be controlled

10. The Conscious, Preconscious and Unconscious Mind • Preconscious mind • Contains memory traces that can be recalled with relative ease • Most likely associated with information that can be retrieved from our “long term” memory (memories that are retained over time)

11. The Conscious, Preconscious and Unconscious Mind • Unconscious mind: • Multiple interpretations • Freud—locus of deep seated and largely inaccessible drives and desires; only accessible through psychotherapy • Neuroscience—those processes operating below the level of consciousness (see example of priming, pg. 96 of Zimbardo et al., 2006)

12. States of Consciousness • Daydreaming—likely a sense of drift in the awareness span • Unintentional thoughts; not goal directed • Decreased vigilance to immediate surroundings

13. States of Consciousness • Sleep—likely a change in activation, sensory dynamics • Sleep Cycle (REM, NonREM) • Circadian Rhythms—normal sleep-wake cycle based on an approximately 24hour cycle • Likely controlled by a function of the hypothalamus • Sensitive to dark-light cycles • Sleep Deprivation • Less than 7 to 9 hours of sleep can create dysfunctional performance • Lowered cognitive performance • Drowsiness • Sleep deprivation and moderate alcohol impairment similar

14. States of Consciousness • Sleep—Dreaming • Sense of virtual reality • Typically visual sensations • Some covert speech • Increased motor activity • Sense of social interaction • Typically contains a narrative structure • (Vaitl, et al., 2005)

15. States of Consciousness • Sleep—Dreaming • Contents of our dreams vary by culture and individual experiences (e.g. gender) • Dreams during REM tend to be remembered better than dreams during non-REM sleep

16. States of Consciousness • Hypnosis—likely a change in activation, awareness span, self awareness, and sensory dynamics • Individuals who are highly vulnerable to suggestion are most easily hypnotized • Hypnosis linked to increased awareness, lower activation, suggestibility • Hypnosis like states include concentration in Lamaze method

17. States of Consciousness • Meditation—likely a change in activation, awareness span, self awareness, and sensory dynamics • Frequently associated with frontal lobe changes • Increases sense of control over consciousness • Activation: typically relaxed • Awareness span: can range from wide to narrow • Self awareness: can range from absorption to dissociation • Sensory dynamics: typically enhanced sensory experience

18. States of Consciousness • Psychoactive Drug States—likely a change in activation, awareness span, self awareness, and sensory dynamics • Balanced metabolic system: can bring about changes in metabolic rates • Moderate level of arousal: depressants decrease arousal; stimulants increase arousal • Balance between excitatory (neurotransmitters) and inhibitory (neuroinhibitors) networks: depressants reduce transmitters stimulants increase transmitters and decrease inhibitors