Unit 4: Sensation, Perception and States of Consciousness

1. WHS AP Psychology Unit 4: Sensation, Perception and States of Consciousness Essential Task 4-7: Describe various states of consciousness and their impact on behavior.

2. Perceptual Constancies Gestalt Principles Basic Principles Visual Illusions Depth Perception Perception Vision Hearing Sensation Theories The Eye Theories Other Senses The Ear Smell Pain Taste

3. Circadian Rhythm Stages/REM Disorders Hidden Observer Actor Sleep Hypnosis Dreams Meditation We are here Waking Consciousness Daydreaming and Fantasy Altered States of Consciousness Drug-Altered Consciousness Substance Abuse Stimulants Depressants Hallucinogens

4. OA • What is consciousness? (176) • How do you know you have a consciousness?

5. Essential Task 4-7: Outline • Consciousness • Waking Consciousness • Theories of Consciousness • Evolutionary Explanation • Tripartite Theory • Stream of Consciousness • Chord of subconscious brain events • Subconscious Processing • Altered States of Consciousness • Meditation • Sleep • Dreams • Hypnosis • Daydreaming / Fantasy

6. What is consciousness? Consciousness refers to an organisms awareness of it’s own self and its surroundings. • our own mental processes, such as our thoughts, feelings, and sensations. • When you are sad can you recognize that you are sad? Can you try to understand the source of your sorrow?

7. Do you think animals have a consciousness ?

8. Do you think animals have a consciousness?

9. Do you think machines have a consciousness?

10. Do all humans have a consciousness?

11. Could there be different kinds?

12. Levels of Consciousness • Waking consciousness • Our awareness of ourselves and our environment • Thoughts, feelings, and perceptions that occur when we are awake and alert • Allows us to reflect and plan • Working memory • Altered States of Consciousness • A mental state that differs noticeably from normal waking consciousness

13. What is waking consciousness? • Picture this: It is a beautiful spring day and you are walking down a country lane, absorbed in thought. Birds are chirping, roses are in bloom and the sun feels warm on your face. Suddenly, you hear a dog bark and you switch your attention to seeing if the animal means to bite. • Adapted from How the Brain Might Work: A New Theory of Consciousness By SANDRA BLAKESLEE

14. How do you bind these fragmented sensory signals and perceptions into a single coherent image? I am at the park about to get eaten by Cujo. What is waking consciousness?

15. Forms of Altered-Consciousness Sleep

16. Levels of Consciousness • Nonconscious level • Autonomic functions of the body • Breathing, heart rate, body temperature • Preconscious level • According to Freud is the are between conscious awareness and the unconscious (darkest fantasies and forbidden desires). • (Personality/Freudian Psychology)

17. Levels of Consciousness • Subconscious level / processing • Well-learned tasks become automatic • Driving • Bicycle • Typing • When you meet people you unconsciously react to their gender, age and appearance • Subconscious processing • Bird (color, form, movement, distance) • Unconscious processing is parallel while conscious is linear but good at novel problems

18. History of Consciousness • Psychology began as a science of consciousness. (Titchner and Structuralism) • Behaviorists argued about alienating consciousness from psychology. • However, after 1960, mental concepts (consciousness) started reentering psychology.

19. Evolutionary Reason for Consciousness • Consciousness as an adaptation allowing us to get along with others in our group (humans) • Allows us to ‘see’ ourselves and therefore moderate our behavior.

20. Tripartite Theory - Freud

21. The Stream of Consciousness • Consciousness results from the activity of the thalamus which analyzes and interprets information in the cerebral cortex. • “sweeping or scanning” total a rate of 40 times per second • Each sweep results in a single image or “moment of consciousness” • Intralaminar nucleus, a kind of doughnut of cells within the thalamus, has nerve cells that send out long axons that reach to every part of the cerebral cortex. Significantly, there are also returning axons that come down from all areas of the cortex back to the intralaminar nucleus.

22. Consciousness as a Chord of Subconscious brain events. • Neuroscientists believe that consciousness emerges from the interaction of individual subconscious brain events much like a chord that is created from different musical notes. • Move wrist - 0.2 seconds prior to moving your wrist, you must decide to move the wrist since it takes that long to travel to the wrist. • But it isn’t until 0.35 seconds after that your brain waves jump • If told to hit a button after a tone you can respond in 1/10th of a second, but won’t show the jump in brain waves until .35 seconds. • You live in the past – but only by a bit

23. Daydreaming and Fantasy • Spontaneous shifts attention away from the here and now into a make-believe world • Urge to daydream peaks about every 90 minutes and is highest between 12:00 and 2:00pm • Almost half of your waking hours? • Daydreams may provide stress relief and encourage creativity