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Consciousness

Consciousness. Consciousness as a social phenomenon Consciousness and attention Phenomena of consciousness. Consciousness as a social phenomenon. Behaviorists: Consciousness is not important Supernaturalists: Consciousness is beyond science Cognitivists: Consciousness is available to study.

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Consciousness

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  1. Consciousness Consciousness as a social phenomenon Consciousness and attention Phenomena of consciousness

  2. Consciousness as a social phenomenon • Behaviorists: Consciousness is not important • Supernaturalists: Consciousness is beyond science • Cognitivists: Consciousness is available to study

  3. What is the role of consciousness? • A separate set of functions of the brain? • An organizing principle for choice? • A unifying principle for the other functions of the mind? • A basis of communication, with ourselves and with each other?

  4. Consciousness and attention • The stream of consciousness • Selective attention • Dichotic listening and shadowing • Implicit memory and emotional reactions • Interpreting ambiguous sentences • Superimposed videotapes and shapes • Conscious processing has limited capacity

  5. What factors focus attention? • Selective attention (Neisser, 1967) • Instructions • Meaning • Salience • Novelty (NS habituation) • Change

  6. Phenomena of consciousness • The stream of consciousness: Attention • Altered states of consciousness • Sleep and dreaming • Daydreaming and fantasy • Hypnosis • Drug-induced states • Mood states and learning

  7. The sleep cycle • Electronic recording: EEG, EOG, EMG • EEG patterns divide sleep into four stages: • 1: a waves, 8 - 12 Hz, low amplitude, moderate frequency, similar to drowsy wakefulness • 2: slower frequency, higher amplitude, plus • K complexes • Sleep spindles • 3: d waves appear, 1-2 Hz, large amplitude • 4: Dominated by d waves

  8. REM sleep phenomena • Stage 1 EEG: Paradoxical sleep • EOG (and corneal bulge) show frequent eye movements, as if scanning a visual field. • EMG shows loss of muscle tonus due to downward inhibition of a motor neurons, although muscles moving hands and feet may twitch. • Many brain structures function as if awake.

  9. More REM phenomena • SNS is partially activated: Increases blood pressure, respiration, and heart rate. • Genital response • Narrative dreaming

  10. Dream research • External stimuli may be incorporated into a dream. • Dream events happen in real time. • Everyone dreams; recall depends on when in the sleep cycle you awaken. • Genital response is independent of dream content. • Sleep-walking and talking are non-REM.

  11. Interpretation of dreams • Manifest content is symbolic of latent desires (Freud) • Activation-synthesis theory: cf. incorporation of external events into dreams. • Lucid dreams: Have you had one?

  12. Why do we sleep? • Restoration, recuperation or repair • Protection with the circadian cycle • Circadian synthesis

  13. More altered states of consciousness • Daydreams and fantasy: Unfocussed • Meditation: Focus and relaxation • Hypnosis • Stage hypnosis and trickery • Social facilitation: Against our will or voluntary compliance? Orne & Evans • Divided or dissociated consciousness • Split-brain experience

  14. Drugs and consciousness • Drug phenomena • Tolerance and cross-tolerance • Physiological dependence • Withdrawal • Psychological dependence • Craving • Drug families: Depressants, Opiates, Stimulants, and Hallucinogens

  15. Drug use and abuse • Factors contributing to drug abuse: • Medication and self-medication • Family history: Nature and nurture • Promise of immediate payoff • Feelings of meaninglessness • Early experience with drugs • Societal attitudes to drug use: The Ledermann curve

  16. EEG patterns Stage Wave b Awake 1 a 2 k 3 d 1 sec

  17. EEG patterns... 4 d 1 sec

  18. Shadowing experiment: Neisser’s selective attention study

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