STATES OF STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESSCONSCIOUSNESS

CONSCIOUSNESSCONSCIOUSNESS• Consciousness is the awareness of objects

and events in the external world, and of our own existence and mental processes at any given moment.

• Includes-what you see, hear, feel or smell-the comments you make to yourself-the memories of events in your life-your beliefs-your plans for activities later in the day-attitudes

• Consciousness is:

• Personal because it is your subjective understanding of both your unique internal world and the external environment-it is individual to you.

• Selective because you can choose to attend to certain things and ignore others- that is you can voluntarily shift your attention from the words on the page to a voice in the room or a memory of what you did on Saturday night.

• Continuous because there is never a time in the course of a typical day where your consciousness is empty.

• Changing with new information continually coming into awareness particularly while you are awake.

The mind-body problemThe mind-body problem• Where is consciousness located?• Is it in your brain or outside of it?• Is it floating around in your head or is it a

particular structure in your brain?• Are consciousness and brain activity the

same or different?• Do they operate together or separately?• Is your brain in control or your

consciousness?

The mind-body problemThe mind-body problem• These questions led to the mind-body problem. • This problem poses the question- are the mind and

body distinct, separate entities or are they one and the same thing?

• Generally the Greek philosophers believed that the mind and body were separate entities and that the mind could control the body, but the body could not influence the mind.

• Rene Descartes challenged this idea in the 17th century.

Rene Descartes- mind and body dualismRene Descartes- mind and body dualism• Frenchman born 1596-1650• Descartes (Day-cart) agreed that the mind and body were

two separate things but that they could each effect one another. He called this dualism.

• He felt a persons consciousness was a non-physical spiritual entity made of pure reason (the soul), while the brain and body were solely physical entities (fleshy structures).

• He argued that these two entities came into contact through the pineal gland, a tiny structure located deep in the centre of the brain (this would become one of the limitations of his theory).

• He believed that physiological responses affected mental responses thus showing the relationship between mind and body.

• Eg. Emotions like love and hate (mental) being influenced by the heart and sexual urges (physiological).

William James- Stream of William James- Stream of ConsciousnessConsciousness

• Over one hundred years ago AmericanPsychologist William James (1842-1910) described consciousness as a continually flowing ever-changing stream of thoughts and feelings similar to a stream of water.

“Consciousness does not appear to itself chopped up in bits. It is nothing jointed; it flows. A ‘river’ or a ‘stream’ are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. In talking of it let us call it the stream of thought or consciousness, of subjective life.”

• Activity: a snapshot of your consciousness

STATES OF STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESSCONSCIOUSNESS

• Our brain is continuously bombarded with information about our internal state and with information from the outside world.

• It is our state of consciousness or level of awareness of our internal state and external events, that determines how much of this information we take in and respond to.

• There are variations in our level of awareness at any given time.

• Sometimes we are highly focused and acutely aware, other times we might experience a medium level of awareness, and at other times we might be asleep or anaesthetised.

• Psychologists often describe consciousness as ranging across a continuum from total awareness to unconsciousness.

• Activity: copy the continuum on page 101 into your books and give at least one sample scenario for each level of awareness.

NORMAL WAKING NORMAL WAKING CONSCIOUSNESSCONSCIOUSNESS

• Psychologists agree that there are two types of consciousness- normal waking consciousness and altered states of consciousness.

• • Normal waking consciousness refers to the

states of consciousness associated with being awake and aware of our thoughts, memories, feelings and the sensations we are experiencing from the outside world.

• Normal waking consciousness is always changing; however despite this changing experience of consciousness, our perceptions and thoughts continue to be organised and clear, and we remain aware of our personal identity.

• In normal waking consciousness we perceive the world as real and it has a familiar sense of time and space.

• Although the content of each individual’s consciousness is unique at any given time, there are a number of qualities that differentiate the different states of consciousness.

-level of attention and level of awareness-the content of consciousness-perceptual experiences-cognitive abilities -emotional awareness-self-control -the experience of time

ATTENTIONATTENTIONOne way of distinguishing between different

states of consciousness is in terms of attention. Attention is a concentration of mental activity that involves focusing on specific stimuli and ignoring other stimuli.

• Those states of consciousness within the range of normal waking consciousness at the top end of the spectrum require more attention than altered states of consciousness at the bottom of the spectrum.

• In normal waking consciousness, our attention can be focused either on internal thoughts or feelings, or external stimuli.

• A shift in the focus of attention, and therefore consciousness can be intentional for example having to concentrate on an immediate task, or it can be made without being aware of it for example if you are listening to a teacher and the person next to you starts to talk.

SELECTIVE ATTENTIONSELECTIVE ATTENTION

At the very top of the consciousness continuum is focused or selective attention.

• Selective attention involves selectively attending to certain stimuli while ignoring other stimuli.

• Selective attention refers to the fact that at any given moment the focus of our awareness is on only a limited range of all that we are capable of experiencing.

• It be an internal event such as the perception of pain on the foot or an external event such as watching a car drive past.

• What are the factors that determine whether we will attend to a particular stimulus?

-we are more likely to attend to a stimulus if it is important to us.

(cocktail party phenomenon)

-our attention is attracted by any changes in stimulation or the introduction of a novel stimulus, (a stimulus that is new in some way).

DIVIDED ATTENTIONDIVIDED ATTENTION• Divided attention refers to the ability to

distribute one’s attention and undertake two or more activities simultaneously.

• Our ability to divide our attention depends on how much conscious effort is required for the various tasks in which we are engaged.

• A more complex task requires selective attention and a higher level of consciousness than a simple or familiar task requires.

CONTENT LIMITATIONSCONTENT LIMITATIONS

• Generally the content-that is, the type of information-held in our normal waking consciousness is more restricted, or limited, than the content of consciousness during an altered state.

• We are able to exercise some control

over what we allow into our normal waking consciousness ie. through selective attention.

• The content of normal waking consciousness also tends to be more organised and logical than in an altered state of consciousness.

CONTROLLED PROCESSESCONTROLLED PROCESSES• Towards the top end of the consciousness

continuum are the states of consciousness experienced during activities demanding high levels of concentration. These are called controlled processes.

• When controlled processes are used, the processing of information involves conscious, alert awareness and mental effort in which the individual actively focuses their attention on achieving a particular goal.

• Controlled processing is serial meaning that we can only perform one activity using controlled processes at a time.

AUTOMATIC PROCESSESAUTOMATIC PROCESSES• Automatic processes require little

conscious awareness and mental effort, minimal attention and do not interfere with the performance of other activities.

• These processes are used more when an

activity is easy or familiar.

• Automatic processing is parallel that is we can handle two or more activities at the same time.

STROOP EFFECTSTROOP EFFECT

• The stroop effect is the observation that it takes longer to name the colour of the ink in which a word is printed if the word spells the name of a different colour than it does to identify a block of colour.

• This occurs because:

- when we are presented with a word our automatic response is to read the word.

- when we are simultaneously confronted with competing cognitive tasks our automatic response to read interferes with our attempt to name the colour of the print–this means that completing the latter task of colour identification requires greater cognitive effort and attention as well as controlled processes.

•STROOP EXPERIMENT

• epsych.msstate.edu/deliberate/Stroop/index.html