Describe consciousness.
It is a person’s subjective experience of the world and the mind.
It is multi-levelled and complex.
What is phenomenology?
The study of how things seem to be to the conscious person. (The way we experience things and how we give meaning to those experiences)
How have studies of consciousness been done in the past?
Grier and Soviet psychologists studied consciousness by influencing the behaviours of different species and making inferences on their consciousness based on their different reactions.
(For example, they set up a barrier and watched how the animals/species reacted to this)
What are the three different levels of consciousness?
Minimal - Low-level, sensory awareness, a bit of responsiveness (input-output way of thinking: in goes the sensation and out comes a reaction - they are studying what is going on in between these two things)
Full - Being able to report your mental state
Self-consciousness - Person’s attention is drawn to self as the object - usually caused by a risk of humiliation.
What is mind wandering?
This is when we are trying to focus and our mind keeps skipping all over the place. Our mind most often wanders when we are completing repetitive or difficult tasks. (We work in 90 minute cycles where we can focus for some of it and then get distracted) (also, we are often unaware of mind wandering)
What is mental control?
The attempt to change conscious states of mind.
What is thought suppression?
The conscious avoidance of thought.
What is the rebound effect of thought suppression?
When we try not to think of something, we think about it more.
What is the dynamic unconscious?
An active system encompassing a lifetime of hidden memories, the person’s deepest instincts and desires, and the person’s inner struggles to control these forces. Freud believed that the unconscious compelled our behaviour.
What is repression?
A mental process that removes unacceptable thoughts and memories from consciousness and keeps them in the unconscious.
What is the cognitive unconscious?
All the mental processes that give rise to a person’s thoughts, choices, emotions, and behaviour, even though they are not experienced by the person.
What is transience?
This is an element of our consciousness. It refers to the tendency for our memories to fade or weaken over time.
How do spiritual practices relate to consciousness?
The use altered forms of consciousness.
What does subliminal (below threshold) stimulation refer to?
We can influence people by sending them messages that they aren’t fully aware of.
How did the 1950s concession study relate to subliminal stimulation?
In the study, people were brought to a movie theatre and either given a subliminal message or not. This message related to items in the food concession. An increase in sales by the subjects who had received the subliminal message suggested that it had influenced their behaviour.
What are altered states of consciousness? Give an example.
Altered states of consciousness are experiences that depart from normal subjective experience. (Being knocked unconscious, while in labour women usually experience an altered form of consciousness)
Who was Olaf Blanke and what did he discover?
He was a neurologist who was studying out-of-body experiences. He did brain scans on people who were experiencing these and discovered that stimulating the right angular gyrus region of the right side of the brain of a patient who was having seizures caused the patient to have an out-of-body experience.
Why shouldn’t we dismiss people’s explanations of out-of-body experiences?
Because that isn’t scientific. Science doesn’t discount something until it has been proven wrong. We should embrace the confusion and step into the complexities.
Give some examples of biological rhythms.
(Periodic fluctuations in physiological functioning) Menstruation, 6 week male, 90 minute alertness cycle, circadian rhythm (naturally occurring 24 hour cycle),
What disrupts our circadian rhythms?
Not getting enough sunlight during daylight hours, artificial light during nighttime, eating meals and snacks at inconsistent times, inconsistent sleep/wake times (shift work), physical activity too close to bedtime, jet lag
What are the two different systems for categorising sleep?
Researchers - 5 stages (1,2,3,4, and REM)
American Sleep Foundation - 4 stages (1, 2, 3, and REM)
Stage 1 of sleep?
Theta waves (light sleep) (Some alpha waves)
1-7 minutes
Decreased heart rate, breathing, muscle tension
Hypnic jerk occurs here - brief muscular contractions accompanied by images of falling
Stage 2 of sleep?
Mixed EEG, see theta waves and spindles and k-complexes
Light sleep but deeper than the first one
10-25 minutes
Body temp drops and heart rate slows further
Stage 3 of sleep?
Deep sleep - spindle and delta waves (Low frequency waves - high amplitude)
Lasts from 10-40 minutes
Important repair is occurring - tissue and immune system strengthening
It can be hard to wake someone who is here
