PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Global Workspace Theory, Brain Death, Operational Definition

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Jordan Poppenk

Document Summary

Dualism: the philosophical belief that reality consists of two distinct entities; mind/matter. Materialism: the philosophical belief that reality can be known only through an understanding of the physical world in which the mind is a part. Proposed as having subjective experiences however this definition makes it very difficult to propose research questions. We can only measure observable, physical events, and so it is important to have a definition of consciousness that allows us to specify what objectively observable events we should see with consciousness. Therefore, a common operational definition is that consciousness is the ability to report your own mental state. Using this definition, we can establish measures/indicators of consciousness - commonly include the ability to remember a stimulus long enough to report it. Global workspace theory of consciousness: proposes that the brain"s working memory is a global workspace that serves to integrate, access and coordinate the functioning of large numbers of specialized brain circuits.