PS101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Circadian Rhythm, Delta Wave, Theta Wave
Document Summary
Chapter 5 (pg 200-216) - week 8 consciousness. Consciousness is the awareness of internal and external stimuli. Mind wandering refers to people"s experience of task-unrelated thoughts. Mind wandering is less likely to occur if the task requires significant cognitive resources. Mind wandering is associated with less accurate awareness of external information. Distinction between what we control about our mental processes and what just seems to happen is often referred to as the difference between control and automatic processes. Control processes are thoughts we exert some control over, whereas automatic processes happen without our intentional control or effort. Theory of unconscious thought: under some circumstances the quality of decisions made under conditions when individuals do not have the opportunity to engage in conscious thought may sometimes be more accurate. The advantage of unconscious thought is that it does not have the same capacity constraints. Eeg is the most commonly used indicator of variations in consciousness.
