PSY 101 Lecture 9: PSY 101 02/07 States of Consciousness
Document Summary
Consciousness = generally, our awareness of ourselves (internal stimuli) and our environment (external stimuli. Consciousness promotes our survival and helps us interpret other people"s emotions. Cognitive neuroscience = the interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with our mental processes, including consciousness. In an emotionless body (vegetative states), researchers concluded the brain and mind may still be active. Dual processing: much of our brain works on two levels. Parallel processing (consciousness = keeping us from doing everything at once) Freud - much of our behavior is driven by unconscious drives. Selective attention - filters out irrelevant sites and sounds. Talking on a phone and driving is as dangerous as driving drunk. Cocktail party effect: listening to one person in a room full of voices. Inattentional blindness: missing something when attention is directed elsewhere/failure to notice existence of something unexpected. The act of taking a picture might cause you to not remember the moment.
