What is Consciousness?
An awareness of ourselves (our thoughts) and the environment
What CAUSES Changed Consciousness?
Spontaneous – day dreaming, “zone out”, when something catches
your attention
Physiology – anesthesia, drugs
Psychology – meditation, hypnosis
Consciousness and Information Processing
Conscious and subconscious process
Attention
“Zoning out”
Conscious & Subconscious Process
Dual processing and the two-track minds
Consciousness is the tip of the iceberg, the limitation of the human
mind. We take in so much stuff, but we can only focus on a few
things
Selective Attention
At any one time, our senses are being bombarded by information
Information/distractions come from the external world (ie our
neighbor) as well as from our internal world (ie inner voice,
thoughts, etc)
We use attention to “select” which pieces of the world will make
it into our conscious awareness
Attentional processes can be intentional (focus on the road or in
class) or automatic (when someone says your name)
o Cocktail party phenomenon – when you hear your name aka a
strong cue. Evolutionary mechanism
Change Blindness
A form of inattentional blindness
Between 66-75% of individuals won’t notice dramatic
The Science of Zoning Out
The default network
o A switch from attending to your outside world to attending to
your inside world. o Thinking about the past or looking forward into the future. A
way of maintaining two types of consciousness.
o Mind wandering occurs every 8-9 minutes (5.4 times in a 45
minute class)
Summary States of Consciousness
We are only “aware” of a small amount of the processing that is
going on in our brains at any time
Conscious and reflexive attentional shifts allow us to focus on
certain pieces of information at the expense of others
Attentional shifts can occur between internal and external
“worlds”
Zoning out is a state of consciousness that researchers believe has
important cognitive implications.
Hypnosis
Hypnosis
A social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to
another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts,
or behaviors will spontaneously occur.
Hypnos: Greek god of sleep
Hypnosis cannot help you remember things you’ve forgotten or
repressed. Often times hypnotist poses suggestive questions, in a
state of hypnosis you are most vulnerable.
Hypnosis cannot force people to act outside their will. Equally
likely to do it. Suggestibility
Hypnosis can be used to alleviate pain. Study of touching hot
things, or placing arm in an ice bath
Father technique VS mother technique for hypnosis
Some people are more susceptible to hypnosis
Explaining the Hypnotized State
1. Social Influence Theory: hypnotic subjects may simply be imaginative
actors playing a social role. Being hypnotized is like playing a
role you are very convinced you are in. (People are originally
pretending to be hypnotized?)
a. i.e. know it doesn’t smell good but know it isn’t supposed
to bother them
2. Divided Consciousness Theory: hypnosis is a special state of
dissociated (divided) consciousness (Hilgard, 1986, 1992) a. i.e. sticking hand in ice bucket and not feeling it.
b. i.e. dividing awareness and not focusing/attending on aversive
odor
Cognitive Neuroscience and Hypnosis
When hypnotized, brain is responding in a different way
Clinical hypnosis modulates functional magnetic resonance imaging
signal intensities and pain perception
Summary Hypnosis
Altered state of consciousness where an individual is under a
heightened state of suggestibility
Attention seems to be guided by hypnotist
Mechanism is unclear
Sleep & Dreaming
Are you sleep deprived? If you answered yes to 2+ (3+ on longer
survey) you probably aren’t getting enough sleep
Try going to sleep 15 minutes earlier than usual every night for a
week, continue iteratively until you wake without an alarm and feel
alert
Sleep Deprivation
1. Fatigue
2. Impaired concentration
3. Emotional irritability
4. Depressed immune system
5. Death
Sleep Laboratories
Measurements:
o Measure left and right eye movements
o EMG (muscle tension)
o EEG (brain waves)
5 Sleep Stages
Each stage of sleep has different physiological characteristics and
presumably different functions
NOT A STAGE: awake but relaxed o When an individual closes his eyes but remains awake, his
brain ac
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