PSYC 3100 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Binding Problem, Mirror Test, Implicit Learning
24 Jan 2013
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
The term consciousness is used in several senses. Putting food in mouth is a conscious action; digestion is not) Scientists are able to study consciousness even though they do not have a complete definition of it. Daniel dennett (1995) why are we ever awake? : being awake is risky high energy consumption. Sleep was important to the survival of hunter-gatherers because they could not waste energy: when food is scarce, many animals hibernate, go into metabolic depression, or estivate to save energy. We assume out thought processes are readily available to consciousness. Function of consciousness is to allow ourselves to focus on novel problems and have routine ones dealt with automatically (ex. We consciously talk while the vestibular maintains balance unconsciously allowing us to also walk) Example: eye movements are the most common voluntary human behaviour, however the actions we perform to move our eyes to look in different directions are unconscious (saccadic eye movements)
