PSY100H1 Lecture Notes - Alpha Wave, Suggestibility
Consciousness
-a constantly moving stream of thoughts, feelings and emotions
-according to William James (1890)
-can be viewed as our subjective awareness of mental events
-functions of consciousness
1. monitoring mental events
2. control: consciousness allows u to formulate and reach goals
-may have evolved to direct or control behaviour in adaptive ways
Cortex and Consciousness
-the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is activated during conscious control tasks
-ie. Subjects asked to name the ink colour in
the Stroop task below have difficulty when
the word name and colours are different
-associated with activation of the dorsolateral
prefrontal cortex
Attention
-the process by which we focus our awareness
-our conscious awareness is limited in capacity and we are aware of only a small amount of
stimuli around us at any one time
-three functions of attentional processes
1.orientating function toward the environment
2. control of the content of consciousness
-I will think about this issue but not that one
3. maintaining alertness
Subliminal Perception
-notion that brief exposure to sub-threshold stimuli can influence awareness
-study
A. aggressive stimulus
B. positive stimulus
C. neutral stimulus
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subjects in shown
panel A first
subsequently rated
the boy in panel C
more negatively
Unconscious Cognitive Processes
-information-processing view can be extended to analysis of unconscious processes
-notion is that many brain mechanisms operate in parallel
-some of these mechanisms operate outside of the level of consciousness
-functional significance of conscious mechanisms
-are efficient and rapid
-can operate simultaneously
-operate in the absence of consciousness
Neurology of Consciousness
-consciousness is distributed throughout the brain
<--prefrontal cortex is key for conscious
control of information processing
-hindbrain and midbrain are important for
arousal and for sleep
Ådamage to the reticular format can lead to
coma
Sleeping
-behavioural characteristics of sleep
-minimal movement
-stereotyped prone posture
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PSY100H1 Full Course Notes
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Document Summary
A constantly moving stream of thoughts, feelings and emotions. Can be viewed as our subjective awareness of mental events. 2. control: consciousness allows u to formulate and reach goals. May have evolved to direct or control behaviour in adaptive ways. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is activated during conscious control tasks. Ie. subjects asked to name the ink colour in the stroop task below have difficulty when the word name and colours are different. Associated with activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The process by which we focus our awareness. Our conscious awareness is limited in capacity and we are aware of only a small amount of stimuli around us at any one time. I will think about this issue but not that one. Notion that brief exposure to sub-threshold stimuli can influence awareness. C. neutral stimulus www. notesolution. com subjects in shown panel. A first subsequently rated the boy in panel c more negatively.
