PSYCH261 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Blindsight, Verbal Behavior, Visual Cortex

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH261
• Professor: Britt Anderson

Document Summary

Consciousness can be used to refer to many concepts such as simple wakefulness/ being awake. Consciousness: we as humans are aware of - and can tell others about - our thoughts, perceptions, memories, and feelings. Since consciousness can be altered, we hypothesize that consciousness is a physiological function, just like a behaviour. Consciousness and the ability to communicate go hand in hand. Our capacity to learn is served by our ability to communicate our intentions to one another and make requests from each other. Dualism: the belief that the body is physical but the mind (or soul) is not. Monism: the belief that the world consists of only matter and energy and that the mind is a phenomenon produced by the workings of the nervous system. Blindsight is a phenomena caused by damage to a particular part of the brain. Symptoms of blindsight indicate that the common belief that perceptions must enter consciousness to affect our behaviour is incorrect.