PSY100H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Left Brain Interpreter, The Conscious Mind, Subliminal Stimuli

• School: UTSG
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY100H1
• Professor: all

Document Summary

Scientists can differentiate between being conscious and being unconscious . Consciousness refers to moment-by-moment subjective experiences of the world and mental activity. Components of consciousness: contents (the things we are conscious of) and the level (coma, sleep, wakefulness) Rene descartes stated that the mind is physically distinct from the brain (dualism); the mind and the brain are inseparable; a view now rejected. The activity of neurons in the brain produces the contents of consciousness. Because each of us experiences consciousness subjectively, we cannot know if any two people experience the world in exactly the same way. Qualia = describes the properties of our subjective experiences. Subjective nature makes it difficult to study empirically. Growing evidence indicates the imaging methods can help identify commonalities in brain activity across experiences; can identify objects you are looking at by looking at your brain activity.