States of Consciousness: Chapter 8

Chapter 8: States of Consciousness

• Consciousness is elusive and subjective, similar to searching for the end of a rainbow
• Chapter problem: How can psychologists objectively examine dreams and other subjective mental states?
• Psychologists use tools like introspection to study things like dreams and subjective thought, but is difficult
• Psychoactive drugs, hypnosis, and meditation are examples of things that can alter consciousness

Core Concepts:

• The brain operates on many levels at once—both conscious and unconscious
• Consciousness fluctuates in cycles that correspond to biological rhythms and stimulation patterns
• An altered state of consciousness occurs when some aspect of normal consciousness is modified by mental, behavioral, or chemical means

Defining Consciousness

• The discovery of chemical transmission between neurons came to Otto Loewi in a dream
• Physiologist Otto Loewi awoke and wrote his idea on paper next to his bed, he was unable to decipher his writing later
• Kekule’s structure of the benzene molecule was sparked by a dream
• Stephanie meyer was inspired to write Twilight by a dream
• Old Testament story where Joseph interpreted Pharaoh's dreams of fat and lean cattle for Egyptian Kingdom
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge attributed his poem Kubla Khan to a dream after reading a biography
• Artists like Salvador Dali found dreams to be vivid sources of imagery
• Composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, the Beatles, and Sting have credited their dreams with inspiring certain works

Modern Cognitive Neuroscience

• Cognitive neuroscience defines consciousness as the brain process that creates our mental representation of the world and current thoughts
• The nature of nonconscious ideas, feelings, desires, and images has been controversial
• Cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, and computer scientists brought the psychology of consciousness back to life in the 1960s due to technology and new tools
• Studying psychological issues requires more than behaviorism could deliver: quirks of memory, illusions, and drug-induced states
• Brain acts like a biological computing device with vast resources, able to create the complex of imagination and experience
• Consciousness must focus sequentially, not good at multitasking
• Nonconscious processes work at the same time, information processed in parallel

Consciousness and Related Processes

• Sensory stimulation gains attention and passes into working memory, then we become conscious of it
• Working memory actually seat of consciousness
• Cognitive learning relies on conscious processes, classical conditioning relies on outside of consciousness
• Attention makes one item stand out, which enables you to follow the thread of a conversation against a background of other voices called cocktail party phenomenon
• Consciousness helps you combine reality and fantasy and creates a sort of ongoing movie" in your head

8.1 Tools for Studying Consciousness

• High-tech tools, fMRI, PET, and EEG have opened new windows to see which regions are active
• They are able to identify “what” of consciousness
• Although these imaging devices do not, of course, reveal the actual contents of conscious experience
• Psychologists have devised more techniques to glimpse the underlying mental processes, know as “how” of consciousness

Mental Rotation and Visual Imagery

• The study of Roger Shepard and Jacqueline Metzler (1971), showed that when people speak of turning things in their minds, it's not merely a metaphor
• Shepard and Metzler hypothesized that people would take longer to respond when the difference between the angles of the paired images increased
• Mental rotation studies indicates people take longer when comparing the same imagine rotated at different angles
• Stephen Kosslyn found we can use our conscious minds to zoom in, camera-like, on the details of our mental images
• Kosslyn(1976) found people take longer to answer questions about object when they imagined object and asked small details

8. 2 Models of the conscious and Nonconscious Minds

• Sigmund Freud's levels of consciousness compared the mind to the tip of an iceberg
• Freud believed that unconscious was a reservoir of needs, desires, wishes, and traumatic memories, it was outside our awareness
• Psychologists refer to memories of events, like your birthday last year, and facts (Salem capital of Oregon) as Preconscious because it can cross over to conscious
• The preconscious, in the modern cognitive sense, is much the same as long-term memory
• The unconscious as a broad term refers to many levels of processing below the level of awareness
• In 8.2.2 James Likened ordinary waking consciousness to a flowing stream carrying ever-changing sensations, perceptions, thoughts, memories, feelings, motives, and desires
• This stream of consciousness included oneselves and stimulation

Level and Function of Consciousness

• James believed consciousness had two levels: Area of focus, which included whatever we are attending closely to at any given time, Peripheral encompassing the feelings and association that give meaning and context to our focus
• Cognitive psychology likens consciousness to the information and images that appear on a computer screen
• In 8.2.4 In this way, consciousness keeps your brain from being overwhelmed by stimulations
• The more you shift attention to multiple tasks like being on phone while driving, the more it increases your risk of crashing
• Researchers shows that consciousness then, is the canvas on which we customarily create a meaningful picture
• Consciousness allows us to create a mental model of the world- a model we can manipulate in our minds
• Consciousness frees us from being prisoners of the moment

8.3 Coma and Related States

• Comas are not stable, long-term states, and usually last only a few days or weeks after brain injury
• Those who improve, transition to a minimally conscious state, in which they may have limited awareness and functioning brain
• In the vegetative state, they may open their eyes periodically and pass in and out of normal sleep cycles, with only minimal brain activity and basic reflexes
  • Promising new imaging techniques can more accurately identify the level of brain activity and awareness in patients who appear to be in persistent vegetative states

Can People in a Coma Hear

A study citing clear evidence that patients in a coma or even in a persistent vegetative state, are more likely to recover if their loved ones talk to them Researchers saw increased activity in areas in their brains associated with long-term memory and language processing Treatment stimulated brain activity that helped patients regain a higher level of consciousness