Understanding Consciousness

Consciousness

• Awareness of ourselves and our environment is consciousness
• It includes thoughts, sensations, perceptions, and reflection on experiences

States and Functions of Consciousness

• States: Waking consciousness, sleep, dreaming, hypnosis, and altered states from substances
• Functions: Decision-making, problem-solving, enabling self-reflection and adaptation

Selective Attention and Perception

• Focusing on a particular stimulus while ignoring others is selective attention
• It allows concentration but may cause one to miss other details

Cocktail Party Effect

• It is the ability to focus on one voice in a noisy environment
• It demonstrates selective attention to relevant information, like hearing your name in a crowd

Dichotic Listening Task and Selective Attention Research

• Broadbent's filter model: Information is filtered before processing
• Cherry's research: People can focus on one ear's input but struggle to recall the unattended message
• Triesman's attenuation model: Unattended information is weakened but still processed
• Eich’s studies: Meaning from the unattended ear can still influence responses

Dual Processing

• The mind operates on both conscious (explicit) and unconscious (implicit) tracks via dual processing
• Conscious processing is deliberate, while unconscious processing happens automatically

Blindsight Awareness

• Individuals with visual cortex damage respond to visual stimuli without conscious perception because of blindsight
• Vision happens via multiple processing pathways

Change Blindness & Inattentional Blindness

• Change blindness: Failure to notice significant scene changes due to focusing elsewhere, like background changes in movies
• Inattentional blindness: Failure to see an object when attention is directed elsewhere, like the invisible gorilla experiment

Parallel vs. Sequential Processing

• Parallel processing: Handling multiple pieces of information simultaneously, often unconsciously like recognizing colors and shapes
• Sequential processing: Focusing on one thing at a time; often used for complex or novel tasks like solving math problems

Impact of Selective Attention and Failures of Awareness

• Selective attention helps focus but can cause accidents, such as texting while driving
• Change and inattentional blindness can cause oversight in important tasks

Selective Attention in Digital Age

• Technology distracts attention and reduces focus through notifications
• Strategies to improve attention: Mindfulness, time management, and reduced distractions

Applications of Consciousness Research

• Used to understand disorders like ADHD
• Aids AI development via replicating attention mechanisms
• Affects learning and memory strategies

Attention and Cognitive Load

• Cognitive load is the total mental effort used in working memory
• High cognitive load can reduce attention span and cause mental fatigue

Review & Practice

• Spotting inattentional blindness in real-world scenarios is an example

Basic Learning Concepts

• Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge due to experience.
• Nature is genetic predispositions, and nurture is environmental influences
• Psychologists believe learning helps organisms adapt, survive, and thrive

Different Ways of Learning

• Classical conditioning is learning through associations
• Operant conditioning is learning through rewards and punishments
• Observational learning is learning through watching others

Behaviorism and Key Figures

• Behaviorism focuses on observable behaviors rather than mental processes
• Ivan Pavlov discovered classical conditioning
• John B. Watson extended classical conditioning to human behavior
• Edward Thorndike discovered the Law of Effect in operant Conditioning
• B.F. Skinner contributed reinforcement, shaping, and schedules of reinforcement
• Albert Bandura discovered observational learning and modeling

Classical Conditioning

• Pavlov discovered dogs could learn to associate a neutral stimulus with an automatic response
• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) naturally triggers a response
• Unconditioned Response (UCR) is the natural reaction to a UCS
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS) is a previously neutral stimulus that triggers a response after conditioning
• Conditioned Response (CR) is the learned response to a CS
• A real world example is fear of needles, where the UCS is pain, UCR is fear, CS is seeing a needle, and CR is anxiety
• Applications include behavior therapy and advertising
• Acquisition is the learning phase when an association is made
• Extinction is the weakening of a response when the UCS is no longer paired with the CS
• Spontaneous Recovery is the reappearance of a response after extinction
• Generalization is responding similarly to similar stimuli.
• Discrimination is differentiating between similar stimuli

Operant Conditioning

• Operant behaviors are voluntary actions influenced by consequences.
• Positive reinforcement is adding a pleasant stimulus
• Negative reinforcement is removing an unpleasant stimulus
• Positive punishment is adding an unpleasant stimulus
• Negative punishment is removing a pleasant stimulus
• The Law of Effect says that behaviors followed by rewards are more likely to be repeated
• Reinforcement strengthens behavior
• Shaping rewards successive approximations toward desired behavior
• Schedules of reinforcement affect learning and extinction resistance
• Intrinsic reinforcers are internal motivation
• Extrinsic reinforcers are external rewards

Shaping Desired Behavior

• Effective shaping involves reinforcing small steps toward the final goal.
• Contingent conditioning is when reinforcement must follows desired behavior
• Reinforcement schedules include fixed ratio, variable ratio, fixed interval and variable interval

Observational Learning

• Observational learning occurs by watching others and imitating behaviors
• Modeling is imitating a specific behavior seen in others
• Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment showed that children imitate aggressive behavior observed in adults
• Real-world applications: Media influence, social learning in education, parenting techniques

Memory

• Memory is the persistence of learning over time through encoding, storage, and retrieval
• Measuring memory involves recall, recognition, and relearning
• Memory models give frameworks and liken memory to a computer
• The Information Processing Model says memory has three stages: sensory, short-term, and long-term
• Sensory memory holds brief impressions of sensory information like visual or auditory stimuli
• Short-term memory holds about 7±2 items for a short duration unless rehearsed
• The Connectionism Model suggests memory is a network of connected neural pathways
• Explicit memories require effort, while implicit memories are automatic skills
• Chunking, mnemonics, and hierarchies improve memory retention
• Examples of these are phone numbers, acronyms, and concept maps
• Distributed practice and deep processing enhance memory
• Levels of processing can be shallow or deep

Storing and Retrieving Memories

• Long-term memory capacity is unlimited and distributed, not in one specific place
• The Hippocampus consolidates explicit memories, while the frontal lobes process and store them
• Retrieval cues like smells help access and retrieve memories
• Priming, context-dependent memory, state-dependent memory, and the serial position effect all influence retrieval
• The explicit memory system includes semantic memory, episodic memory and memory consolidation
• Emotional events trigger stronger memories due to the release of stress hormones
• Flashbulb memories are vivid memories of significant events
• Long-term potentiation (LTP) strengthens neural connections and enhances memory storage

Forgetting, Memory Construction, and Improving Memory

• Reasons for forgetting: Encoding failure, storage decay, and retrieval failure
• Misinformation effect, imagination inflation, and source amnesia are memory construction errors
• It is difficult to distinguish between false versus real memories
• Repressed and recovered memories are controversial
• Children's eyewitness accounts are unreliable
• Retrieving and using practice, creating meaningful associations, sleep, and spaced repetition improves memory