Chapter 10 Module 1: Conscious and Unconscious Processes PDF

CHAPTER 10 MODULE 1: CONSCIOUS retina and the pattern in the right AND UNCONSCIOUS PROCESSES retina When someone is conscious of a Consciousness. As William James stimulus, the stimulus...

CHAPTER 10 MODULE 1: CONSCIOUS retina and the pattern in the right AND UNCONSCIOUS PROCESSES retina When someone is conscious of a Consciousness. As William James stimulus, the stimulus activates (1892/1961) said, “Its meaning we know so neurons more strongly, their activity long as no one asks us to define it”. As the reverberates through other brain philosopher Gottfried Leibniz (1714) put it, areas, that activity rebounds to “Why is there something rather than nothing?” magnify the original response, and Psychologists long ago abandoned the the process inhibits responses to study of conscious- ness, but today competing stimuli. research is possible because of an operational definition, limited research The brain processes stimuli even questions, methods of measuring brain without consciousness, enough to activity, and methods of presenting a evaluate their importance. stimulus while avoiding conscious unconscious processes are an perception. important part of cognition. Dictionary Definition. the subjective Consciousness of a stimulus appears experience of perceiving oneself and to be an all-or-none process. either one’s sur- roundings. the brain activity spreads strongly Operational definition. If a cooperative through the brain, or it does not. person reports being conscious (aware) Conscious experience of a stimulus of one stimulus and not of another, then is a construction that can occur he or she was conscious of the first and slightly after the stimulus itself, rather not the second. Epiphenomenon. an accidental by- than simultaneously with it. product with no purpose, like the noise a Brain scans provide suggestions of machine makes. consciousness in certain patients Masking, flash suppression, and who seem unresponsive to their binocular rivalry. are among the methods environment. to present a stimulus while preventing When people report the time of a conscious perception of it. conscious decision to make a Masking. a word or other stimulus movement, brain scans indicate that appears on the screen for a fraction the brain activity re- sponsible for the of a second, preceded and/or movement began before the reported followed by an interfering stimulus time of the conscious decision. Backward Masking. if the interfering Research promotes skepticism that stimulus follows it but doesn’t people can report their decision precede times accurately. Voluntary decisions Flash Suppression. other dots to are gradual, not sudden. flash on and off, rapidly A possible function of conscious Binocular Rivalry. alternation thought is to prepare for future action between seeing the pattern in the left when a similar situation arises. Brain Death. the brain shows no activity Circadian rhythms. even in an and no response to any stimulus. unchanging environment, people become Coma. caused by traumatic brain damage, sleepy in cycles of approximately 24 hours. the brain shows a steady but low level of a rhythm of activity and inactivity lasting activity and no response to any stimulus about a day. (The term circadian comes Vegetative State. marked by limited from the latin roots circa and dies, meaning responsiveness, such as increased heart “about a day.”) rate in response to pain Suprachiasmatic Nucleus. Minimally Conscious State. people have circadian rhythm of sleep and brief periods of purposeful actions and wakefulness is generated within the speech comprehension. brain by a tiny structure Daniel Wegner (2002). described a time Morning and evening people. some when he was manipulating a joystick at a people arouse quickly and reach their peak video game display, making a monkey alertness early. others increase alertness jump over barrels... or at least so it more slowly and reach their peak in late seemed. Then the notice “start game” afternoon or early evening. evening people appeared, and he realized that he hadn’t are at a disadvantage if they need to start been controlling anything after all. work or school early in the morning. Benjamin Libet. measured the time when Benjamin Franklin. “early to bed people made a conscious decision to act, and early to rise makes a man the time when brain activity preparing for healthy, wealthy, and wise.” the movement started, and the time of the Jet Lag. a period of discomfort and act itself. inefficiency while your internal clock is out Motor Cortex. the brain area responsible of phase with your new surroundings. for initiating muscle movements. Brain mechanisms of circadian rhythms. Readiness Potential. The increased motor an area of the brain generates an cortex activity prior to the start of the approximately 24-hour rhythm. sunlight movement. does not generate this rhythm, but it does Basal Ganglia. which contribute much less reset it. If you fly west, your circadian when you act in response to a stimulus. rhythm shifts a bit later each day until it catches up; if you fly east, your rhythm CHAPTER 10 MODULE 2: SLEEP shifts a bit earlier each day. if you fly AND DREAMS beyond a certain number of time zones one way or the other, it is as if your rhythm isn’t Sleep and dreams are not a state of sure whether to move forward or backward, unconsciousness but a state of reduced or and you may take a long time to readjust altered consciousness. For example, The need for sleep. sleep serves several a parent will awaken at the sound of a child functions, including conservation of energy softly crying. a healthy brain is never and an opportunity to strengthen memories. completely off duty, never completely sleep-deprived people have difficulty relaxed. maintaining attention. Sleep stages. during sleep, people cycle Apnea. no breathing through sleep stages 1 through 4 and back Narcolepsy. They experience sudden through stages 3 and 2 to 1 again. The attacks of sleepi- ness during the day. cycle beginning and ending with stage 1 Orexin. important for maintain- ing lasts about 90 to 100 minutes. long periods of wakefulness. Electroencephalograph (EEG). Dream content. more dreams are measures and amplifies tiny threatening than pleasant. Freud proposed electrical changes on the scalp that that dreams are the product of unconscious reflect patterns of brain activity. motivations. Modern theorists describe Polysomnograph. combine an EEG dreaming as a kind of thinking that occurs measure with a simultaneous under conditions of low sensory input and measure of eye move- ments to no voluntary control of thinking. produce this. Lucid Dreaming. part of the brain is Sleep Spindles. In Stage 2, waves awake and another part asleep. of activity at about 12 to 14 per Nightmares. unpleasant dreams. second that result from an exchange Night Terror. causes someone to of information between the cerebral awaken screaming and sweating with cortex and the underlying thalamus. a racing heart rate, sometimes sleep spindles are important for flailing with the arms and pounding storing memory. the walls. Occur in stage 3 or 4. REM sleep. a special stage known as rem Woody Allen. “The lion and the calf shall sleep replaces the stage 1 periods after the lie down together, but the calf won’t get first one. much sleep.” Rapid Eye Movements/ Randy Gardner. stayed awake for 11 days Paradoxical Sleep. a high level of as a high school science project without brain activity, and relaxed muscles. apparent harm. dreams are common in this stage but William Dement. early research indicated not limited to it. During this stage of that people who were awakened during sleep, the sleep- er’s eyes move rem sleep usually reported dreaming, but rapidly back and forth under the people who were awakened during other closed lids. periods seldom reported dreaming. REM Behavior Disorder. fail to Periodic Limb Movement Disorder. inhibit their muscular activity during prolonged “creepy-crawly” sensations in rem, and as a result, they sometimes their legs, accompa- nied by repetitive leg walk around flailing their arms. movements strong enough to awaken the Insomnia. insomnia—subjectively person, especially during the first half of the unsatisfactory sleep— results from many night. influences. Not enough sleep for the person Sigmund Freud. founder of to feel rested the next day. psychoanalysis, maintained that dreams Sleep Apnea. fail to breathe for a minute or reveal the dreamer’s unconscious thoughts more and then wake up gasping for breath. and motivations.  Manifest Content. the content that appears on the surface. Latent Content. the hidden ideas that the dream experience represents symbolically. Activation-Synthesis Theory of Dreams. dreams occur because the cortex takes the hap- hazard activity that occurs during rem sleep plus whatever stimuli strike the sense organs and does its best to make sense of this activity. Regards dreaming as a bottom-up process beginning with sensations or random activation. Neurocognitive Theory. regards dreaming as a top-down process, controlled by the same mechanisms as any other thought. William Domhoff (2011). compares dreaming to activity of the brain’s “default network,” the system active during mind wandering and daydreaming.