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CONSCIOUSNESS LITERATURE & RESEARCH METHODS NARCOLEPSY: ​ Rare, long term brain disorder ​ causes person to suddenly fall asleep at inappropriate times ​ 0.5% population ​ Linked to specific genes ​ developed as side effect of Pandemrix vaccine administered to combat H1N1 influ...

CONSCIOUSNESS LITERATURE & RESEARCH METHODS NARCOLEPSY: ​ Rare, long term brain disorder ​ causes person to suddenly fall asleep at inappropriate times ​ 0.5% population ​ Linked to specific genes ​ developed as side effect of Pandemrix vaccine administered to combat H1N1 influenza pandemic in Europe 2009 ○​ Increase narcolepsy associated with Pandemrix vaccine ​ Symptoms: ○​ ⅔ narcoleptic patients cataplexy attacks → temporary involuntary muscle weakness bc of emotion eg laughing ○​ sleep paralysis → fully drifting off to sleep/awakening but is unable to move bc muscles are paralysed Consciousness → person's subjective experience of world and mind ​ Talking ab experience -- not awake, in a vivid dream ​ Essential to be human, makes us unique ​ To explore: ○​ Directly → what is like, how it works, how compare situa mind unconscious processes ○​ Examine altered states - experience human departs from normal, everyday walking - eg. in major alteration ​ How alter consciousness though intoxication with alcohol and other drugs, or during hypnosis and medication ​ Human property CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS: Philosopher Daniel Dennet (1991): ​ Place in head where you are → cartesian theatre → mental screen/stage on which things appear to be presented for viewing by minds eye ○​ Impossible to share mental screen with someone else ​ No way to measure actual conscious experience MYSTERIES OF CONSCIOUSNESS: Chalmers 1996 → Problem of consciousness → difficulty of explaining how subjective experience could ever arise ​ hope to understand what means to be human Include understanding of phenomenology → how things seem to conscious person (quality experience in understanding mind and behaviour) Mysteries of consciousness: 1.​ Homunculus problem 2.​ Problem of other minds 3.​ Mind-body problem HOMUNCULUS PROBLEM: ​ Homunculus problem → difficulty of explaining experience of consciousness by advocating another internal self ​ We exist inside our heads → personal experiences cartesian theatre is an illusion bc we are looking out on world ​ Is the distorted representation of the body’s somatosensory cortex ○​ having a mini me inside head making decisions ○​ IF there is a mini me, who is inside its heard and so on and so on If there isn’t a homunculus, then who is in control? Raises issue of Spinoza’s free will: ​ Free will → common assumption that individuals are in control of decisions made and choices done BUT behaviourists like Skillet → personal free will is an illusion → behaviour and thoughts could be shaped by reinforcement/punishment for environment ​ cognitive psychology → shown that behaviourism is limited in explaining all human behaviour ​ WHILE research reveals how unconscious mechanisms play role in decision making ​ Science undermines reality of free will as force of personal choice → difficult to accept Without free will → principles how we treat others begin look shaky Eg: in law ​ Can punish individuals for decisions they didn’t take? ​ Rewarding good deeds & punishment for evil acts seem unwarranted without concept of free will Case existence of free will may be scientifically weak → personal experience of free will is extremely strong → most feel conscious free will when make everyday decisions ​ Unconscious influences and process → make choices too complicated to monitor → keep track outcome as a feeling THE PROBLEM OF OTHER MINDS: ​ Problem of other minds → fundamental difficulty we have perceiving consciousness of other General assumption that humans minds are similar like their own Mental states/qualia → subjective experiences we have as part of ur mental life → no accessed by others ​ No way to tell another person experience is the same as your → maybe see red but it is blue → no way of knowing ​ No way to distinguish conscious person or non conscious saying all conscious things ○​ Called a hypothetical unconscious person a zombie → Chalmers 1996 ​ Talk ab experiences and react but not having them ​ Often used as argument against idea that consciousness emerges from our brain BUT Dennet (1991) ​ zombie is not possible and falling victim of error that must be non-material property to explain mental life ​ IF zombie non conscious, brain dead Neuroscientists → reject philosophical arguments ab zombies ​ shows that altering brain activity though damage/disease/drugs alters conscious experience → ‘mind is what the brain does’ → Minsky 1986 ​ Exclusively physical interpretation known as materialism → philosophical position that mental states are product of physical systems alone ○​ Unsettling → own mental life (consciousness and free will) product of brain (scientific mechanism) → dehumanizing Many questions → how generare consciousness? Philosopher Thomas Nagel 1974 → anthropomorphism → tendency attribute human qualities to non human things ​ Makes it easier ​ Eg. wonders what like flying around dark cave as a bat → as human, cannot imagine Lead to more general questions → how people perceive other minds? Fray et al. 2007 Procedure: Online survey → people to compare minds of 13 different things (baby/chimp/robot) on 18 different mental capacities (pain/pleasure/hunger) ​ Eg → is a frog or dog more able to feel pain? Results: Examined all comparisons and found that people judge based on 2 dimension of mind perception: 1.​ Capacity for experience (eg.feeling pain) 2.​ Capacity for agency (eg.ability self control) 3 possibilities: 1.​ Little experience & agency → eg. dead person 2.​ Experiences but little agency →baby 3.​ Agency without experiences → robots Ultimately is problem for science → scientific methods needs observation BUT not possible with mind ​ One radical solution offered by behaviourism → eliminate consciousness from psychology entirely & be completely objective ​ Modern psychology has embraced study of consciousness MIND-BODY PROBLEMS: Mind-body problems→ issue of how mind is related to brain and body Rene Descartes → proposed mind and body are made different substances ​ Human body → is machine made of physical matter ​ Human mind → separate entity made of thinking substance ​ Proposed that mind has effects on brain and body though pineal gland (located near centre of brain) ○​ Divisible ○​ No nerve structure → poorly equipped to integrate activity of neural networks Hard problem still remains → how does the mind (no physical property) interact with the physical structure of the body? ​ Assumption → mental events are tied to brain → every thought associated with particular pattern of activation of neurons ​ Conscious thought is supported widely by different structures → Koch 2004 However → consciousness no feel like product of bodies bc: ​ May change opinions but still feel like same person as before A set of studies → suggest brain activities precede activities of conscious mind → Libet 1985 Libet 1985 Procedure: Participants asked to indicate when chose to move by reporting position of dot moving rapidly around face of clock at any point of decisions ​ Brain begins show electrical activity half second before voluntary action, before conscious decision to move Results: Consciously decision actions may be result of mind activity → brian does before thinking about it Soon et al. 2008 → fMRI showed brain activity 7 seconds before participant had make decision predicted on which two buttons would press ​ Wegner 2002 → may appear that mind are leading brains and bodies → BUT order of events may be other way around Personal experience of consciousness feels like someone is charge of decision making BUT may simply be making sense of thoughts and actions after have already been activated by unconscious process ​ choice blindness → people are unaware of decision-making process and justify choice as if were already decided Johansson et al. 2005 Procedure: Male adults ask which two female more attractive and why → swap and handed card with rejected face Explained why they chose the face that they had rejected before: ​ Not detected most of the times Results: No complete control about what we say and do Intuitions can be deconstructed and may be illusions → gives us a false sense of self? Way we think ab consciousness may be wrong BUT is still a component of mental life although not amenable to measurement ​ no prevent from collecting people report of conscious experiences and learning how report reveal the nature of consciousness THE NATURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS: 4 basic properties: 1.​ Intentionality 2.​ Unity 3.​ Selectivity 4.​ Transience INTENTIONALITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS: Intentionality → quality of being directed towards an object (no confused with more familiar sense of intention as characterising something done on purpose) Tried to measure relationship between consciousness and its objects → process to select actively something to attend to, examining size and duration of relationship Rensink et al. 1997 ​ conscious attention is limited and can not often be reached ​ known as change blindness → unawareness of significant events changing in full view ○​ Without attention, miss much of what is happening in the world ​ Decide what see with the eye → small part in comparison of what there is to see ​ Connected with 3 other properties of consciousness UNITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS Unity of consciousness → resistance to division ​ Clear when attend more than 1 thing at time ​ One study → shows that no multitask - tv and homework at same time Neisser and Becklen 1975 Procedure: React 2 games imposed on TV screen Participants had to push one button when person slapped anothers in first game and push another when ball was passed in second game Easily follow one game at same time BUT performance was bad when did both at same time Results: Cannot do two things at a time Attempts to study with tv → not possible Another example of importance awareness:  Simons and Chabris 1999 Procedure: Adults asked to count number of times players that were wearing a white t-shirt passed basketball to eachother Other team was black They kept track of number of passes Half adults did not see the man wearing a gorilla suit among players Results: Scope of consciousness and attention is limited for what noticed in the world Maintain coherent unity → makes it difficult to divide attention among differing events SELECTIVITY OF CONSCIOUSNESS: Selectivity of consciousness → capacity include objects and not others ​ Through studies of dichotic listening → many people wearing headphones are present with different messages in each ear Cherry 1953 Procedure: Research participants unstructured repeat along world hear in one ear while different message in others Participants had earphones ​ Repeat word in one ear ​ Other ear → different message Less attention on the different message → no notice switch from english to german Results: Conscious filters out info with irrelevant info Most linked with info of special interest to the person → cocktail party phenomenon → people tune in to one message even while they filter out others nearby Moray 1959 → In dichotic listening → research participants likely to notice if own name is spoken in unattended ear → attention immediately diverted People more sensitive own name than other even during sleep → Oswald et al. 1960 TRANSCENDENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS: Transience of consciousness → tendency to change Wegner 1997 → mind wanders → our ability to concentrate is impaired Consciousness → considered stream with diversions ​ Maybe bc limited capacity of working memory ​ So focus of attention changs Necker cube → visual counterpart to stream part of consciousness writing ​ Is is a constant object → stream consciousness flows and reverses the figure ​ Cannot stimulate both version of cube → reflects unity of consciousness ​ As if had two faces → consciousness is constantly following different things BUT cannot focus on two things together Basic properties of consciousness → ball bounces on something (intentionality), only one ball (unity), the ball selects one target (selectivity), ball keeps bouncing all time (transience) LEVEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS: Consciousness understanding using levels → level consciousness psychology distinguishes by involve different qualities of awareness of world and of self Armstrong 1980 → minimal consciousness form: ​ a connection between poison and world → low level of awareness that occurs when mind inputs sensations and may output behaviour ​ sensory awareness and responsiveness → experience it but no think about it Fully conscious: ​ aware of experiences → you know and are able to report your mental state  ​ involves think ab things but also thinking ab fact that are thinking about them (Jaynes 1976) Schooler et al. 2001 Procedure: Asked people to report each time zoned out during reading → every few minutes Experimenter asks people at random points were zoning out and sometimes are caught Results: Minimally conscious of wherever mind wandered to and return to being fully conscious realising it Not thinking about what they were thinking about James (1980) → suggested that → self consciousness → another distinct level of consciousness in which person attention is drawn to the self as on object ​ Most time experience when embarrassed, focus attention in a group ​ Bring with tendency evaluate self and notice shortcoming ​ Duval and Wicklund 1972 → people go out of their way to avoid mirrors when done something ashamed of Pyszczynski et al. 1987 → can spoil good mood → tendency to be chronically self conscious associated with depression Gibbons 1990 → more people see own mirror images can make briefly more helpful (more cooperative, less aggressive) → makes people self critical Beaman et al. 1979 Procedure & Results Halloween in Canada Children less likely to be greedy (getting more sweets) if is large mirror in room compared to no mirror Diener and Wallbom 1976 Procedure & Results 71% undergraduate students → found cheat on anagram test compared to 7% who cheated when there was mirror in exact room Perhaps everyone would be more civilized if mirrors were everywhere Most animals → no follow path in civilization  Gallup 1970 Procedure & Results Painted odourless dye over eyebrow of each and then watched them awaken in front of mirror They looked at themselves into the mirror and reached out towards eye suggesting that they recognized image as reflection of themselves Gallup 1977 → repeated with many animals and like humans, chimpanzees, orangutans, maybe dolphins (Reiss and Martino 2001) and maybe elephant (Plotnik et al. 2006) recognize own mirror images Infants no recognize themself right away → until reached 18 months of age (Lewis and Brooks-Gunn 1979) CONSCIOUS CONTENTS: Common themes in topic that occupy consciousness and form consciousness seem to take as different contents come to mind To learn what is on people mind → ask them and much research → called people thinking out loud Csikszentmihalyi and Larson 1987: ​ More systematic approach → experience sampling technique: ○​ people asked to report conscious experiences/thoughts at times when the beep is heard with electronic beepers ​ Shows that consciousness is dominated by immediate environment - 5 senses Klinger 1975 → Much of consciousness (beyond orientation to environment) is the person's current concerns or what person is repeating Nikula et al. 1993 Procedure: Use GSR → galvanic skin response → measured to assess emotional responses ​ Sensors attached to finger to indicate if skin is most (for stress) Once in a while → it increased spontaneously → research quiz patients about conscious thoughts Results: Stress in an emotion that is felt daily and always access to current thoughts Daydreaming → state of conscious in which seemingly purposeless flow of thoughts comes to mind ​ Psychologist suppose one how have long daydreams reflect mind attempts deal with projects and problems ​ Current concerns → can sometimes gain upper hand → transform daydreams/everyday thoughts into stress → never succeed at solving problems ​ When thoughts come to mind → thought suppression → conscious avoidance of a thought ○​ Seams perfect bc eliminates worry Computer program stimulate daydreams works on basis assumption to produce passages that resemble human daydreams (Muller 1990) ​ Draws on idea people learn from past experiences by replacing them ​ Discover creative approaches to future imaging fanciful scenarios ​ Helps control and channel emotions ​ Eg. given info ab being turned down for date by famous actress → help rationalize failure and make it less disappointing Fyoodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) → thought suppression is difficulty Wegner et al. 1987 Procedure: People told not to think about white bear for 5 minutes while recording thoughts on tape Ring bell if white bear came to bind Results: Rang bell for white bear more than once per minute Thought suppression is really difficult Rebound effect of thought suppression: ​ tendency of a thought to return to consciousness with greater frequency following suppression → suggest attempt mental control may be difficult ​ Act trying to suppress a thought may itself cause thought to return Wegner et al. 1993 → distracted white trying to get in good mood tend to become sad Wegner 1989 → distracted while trying to relax become more anxious than those not try to Wegner 1994a, 1994b → ironic process of mental control → bc mental process that monitors errors can itself produce them ​ Needed for effective mental control → help banishing of thought from consciousness but often fail to ​ not present in consciousness (outside it) → makes us sensitive  ​ Unconscious monitoring along background → increases change thinking ab white bear or events THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND: Conscious experience → central to human condition From Descartes (very conscious-centric view of the mind) questioned existence deductive reasoning ​ Only proof of evidence → consciously aware of one’s thinking ​ Knows many experiences although not certain ab them ​ Nothing ab personal experience was logically certain ​ Meditations on First Philosophy → 1641 → argue that even statements (eg. sitting here) may be false bc one could be anything or hallucinating FREUDIAN UNCONSCIOUS: Unconscious mind → Sigmund Freud: ​ His psychoanalytic theory → views conscious thought as surface of much deeper mind made up of the unconscious process ○​ called dynamic unconscious → active system encompassing lifetime of hidden memories, the person deepest instincts and desires, and the person’s inner struggle to control these forces ○​ Might contain: ​ hidden sexual thoughts of one’s parents ​ destructive urges aimed at helpless infant ​ Repression of unconscious → removes unacceptable thoughts and memories from consciousness and keeps them in unconscious ​ Without this → person think or say every unconscious impulse ​ Desires held in dynamic unconscious ​ Freud look evidence for unconscious mind in speech errors and lapses of consciousness → called Freudian slips → not random and have meaning created by intelligent unconscious mind ○​ Eg. Forget name of someone disliked → mindbug that have special meaning Motley and Baars 1979 Procedure: 2 groups: 1.​ Told might receive minor electric shocks 2.​ No mention of electric shocks Asked to read though series words → including ‘shad bock’ Those with shocks slipped more often → eg. said ‘bad shock’ Results: Revealed slips of speech can be prompted by person concerns Errors attributed by freud to dynamic unconscious → no predict in advance, depend on after interpretations → no scientific ​ Add connection to series of events but not scientifically predicting and explaining why ​ No testable hypothesis based on reliable evidence ​ Freud’s type interpretation → sharpshooter fallacy ​ Texan who fired several shots in side of barn and draw bull’s-eye around them claimed to be experiment Book ‘The Psychopathology of Everyday Life’ → SUGGEST NO MUCH THAT DYNAMIC UNCONSCIOUS PRODUCES ERROR, BTU HE WAS MASTER AT FINDING MEANING IN ERRORS THAT MIGHT SEEM RANDOM COGNITIVE UNCONSCIOUS: Although heavily criticised → modern psychologist share freud view and interest Modern psychology: ​ Share Freud interest and views ​ BUT see unconscious as factory that build product of conscious thought and behavior (no meaning behind repressed thoughts) → Kihlstrom, 1987 / Wilson 2022 Cognitive unconscious → includes all mental process that not experienced by person but give rise to person thoughts, choices, emotions, behaviour ​ One indication → person thought changed my exposure to info outside consciousness → subliminal perception → thought/behaviour that is influenced by stimuli that person cannot consciously report perceiving James Vicary 1957 → worries ab potential subliminal influence ​ claimed he had increased concession sales at New Jersey theatre by flashing words ‘Eat Popcorn’ and ‘Drink Coke’ Story was a hoax → many attempts to increase sales using similar methods failed Subliminal perception → happens Kihlstron 1987 → but degree influence it has on behaviour is not large Dijksterhuis et al. 2005 Strahan et al 2002 Procedure: Participants asked perform computer task involved deciding whether each of 26 letter strings was word or not Ensured that would be looking at screen before each letter string appeared → there was a target shown that could not be consciously perceived ​ Half participants → word was thirst-related while other half was unrelated  Then given choice of free coupons on Super-Quencer and PowerPro Those who had been exposed to thirst words chose Super Quencer Results: Subconsciously affected by thirst related world Subliminal perceptions 2 limitations of study: 1.​ Influence subliminal persuasion primarily found for people who reported already being thirsty when experiment started ​ Subliminal exposure to thirst words had little affect 2.​ Researcher conducted study in which other participants shown target words at slower speed so words be seen and recognized ​ Their perception of third words had effects like subliminal perception ​ Subliminal influences might be worrisome → change behaviour without conscious awareness but not bc are more powerful in comparison to conscious influences HOWEVER, some believe research interpretation of subliminal perception are unwarranted (Bargh and Mosella 2008) ​ Subliminal perception is too weak/brief to enter conscious awareness ​ It was motivated by marketing and mistakenly equated unconscious process with unintentional ones Failure to find consistent subliminal effects → not be interpreted as evidence that unconscious not very bright HOWEVER, unconscious mind can make better decisions: ​ Dijksterhuis → argues that processing capacity of conscious thinking is limited to integrate info bc people not able to concentrate consciously on more than one different thing simultaneously Dijksterhuis 2004 Procedure: Given info 3 potential flatmates and asked to chose one Each → described with 12 attributes positive/negative Not told that rigged to make one flatmate good choice, one intermediate, one bad One group → 4 mins to decide Other group → immediate Other group → 4 min with task Last group reach best decision unconsciously (also the first group)  Results: Maybe because no think about the problem and let unconscious process do the work Wilson and Schooler 1991 → consciousness → hinder us by drawing attention to idiosyncratic idea take away from gut feeling ​ bc more satisfied at the end with decisions made after just letting it happen that decisions you consciously agonize over? New research on apparent intelligence of unconscious decision → suggest simply devoting time and thought to a decision is no guarantee that the best choice will be made ATTENTION: Selective attention → process whereby focus mental processing on limited range of events ​ Without this, not consciously aware EARLY VS LATE SELECTION: information bottleneck → where channel for info processing has limited capacity bc volume of data is much Donald Broadbent (1958) → early selection model → argued this is bc information processing capacitor mind is limited → only important message get through ​ Motivated by wartime experiences trying to communicate with pilots - voices relayed over single speaker ​ Proposed that selective attention is filtering mechanism that operates in early stream of processing → allow only crucial info through Problem → with early filter model (advocates that an early election of info in sequence of processing) is that info is not selected for attention is still processed ​ Eg. dichotic listening task described before→ still aware of various properties of unattended message → even though not been selected for attention Led Treisman (1964) → propose attenuation model → info still processed in sequence but unattended messages were attenuated or dampened relative to target message ​ Everything processed, only important is sent to consciousness ​ Treisman and Geffen 1967 → little attention toward unattended ear in dichotic listening task HOWEVER, early selection models of attention → no explain how info is process and prioritised without causing a bottleneck ​ Need to know alternatives to know what to focus on → if messages evaluated to some extent, selection occur late in stream of processing when decisions made ​ Deutsch and deutsch’s 1963 response selection model → argued that was indeed info bottle neck but limited capacity occurred after signals were processed but before a response could be made ○​ All gets processed and evaluated by consciousness and only after it is selected ○​ all signals still getting through info bottleneck - BUT not necessarily consciously experienced ○​ sustained in remarkable study where stress response was conditioned by adults associating target words with electric shock ○​ Watson conditioned fear response in Little Albert → 2 adults were conditioned to expect electric shock after hearing certain words ○​ Therefore → treisman's effect on target detection task occurred bc was competition for responding to two potential sources of info  Corteen and Dunn 1974 Procedure: Fear response established using GSR Packed to selectively attend to message in one ear in dichotic listening task (similar Treiman’s study) Results: When target words presented in unattended ear → failed to consciously report them as Treisman had found BUT showed GSR target words still unconsciously processed Subsequent study showed participants produced GSR for unattended synonyms conditioned words → Von Wright et al. 1975 ​ appears be evidence for early and late selection → no satisfying state of affairs when comes to explaining how attention operates One solution → Nilli Lavie (1995) → load model → where task difficulty determines whether selection is early or late ​ Demonstrated that when studies report evidence of early selection, task difficult terms of ‘perceptual load’ (eg. demanding task with lots possible targets) ​ Implication would seem to be we can moderate nature of selective attention to deal with task demands - early when tasks are complex, late when tasks are simple ​ Expertise → also plays role in how allocate/focus attention SHIFTING ATTENTION: Shifting attention → actively engage world looking for information ​ when want to attention to something, align towards the source ​ attention shift is overt → direction of gaze and attention coincide ​ Helmholtz 1866 → first reported possible to look in one direction but pay attention to another location ​ James (1890) → described similar process covert attention shift → which he thought was particularly developed in female school teachers  Posner 1980 Procedure: Participants performed reaction-time task → press button whenever light appeared to server on computer screen Prior onset light → cue presented that provided info ab likely location of target Results: When cue present → benefit faster response times compared to when not there/invalid Even though no move eyes → attentions automatically drawn to events around them Maybe bc guided by voluntary internal processes Multiple influence competing to control spotlight → suggest events outside beam are not detected BUT info is not necessarily discarded DISORDER OF ATTENTION FOLLOWING BRAIN DAMAGE One way investigate relationship between neural activity and mental functions → though effects of brain damage Lesions → areas of brain damage that can result from direct injury (blow to head or bullet) ​ can cause specific disruption of mental function ​ OR infarct/stroke were disrupted blood supply causes tissue to die UNILATERAL VISUAL NEGLECT: Unilateral visual neglect → patients fail to notice/attend stimuli that appear on side of space opposite the site of hemispheric lesion ​ Often found patients with lesions of right parietal lobe → produce loss attention to events and objects in left visual field ​ Not bc blindness ​ Bc notice object in affected side of space if attention drawn towards them De Renzi 1982 Procedure: Presented index finger 1.​ Only one → detected 2.​ Both → IF LEFT NEGLECT, left is not recorded As if right finger ‘extinguished’ left finger Neglect patients → cued to good side on Posner cueing task also fail to notice target appearing contralesional (opposite side to lesion) filed or take longer to detect it → Posner et al. 1984 Also affects mental imagery → eg. visualize bedroom → fail report objection on contralesional side of mental image Bisiach and Luzzati 1978 Procedure: Italian neglect patients → visualize famous square in Milan 3.​ Both → IF LEFT NEGLECT, left is not recorded Results LEFT NEGLECT → on left side shops, all previously put on the right side Right side was lined with shops Navigated around mental images as if we are really there → Kosslyn 1973 Distort representation of what not known Smith et al. 2007 Procedure: Said to draw a clock Results From digits 7-12 ignored OR all squeezed into right side of clock Albert 1973 Procedure: Bisection task Ask how many draw mark to divide line in middle Left neglect patients → closer mark line to right as field to notice extent left field IF different length presented → amount error towards right is proportional to length of each line In order to make an error proportional to length of each line → must be aware on some level of total length of line Think more spacious to the left, so gives more t the right Marshall Halligan 1988 Procedure: Show 2 drawing of house → identical except left side is on fire (left neglects)  Chose one of the two houses Prefer stay in house without flames Aware on some level that house was on fire Balint’s syndrome → in 1909 → attentional disorder where patient loses ability to voluntarily shift visual attention to new location which is associated with damage to both side of brain ​ rarer than unilateral visual neglect- failed to notice object outside attentional spotlight even when staring straight at them ​ Voluntarily shift attention is compromised and involves damage to both regions Attention allows us to selectively appreciate competing experiences to exclusion of others BLINDSIGHT Riddoch 1917 → describe soldiers blinded following gunshot injuries to primary visual cortex ​ Produced cortical blindness - report see nothing in affected field ​ Notice vague and shadowy movement ​ Blindsight → residual vision in absence of cortical processing → Weiskrantz 1986 Hybrid and Wieskranz in 1960s Procedure: Monkey named helen → entire cortex removed, thought she was blind BUT started moving, could pick up crumbs and catch files NOT SAME WITH HUMANS: ​ Patient D.B. had visual cortex removed to treat tumor and was blind ​ When forced to guess → detect target presented in region could not see ​ Weiskrantz 1986 Braddick et al. 1992 Procedure: Babies blind in visual opposite side of removed hemisphere Presented single tarted and move eye and what to orient towards it 2 targets presented in each field and did not look at them → were blind Blindsight → proves multiple processing areas in addition to visual cortex that could support unconscious vision CONSCIOUSNESS: WHAT’S IT FOR? Do we need consciousness: ​ Brains generate experience of consciousness to keep track of outcome of all unconscious processes by giving us sense of ownership over them → Wegner 2002 ○​ Consciousness generates personal experience that is stored as episodic memory ​ Evolved consciousness as interface between parallel world of multiple mental process and sequential demands of world → experience seems linear Bargh 1997 SLEEPING AND DREAMING: GOOD NIGHT MIND Sleep → produce state unconsciousness in which mind and brain turn off functions that create experience: cartesian theatre is closed ​ Opens for dreams ​ Dream consciousness involves transformation of experience ​ considered commonly an altered state of consciousness → form experience that departs significantly from normal subjective experience of world and mind ​ Ludwig 1966 → can be accompanied by changes in thinking/feeling loss control/change emotional expression SLEEP: ​ Pre-sleep consciousness → hypnagogic state ​ Hypnic jerk → sudden quiver/sensation of dropping ​ Postsleep consciousness → hypnopompic state ​ Unconscious ​ Dreams arrive and set experiences that occur ​ You in dream is very different ​ Hobson 2002 → when dreaming all experiences are directed to content of dream → self reflective SLEEP CYCLE: Circadian rhythm → naturally occurring 24-hour cycle ​ Aschoff 1965 → even when no clock to see time, go to sleep at their normal hour ​ More than a routine → bodily and psychological processes and and flow in this rhythm Berger 1929 → researchers made EEG (electroencephalography) recordings of human brain for first time → first time measuring sleep without waking sleeper ​ Revealed regular pattern of changes by brain accompanying circadian cycle ○​ High frequency activity → beta waves → alertness ○​ Lower frequency activity → alpha waves → relaxation  ​ Show a regular pattern over course of the night that allowed researchers to find 5 sleeping stages: 1.​ Awake → beta waves 2.​ Drowsy & relaxed → alpha waves 3.​ Stage 1 sleep → theta waves → lower frequency 4.​ Stage 2 sleep → patterns interrupted by short bursts of activity called sleep spindles and K complexes → more difficult to awaken 5.​ Stage 3 & 4 sleep → deepest stages of sleep → slow-wave sleep, delta waves 6.​ REM sleep → fast and random REM (rapid eye movement) sleep → stage sleep characterised by rapid eye movement and high level brain activity ​ Pulse quickens ​ Blood pressure rises ​ Sins of sexual arousal ​ Sleeper very still expect for eye ​ EEG patterns → mind is active, higher frequency ​ Called paradoxical sleep →’ mind appears active in state as when fully awake EOG (electrooculography, devise measures eye movement during sleep) → found sleepers wakened during REM periods report having dreams more often than those wakened during non-REM periods (Aserinsky and Kleitman 1953) 95% people awakened during REM sleep report dreams Dement and Kleitman 1957 Procedure: Woke volunteers with 5/15 onset of REM sleep Asked to judge how long been dreaming Majority people correct → dreams occur in real life Results: Brain is active, working and dreams are extremely releasing in REM stage Some dreams → reported in other sleep stages but not as many → less wild EEG + REM → produce picture how typical night's sleep progressed through cycles of sleep stages: ​ 1st hour → fall from waking to fourth and deepest stage of sleep - by delta waves ​ Indicate general synchronization of neural firing ​ Return lighter sleep stage → REM ​ Cycle between REM and slow wave sleep every 90 min  ​ REM periods last longer as light progresses SLEEP NEEDS AND DEPRIVATION: ​ Newborn → 6-8 times in 24 hours, + 16 hours of sleep ​ 6 year old child → 11-12 hours of sleep ​ Adulthood → 7-7.5 per night Dement 1978 Procedure: Struggled to be awake during the night but ok during the day Played board games and he won easily → no debilitation Main symptom → sleepiness along minor hallucinatory experiences He slept only for 14 hours and 40 min → recovered Stickgold et al. 200a → people learning difficult perpetual task kept all night up after finish practicing task - their learning of task is wiped out ​ Essential for memory consolidation Rechsthaffen et al. 1983 Procedure: Used rats to try to break gardner record Trouble regulating body temp Lose weight although eat more than normal Bodily system breaks down and die in average 21 days Coren 1997 → Few hours sleep deprivation can have cumulative detrimental effect → reducing mental acuity and reaction time ​ + irritable & + risk depression and accidents/injuries Elleman et al. 1991 → REM sleep deprivation is important → humans and rats have problem of aggression after few days  ​ REM must be valued bc causes rebound for more REM next sleep time → Brunner et al. 1990 Deprivation slow-wave sleep → more physical effects → tired, fatigued, hypersensitive → Lentz et al. 1999 Sleep deprivation in rats → indicate sleep is necessity for at least 3 vital body functions: 1.​ Thermoregulation → maintains optimal body temperature ​ No sleep → no regulate body temp. → consequence in brain functioning 2.​ Immune system → body defence mechanism ​ Disabling initial response to disease → Palma et al. 2006 3.​ Metabolism → process whereby our bodies convert stored resources into energy ​ Be adjusted to bodies command SLEEP DISORDERS: Insomnia: ​ difficulty falling/staying asleep ​ 15% adults have sever ​ 15% mild → Botzin et al. 1993 ​ Caused by anxiety & worse if worry ab not sleeping → Borkovec 1982 ○​ Desire sleep → imitates ironic process mental control, + sensitive signs of sleepness Sleep Apnea: ​ disorder in which person stops breathing for brief periods while asleep ​ Usually snores (involuntary obstruction of breathing passage) ​ Cause awakenings/sleep loss/insomnia ​ Often in middle aged overweight men → Partinen 1994 ​ Therapies involve → weight loss, drugs, surgery Somnambulism: ​ Person arises and walks around while asleep ​ Common in children age 11-12 (Empson 1984) ​ Early in night & safe to wake them up ​ May awaken and go back to bed - can open eyes ​ No coordination Narcolepsy Sleep paralysis: ​ Not able to move ​ Associated with narcolepsy ​ Only few months, often with experience of pressure on chest (Hishakawa 1976) ​ nightmares/terrors ​ Mainly boys 3-7 Sleeping Pills: ​ Long term use not effective ​ Form of benzodiazepine - addictive ​ May become dependent → increase dose every time to achieve same effect ​ Reduce REM and slow wave sleep (Nishino et al. 1995) → no dreams and deepest sleep stages ​ Side effects → irritability DREAMS: Dement (1959) → dreams need to have a touch of insanity DREAM CONSCIOUSNESS: Dreams → depart from reality Quality consciousness dreaming → altered from waking consciousness 5 characteristics of dream consciousness that distinguish from waking state (Hobson 1988) 1.​ Feel emotion intensely (bliss, terror, love, awe) 2.​ Dream though is illogical ​ Continuities in time ​ People no apply 3.​ Sensation formed and meaningful, most with vision 4.​ Uncritical acceptance → images and events perfectly normal rather than bizarre 5.​ Difficulty remembering dream after is over ​ Remember only if awakened during the night or lose recall after few min Wood and Bootzin 1990 Procedure: Set daily dream logs for uni student undergraduates to test number of nightmares Results: Average 24 nightmares per year, some have every night Most memorable dreams are nightmares Wood et al 1992 Procedure: Earthquake 1989 in San Francisco Bay Results: Those who have experienced earthquake more nightmares More children have nightmares than adults Police officers experience critical incidents of danger→ + nightmares → Neylan et al. 2002 Dream ab mundane topics that reflect ‘day residue’ → Nickels et al. 1998 ​ Day residue no include ○​ Episodic memories ○​ Dreams that reflect day experience trend to single out sensory experienced Skaggs and McNaughton 1996 Procedure: Rats in maze → see patterns of activity in hippocampus Results: Same patterns were observed when rat was sleeping Stickgold et al. 2001 Procedure: Playing tetris participants in maze → see patterns of activity in hippocampus Results: Report dreaming geometric figures falling down, as if reliving events of the day Stickgold et al. 2000b ​ Amnesiac patients no recall playing tetris DREAM THEORIES: Old testament→ prophet Daniel curried favour with King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon by interpreting king's dream First psychological theory → Freud 1900/1965 → dreams confusing and obscure → dynamic unconscious creates them precisely to be confusing ad obscure ​ represent wishes → some unacceptable and anxiety producing that mind only express them in disguised form → infinite interpretation (eg. sexual) ​ Manifest content of dream (dream apparent topi/superficial meaning) is smokescreen for latent content (dream’s true underlying meaning) Wegner et al 2004 Procedure: Think personal acquaintance and speed 5 min writing what come to mind 1.​ Asked suppress thoughts ab them  2.​ Write about anything Next day → report dreams Results: All mention dreaming ab person name → if suppressed or not Dreams thinks about suppressing thoughts BUT there is a huge leap of logic Hobson and McCarley 1977 → activation-synthesis model → proposes dreams are produced when mind attempts to make sense of random neural activity that occurs in brain during sleep ​ During waking consciousness → mind devoted to interpreting info though senses ​ Bc info comes from neural activation → brains interpretive mechanisms run free → eg. why person in dream changes to something else THE DREAMING BRAIN Studies with fMRI scans people brain during sleep: ​ Shwartz and Maquet 2022 → brain changes during REM → certain alternates of consciousness → show patterns activation and deactivation found in dreaming brain One notable feature distinguish waking consciousness is scariness ​ Neilson et al. 1991 → nightmares are terrifying but other common ideas can be populated with anxiety producing images Thoughts suggest brain area responsible for fear/emotion visible in fMRI scan Amygdala → involved in responses to threat or stress → active during REM ​ No involve actual perception but just imagination of visual events → less auditory sensations & touch, more visual, no smells and tastes ​ Occipital lobe (for visual imagery) is active → Braun et al. 1998 In REM: ​ prefrontal cortex (associated with planning and executing actions) shows less arousal than usually does in waking consciousness → dreams rambled ​ motor cortex activated but spinal neurons running through brainstem inhibits expression of motor activation → Sai and Siegal 1999 ○​ In cats → + active during REM → Jouvet and Mounier 1961 Can know if in a dream or not → lucid dreaming → awareness of dreaming during dream → LaBerge and Rheingold 1990 → controversial bc examine how brain involved in creation elusive state mind No established if are differences in brain activation between minimal and dull consciousness → can collaborate on reports of lucid dreams A DREAM ANSWER: Freud → dream begin with meaning Activation-synthesis theory → dream begin randomly but meaning added later ​ Not make testable prediction for dream interpretation → give nature but are neither coherent or reliable ​ Unconscious can influence content of our dreams ​ Freed from tyranny of conscious effortful control - sleep perchance to dream Stickgold et al. 1994 → expert psychoanalysis and non-experient perform equally badly at spotting originals from spliced dream accounts frontal regions → shut down during dreaming → associative thinking of dreams allows us to think imaginatively and have answers when awake DRUGS AND CONSCIOUSNESS: ARTIFICIAL INSPIRATION Psychoactive drugs → chemical that influence consciousness or behaviour by altering brain’s chemical message system Neurotransmitters convery neural impulses to neighbouring neurons → common ​ Serotonin ​ Dopamine ​ GABA ​ Acetylcholine ​ Balium → induces sleep Drugs alter neural connection → prevent bonding neurotransmitters to sites OR inhibiting reuptake of neurotransmitter, reducing or enhancing the effect ​ promote patterns of brain activity & influence on consciousness can be dramatic DRUG USE AND ABUSE: Tart 1969 → attractiveness of stages of consciousness that depart from norm ​ sought out altered states by dancing, fasting, chanting, ingesting bizarre assortments of chemical to intoxicate themselves ​ Drug induced change consciousness → begin as pleasant and spark initial attraction Bozarth and Wise 1985 Procedure: Attractiveness psychoactive drug by seeing how much laboratory animals will work to get them Administer cocaine by pressing lever Free access to cocaine → increased over use in 30 days Binged to point of convulsions Stopped growing  Results: 90% rats died at end of study Make clear that cocaine is addictive Bozart 1987 → psychoactive drugs that animal no work for (mescaline) suggest that these drugs have less potential to cause addiction HALLUCINOGENS: Hallucinogens → drugs that alter sensation and perspective, often causing hallucinations ​ Produce large effects in perception ​ Sensation → unusually intense, object move/chance ​ Unpredictable effect ​ Likely to be unaddictive ​ Overdose death are rare ​ Main drugs animals won't self administer/work for ​ Synthetic: ○​ LSD - made by chemist Alber Hofmann in 1983 ○​ Rash experimentation influenced pop culture in 1960s ​ Natural, since ancient times: ○​ Ingestion peyote important role in Native American religious practices ​ Include: ○​ LSD ○​ Mescaline ○​ PCP ○​ Ketamine ○​ Psilocybin Cannabis → leaves, buds of plant → smoked/eaten concentrated form as hashish ​ Intoxicating, mildly hallucinogenic ​ Described as euphoric ​ Affects judgement and short term memory ​ Impairs motor skills and coordination ​ Widespread as medicine for pain or nausea but remains controversial ​ tolerance no seem develop and physical withdrawal symptoms are minimal Stephens 1999 → found that receptors in brain respond to THC normally activated by neurotransmitter called anandamide naturally produced in brain (Wiley 1999) ​ Involved in regulation mood, memory, appetite, pain perception ​ Stimulate overeating in laboratory animals, as well as in humans (Williams and Kirkham 1999) HYPNOSIS: OPEN TO SUGGESTION → social interaction in which one person (hypnotist) makes suggestion that lead to change in another person’s (subjects) subjective experience of the world → Kirsch et al. 2011 ​ During → follow instructions readily → Lynn et all. 1990 ​ Extreme form of behavioural compliance → doing what are told/expected to ​ represent willingness to confront and believe you are no longer responsible for own actions → Wagstaff 1981 INDUCTION AND SUSCEPTIBILITY: Form hypnotic induction → Franz Anton Mesmer ​ Attempted cure people of illnesses through contact with what called ‘animal magnetism’ → Gaud 1992 ○​ Theory → in rituals, patients held onto iron rode and immersed in large water tub ○​ Asked to sit quietly while Mesmer passed hands lightly around their bodies ○​ Led patients to believe they were cured → miraculous cures for chronic stomach problems, headaches, paralysis, blindness ○​ Hypnosis called Mesmerism ​ Persuaded people thinking actions cured them → engage with social interaction where participants believe certain things told → Wegner 2002 Induction hypothesis → involved number different suggestions ​ When says close eyes, will most definitely close their eyes ​ Number suggestions can induce people a state of mind that makes them susceptible to even very unusual suggestions, eg. get down on all 4s Not everyone is equally hypnotizable: ​ Most people only moderately influenced by persons personality traits ​ Persons own judgement → if think that might be hypnotizable, may be → Hilgard 1965 People with wild imaginations → + prone to be good candidates for hypnosis → Sheehan 1979 & Tellegen and Atkinson 1974 HYPNOTIC EFFECTS: ​ Sold as cure for lost memory ​ Helps people remember forgotten memories → made up to satisfy hypnotist ​ people susceptible to hypnosis → experience posthypnotic amnesia → failure retrieve memories following hypnotic suggestions to forget ​ BUT can be reversed ​ Memories lost before hypnosis no retrieved ​ Hypnotic analgesia → reduction of pain through hypnosis in people who are hypnotically susceptible Laurence and Perry 1983 ​ 27 hypnotizable research volunteers given hypnosis have been awakened by loud noises in night a week before ​ After hypnosis 13 → reported had been awakened by loud noises Kihlstrom 1985 → hypnosis no enhance accuracy, only increases person's confidence in false memory reports Stern et al 1977 → found that for pain induced volunteers in laboratory hypnosis was more effective than morphine, aspirin or placebos ​ Can be used to control pain in surgeries ​ Evidence for pain control supports idea that hypnosis is different state of consciousness and not entirely matter of skillful role playing on part highly motivated by people Conscious state hypnosis → accompanied by unique pattern brain activation Szechtman _ Procedure: Highly hypnotizable people from ability to hallucinate during hypnosis After standard hypnotic induction → tested with PET scanner while perform 3 tasks 1.​ Perspective → what recording sentence 2.​ Imagination → imagine hearing line again 3.​ Hypnotic hallucination → listen hypnosis suggested that tape was playing Results: Reported hearing music PET scan revel right anterior cingulate cortex (regulation attention) active while hallucinating → were listening to the line Less activation when participants imagined sentence This was not found in people not highly hypnotizable Brain registered hallucinated voice as real MEDITATION AND RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE: HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS Meditation → Abraham Maslow 1962 describe peak experiences as special states of mind in which feel fully alive and glad to be human MEDITATION → practice international contemplation Techniques associated with: ​ Variety religious traditions  ​ Also practiced outside religions ​ Vary widely Some need to: ​ Clear mind ​ Focus single object ​ Breathing or mantra Druckman and Bjork 1994 → evidence long-term positive effect of meditation is controversial, but meditation does produce temporarily altered patterns of rain activation It influences EEG recordings → produce alpha waves associated with relaxation → Dillbeck and Orme-Johnson 1987 Brian scanning study of buddhist during meditation → low levels activation in posterior superior parietal lobe (area normally associated with judging physical space and orienting oneself in space) → Newberg et al. 2001 Yield experience of immersion and loss of self ECSTATIC RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES: Altered states → happen during prayer or without any religious activity ​ 40% one sample of americans report having profound experience at least once in their lives → Freeley 1975 ​ One type of altered state → associated with religion around world → Bourguignon 1968/9 ○​ Sometimes same type brain activation that occurs in certain causes of epilepsy → Joan of Arc has symptoms of epilepsy → Saver and Rabin 1997 ○​ see bearded man saying it was Jesus Christ → Morgan 1990 ​ surgery to remove tumor in his right anterior temporal lobe ​ eliminated seizures but stopped from religious ecstasies Religious ecstasy and meditation → 2 intriguing varieties of experience that consciousness makes available to us