Lecture 22: Conscious & Unconscious Thought (PDF)

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3rd 2024 LAST DAY OF LECTURES! REMEMBER: InQuizitive and Zaps Lab DEADLINES MONDAY, DEC 9th @ 11:59 PM ↳ FINAL TEST THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5th CH 12 – 15 40 M/C Questions. 60 MINUTES BRING A PENCIL/ERASER/STUDENT ID ...

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 3rd 2024 LAST DAY OF LECTURES! REMEMBER: InQuizitive and Zaps Lab DEADLINES MONDAY, DEC 9th @ 11:59 PM ↳ FINAL TEST THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5th CH 12 – 15 40 M/C Questions. 60 MINUTES BRING A PENCIL/ERASER/STUDENT ID  CH 15: (Part 2) Conscious Thought, Unconscious Thought Placebo Effect (Video) Unconscious Guides to Thinking: Blind Sight Subliminal Messaging & Targeting the Unconscious Mind (Videos) Metacognition & Executive Control Global/Neuronal Workspace Hypothesis placebo the effect her of S have that don't an have effect Drugs/treatments/therapies an · belief to mental * Personal effect due control for comparison Notes * · often used as a Placebo effect - >real ? - > Physiological changes can occur · · BP results hormones cloud clinical stress · · Placebo's can · Pain · can also effect real treatment treatment don't seek > - convinced of placebo , Unconscious Guides to Conscious Thinking In some settings you are aware of your own thoughts (inner dialogue). & thinking through "a problem Even a conscious “inner dialogue," can be influenced by the cognitive unconscious. Far right Ideologies (Political) negativeFocus For example: · on Remember negative things · that Framing choose option overwhelmingly · -> Prevents losses. Could be related to natural effects Framing · · effects > - Negative= threat · Problem solving sets Misinformation effects ·  Disruptions of Consciousness ______________ Brain damage also provides evidence for unconscious processing. EXAMPLES: Amnesia can impair explicit memory but leave implicit memory intact. Korsakoff syndrome – influenced by memories of which they are unaware > Ex Korsakoff HM Amnesia -. , , Practice effects can improve (implicit) Blind Sight Parallel effect in Perception: Blind sight results from damage to the _______________ VisualCortex No ________________! Visual awareness Patients insist that they cannot see visual stimuli, and they do not react to them. YET, they can correctly “guess” the locations of objects, reach But for them, and generally > - Eyeball/connections still functioning vision occurs that isn't where describe them. without concious awareness Eyes still working These patients are not aware > - , of what they're actually seeing of seeing but, even so, can in Can avoid obstacles just as a fully some ways “see”. > - still Can - But no awareness sighted person  No conciouszwareness of visual But still can avoid obstacles (somehow Blind Sight How can these patients "see"? There may be "islands" of intact tissue Damage may not affect all pathways from the eyes to the brain, so information flow may still be possible along other pathways e.g., a pathway through the ___________________ in the midbrain to close Superior Colliculus - lobe temporal may be what enables these patients to use visual information that they cannot consciously see These patients demonstrate that we need to distinguish between PERCEPTION and CONSCIOUS PERCEPTION.  Brand Power & Subliminal Messages · Applelogo -> more creative performan a with brands tho, to identity Starttoidenting -> · Brand Subliminal Perception · Brain Imaging > Apple vs. Samsung - ↓ ↓ choose because Loyalty Not apple · Become pillars of our identity Subliminal perception: people can be influenced by visual inputs they didn't consciously perceive. Toblerone · Swiss chocolate · Name of City where chocolate Is madeIs called Barre > bear · Mascot - · Nod to this town · Evoke sense Sibliminal of quality through messages Si _____ and Subliminal Perception N400 The _______________ N400 brain wave is an event-related brain potential (ERP) measured using electroencephalography (EEG). refers to a negativity peaking at about _________________ 400 milliseconds after stimulus onset. doesn't fit, When something N400 shows it Direction (+ or - doesn't matter! Subliminal Perception Evidence for subliminal perception comes from studies of the ____________. N400 brain wave Participants were unconsciously primed with items consistent or inconsistent with expectations associated with consciously presented items. Larger N400 waves followed _________________________________. but unexpected items unconcious (Subliminal) word Mismatch between Shown Subliminal Conscious: N400: End concious word (rapid presentation + mask): N400 response > - Larger HAPPY WAR large Larger mismatch VERY HAPPY WAR larger > - Larger N400 VERY SAD WAR smaller > - Larger amount of doesn't matter change > + NOT HAPPY WAR smaller - or - Limits of Unconscious Performance Our unconscious judgments and inferences are fast, efficient, and reasonable. Guided by situational cues, prior habits, and familiarity, accessibility Unconscious processing will, to a large extent, be outside of your control. Examples: perceptual illusions, top-down processing and proofreading Unconcious processing these to Roo Perception > - Magicians use Limits of Unconscious Performance Limits of Unconscious Performance COUNT THE F’S Limits of Unconscious Performance _______________: Action slips cases in which you do something differently than intended When trying to do something different, you often end up doing what is normal or habitual. For example, to work Turning left as you would on your way off right day turning your on Instead of  come from well-engrained of attitudes Patterns A Role for Control Unconscious processes - in perception, memory, and reasoning - serve as “________________.” mental reflexes Guided by circumstances, and therefore usually appropriate for those circumstances Generally inflexible; _________________ heuristic-based - Automatic A Role for Control Unconscious processes can operate without “supervision.” & Run many processes simultaneously Study something Hard to aren't aware of you Increases speed and efficiency of cognition Need to be learn and concious remember to Attention can be devoted elsewhere. How do they run without supervision? _________—likely Biological built into the nervous system (e.g., perception) – no supervision or attention is ever needed for the task _________ Practice —processes become more automated Emin change -> learn what does and doesn't require fill etention and act accordingly  Different areas depending on practice Deeper areas > More practiced /known - · · More automatedProcesses A Role for Control · closer - more to stern automatic ! Activated areas of the brain change as tasks are practiced! Primary and supplementary motor areas Prerequisites for Control Unconscious actions take place without executive control. _________________ Executive Control is required for the direction of mental processes Examples : inhibiting a habit response or · Thinking about an appropriate response writing · a grocery list need" while inside > - Thinking "What do I imagining of fridge  · Don't get too caught up in this theory ↓ Prerequisites for Control · A lot of holes in this method · A neat , tidy , easy explanation EXECUTIVE CONTROL REQUIRES: A way to initiate or override actions. A way to represent its goals to serve as guides to action as well as its plan or agenda. Manage information about inputs What information is coming in? Can it be integrated? Is there any conflict? Manage information about the state of mental processes. Are they unfolding smoothly? Should another path to the goal be taken? Metacognition Metacognitive skills: skills in monitoring and controlling one’s own mental processes that's correct ! " not > - Lettingyouthings know "hope Such as ________________: Metamemory knowledge and beliefs about, awareness of, and control over one’s own memory Examples: you now understand that deep processing and mnemonics are helpful to remembering! "Okay, I understand this material; I can study something else now." "I don't think I'll remember this later. I should come up with a mnemonic."  of concious awareness and not · A mix Mindwandering Mindwandering: period when thoughts are largely unguided (i.e., 'off- task'), each thought passively triggering the next ”___________________": Experience Sampling people are sporadically interrupted with questions like, "What are you thinking about right NOW" Thoughts 'wander' in all sorts of directions, but a great deal involves… ”_________________": Mental time travel people often thinking about current or future events; sometimes focus is on past events, but seems especially likely for ____________ unhappy people The Cognitive Neuroscience of Consciousness in research What are the neural correlates of consciousness? Grey area 7 What happens in the nervous system during specific mental events? Are these neural events the biological bases of the mental events?  of Big gap in understanding activities at different brain levels of conciousness The Many Brain Areas Needed for Consciousness Researchers use neuroimaging techniques to track brain activity to address the following questions: How does the pattern of brain activity change with mental events? What changes in brain activity happens when someone first becomes aware of a stimulus? Many brain areas are crucial for consciousness. No "consciousness center” in the brain Two broad categories of brain states that correspond to two aspects of consciousness: 1. Overall alertness 2. Content of conciousness The Many Brain Areas Needed for Consciousness 1. Overall alertness or sensitivity Range from being sleepy and dimly aware to fully awake, highly alert, and totally focused Compromised by damage to the thalamus or reticular activating system (controls arousal and sleep/wake cycle) concussion > - 2. Content of consciousness Various contents rely on different brain regions. Examples: cortical structures in the visual system are especially active when you are consciously aware of sights in front of your eyes Cortical structures in the forebrain are essential when you are thinking about a stimulus that is no longer present in your environment.  The Many Brain Areas Needed for Consciousness Distinction between content and arousal is useful when thinking about VARIATIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS. Altered _____________ states of ________________ conciousness Examples: Dreaming = well defined content and low sensitivity to the environment. to this * we got Sleepwalking = no thoughts in Anesthesia > Very risky - Slide * Fine lime between feeling and death mind (content), but sensitive to · A aspects of the environment. The Neuronal Workspace CLAIM ABOUT HOW THE BRAIN MAKES CONSCIOUS EXPERIENCE POSSIBLE: Neuronal workspace hypothesis “_________________” Workspace neurons link the activity of various specialized brain areas. Any idea is represented in the brain by means of a widespread pattern of activity, with different parts of the brain each representing just one of the idea’s elements. You become aware of the idea when these various elements are linked to one another in a single representation made possible by the workspace neurons. The Function of the Neuronal Workspace The neuronal workspace makes single, coherent representations possible. Integrates activity across processing components Not every bit of neural activity gets connected to every other bit – it is SELECTIVE –attention has a lot to do with what gets connected to other bits The Function of the Neuronal Workspace Information carried by workspace neurons is governed by competition. Limited and shaped by how you focus (and sustain) your attention (attention both amplifies and sustains neural activity). By amplifying activity in one area or another, attention ensures that this area "wins" the competition, and thus ensures that information from this area is broadcast to other brain sites. The Function of the Neuronal Workspace The workspace enables you to maintain mental representations in an active state for extended periods. Supported by attention Makes it possible to continue thinking about something after the trigger has been removed Linked to claims about working memory, since working memory holds material you are currently working on, which means that it is currently within your conscious awareness. The Neuronal Workspace and Executive Control The workspace provides a plausible neural basis for executive functioning. The workspace enables integration across neural systems Integration allows you to examine the relationships among various inputs or ideas and enables new combinations of ideas and operations. Escapes some of the limits of unconscious processing The Neuronal Workspace and Executive Control Unconscious processes are inflexible, so if there is a conflict between a goal and a habit, it has little influence on the process. In contrast, conscious thought is guided by a sense of your goals. The workspace supports goal-directed behavior. By linking the various processing modules, the workspace makes it possible to compare what is going on in one module with what’s going on elsewhere in the brain, and this activity enables you to detect conflict. Can shift processing (by adjusting how you pay attention) to overcome detected conflicts The Role of Phenomenal Experience To recap, the neuronal workspace: allows comparisons across processing streams These comparisons enable the executive to ensure that there are no conflicts, and to choose processes that will move you towards your goal supports sustained neural activity (enables the executive to keep goals and plans in mind so you can work on some endeavor). can amplify certain types of activity (allows executive to take control of mental events – amplifies desired activity and diminishes distractions). But how do we explain what it feels like to be conscious and have experiences? Consciousness: What Is Left Unsaid _____________________: the mind is a different sort of entity from the physical body, yet each can influence the other. Correlation between brain states and conscious states How do these states CAUSE changes in the other? Remains an unexplained mystery Qualia Qualia: one’s subjective experiences that cannot be conveyed as a first-person experience to someone else Qualia ____________ consciousness: one’s sensitivity and access to certain types of information (the discussion of the neuronal workspace is based on access consciousness) ____________ consciousness: what it feels like to have certain experiences One's subjective or "inner" experience