Our level of awareness about ourselves and our environment Consciousness Our level of awareness about ourselves and our environment

Levels of consciousness Conscious level The information about yourself and your environment you are currently aware of. Nonconscious level Body processes controlled by your mind that we are not usually aware of

Levels of consciousness Preconscious level Information about yourself or your environment that you are not currently thinking about but you could be Subconscious level Information that we are not consciously aware of but we know must exist due to behavior.

Levels of consciousness Unconscious level Psychoanalytic psychologists believe some events and feelings are unacceptable to our conscious mind and are repressed into the unconscious mind. Many psychologists object to this concept as difficult or impossible to prove

Selective Attention At any moment the ability to focus awareness on a very limited aspect of all that we are capable of experiencing. For example- being in a crowded room and listening to a single conversation Becoming aware of how your clothes feel on your body.

Can unnoticed stimuli affect us? Yes. Mere exposure effect In an experiment women listened to headphones where one side played music and the other poetry- they were told to focus on the poetry. They were later exposed to the tunes again to see if they remembered them- they did not. When asked to rate their fondness for the tunes they preferred the ones played previously.

Levels of informational processing Processing subconscious information occurs simultaneously on many parallel tracks Conscious processing takes place in sequence (serially) You can’t concentrate on two separate things at once

Try this Move your right foot in a smooth counterclockwise circle Write the number three several times Do the two tasks at the same time. Note: if your left-handed do the left foot.

Daydreams and fantasies Nearly everyone has daydreams or waking fantasies every day. Compared with older adults, young adults spend more time daydreaming. It can be escapist but it may also be adaptive- for children daydreaming in the form of imaginative play feeds social and cognitive development. Daydreams may also substitute for impulsive behavior.

SLEEP Sleep – sweet, renewing, mysterious sleep. What is it? Why must we have it? Why do we spend a third of our lives- some 25 years, on average – sleeping? What and why do we dream?

Are the following statements true or false? 1. Sleepwalkers are acting out their dreams. 2. When people dream of performing some activity, their limbs often move in concert with the dream. 3. Some people dream every night; others seldom dream at all. 4. After two or three sleepless days, a person’s performance on a brief but demanding task suffers. 5. Sleep experts recommend treating insomnia with an occasional sleeping pill.

Circadian rhythm Sequences of behavioral changes that occur every day Changes in alertness that occur throughout the day. The body’s natural cycle is 25 hours long Watch the video clip.

Sleep Throughout the night we go through 5 distinct stages of sleep. Stage 1 – During this brief light sleep, you may experience fantastic images which are like hallucinations. You may have a sensation of falling or floating weightlessly- hypnogogic sensations.

SLEEP Stage 2 – After about 20 minutes you relax more deeply, sleep spindles- bursts of rapid rhythmic brain-wave activity. You can be awakened fairly easily during this phase but you are clearly asleep. Sleeptalking can occur during this stage

SLEEP Stage 3 – A transitional stage you begin to see large, slow delta waves Stage 4 – Deep sleep, delta waves dominate These two stages combined last approx. 30 minutes, during which your are hard to awaken. It’s at the end of this stage that children wet the bed or begin walking in their sleep Even when you’re deeply asleep you brain processes the meaning of certain stimuli- you don’t hear traffic but you do hear a baby’s cry

REM SLEEP After a period of time in deep sleep, our brain waves start to speed up and go back through stages 3 and 2. As we reach stage 1, our brain produces a period of intense activity, our eyes dart back and forth, muscles twitch. This is REM- rapid eye movement sleep also called paradoxical sleep.

REM Sleep Dreams usually occur in REM sleep REM deprivation interferes with memory If denied REM sleep individuals will experience REM rebound The more stress we experience during the day the longer our periods of REM sleep will be.

Sleep and Dreams Measuring sleep activity

Brain Waves and Sleep Stages Alpha Waves slow waves of a relaxed, awake brain Delta Waves large, slow waves of deep sleep Hallucinations false sensory experiences

Stages in a Typical Night’s Sleep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Sleep stages Awake Hours of sleep REM

Stages in a Typical Night’s Sleep Hours of sleep Minutes of Stage 4 and REM 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 10 15 20 25 Decreasing Stage 4 Increasing

Sleep Deprivation Effects of Sleep Loss fatigue impaired concentration depressed immune system greater vulnerability to accidents

Sleep Deprivation Spring time change (hour sleep loss) 2,400 2,700 2,600 2,500 2,800 Spring time change (hour sleep loss) 3,600 4,200 4000 3,800 Fall time change (hour sleep gained) Less sleep, more accidents More sleep, fewer accidents Monday before time change Monday after time change Accident frequency

Sleep Disorders Insomnia Narcolepsy Sleep Apnea persistent problems in falling or staying asleep Narcolepsy uncontrollable sleep attacks Sleep Apnea temporary cessation of breathing momentary reawakenings

Night Terrors and Nightmares 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Sleep stages Awake Hours of sleep REM Night Terrors occur within 2 or 3 hours of falling asleep, usually during Stage 4 high arousal-- appearance of being terrified

Dreams: Freud Dreams sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person’s mind hallucinatory imagery discontinuities incongruities delusional acceptance of the content difficulties remembering

Dreams: Freud Sigmund Freud--The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) wish fulfillment discharge otherwise unacceptable feelings Manifest Content remembered story line Latent Content underlying meaning

Dreams As Information Processing REM Rebound helps facilitate memories REM sleep increases following REM sleep deprivation

Sleep Across the Lifespan

Dream Log We will be discussing various theories of dream interpretation, over the next several days keep a journal and record your dreams. As a project you will be choosing one or more of your dreams to interpret using the different theories.