States of Consciousness First Up: Consciousness itself

What is Consciousness? Consciousness: An awareness of both internal and external stimuli. Internal stimuli: thoughts, sleepiness, hunger pangs, etc. External stimuli: light, sound, smells, etc.

The study of consciousness Conscious experience was studied early on through a process of introspection. As behaviorism and its focus on directly observable phenomena took hold, less emphasis was placed on the study of consciousness. Focus on consciousness re-emerges as a function of the “cognitive revolution.”

Gettin’ Philosophical Mind-body problem: What is the relationship between the physical brain (body) and the intangible mind and consciousness? Some, like Rene Descartes, believed the mind and body to be separate, and a certain organ (the pituitary gland for Descartes) translated physical into “spiritual”.

Dualism Descartes ideas founded a concept called dualism, where the mind and body are not one. Interactionism: The mind and brain interact in causal ways. (Affect each other) Emergent Materialism: The mind emerges from the brain, but it cannot be reduced to brain activity. In other words, the mind is more than the sum of the different activities of the brain.

Monism In response to dualism, the idea of monism states that there are no distinction between mind and body. Materialism: The mind is what the body does. Idealism: All of reality is mentally constructed and is therefore immaterial.

Levels of Consciousness Wakefulness is a state of consciousness characterized by high levels of awareness, behavior, and thought. Sleep is a state of consciousness characterized by lower levels of physical activity and sensory awareness.

Other types of “consciousness” A preconscious state is when mental events are outside of current conscious awareness but can be brought into consciousness voluntarily (i.e., remembering). A nonconscious state is when mental processing occurs outside conscious awareness (e.g., controlling heart rate, respiration, and temperature).

Unconscious (not just Freud) An unconscious state is the lack of awareness (e.g., a state rendered by drug-induced anesthesia for medical procedures). Freud believed the unconscious served as a repository for sexual/aggressive urges via repression. Jung believed that the unconscious was a conduit to the collective unconscious, the repository of ancestral thought forms or archetypes.

Altered States Hypnosis is the state of self-focus in which little attention is given to external stimuli. b. Meditation is focusing on a single target (e.g., breathing) to increase awareness, achieve a sense of peace and tranquility and/or being “in the moment”.

Drugs Psychoactive drugs are chemical substances that act upon the central nervous system and are associated with changes in perception, mood, and behavior.

Cognitive Processing Explicit cognitive processes are mental activities of which we are consciously aware. Implicit cognitive processes are mental activities for which we have no conscious awareness. However, we may be influenced by these mental activities (e.g., blindsight: People cannot see, but can avoid objects in their visual field; or automatic processing: People drive home while thinking about other things.).

Types of Implicit Processes Priming is a term used to describe how exposure to a stimulus influences responses to other stimuli. This is true even if there is no conscious awareness of the prime. Mere exposure refers to how people prefer stimuli they have been previously exposed to, even if they’re not consciously aware of that exposure. Implicit associations are associations that may affect our behavior and/or attitudes (e.g., prejudice).

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