Consciousness Waking consciousness Altered States of Consciousness Our awareness of ourselves and our environment Thoughts, feelings, and perceptions that occur when we are awake and alert Allows us to reflect and plan Altered States of Consciousness A mental state that differs noticeably from normal waking consciousness

Unconscious processing Well-learned tasks become automatic Driving Keyboarding When you meet people you unconsciously react to their gender, age and appearance Subconscious processing Bird (color, form, movement, distance) Unconscious processing is parallel while conscious is linear but good at novel problems Can you taping different times??

Forms of Altered-Consciousness Sleep

History of Consciousness Psychology began as a science of consciousness. Behaviorists argued about alienating consciousness from psychology. However, after 1960, mental concepts (consciousness) started reentering psychology. OBJECTIVE 1| Discuss the history of psychology’s study of consciousness and contrast conscious and unconscious information processing.

Theories Explaining Waking Consciousness The Stream of Consciousness – Consciousness results from the activity of the thalamus which analyzes and interprets information in the cerebral cortex. “sweeping or scanning” total a rate of 40 times per second Each sweep results in a single image or “moment of consciousness”

Theories Explaining Waking Consciousness The unconscious mind processes information simultaneously on multiple tracks, while the conscious mind processes information sequentially. Conscious mind Unconscious mind

Theories Explaining Waking Consciousness Consciousness is also viewed as an adaptation allowing us to get along with others in our group (humans) Allows us to ‘see’ ourselves

Theories Explaining Waking Consciousness Neuroscientists believe that consciousness emerges from the interaction of individual subconscious brain events much like a chord that is created from different musical notes. Move wrist - 0.2 seconds prior you must decide to move the wrist since it takes that long to travel to the wrist. But it isn’t until 0.35 seconds after that your brain waves jump If told to hit a button after a tone you can respond in 1/10th of a second, but won’t show the jump in brain waves until .35 seconds. You live in the past – but only by a bit

Daydreaming and Fantasy Spontaneous shifts attention away from the here and now into a make-believe world Urge to daydream peaks about every 90 minutes and is highest between 12:00 and 2:00pm Almost half of your waking hours? Daydreams may provide stress relief and encourage creativity

Sleep & Dreams Sleep – the irresistible tempter to whom we inevitably succumb. Mysteries about sleep and dreams have just started unraveling in sleep laboratories around the world.

Circadian Cycles: The Biological Clock Circadian cycles are those that last “about a day” Circadian rhythms are governed by an area of the hypothalamus called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) Sends a signal to the pineal gland to increase or decrease the sleep-inducing hormone. Jet lag is the result of desynchronization of the circadian rhythm The longer we are awake the more adenosine (a chemical that inhibits certain neurons) accumulates. Sleep reduces adenosine – caffeine blocks it.

Rhythm of Sleep Light triggers the suprachiasmatic nucleus to decrease OBJECTIVE 3| Describe the cycle of our circadian rhythm, and identify some events that can disrupt this biological clock. Light triggers the suprachiasmatic nucleus to decrease (morning) melatonin from the pineal gland and increase (evening) it at night fall.