1. Unit 4: Sensation, Perception and States of Consciousness
WHS AP Psychology
Unit 4: Sensation, Perception and States of Consciousness
Essential Task 4-7: Describe various states of consciousness and their impact on behavior.
Logo Green is R=8 G=138 B= Blue is R= 0 G=110 B=184
Border Grey is R=74 G=69 B=64

2. Perceptual Constancies
Sensation
Vision
The Eye
Theories
Hearing
The Ear
Other Senses
Smell
Taste
Pain
Gestalt Principles
Perceptual Constancies
Perception
Basic Principles
Visual Illusions
Depth Perception

3. Altered States of Consciousness
Stages/REM
Circadian Rhythm
Disorders
Hidden Observer
Actor
Sleep
Dreams
Hypnosis
Meditation
We are here
Waking Consciousness
Daydreaming and Fantasy
Altered States of Consciousness
Drug-Altered Consciousness
Substance Abuse
Stimulants
Depressants
Hallucinogens

4. OA What is consciousness? (176)
How do you know you have a consciousness?

5. Essential Task 4-7: Consciousness Waking Consciousness
Outline
Consciousness
Waking Consciousness
Theories of Consciousness
Evolutionary Explanation
Tripartite Theory
Stream of Consciousness
Chord of subconscious brain events
Subconscious Processing
Altered States of Consciousness
Meditation
Sleep
Dreams
Hypnosis
Daydreaming / Fantasy

6. What is consciousness?
Consciousness refers to an organisms awareness of it’s own self and its surroundings.
our own mental processes, such as our thoughts, feelings, and sensations.
When you are sad can you recognize that you are sad? Can you try to understand the source of your sorrow?
19th century when psychology became a science, it was originally known as the study of “human consciousness.”

7. Do you think animals have a consciousness ?

8. Do you think animals have a consciousness?

9. Do you think machines have a consciousness?

10. Do all humans have a consciousness?

11. Could there be different kinds?

12. Levels of Consciousness
Waking 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
Working memory
Altered States of Consciousness
A mental state that differs noticeably from normal waking consciousness
Altered state of consciousness
Sleep, dreaming, psychoactive drugs…. These are the things we are going to talk about in this unit.

13. What is waking consciousness?
Picture this: It is a beautiful spring day and you are walking down a country lane, absorbed in thought. Birds are chirping, roses are in bloom and the sun feels warm on your face. Suddenly, you hear a dog bark and you switch your attention to seeing if the animal means to bite.
Adapted from How the Brain Might Work: A New Theory of Consciousness By SANDRA BLAKESLEE
See some hills, feel the sun on your skin, maybe even smell the flowers, hear THE BARKING DOG!

14. What is waking consciousness?
How do you bind these fragmented sensory signals and perceptions into a single coherent image? I am at the park about to get eaten by Cujo.

15. Forms of Altered-Consciousness
Sleep

16. Levels of Consciousness
Nonconscious level
Autonomic functions of the body
Breathing, heart rate, body temperature
Preconscious level
According to Freud is the are between conscious awareness and the unconscious (darkest fantasies and forbidden desires).
(Personality/Freudian Psychology)
Things that occur in the body with out your awareness (non)conccious
When I am bored in a party, I can’t willingly control my brain to release seretonin so I can enhance my mood.

17. Levels of Consciousness
Subconscious level / processing
Well-learned tasks become automatic
Driving
Bicycle
Typing
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
It is not aware at the moment but with attention it can be brought to consciousness
Stereotypes

18. History of Consciousness
Psychology began as a science of consciousness. (Titchner and Structuralism)
Behaviorists argued about alienating consciousness from psychology.
However, after 1960, mental concepts (consciousness) started reentering psychology.
Does behaviorists care about mental processes? What do they care about?

19. Evolutionary Reason for Consciousness
Consciousness as an adaptation allowing us to get along with others in our group (humans)
Allows us to ‘see’ ourselves and therefore moderate our behavior.
Being social creatures we must rely on survival.

20. Tripartite Theory - Freud
Psychodynamic approach it is the unconscious that motivates behavior

21. 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”
Intralaminar nucleus, a kind of doughnut of cells within the thalamus, has nerve cells that send out long axons that reach to every part of the cerebral cortex. Significantly, there are also returning axons that come down from all areas of the cortex back to the intralaminar nucleus.
Biological approach

22. Consciousness as a Chord of Subconscious brain events.
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 seconds prior to moving your wrist, 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

23. 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