Psychology 102: Consciousness

Dissociation

--> A splitting off of mental processes into two separate, simultaneous streams of awareness -->Divided consciousness common under normal conditions (e,g., highway hypnosis)

Altered State of Consciousness

-->Effects of anesthesia -->Argue that individuals unlikely to endure surgery without anesthetic just to please their physician and live up to their expected role -->One stream of consciousness communicates with the hypnotist and the external world --The other stream is a difficult to detect hidden observer (dissociation) -->Anesthesia works because pain isn't registered in the portion of consciousness that communicates with other people

Social Role Playing

-->People act out the role of a hypnotic subject and behave accordingly (bias effect, conformity, suspension of self-control) -->No change in pattern of EEG activity -->Non-hypnotized subjects can be induced to perform the same behaviours -->Recovery of memory very unreliable

Attention

-->Select and enhance relevant and new information, ignore irrelevant or uninformative information

What is sleep? What does it do?

-->Sleep acts to reduce stimulation of the brain -->Restorative (protein synthesis) -->Integrate new with the old -->Sleep cycle controlled by the BRAC (basic rest-activity cycle) -->Increased stimulation in the brain occurs during REM sleep when most dreaming appears to occur

What is consciousness? Describe it.

-->Stream of consciousness reflects a limited capacity to consciously process information both externally and internally. -->One important characteristic of consciousness is that it is very limited. We can only think about one idea at a time. William James said that consciousness is like a river where the ideas are limited and flow into each other. Attention is a related but separate phenomenon from consciousness. Attention can be thought of as a bouncer at a bar, they decide who gets in and who doesn't.

Hypnosis

-->Systematic procedure involving deep relaxation which tends to promote a heightened state of suggestibility -->Weakly related to capacity to suspend reality and become involved in imaginative activities -->Hypnotist suggests that subject is relaxing, describes bodily sensations occurring (arms limp, eyes heavy) -->People differ in how well they appear to respond to hypnotic induction (10% of Population) -->HAVE TO HAVE A POSITIVE ATTITUDE ABOUT HYPNOSIS IN ORDER TO GET HYPNOTIZED

What are some of the observed affects under hypnosis?

1. Anesthesia 2. Sensory distortions and hallucinations (seeing and hearing things that are not there or do not exist) 3. Disinhibition (do things that they would never do normally; induced to perform an act that they would normally consider unacceptable. e.g., nitric acid in the face of a research assistant, disrobe in public, rob a bank) 4. Posthypnotic suggestions and amnesia 5. Effective for pain control, therapy for replacing memories (overcoming phobias) but not memory enhancement. (When people are hypnotized, they do not feel pain as much. They forget about particular memories and recalling events).

Short Answer Question: DESCRIBE THE DIFFERENT STAGES OF SLEEP Include chart/graph of frequencies.

1. Awake 2. Drowsy 3. Stage 1 4. Stage 2 5. Stages 3 & 4 6. REM Sleep

What are the different theories of hypnosis?

1. Social Role Playing 2. Altered State of Consciousness

What are some important brain structures associated with consciousness?

1.Thalamus, 2. The dorsal-lateral prefrontal cortex, 3. Broca's and wernickes areas

Beta Frequency

13-24 cps (cycles per second)

Theta Frequency

3.5 - 7.5 cps (cycles per second)

Alpha Frequency

8-12 cps (cycles per second)

Isolation Aphasia:

BRAIN INJURY -->Extensive damage from carbon monoxide poisoning -->Some disorders related to speech and comprehension appear to disrupt normal consciousness -->Produced no evidence of conscious behaviour but could repeat words heard -->No indication of awareness of herself or environment -->Intact speech production mechanism and connections with auditory cortex: repeat speech, learn new sequences of words

Split-brain

BRAIN INJURY -->Independent operation of each hemisphere through severance of the corpus callosum -->Split-brain patients have also helped enhance our understanding of consciousness.

Blindsight

BRAIN INJURY An ability to utilize visual information despite a complete lack of awareness of seeing

Attended

Conscious, explicit memory

What happens in REM sleep? (Rapid Eye Movement Sleep)

Dreaming Occurs

Delta Frequency

less than 3.5 cps