Cognitive Psychology - Conscious Thought, Unconscious Thought
What part of the brain is responsible for alertness and sensitivity?
thalamus and reticular activating system (sleep and wakefulness)
What are draw backs to unconscious processing?
1. leans toward familiar or the situation 2. inflexible relying on habits and stimulus-governed actions 3. cannot be stopped
How does consciousness translate into action?
1. action depends on remembered or perceived information 2. you need a reason to take information seriously (action only if it feels right - qualia) 3. senses backing up memory
What does the neural workspace do?
1. allows continued work on a stimulus after the trigger is removed 2. detection of conflict between your goals and what you are doing (anterior cingulate)
What makes control possible?
1. input to the executive 2. ways of representing goals and subgoals to guide action 3.executive knowing what is happening in the mind 4. executive knowing how easy processes are unfolding
What are the benefits of unconscious processing?
1. speed 2. efficiency of mental life 3. the ability to process more
What are mistaken introspection's?
an illusion of thinking you know the steps you took to get to your conclusion
What are neural correlates?
changes in the brain due to being conscious of a stimulus
Are the products in the conscious or unconscious?
conscious
What part of the brain controls thinking about things that are not present?
cortical structures in the forebrain
What part of the brain is conscious of sight?
cortical structures in visual system
What action slips?
doing something different from what you intended
When a decision is conscious the unconscious has no par in it, true or false.
false, there is still an unconscious support system
What attributions are processed unconsciously?
familiarity and feedback of others
What is after-the-fact reconstruction?
having a product and contemplating how you got there (I'm mad but what made me mad?)
What effect does fluency have on qualia?
makes it undetectable
Define cognitive unconscious.
mental activity unaware to the individual that makes ordinary actions possible
Does executive control play a role in unconscious processing?
no, executive control is only conscious
Is the unconscious unsophisticated?
no, it is sophisticated and powerful
What causes tasks to move to the unconscious?
practice
Is remembering a process or a product?
product
What does after-the-fact reconstruction feel like?
remembering
What is qualia or phonomenal consciousness?
subjective experience that is unique to a conscious being
What is a drawback of a set?
the inability to alter problematic beliefs or assumptions
What is blind sight?
the individual is blind but if forced to guess about something in front of them they guess correctly and reach correctly for objects
What is neural space hypothesis?
the integrated ability made possible by workspace neurons and it provides the biological basis for consciousness and executive control
What is the mind-body problem?
the mind is different from the physical body bt they influence each other
What biologically makes unconscious processing possible?
the nervous system
What part of the brain is responsible for blind sight?
the superior colliculus in the midbrain responsible for sight just not consciously
What is a benefit of a set?
they keep you focused
Are processes in the conscious or unconscious?
unconscious
What is a set?
unnoticed assumptions and definitions that guide your search for a problems solution
Is after-the-fact reconstruction accurate?
yes, it is usually accurate
