States of Consciousness

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States of Consciousness
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• Consciousness our awareness of ourselves and our
  environment
• Where does it come from?
• No one knows. Possibly arises from the
  interaction of various brain functions
• Does consciousness dictate our behavior or
  describe it?

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The Nonconscious Process

• The nonconscious mind is great at multitasking.
  Where the conscious mind has the ability to focus
  on just one task, the nonconscious mind has no
  such restrictions.
• The conscious mind has to process things
  serially, while the nonconscious mind can handle
  many streams of information at the same time,
  called parallel processing.
• Most of our brain processes take place outside of
  our awareness

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What Consciousness Does

• 3. Consciousness allows us to create a mental
  model of the world that we can manipulate.
• Unlike other, simpler organisms, we are not
  prisoners of the moment We dont just act
  reflexively to stimulation.
• Humans are the only animal with the ability to
  set goals.

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Levels of the Nonconscious Mind

• There are two levels of the nonconscious
  (subconscious) mind preconscious and
  unconscious.
• Preconscious memories Information that is not
  currently in consciousness, but can be recalled
  voluntarily.
• Unconscious Cognition (thought) without
  awareness.
• Involves levels of brain systems that range from
  autopilot to those which can have subtle
  influences on consciousness and behavior.

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What is Unconsciousness

• A dictionary might define the term as being a
  loss of all consciousness, like when a person
  faints.
• But in psychology, we define it a little
  differently. To show this, lets look at an
  example.
• Fill in the blanks to complete the word below
• D E F _ _ _

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Answer

• Using a technique called priming, psychologists
  can have some influence on the answer people
  give.
• This idea of priming is similar to asking
  leading questions in court, or framing
  questions by asking them in a way which increases
  the likelihood of certain answers.
• There were a number of possible answers to the
  example defend, defeat, defect, defile, deform,
  defray, defuse and define.
• There is an increased likelihood you chose
  define. Why?

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Freuds View of Consciousness
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Sleep and Dreams

• Circadian Rhythm
• 24 hour cycle
• Night owls and early birds
• Light- causes the pineal gland to decrease
  melatonin
• Biological clock can be adjusted- Daylight saving
  time?

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Sleep Stages

• Stage 1
• Beginning sleep
• May have hallucinations or dreamlike images
• You cannot remember the exact moment you fell
  asleep
• Stage 2- 20 minutes
• Sleep spindles
• Easily awakened

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• Stage 3- a few minutes
• Transitional
• Stage 4 about 30 minutes
• Deep sleep
• Delta waves
• Hard to awaken
• Brain still processing stimuli
• Stage 3 again
• Stage 2 - again

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• REM Sleep
• Jagged brain waves
• Eye movement signals dreams
• Brain stem blocks messages from motor cortex,
  leaving you mostly paralyzed
• Whole sleep cycle lasts about 90 minutes
• As night goes on, stage 4 becomes shorter, and
  REM longer

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Why we sleep

• Protection from predators
• To incorporate memories
• To repair neural connections and brain tissue
  closed for routine maintenance
• Growth

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Sleep deprivation

• Sleep debt
• How much sleep do we need?
• Affects of sleep deprivation
• Fatigue
• Decreased concentration
• Irritability
• Depressed immune system
• Vulnerability

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Jet Lag
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Sleep disorders

• Insomnia- difficulty in falling asleep
• Narcolepsy- inability to restrain sleep
• Sleep apnea- person momentarily stops breathing
  during sleep, causing the person to awaken (which
  disrupts the sleep cycle)

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Fig. 5-11, p. 188
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Why do we dream?

• To fulfill our wishes/fantasies
• To preserve memories
• To repair neurons closed for routine
  maintenance
• To make sense of neural static
• To reflect cognitive development
• Everyone dreams!

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Dreams

• Why do you have dreams that seem random?
• Typically the first dream connects with events
  from the previous day. Later dreams tend to build
  on a theme in the previous dream.
• Often times, the final dream is remembered most
  vividly, but has very little to do with the
  previous days events, or events that lay ahead.

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What We Dream

• Negative Emotional Content 8 out of 10 dreams
  have negative emotional content.
• Failure Dreams People commonly dream about
  failure, being attacked, pursued, rejected, or
  struck with misfortune.
• Sexual Dreams Contrary to our thinking, sexual
  dreams are sparse. Sexual dreams in men are 1 in
  10 and in women 1 in 30.

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Truth About Dreams

• Despite his theories there is no solid evidence
  to support Freuds interpretations of latent
  dream content.
• Dreams, do however, vary by age, gender and
  culture.
• Children are more likely to dream about animals
  that are large and threatening, while adults
  dream more about pets.
• Women are more likely to dream about men and
  women men are more likely to dream about men.

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Culture and Dreams

• Many studies have supported the theory that
  culture plays a large role in dream content.
• Ghana Attacking cows
• Americans Public nakedness
• Mexican-Americans Death
• There is strong support for the idea that dreams
  reflect life events that are important to the
  dreamer.

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Hypnosis

• Is it real?
• Suggestibility 20
• Can you make someone do something they dont want
  to do?
• Pain?

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Drugs

• Depressants reduce neural activity
• Alcohol
• Barbiturates tranquilizers (like sleeping
  pills)
• Opiates Opium. Morphine and heroin.

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• Stimulants excite neural activity
• Caffeine
• Nicotine
• Amphetamines
• Methamphetamines
• Cocaine
• Ecstasy

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• Hallucinogens distort perceptions
• LSD
• Marijuana

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Near Death Experiences
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