Chapter 3

Consciousness and the TwoTrack Mind

PowerPoint Presentation by Jim Foley

2013 Worth Publishers

Consciousness is
alertness; being awake vs. being unconscious self-awareness; the ability to think about self

having free will; being able to make a conscious decision

a persons mental content, thoughts, and imaginings To explore the nature of consciousness, it helps to first choose a definition.

In the text, consciousness is defined as: our awareness of ourselves and our environment.

Arent animals aware of their environment? If so, is our awareness different?... Possiblybecause we have (uniquely?) a narrative experience of that awareness. 2

Forms of Consciousness

Brain and Consciousness:

Findings and Debates
Finding Some rare unconscious patients have brain responses to conversation.

Debate What is going on in the brain that generates our experience of consciousness?

Implication Dont judge a book by its cover when it comes to consciousness.

One View Synchronized, coordinated brain activity generates consciousness, or at least is a sign that conscious activity is occurring.
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Conscious vs. Unconscious Activity:

The Dual-Track Mind

Conscious high track: our minds take deliberate actions we know we are doing Examples: problem solving, naming an object, defining a word

Unconscious low track: our minds perform automatic actions, often without being aware of them Examples: walking, acquiring phobias, processing sensory details into perceptions and memories

Example in the book (borrowed from the Sensation and Perception topic:
Automatic processing: Conscious high track says, I saw a bird! Unconsciously, we see:
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Think before you act?

In one study, students showed brain activity related to pushing a button BEFORE they were aware of their decision to push the button. Does this mean the decision is an illusion? What experiment from the beginning of the semester does this remind you of?
Why Have Two Tracks? Possible benefit: not having to think about everything we do all at once Examples You can hit or catch a ball without having to consciously calculate its trajectory. You can speak without having to think about the definitions of each word. You can walk and chew gum AND carry on a conversation. 6

Unusual Consequences of Having a Dual-Track Mind

Blindsight Selective Attention

Inattentional blindness Change blindness Choice blindness

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Selective Inattention

Blindsight
Case Study A woman with brain damage, but NO eye damage, was unable to use her eyes to report what was in front of her. BUT, she was able to use her eyes to help her take actions such as putting mail in slots. What are the two mental tracks in this case? Describing the mail and the slot: the high road, or conscious track, in this case known as the visual perception track Judging size and distance well enough to put the mail in the slot: the low road, or unconscious, automatic track, in this case known as the visual action track
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Selective Attention
There are millions of bits of information coming at our senses every second. So, we have the skill of selective attention; our brain is able to choose a focus and select what to notice.
Selective Attention and Conversation The good news: we can focus our mental spotlight on a conversation even when other conversations are going on around us. This is known as the cocktail party effect. The bad news: we can hyperfocus on a conversation while driving a car, putting the driver and passengers at risk. 9

Selective Attention: what we focus on, what we notice

Selective Inattention: what we are not focused on, what we do not notice

Selective inattention refers to our failure to notice part of our environment when our attention is directed elsewhere.
Selective Inattention: inattentional blindness change blindness choice blindness

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 Various experiments show that when our attention is focused, we miss seeing what others may think is obvious to see (such as a gorilla, or a unicyclist). Some magic tricks take advantage of this phenomenon.

Inattentional Blindness

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Change Blindness
The Switch

Two-thirds of people didnt notice when the person they were giving directions to was replaced by a similar-looking person.
By the way, did you notice whether the replacement person was in the same clothes or different clothes?

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In one experiment, people chose their favorite among two jams. But when the jars contents were deceptively reversed and tasted again, people described the same jars contents as their chosen jam.
The researcher flips the divided containers, so that the next taste from that jar is actually the other jam.

Choice Blindness

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Sleep as a State of Consciousness

When sleeping, are we fully unconscious and dead to the world? Or is the window to consciousness open? Consider that: we move around, but how do we stop ourselves from falling out of bed? we sometimes incorporate realworld noises into our dreams. some noises (our own babys cry) wake us more easily than others. How Do We Learn About Sleep and Dreams? We can monitor EEG/brain waves and muscle movements during sleep. We can expose the sleeping person to noise and words, and then examine the effects on the brain (waves) and mind (memory). We can wake people and see which mental state (e.g. dreaming) goes with which brain/body state.
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Daily Rhythms and Sleep

The circadian (about a day) rhythm refers to the bodys natural 24-hour cycle, roughly matched to the day/night cycle of light and dark. Larks and Owls Daily rhythms vary from person to person and with age. General peaks in alertness: evening peak20-year old owls morning peak50-year old larks

What changes during the 24 hours? Over the 24 hour cycle, the following factors vary, rising and falling over the course of the day and night: body temperature arousal/energy mental sharpness
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Stages and Cycles of Sleep

Sleep stages refer to distinct patterns of brain waves and muscle activity that are associated with different types of consciousness and sleep.
There are four types of sleep.

Sleep cycles refer to the patterns of shifting through all the sleep stages over the course of the night. We cycle through all the sleep stages in about 90 minutes on average.

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Falling Asleep: From Alert to Alpha

Eyes Closed

Alpha waves are the relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state.
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Falling asleep
Yawning creates a brief boost in alertness as your brain metabolism is slowing down. Your breathing slows down. Brain waves become slower and irregular. You may have hypnagogic (while falling asleep) hallucinations. Your brain waves change from alpha waves to NREM-1.

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Non-REM Sleep Stages

Getting deeper into sleep but not dreaming yet
NREM-1
NREM-2

NREM-3

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REM Sleep
Eugene Aserinskys discovery (1953): dreams occurred during periods of wild brain activity and rapid eye movements [REM sleep].

What happens during REM sleep? Heart rate rises and breathing becomes rapid. Sleep paralysis occurs when the brainstem blocks the motor cortexs messages and the muscles dont move. This is sometimes known as paradoxical sleep; the brain is active but the body is immobile. Genitals are aroused (not caused by dream content) and stay this way after REM is over.

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Stages of Sleep: The 90 Minute Cycles Through 8 Hours of Sleep

The length of REM sleep increases the longer you remain asleep. With age, there are more awakenings and less deep sleep.

NREM-1

NREM-2

NREM-3
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Why do we sleep?
What determines the quantity and rhythm of sleep?
The amount and pattern of sleep is affected by biology, age, culture, and individual variation. Light and the brain regulate sleep. Age: in general, newborns need 16 hours of sleep, while adults need 8 hours or less Individual (genetic) variation: some people function best with 6 hours of sleep, others with 9 hours or more Culture: North Americans sleep less than others, and less than they used to, perhaps because of the use of light bulbs The circadian rhythm is hard to shift (jet lag). This rhythm can be affected by light, which suppresses the relaxing hormone melatonin.

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Why do we sleep?
What does sleep do for us? 1. Sleep protected our ancestors from predators. 2. Sleep restores and repairs the brain and body. 3. Sleep builds and strengthens memories. 4. Sleep facilitates creative problem solving. 5. Sleep is the time when growth hormones are active.
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Effects of Sleep Loss/ Deprivation

Research shows that inadequate sleep can make you more likely to: lose brainpower. gain weight. get sick. be irritable. feel old.
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Sleep Loss Effects by Body System

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Sleep Loss/Deprivation=Accident Risk

Accident Frequency

Sleep loss results in more accidents, probably caused by impaired attention and slower reaction time.

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Sleep Disorders

Are these people dreaming? Night terrors refer to sudden scared-looking Insomnia: persistent inability behavior, with rapid to fall asleep or stay asleep heartbeat and Narcolepsy (numb seizure): breathing. sleep attacks, even a collapse into REM/paralyzed sleep, at Sleepwalking and sleeptalking run in inopportune times families, so there is a Sleep apnea (with no possible genetic basis. breath): repeated awakening These behaviors, after breathing stops; time in mostly affect bed is not restorative sleep children, and occur in NONREM-3 sleep. They are not 27 considered dreaming.

Dreams

the stream of images, actions, and feelings, experienced while in REM sleep

What We Dream About

Dreams often include some negative event or emotion, especially failure dreams (being pursued, attacked, rejected, or having bad luck). Dreams do NOT often include sexuality. We may incorporate realworld sounds and other stimuli into dreams. Dreams also include images from recent, traumatic, or frequent experiences.

What We Dream About: (Psychoanalytic Theory)

Sigmund Freud believed there was often a hidden latent content (conflicts, worries, and urges) underneath the symbolic manifest content (the plot, actions, and images recalled) of dreams. 28

Theories about Functions of Dreams

Explanation Lacks any Dreams provide a psychic safety scientific valve; they often express Wish fulfillment support; otherwise unacceptable feelings, (psychodreams may be and contain both manifest analytic theory) interpreted in (remembered) content and a latent many different content (hidden meaning). But why do we ways. sometimes Dreams help us sort out the days Informationdream about events and consolidate our processing This may be things we have memories. true, but it not Regular brain stimulation from REM experienced? does not Physiological The sleep may help develop and explain why we function individuals preserve neural pathways. experience brain is meaningful REM sleep triggers impulses that weaving the dreams. Activationevoke random visual memories, stories, which synthesis which our sleeping brain weaves still tells us into stories. something Does not Dream content reflects the about the Cognitiveaddress the dreamers cognitive dreamer. developmental developmenthis or her neuroscience of theory dreams.29 knowledge and understanding. Theory

Another Possible State of Consciousness:

HYPNOSIS

Text definition: Hypnosis is a social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) that certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur. Alternate definition: Hypnosis is a cooperative social action in which one person is in a state of being likely to respond to suggestions from another person. This state has been called heightened suggestibility as well as a trance. Controversy: does this social interaction really require an altered state of consciousness?

Your arm may soon feel so light that it rises

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Types of Hypnotic Suggestions

The subject may be led into changes in: perceptions (The headache is fading away.)

behavior (Your arm might rise by itself.) emotions (You are feeling more relaxed and confident.)
attitudes (I get nutrition from food, and get comfort from friends.) memory (You got lost in a mall as a child.)
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Induction Into Hypnosis

Hypnotic induction, the inducing of a hypnotic state, is the process by which a hypnotist leads someone into the state of heightened suggestibility.

The Highly Hypnotizable 20 Percent

How do some people get so hypnotized that they can A swinging have no reaction to ammonia watch and under their noses? recitation of the words you are These people seem to be getting sleepy more easily absorbed in are not imaginative activities. necessary. They are able to focus and to lose themselves in fantasy. The hypnotic induction method may happen to work just right. 32

Theories Explaining Hypnosis

Divided Consciousness Theory Hypnosis is a special state of dissociated (divided) consciousness of our dual-track mind. Social Influence Theory Hypnotic subjects may simply be imaginative people who go along with the subject role they have agreed to play.

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Benefits of Hypnosis for Some People:

blocking awareness of pain, even enough for surgery without anesthesia reducing obesity, anxiety, and hypertension improving concentration and performance

What Hypnosis Cannot Do:

work when people refuse to cooperate bestow superhuman abilities or strength accurately boost recall of forgotten events (it is more likely to implant false recall)
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Altering Consciousness

Drugs
Psychoactive drugs are chemicals introduced into the body which alter perceptions, mood, and other elements of conscious experience. Dependence/Addiction Many psychoactive drugs can be harmful to the body. Psychoactive drugs are particularly dangerous when a person develops an addiction or becomes dependent on the substance. Factors related to addiction: tolerance withdrawal impact on daily life of substance use physical and psychological dependence 35

Dependence

In physical dependence,
the body has been altered in ways that create cravings for the drug (e.g. to end withdrawal symptoms).

In psychological dependence,
a persons resources for coping with daily life wither as a drug becomes needed to relax, socialize, or sleep.

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Dependence
on a substance (or activity?)

Tolerance: the need to use more to receive the desired effect Withdrawal: the distress experienced when the high subsides Using more than intended Persistent, failed attempts to regulate use Much time spent preoccupied with the substance, obtaining it, and recovering Important activities reduced because of use Continued use despite aversive consequences
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Depressants

Depressants are chemicals that reduce neural activity and other body functions.

Examples: alcohol barbiturates opiates

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Effects of Alcohol Use

Impact on functioning Slow neural processing, reduced sympathetic nervous system activity, and slower thought and physical reaction Reduced memory formation caused by disrupted REM sleep and reduced synapse formation Impaired self-control, impaired judgment, selfmonitoring, and inhibition; increased accidents and aggression

Chronic Use: Brain damage

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Barbiturates
Barbiturates are tranquilizers--drugs that depress central nervous system activity. Examples: Nembutal, Seconal, Amytal Effects: reducing anxiety and inducing sleep Problems: reducing memory, judgment, and concentration; can lead to death if combined with alcohol
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Opiates:
Highly Addictive Depressants
Opiates depress nervous system activity; this reduces anxiety, and especially reduces pain. High doses of opiates produce euphoria. Opiates work at receptor sites for the bodys natural pain reducers (endorphins). Opiates are chemicals such as morphine and heroin that are made from the opium poppy.

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Stimulants

Stimulants are drugs which intensify neural activity and bodily functions.

Some physical effects of stimulants:

dilated pupils, increased breathing and heart rate, increased blood sugar, decreased appetite

Examples of stimulants: Caffeine Nicotine Amphetamines, Methamphetamine Cocaine Ecstasy

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Caffeine
adds energy disrupts sleep for 3-4 hours can lead to withdrawal symptoms if used daily: headaches irritability fatigue difficulty concentrating depression
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Nicotine

The main effect of nicotine use is ADDICTION.

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Why do people smoke?

Starting to smoke: invited by peers, influenced by culture and media Continuing: positively reinforced by physically stimulating effects Not stopping: after regular use, smokers have difficulty stopping because of withdrawal symptoms such as insomnia, anxiety, distractibility, and irritability
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Cocaine
Cocaine blocks reuptake (and thus increases levels at the synapse of: dopamine (feels rewarding). serotonin (lifts mood). norepinephrine (provides energy). Effect on consciousness: Euphoria!!! At least for 45 minutes

What happens next? Euphoria crashes into a state worse than before taking the drug, with agitation, depression, and pain. Users develop tolerance; over time, withdrawal symptoms of cocaine use get worse, and users take more just to feel normal. Cycles of overdose and withdrawal can sometimes bring convulsions, violence, heart attack, and death.
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 Methamphetamine triggers the sustained release of dopamine, sometimes leading to eight hours of euphoria and energy. What happens next: irritability, insomnia, seizures, hypertension, violence, depression Meth addiction can become all-consuming. From 1998 to 2002: Extreme Makeover, Meth Edition

Methamphetamine

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Ecstasy/MDMA
(MethyleneDioxyMethAmphetamine)
Ecstasy is a synthetic stimulant that increases dopamine and greatly increases serotonin. Effects on consciousness: euphoria, CNS stimulation, hallucinations, and artificial feeling of social connectedness and intimacy What Happens Next? In the short run, regretted behavior, dehydration, overheating, and high blood pressure. Make it past that, and you might have: damaged serotonin-producing neurons, causing permanently depressed mood disrupted sleep and circadian rhythm impaired memory and slowed thinking suppressed immune system 48

Hallucinogens
LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) LSD and similar drugs interfere with serotonin transmission. This causes hallucinations--images and other sensations that didnt come in through the senses. Marijuana/THC (delta-9TetraHydroCannabinol) Marijuana binds with brain cannabinoid receptors. Effect on consciousness: amplifies sensations disinhibits impulses euphoric mood lack of ability to sense satiety Marijuana/THC: What Happens Next?

Impaired motor coordination, perceptual ability, and reaction time THC accumulates in the body, increasing the effects of next use Over time, the brain shrinks in areas processing memory and emotion Smoke inhalation damage
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Table 3.5 A Guide to Selected Psychoactive Drugs Myers: Psychology, Tenth Edition Copyright 2013 by Worth Publishers 50

Prevalence of Drug Use in the United States

Nicotine Use as of 2011: 26 percent of high school dropouts smoke; 6 percent of people with graduate degrees smoke

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What influences can lead to drug use?

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What can turn drug use into dependence?

Biological factors: dependence in relatives, thrill-seeking in childhood, genes related to alcohol sensitivity and dependence, and easily disrupted dopamine reward system Psychological factors: seeking gratification, depression, problems forming identity, problems assessing risks and costs Social influences: media glorification, observing peers
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Are substances inherently addictive and should they be avoided at all cost?

Only 10 to 16 percent of people who try most drugs, even morphine and cocaine, become addicted. Does recovery require therapy, or require a 12step group? In general, recovery rates do not seem to differ much from people quitting on their own.

Controversies Related to Addiction Is the addiction concept applicable to repeated behaviors that do not involve ingesting chemicals?

Labeling it this way can be seen as making excuses for misbehavior such as gambling or sexual affairs. However, many of the dependence criteria are often met, and there may be a dopamine-based chemical process underlying some addictive behavior patterns.
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