PSY 301 1st Edition Lecture 20 Outline of Last Lecture I. Operant ConditioningII. ReinforcementIII. Positive ReinforcementIV. Negative ReinforcementV. PunishmentVI. ExtinctionVII. Biological ConstraintsOutline of Current Lecture I. ConsciousnessII. Neural aspects of consciousnessIII. Limited Processing CapacityIV. AttentionV. Circadian Rhythm VI. REM sleepVII. Sleep DisordersVIII. Stimulants and Hallucinogens Current Lecture• Consciousness: a person’s subjective experience of the world and the mind• Phenomenology: how things seem to the conscious person• Problem of other minds: the fundamental difficulty we have in perceiving the consciousness of others• Mind/body problem: the issue of how the mind is related to the brain and the body• Brain’s activities may precede conscious activity.Consciousness has four basic properties:• Intentionality: being directed toward an object• Unity: resistance to division• Divided attention• Selectivity: the capacity to include some objects but not others• Selective attention• Transience: the tendency to change• Forms of Consciousness• cognitive unconscious: the mental support processes outside of our awareness that make our perception, memory, and thinking possible. • unconscious inference: creates the experience of consciousnessNeural aspects of consciousness1. No one center of consciousness:• a. different parts of the brain are involved in different kinds of awareness2. relies on brain areas involved in interpreting and integrating informationa. some sites control the level of alertness or sensitivity, independent of what the person is alert or sensitive to(most likely the thalamus or the RAS)b. different cortical areas deal with different kinds of content of consciousness3. global workspace hypothesis: specialized neurons (workspace neurons) gives rise to consciousness by linking stimuli or ideas in dynamic, coherent representations• Things outside of our awareness may be:1. nonconscious 2. preconscious3. unconsciousa. Freud’s unconscious: an active system of hidden memories and deep instincts & desiresb. Modern unconscious: mental processes involved in thinking, emotions, & behavior that are not experiencedAttention: the process of separating the conscious from the preconscious. • 1. Selective attention: paying attention to one thing • Inattentional blindness: not seeing an object or a person in our midst. • Change blindness: not noticing a change in a situation we are involved in• Two-thirds of the people giving directions failed to notice a change in the person asking for directions• 2. Divided attention: splitting attention between two thingsLimited Processing Capacity: allocating attention among several things. 1. Automatic Processing: does not require attention2. Controlled: Processing: requires attention• Altered state of consciousness: forms of experience that depart from the normal subjective experience of the world and the mind• 1. sleep• 2. hypnosis• 3. meditation• 4. drugsSleep and waking are controlled by circadian rhythmsCircadian rhythm: a naturally occurring 24-hour cycleCircadian rhythm: a naturally occurring 24-hour cycle that controls many biological processes, including sleep and waking1. Light triggers the suprachiasmatic nucleus to decreasemelatonin from the pineal gland; the absence of light increases melatonin at nightfall.Measuring sleep: About every 90 minutes, we pass through a cycle of five distinct sleep stages.EEG patterns during the stages of sleepSleep Cycle: Initial: 1, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1, REM,2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1 REM After 4 hours: 2, 3, 2, 1, REM, 2, 1, Rem, 2,1, REM1. Stages III and IV are both forms of deep wave sleep (delta waves). Some people argue they are really one stage.• Stage IV sleep involves 1. body functions slow down to their lowest levels2. difficult to wake; disoriented3. sleep walking, talking, bed wetting, night terrors4. growth5. deep muscle restREM Sleep(Rapid Eye movement)Paradoxical sleep1. rapid eye movements2. waking brain waves3. muscle paralysisStage of sleep in which we dream1. REM periods gradually increasing in length a. final REM period of the night lasts up to 45 min2. everyone has 4-5 rem cycles in a normal night’s sleep3. amount of sleep needed varies across the lifespan and with the individuala. Infants: 16 hours a day, half in REMb. older children: much less sleep, less time in REM & more time in slow wave sleep c. Adolescents: average 8 hours, 2 in REMa. sleep cycle is pushed later in the dayd. Seniors: average 6 hours/night , 1 hour in REM4. REM is associated with right hemisphere activity5. Dreams activate brain areas involved in emotion and visual imagery, but not the prefrontal cortex (planning).6. REM sleep is essential to learning7. more REM during times of stress, high emotion, or many new experiences8. REM rebound: more REM after REM-deprivationREM is the stage of sleep in which we dream:1. have NREM dreams, but fewer & qualitatively different2. REM dreams: intense emotion, illogical thought, meaningful sensation, uncritical acceptance, difficulty remembering3. events in dreams last as long as in life4. some themes of dreams are universali. Negative Emotional Content ii. Failure Dreams5. some themes are personal & consistent across the lifespanExplanation for REM dreamsFreudian Theory1. threatening wishes and thoughts are deeply repressed2. during sleep, the defenses get weaker3. repressed material begins to surface 4. The material is so threatening that it must be disguised.a. manifest content: the actual dream b. latent content: the underlying psychological meaning of the dream Activation-synthesis model: dreams are produced when the brain attempts to make sense of activations that occur randomly during sleepInformation processing: dreams help us to process the events of the day and consolidate our memoriesTheories of why we sleep1. Sleep keeps us out of danger at night2. Sleep restores and repairs brain tissue3. Sleep restores and rebuilds memories 4. Sleep plays a role in the growth processSleep disorders1. Insomnia: difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep2. Sleep apnea: the person stops breathing for brief periods while asleep3. Somnambulism (sleepwalking): occurs when the person arises and walks around during sleep4. Narcolepsy: sudden sleep attacks occur in the middle of waking activities5. Sleep paralysis: the experience of waking up unable to move6. Night terrors
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