Consciousness You May Be Conscious at This Very Moment!
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Transcript of Consciousness You May Be Conscious at This Very Moment!
René Descartes The Cartesian Theater (Daniel Dennet)
Unconscious Mind: what is not visible to the mind’s eye
Cogito Ergo Sum
“I think, therefore…?”
Phenomenology Most sciences study observable objects but…
Consciousness is not an empirically observable object
Phenomenology: how things seem to the conscious person Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) Phenomenological Epoche Where are you?
Problems with the Study of Consciousness Problem of Other Minds
The fundamental difficulty we have in perceiving the consciousness of others Philosopher’s zombie: looks, talks, acts conscious but ISN’T Even electrical monitors like “consciousness meters” only predict whether patients
will say after the fact that they WERE conscious Alan Turing?
In the Eye of the Beholder Where does the perception of other minds come from?
Simply from the mind of the perceiver
People judge minds according to the capacity for (1) experience (e.g. the ability to feel pain, pleasure, hunger, consciousness, anger,
or fear) and… (2) the capacity for agency (self-control, planning, memory, or thought)
Mind/Body Problem Descartes said…what?
Modern psychologists might say, “The mind is what the brain does.”
Brain’s activities may actually PRECEDE the activities of the conscious mind Electrical activity starts roughly 300 milliseconds before conscious wishes are
registered and about 535 milliseconds before action occurs Consciousness: epiphenomenal?
Consciousness: Basic Elements Intentionality
Consciousness is always directed towards some object
Unity Consciousness is resistant to division Multitasking?
Franz Brentano1838-1917
Consciousness: Basic Elements (2) Selectivity
Capacity to include some objects and not others Dichotic listening Cocktail Party Phenomenon
Transience Tendency to change Mind wanders from one “right now” to the next “right now” and then on to the next Stream of consciousness Immanuel Kant? Working memory limitations
Different Levels of Consciousness Minimal Consciousness: consciousness that occurs when the mind inputs
sensations and may output behavior
Self-Consciousness: when a person’s attention is drawn to the self as an object Tendency to notice shortcomings Mirrors increase self-consciousness
Full Consciousness: when you know and are able to report your mental state When you realize pain hurts, when you’re able to report or reflect upon your feelings
Can animals achieve self-consciousness or full consciousness?
Conscious Contents How to accurately measure what comes to mind?
Have people report Sample randomly Anything else?
Much of consciousness is directed towards immediate environment What is seen, felt, heard, tasted, and smelled
Otherwise: current concerns What you think about repeatedly Your mental “to-do” list Emotional?
Why do “Current Concerns” consume you? Daydreaming
“a state of consciousness in which a seemingly purposeless flow of thoughts comes to mind”
Developmental/Evolutionary roots?
Isn’t It Ironic? Mental Control: the attempt to change conscious states of mind
Thought Suppression: the conscious avoidance of a thought Don’t think of a polar bear! Rebound effect of thought suppression: the tendency of a thought to return to
consciousness with greater frequency following suppression
Ironic Processes of Mental Control: ironic errors occur because the mental process that monitors errors can itself produce them The process that monitors errors operates in the unconscious mind and stays alert to
signs of the thought that it wants to suppress But this means that part of the mind is always ON the suppressed thought!
The Unconscious Mind Freudian Unconscious
“Dynamic Unconscious”? Repression Inferable from consciousness Wishes, drives, rules
The Unconscious Mind (2) Cognitive Unconscious
All the mental process that are not experienced by a person but that give rise to the person’s thoughts, choices, emotions, and behavior
Subliminal Perception Thoughts of getting old = slower movement?
Sleep and Dreaming! Altered State of Consciousness: a form of experience that departs
significantly from the normal subjective experience of the world and the mind
States of Sleep: (1) hypnagogic state; (2) hypnic jerk; (3) SLEEP!; (4) hypnopompic state
Circadian rhythm: naturally occurring 24-hour cycle Err…25.1 hour cycle?
Stages of Sleep Waking: Beta and Alpha waves (activity, relaxation)
Stage 1: Theta Waves (more relaxed than Alpha Waves)
Stage 2: Sleep Spindles, K Complexes
Stage 3/4: Delta Waves (“slow-wave” sleep, hard to awaken)
REM Sleep Stage 5: REM Sleep
A stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements and a high level of brain activity (similar to Beta Waves)
Those awakened report having dreams more often than at other stages Signs of sexual arousal Wild dreams Dreams occur in “real time”
Really?
Sleep: Do You REALLY Need It? REALLY? Newborns sleep 6-8 times in 24 hours totaling more than 16 hours
Typical 6-year-old needs 11-12 hours
Adults need 7-7.5 hours a nigh
Randy Gardner: record holder for most consecutive hours awake
Sleep appears to be necessary for memory consolidation
Rats last 21 days without sleep
REM sleep deprivation leads to memory problems and excessive aggression REM rebound after a night of no sleep
Dreams Characteristics?
1. Intensely emotional 2. Illogical 3. Sensation is fully formed and meaningful (especially visual, sometimes sound,
touch, movement) 4. Uncritical Acceptance 5. Difficulty of remembering dream afterwards
Theories of Dreams Hobson & McCarley’s “activation-synthesis model”
Dreams are produced when the mind attempts to make sense of random neural activity that occurs in the brain during sleep
Mind continues to INTERPRET signals as if they were meaningful, even though they’re not
Theories of Dreams (2) Freud!
The Dreams of Children
Manifest/Latent Contents
Daily Residues
Rules: Condensation (combination), Displacement (emotional significance separated from true object), Visualization, Secondary Revision
Nightmares?