PSY 0816 Chapter Notes - Chapter Intro & 3: Qualia, Persistence Of Vision, Psy
Workings of the Mind: PSY 0816
Reading #1 - Introduction
● Psychology: The Conscious and Unconscious Mind
○ Consciousness is NOT mind
○ Consciousness is your own experience
● Philosophy:
○ Monist Theory - there is only one kind of stuff in the world
■ Mentalist - objects aren’t real we only have perceptions that objects exist
■ Materialists - there is only matter
● Identity Theory - mental states = physical states
● Functionalism - mental states = functional states
● There is no mind or mental force, apart from matter
● How does the physical process of the brain give rise to subjective experience
○ Change in the brain = Change in consciousness and vice versa
Reading #2 - Chapter 3:
● To be present in a subjective, psychological reality is to be something whose existence
can be felt or sensed by the organism
● Phenomenality is Experience - feels like “something”
● Qualia - allows for phenomenal consciousness
● To be conscious is to be in a state that allows for subjective experiences
● Consciousness is not something we experience, but a background conditions that enables
phenomenal consciousness
● Unconsciousness - not a experience at all
○ A temporary background condition of the mind - brain that does not allow any
subjective experiences to be brought about - there is a temporary but total absence
of qualia
● Perpetual Field - exhibits an internal centred structure, this structure perceives details that
allow us to connect thoughts with objects (spatiotemporal patterns)
● Peripheral Consciousness - shadowy experiences, not explicitly understood or
represented
● Centre and Peripheral - hard to distinguish from one another
● “Iconic Memory” -
○ A brief storage of visual information
○ Contents are rich
○ Holds complete visual information for a very short period (one second)
○ Does not contain information about category or meaning
○ It involves “visible persistence” or phenomenal trace of the already physically
disappeared object
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○ Contents decay rapidly and a small part can be verbally reported
● There is more in the phenomenal visual field at any moment than what can be reported or
attended to
● Attention is NOT consciousness
● Attention -
○ The selection of some information for further, more detailed processing
○ Amplifies some signals and filters out others
● Attentional Selection and Conscious Experience are Correlated -
○ What we chose to to pay attention to is the clearest experience in the centre of
consciousness
○ Soon to be studied for further processing in relative consciousness
● Attentional Amplification (Sensory Information) -
○ Can be processed before consciousness
○ It can operate at nonconscious levels.
○ For example: an emotionally significant word can be registered and have a large
impact, but it is briefly shown, not consciously seen at all.
● Subjective experiences take place out of the spotlight of attention
● Visual Perception -
○ The spotlight of focal selective attention
○ Operates throughout the entire visual field
○ For example: Searching for a familiar face in a big crowd
● There are some kinds of less clear phenomenal experiences outside of attention - without
it phenomenal background would be senseless
● Spatial Attention - covers the periphery consciousness
○ Without spatial attention an experience cannot enter the periphery consciousness
at all
○ Damage to spatial attention removes half of the field of consciousness/perceptual
space
● Change/Inattentional Blindness - what remains outside the spotlight cannot be seen
○ If something is vaguely experienced, it cannot be reported later
● Change Blindness - the astonishing failure to detect even large changes in successive
visual displays
○ When change is masked, it is harder to detect any change
● Inattentional Blindness -
○ Failure to report unexpected stimuli, irrelevant to the primary task but appearing
in the same display with the target stimuli
○ Found in 25% to 75% of test subjects
● Change Blindness and Inattentional Blindness Theories -
○ We are not aware of anything beyond the spotlight of focal attention
■ There is no visual experiences outside of this spotlight
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