PSYC100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Nicotine, Prosopagnosia, Sensory Cortex
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Medical definition: awareness demonstrated by any ability to recall an experience. Psychological definition: awareness of the outside world, a(cid:449)a(cid:396)e(cid:374)ess of o(cid:374)e"s (cid:373)e(cid:374)tal p(cid:396)o(cid:272)esses, thoughts, feeli(cid:374)gs a(cid:374)d perceptions. Parallel distributed processing (pdp) models: may not be any single form of consciousness. Our consciousness has 3 main functions: consciousness restricts our attention. It keeps our brain from being overwhelmed by stimulation by processing things serially and limiting what we notice and think about: co(cid:374)s(cid:272)ious(cid:374)ess p(cid:396)o(cid:448)ides us (cid:449)ith a (cid:373)e(cid:374)tal (cid:862)(cid:373)eeti(cid:374)g pla(cid:272)e(cid:863) (cid:449)he(cid:396)e se(cid:374)satio(cid:374) (cid:272)o(cid:373)(cid:271)i(cid:374)es (cid:449)ith (cid:373)e(cid:373)o(cid:396)(cid:455), emotions and motives. Conscious level: current level of awareness: non-conscious level: regulation of most autonomic functions, unconscious level: unperceived mental activity that influences conscious thought. Preconscious level: information you can bring to consciousness. Neuropsychology of consciousness: based on studies of brain damage. Consciousness states: waking consciousness is the baseline state. Some states are active, others are passive: altered states of consciousness involve distinct changes in mental processing. Altered states include: sleep, hypnosis, psychoactive drugs.
