HPS203 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Visual Cortex, Processing Fluency, Blindsight
HPS203 Week 14
TOPIC 11: UNCONSCIOUS PROCESSES
Define consciousness and the cognitive unconscious
• Consciousness: state of awareness of sensation/ ideas, such
that you can reflect on those sensations/ideas, know what it ‘feels like’ to experience these
sensations/ ideas, and report to others that you are aware of the sensations & ideas.
• The Cognitive unconscious: Mental activity that you’re not aware of but that makes
possible your ordinary interactions with the world (behind the scenes activity; mental work
without conscious supervision). The processes that unfold in the cognitive unconscious are
sophisticated & powerful e.g. remembering where you were this morning
Describe how an unconscious process can lead to a conscious product using an example
• Generally aware of mental products but unaware of mental processes
• Processes: lead to products
• Products: beliefs you have formed, conclusions you have
reached
• Example: recollection of dinner last month
-Product: aware of what you ate & so can reflect on/describe the dinner if someone asks
-Process: Process that brings you a memory (what you ate) is unconscious. Cannot decipher
which bits of information are from memory and which are from inference/assumption
(recall complex events topic).
Describe the influence of unconscious attributions using Nisbett and Schacter’s (1966)
experiment
• Study Procedure: Participants received electric shocks (increasing in intensity) to
determine the maximum shock voluntarily accepted.
-Placebo: Before shocks some participants given a pill & told it would diminish the pain but
would have side effects; e.g. hands shaking, butterflies etc
-Participants given pill were willing to accept shocks 4x as much
amperage than controls.
• Reasoning for controls: controls noticed hands shaking (common
manifestation of fear) & used self-observation to judge their own states
-E.g. Look I’m trembling I must be scared. Therefore shocks must be bothering me.
-Lead controls to terminate shocks early.
• Reasoning for Placebo group: attributed physical symptoms to pill not shock
-E.g. Look I’m trembling, that’s what the experimenter said the pill would do & I guess I can
stop worrying about it.
-Less influenced by own physical symptoms. Overruled evidence of anxiety & misread
internal state.
-Reasoning for the pill was unconscious. Participants observed symptoms, generated
hypothesis (due to body/pill) & drew conclusions yet were unaware of these steps.
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Document Summary
The processes that unfold in the cognitive unconscious are sophisticated & powerful e. g. remembering where you were this morning. Product: aware of what you ate & so can reflect on/describe the dinner if someone asks. Process: process that brings you a memory (what you ate) is unconscious. Cannot decipher which bits of information are from memory and which are from inference/assumption (recall complex events topic). Describe the influence of unconscious attributions using nisbett and schacter"s (1966) experiment: study procedure: participants received electric shocks (increasing in intensity) to determine the maximum shock voluntarily accepted. Placebo: before shocks some participants given a pill & told it would diminish the pain but would have side effects; e. g. hands shaking, butterflies etc. Participants given pill were willing to accept shocks 4x as much amperage than controls: reasoning for controls: controls noticed hands shaking (common manifestation of fear) & used self-observation to judge their own states.
