CONSCIOUSNESS How do we define Consciousness our awareness

CONSCIOUSNESS • How do we define Consciousness? • our awareness of ourselves and our environment • Selective Attention – the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus • Why is selective attention necessary? • Broadbendt Study & The Cocktail Party Effect • Can we ever “cheat” selective attention? • Disassociation

DISSOCIATED CONSCIOUSNESS

THE BASKETBALL STUDY:

INATTENTIONAL BLINDNESS

INATTENTIONAL BLINDNESS • Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere • Change blindness • Video: "Person Swap" • The “Pop-out phenomenon”

SLEEP: A TRUE/FALSE QUIZ • When people dream, their limbs act out in concert with their dream • Humans are the only living creatures that dream • Sleep walkers are acting out their dreams • Some people dream every night, others seldom dream • If you die in your dream, you die in real life • It is not safe to wake someone up while they are sleepwalking

Sleep

• Circadian Rhythm • How can we disrupt our circadian rhythm? • What is the role of melatonin in sleep?

STAGES OF SLEEP Electroencephalograph (EEG) – monitors electrical activity in brain 1) theta waves, 1 -7 minutes, hypnic jerks, NREM 2) sleep spindles, 10 -25 min, sleep talking, NREM 3) delta waves – slow-wave sleep / heart rate & blood pressure decline, NREM 4) delta waves continue – slow-wave sleep / some non-vivid dreams, sleepwalking, NREM 5) Increased heart rate / REM Sleep & dreaming (Cycle repeats every 90 -100 minutes)

SLEEP DEPRIVATION • Study on college students (Pilcher & Walters, 1997) • Participants complete cognitive test after either 8 hours of sleep or 24 hour sleep deprivation • All subjects asked to rate their effort, concentration, and estimated performance on the task Results: although sleep deprived subjects performed worse on the task, they rated their effort, concentration, and performance higher than the sleep group!

WHY DO WE SLEEP?

SLEEP DISORDERS • insomnia • How can the disorder present itself? • Causes • Treatment • What are the problems associated with sedatives? • Reported Prevalence: 15% adults report severe insomnia 15% adults report mild/occasional (Increases with age) - “Sleep-state-misperception”

SLEEP DISORDERS (CONTINUED) • narcolepsy • sleep apnea • nightmares • night terrors • somnambulism

SLEEP & DREAMS • Do all creatures have dreams? • REM Sleep • occurs every 90 minutes in humans • increases in length as night progresses • paralyzed body • lucid dreams

DREAMING • REM rebound • Why do we dream? • Wish fulfillment (Freud) • What is the difference between manifest content and latent content? • Memory filing • Stimulate neural pathways • Activation-Synthesis (Mc. Carley & Hobson) • Reflection of normal cognitive development