Skip to Main Content| Colorblind Mode:OnOff

Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Consciousness

Chapter Review

INTROSPECTION AND THE FUNCTIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

  • The only direct way to study consciousness is to have each person look within themselves, or introspect. Introspection is a powerful research tool—but limited. People often lack words to report their experiences, and when they have the words, different individuals may use the same words to refer to different inner experiences.
  • Introspection is also limited because much of what’s going on in our minds happens outside of awareness, in the cognitive unconscious—the unnoticed support machinery that makes our perception, thoughts, and memories possible. Many processes of the mind unfold in the cognitive unconscious, but people are aware only of the products that result from those processes.
  • The scope of what the cognitive unconscious can achieve is evident in cases of brain damage. From such cases we know that people can remember without being aware they’re remembering, and they can even perceive without being aware of their perception. Studies of unconscious attribution also show us the sophistication of the cognitive unconscious— and thus the ability to evaluate and interpret evidence while being unaware of the process.
  • Introspections are also sometimes mistaken—when people don’t realize what factor has influenced their thoughts or behavior, or when they insist that a factor has influenced them, even though we have reason to believe it hasn’t. These cases suggest that introspection often isn’t a “readout” of internal processes, but the person’s best after-the-fact estimation of why they acted or felt the way they did.
  • The cognitive unconscious allows processes that are fast, effortless, and automatic. This suggests that consciousness may be needed whenever we wish to exercise executive control over our own thought processes—rising above habit or resisting the temptation of the moment.

THE NEURAL BASIS FOR CONSCIOUSNESS

  • The mind-body problem centers on the fact that the conscious mind is a completely different sort of thing than the physical body. This point raises deep questions about how the brain makes consciousness possible and how physical events can cause, or be caused by, conscious thoughts.
  • Many brain areas are needed for consciousness. These include areas that seem to govern people’s overall level of arousal and alertness; this aspect of consciousness may depend on the thalamus and reticular activating system. The exact content of consciousness depends on diverse brain sites, and depends on what a person is conscious of.
  • Many studies have examined the neural correlates of consciousness. These studies show, for example, that the activity of certain brain sites depends on what visual stimulus the person is currently aware of. Other studies have examined the conscious sensation of “free will” and have identified patterns of brain activity that occur before—and so are plausibly the cause of—this conscious sensation.
  • According to the global workspace hypothesis, consciousness is made possible by a pattern of integrated neural activity, in turn made possible by the connections provided by the workspace neurons, and controlled by the processes of attention. This hypothesis—while speculative—explains many aspects of consciousness, including its apparent functions.

VARIETIES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

  • Our conscious state obviously changes when we’re asleep. An important source of evidence about sleep comes from EEG data, which allow us to distinguish the distinct stages of sleep. People seem to need an adequate amount of sleep as well as the right amount of both slow-wave and REM sleep.
  • One hypothesis is that sleep is a time for our bodies to repair themselves or restore substances used up while we’re awake. A different hypothesis is that sleep allows neurons to reset their activity levels or consolidate connections made during the day. A third hypothesis is that sleep is merely the state in which animals pass time while digesting, or perhaps it’s just time animals spend when unable to find food.
  • Dreams are strongly associated with REM sleep. Dream reports suggest that dreams showcase a range of ordinary preoccupations, but they also include weird elements like being naked in public. Many people propose that dreams have hidden meaning; but most researchers suggest that dreams are just a hodgepodge of activated images, woven together into a narrative either by the sleeping brain or perhaps later, when the person recalls the dream.
  • Hypnosis is another means of altering someone’s conscious state. Many extraordinary claims about hypnosis have no basis in fact. Even so, hypnosis can have striking effects, including the powerful influence of hypnotic analgesia. Most current theories emphasize the hybrid nature of hypnosis and describe it as blending the powerful social influence of the hypnotist with the striking effects of dissociation.
  • Altered states of consciousness are also associated with some religious practices, including those emphasizing meditation. In the meditative state, the person’s brain activity changes— it shows a pronounced alpha rhythm (associated with relaxation) and, in some forms of meditation, a rhythm that’s crucial for integrating brain activity in distinct areas.
  • Many drugs are also used to alter consciousness. These include depressants like alcohol, sleep medications, and antianxiety medications. People also use stimulants, including caffeine, cocaine, amphetamine, and MDMA. These drugs decrease the need for sleep and lift a person’s energy level and mood, but their many negative effects include substantial risk of dependence as well as psychological and medical problems resulting from drug use.
  • Marijuana, another often-used drug, seems to function by activating specialized receptors in the brain that ordinarily respond to a neurotransmitter called anandamide. Marijuana is also considered a mild hallucinogen; more powerful hallucinogens include LSD, mescaline, and PCP. These drugs trigger powerful perceptual experiences, but they can also produce a “bad trip” involving panic or profound paranoia.
  • All mind-altering drugs have associated risks that range from medical and psychological problems to the dangers of making bad choices when using one of these drugs. Many of these drugs can also lead to dependence or addiction—terms that are defined as points on a continuum ranging from casual and occasional use of the substance to frequent use despite serious problems resulting from that use and a profound inability to control the use.
  • People differ in how readily they become dependent on a drug. The difference depends partly on genetic factors and partly on personality, which is itself shaped to some extent by genetics. Drug dependence is also influenced by environmental factors such as social support for (or discouragement of) drug use and whether the person has recently experienced some misfortune.
Print This Page
Bookmark and Share

The Norton Gradebook

Instructors and students now have an easy way to track online quiz scores with the Norton Gradebook.

Go to the Norton Gradebook

Norton Ebooks

The ebook version Psychology, 8e offers the full content of the print version at half the price.

Norton Ebooks