Psychology 10th Edition David Myers

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Chapter 3
Consciousness and the Two-Track Mind
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Forms of Consciousness
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Conscious vs. Unconscious Activity The
Dual-Track Mind

• Unconscious low track
• our minds perform automatic actions, often
  without being aware of them
• Examples walking, acquiring phobias, processing
  sensory details

Conscious high track our minds take deliberate
actions we know we are doing Examples problem
solving, naming an object, defining a word
Example in the book (borrowed from the Sensation
and Perception topic)
Automatic processing Conscious high track
says, I saw a bird! Unconsciously, we see
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Unusual Consequences of Having a Dual-Track Mind
Selective Attention

• Selective Inattention
• Inattentional blindness
• Change blindness

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Inattentional Blindness

• Various experiments show that when our attention
  is focused, we miss seeing what others may think
  is obvious to see (such as a gorilla).

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Change Blindness
The Switch

• Two-thirds of people didnt notice when the
  person they were giving directions to was
  replaced by a similar-looking person.

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Daily Rhythms and Sleep

• The circadian (about a day) rhythm refers to
  the bodys natural 24-hour cycle, roughly matched
  to the day/night cycle of light and dark.

• What changes during the 24 hours?
• Over the 24 hour cycle, the following factors
  vary, rising and falling over the course of the
  day and night
• body temperature
• arousal/energy
• mental sharpness

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Sleep Stages and Sleep Cycles What is
Measured?
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Falling AsleepFrom Alert to Alpha
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Non-REM Sleep Stages Getting deeper into
sleepbut not dreaming yet
NREM-1 NREM-2 NREM-3
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REM Sleep

• This is sometimes known as paradoxical sleep
  the brain and body are active but the body is
  immobile.
• Heart rate rises and breathing becomes rapid.
• Genitals are aroused (not caused by dream
  content) and stay this way after REM is over.
• Sleep paralysis occurs when the brainstem
  blocks the motor cortexs messages and the
  muscles dont move.

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Stages of Sleep The 90 Minute Cycles Through 8
Hours of Sleep

• The length of REM sleep increases the longer you
  remain asleep.
• With age, there are more awakenings and less deep
  sleep.

NREM-1 NREM-2 NREM-3
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Why do we sleep?What determines the quantity and
rhythm of sleep?

• Age in general, newborns need 16 hours of sleep,
  while adults need 8 hours or less
• Individual (genetic) variation some people
  function best with 6 hours of sleep, others with
  9 hours or more
• Culture North Americans sleep less than others,
  and less than they used to

• This rhythm is also affected by light, which
  suppresses the soporific (sleep inducing) hormone
  melatonin.

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Why do we sleep?What does sleep do for us?

1. Sleep protected our ancestors from predators.
2. Sleep restores and repairs the brain and body.
3. Sleep builds and strengthens memories.
4. Sleep facilitates creative problem solving.
5. Sleep is the time when growth hormones are
   active.

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Effects of Sleep Loss/ Deprivation

• Research shows that inadequate sleep can make you
  more likely to
• lose brainpower.
• gain weight.
• get sick.
• be irritable.
• feel old.

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Sleep Loss/DeprivationAccident Risk
Accident Frequency

• Sleep loss results in more accidents, probably
  caused by impaired attention and slower reaction
  time.

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Sleep Disorders

• Night terrors refer to sudden scared-looking
  behavior, with rapid heartbeat and breathing.
• Sleepwalking and sleeptalking run in families, so
  there is a possible genetic basis.

• Insomnia persistent inability to fall asleep or
  stay asleep
• Narcolepsy (numb seizure) sleep attacks, even
  a collapse into REM/paralyzed sleep, at
  inopportune times
• Sleep apnea (with no breath) repeated
  awakening after breathing stops time in bed is
  not restorative sleep

These behaviors, mostly affect children, and
occur in NONREM-3 sleep. They are not considered
dreaming.
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Dreams

• the stream of images, actions, and feelings,
  experienced while in REM sleep

• What We Dream About
• Dreams often include some negative event or
  emotion, especially failure dreams (being
  pursued, attacked, rejected, or having bad luck).
• Dreams do NOT often include sexuality.
• We may incorporate real-world sounds and other
  stimuli into dreams.
• Dreams also include images from recent,
  traumatic, or frequent experiences.

Psychoanalytic Theory Sigmund Freud believed
there was often a hidden latent content
(conflicts, worries, and urges) underneath the
manifest content (the plot, actions, and images
recalled) of dreams.
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Theories about Functions of Dreams
Theory Explanation
Wish fulfillment (psycho- analytic theory)
Information-processing
Physiological function
Activation-synthesis
Cognitive-developmental theory

• Dreams provide a psychic safety valve they
  often express otherwise unacceptable feeligs, and
  contain both manifest (remembered) content and a
  latent content (hidden meaning).

Dreams help us sort out the days events and
consolidate our memories.
Regular brain stimulation from REM sleep may help
develop and preserve neural pathways.
REM sleep triggers impulses that evoke random
visual memories, which our sleeping brain weaves
into stories.
Dream content reflects the dreamers cognitive
developmenthis or her knowledge and
understanding.
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Theories Explaining Hypnosis
Social Influence Theory Hypnotic subjects may
simply be imaginative people who go along with
the subject role they have agreed to play.

• Divided Consciousness Theory
• Hypnosis is a special state of dissociated
  (divided) consciousness of our dual-track mind.

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Benefits of Hypnosis for Some People
What Hypnosis Cannot Do

• work when people refuse to cooperate
• bestow superhuman abilities or strength
• accurately boost recall of forgotten events (it
  is more likely to implant false recall)

• blocking awareness of pain, even enough for
  surgery without anesthesia
• reducing obesity, anxiety, and hypertension
• improving concentration and performance

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Altering Consciousness Drugs

• Dependence/Addiction
• Psychoactive drugs are particularly dangerous
  when a person develops an addiction or becomes
  dependent on the substance.
• Factors related to addiction
• tolerance
• withdrawal
• impact on daily life of substance use
• physical and psychological dependence

Psychoactive drugs are chemicals introduced into
the body which alter perceptions, mood, and other
elements of conscious experience.
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Tolerance

• Tolerance of a drug refers to the diminished
  psychoactive effects after repeated use.
• Tolerance feeds addiction because users take
  increasing amounts of a drug to get the desired
  effect.

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Tolerance and Withdrawal

• Drug users may experience withdrawal (painful
  symptoms of the body readjusting to the absence
  of the drug).
• Withdrawal worsens addiction because users want
  to resume taking the drug to end withdrawal
  symptoms.

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Dependence
In psychological dependence, a persons resources
for coping with daily life wither as a drug
becomes needed to relax, socialize, or sleep.
In physical dependence, the body has been altered
in ways that create cravings for the drug (e.g.
to end withdrawal symptoms).
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Dependence on a substance (or activity?)

• Tolerance the need to use more to receive the
  desired effect
• Withdrawal the distress experienced when the
  high subsides
• Using more than intended
• Persistent, failed attempts to regulate use
• Much time spent preoccupied with the substance,
  obtaining it, and recovering
• Important activities reduced because of use
• Continued use despite aversive consequences

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Depressants
Depressants are chemicals that reduce neural
activity and other body functions.

• Examples
• alcohol
• opiates

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Effects of Alcohol Use
Chronic Use Brain damage

• Impact on functioning
• Slow neural processing, reduced sympathetic
  nervous system activity, and slower thought and
  physical reaction
• Reduced memory formation caused by disrupted REM
  sleep and reduced synapse formation
• Impaired self-control, impaired judgment,
  self-monitoring, and inhibition increased
  accidents and aggression

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Opiates Highly Addictive Depressants

• Opiates depress nervous system activity this
  reduces anxiety, and especially reduces pain.
• High doses of opiates produce euphoria.
• Opiates work at receptor sites for the bodys
  natural pain reducers (endorphins).

Opiates are chemicals such as morphine and heroin
that are made from the opium poppy.
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Stimulants
Stimulants are drugs which intensify neural
activity and bodily functions.
Some physical effects of stimulants dilated
pupils, increased breathing and heart rate,
increased blood sugar, decreased appetite

• Examples of stimulants
• Caffeine
• Nicotine
• Amphetamines, Methamphetamine
• Cocaine

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Caffeine

• Adds energy
• Disrupts sleep for 3-4 hours
• Can lead to withdrawal symptoms if used daily and
  excessively
• headaches
• irritability
• fatigue
• difficulty concentrating
• depression

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Nicotine

• The main effect of nicotine use is PHYSICAL
  ADDICTION.

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Cocaine

• What happens next?
• Euphoria crashes into a state worse than before
  taking the drug, with agitation, depression, and
  pain.
• Users develop tolerance over time, withdrawal
  symptoms of cocaine use get worse, and users take
  more just to feel normal.
• Cycles of overdose and withdrawal can sometimes
  bring convulsions, violence, heart attack, and
  death.

• Cocaine blocks reuptake (and thus increases
  levels at the synapse of
• dopamine (feels rewarding).
• serotonin (lifts mood).
• norepinephrine (provides energy).
• Effect on consciousness Euphoria!!! At least
  for 45 minutes

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Methamphetamine

• Methamphetamine triggers the sustained release of
  dopamine, sometimes leading to eight hours of
  euphoria and energy.
• What happens next irritability, insomnia,
  seizures, hypertension, violence, depression
• Meth addiction can become all-consuming.

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Hallucinogens

• Marijuana/THC
• What Happens Next?
• Impaired motor coordination, perceptual ability,
  and reaction time
• THC accumulates in the body, increasing the
  effects of next use
• Over time, the brain shrinks in areas processing
  memory and emotion
• Smoke inhalation damage

• LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide)
• LSD and similar drugs interfere with serotonin
  transmission.
• This causes hallucinations--images and other
  sensations that didnt come in through the
  senses.

Marijuana/THC (delta-9-TetraHydroCannabinol)

• Marijuana binds with brain cannabinoid receptors.
• Effect on consciousness
• amplifies sensations
• disinhibits impulses
• euphoric mood
• lack of ability to sense satiety

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Prevalence of Drug Use in the United States
Nicotine Use as of 2011 26 percent of high
school dropouts smoke 6 percent of people with
graduate degrees smoke