CONSCIOUSNESS

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CONSCIOUSNESS

• David Pearson
• Room T10, William Guild Building
• d.g.pearson_at_abdn.ac.uk
• Main Reference
• Chapter 9 (Consciousness) in Martin, Carlson,
  Buskist (2007).

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• Consciousness poses the most baffling problems
  in the science of the mind. There is nothing that
  we know more intimately than conscious
  experience, but there is nothing that is harder
  to explain.
• David Chalmers, 1995

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Characteristics of Consciousness

• Subjective and Private
• Dynamic
• Self-reflective and central to sense of self.

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• Consciousness is intimately connected with the
  process of selective attention
• the mind is at every stage a theatre of
  simultaneous possibilities. Consciousness
  consists inthe selection of some, and the
  suppression of the rest by theagency of
  Attention.
• William James, 1879.

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Levels of Consciousness

• Conscious
• Normal waking state.
• Unconscious
• Effects of being anaesthetized.
• Being in a coma.

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• Altered States of Consciousness
• Active/dream sleep (Rapid-Eye-Movement Sleep)
• Deep/Non-REM sleep
• Hypnosis
• Meditation
• Effects of consciousness-altering drugs

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Philosophical Approaches to Consciousness

• Consciousness is not a natural phenomenon, and
  therefore cannot be understood by science.
• Consciousness is a natural phenomenon, but is
  beyond the reach of human comprehension.
• Consciousness is produced by the activity of the
  brain and therefore can be examined and
  potentially explained by science.

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Measuring States of Consciousness

• Self-Report Measures
• Interviews (e.g., Meta-Emotion Interview)

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Meta-Emotion Interview (Gottman et al., 1996)

• This semi-structured interview encourages
  participants to discuss and reflect on their
  emotional state e.g.,
• Whats it like for you to be angry? .Sad?
• What do you look like when youre angry? .Sad?
• What do you feel in your body when youre angry?
  .Sad?

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Measuring States of Consciousness

• Self-Report Measures
• Interviews (e.g., Meta-Emotion Interview)
• Questionnaires (e.g., Vividness of Visual Imagery
  Questionnaire)

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Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire (Marks,
1973)

• Visualise a rising sun. The sun is rising above
  the horizon into a hazy sky. Is your image
• Perfectly clear and vivid as normal vision.
• Moderately clear and vivid.
• Not clear or vivid but recognisable.
• Vague and dim.
• No image present at all.

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Measuring States of Consciousness

• Self-Report Measures
• Interviews (e.g., MEI)
• Questionnaires (e.g., VVIQ)
• Verbal protocols (verbalising thoughts out loud)
  e.g., Noyes Garland, 2003.

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Measuring States of Consciousness

• Self-Report Measures
• Interviews (e.g., MEI)
• Questionnaires (e.g., VVIQ)
• Verbal protocols (verbalising thoughts out loud)
  e.g., Noyes Garland, 2003.
• These offer the most direct insight into a
  persons subjective experiences, but they are
  difficult to verify objectively.

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• Physiological Measures
• Establish the correspondence between bodily
  states and mental processes e.g.,
• Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings of brain
  activity

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EEG Recording of Brain Activity
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• Physiological Measures
• Establish the correspondence between bodily
  states and mental processes e.g.,
• Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings of brain
  activity
• Brain imaging techniques (functional magnetic
  resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission
  tomography (PET) etc.)

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Brain Imaging Techniques
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• Physiological Measures
• Establish the correspondence between bodily
  states and mental processes e.g.,
• Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings of brain
  activity
• Brain imaging techniques (functional magnetic
  resonance imaging (fMRI), positron emission
  tomography (PET) etc.)
• Entirely objective cannot tell us what someone
  is experiencing subjectively.

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• Behavioural Measures
• Experimental measures of behaviour that can give
  insights into the nature and function of
  consciousness, e.g., the Rouge Test.
• Also objective in nature, but again they do not
  tell us directly about the subjective experience
  associated with consciousness.

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The Rouge Test (Gallup, 1970)
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• Gordon Gallup (1970) exposed 4 chimps to a
  mirror.
• By day 3 they were using it to inspect their
  bodies and were pulling faces into it.
• Red spot was then placed on their face while they
  were anesthetized.
• When they saw their reflection in the mirror they
  touched the red spot almost 30 times in 30
  minutes.
• Behavioural evidence for self-awareness.

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• Lewis Brooks-Gunn (1978, 1979) examined mirror
  behaviour in 9-24 month old infants.
• Observed nose-directed behaviour in front of
  mirror before and after red spot placed on nose.
• Ability to direct behaviour to nose based on
  reflection never observed prior to 15 months.
• Is this the age that self-awareness develops in
  infancy?

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Hard and Easy Problems in Consciousness Research

• Those investigating consciousness face easy
  problems and a hard problem (Chalmers, 1996).
• Many argue that the mind consists of separate but
  interacting information-processing modules.
• The easy problem is how these modular systems
  get access to information generated by other
  modular systems.
• This is known as access consciousness.

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• The hard problem is explaining how and why
  these neural and cognitive processes cause
  conscious experience.
• There seems nothing about neural and cognitive
  processes that necessitates the conscious
  experience that accompany them.
• There is an explanatory gap between understanding
  the brain and understanding conscious experience.
• This is known as phenomenal consciousness.

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Summary

• Consciousness refers to our moment-to-moment
  awareness of ourselves and the environment.
• Understanding consciousness is one of the
  greatest challenges facing modern science.
• The problem of how information is exchanged
  between cognitive systems is known as access
  consciousness.
• The problem of how and why consciousness arises
  is known as phenomenal consciousness.