Consciousness and the Two-Track Mind

Transcription

1 CHAPTER 3 Consciosness and the Two-Track Mind Preview Consciosness is or awareness of orselves and or environment. Cognitive neroscientists stdy the links between brain activity and mental processes. Research indicates that we have a two-track mind. Conscios information processing enables s to exercise control and to commnicate or mental states to others. Beneath the srface, nconscios processing occrs simltaneosly on many parallel tracks. Or awareness focses on a limited aspect of all that we experience. Or daily schedle of waking and sleeping is governed by a biological clock known as circadian rhythm. Or sleep also follows a repeating cycle. Awakening people dring REM sleep yields predictable dreamlike reports that are mostly of ordinary events. Fred s view that dreams can be traced back to erotic wishes is giving way to newer theories, for example, that dreams help s process information and fix it in memory or that dreams erpt from neral activity. Stdies of hypnosis indicate that, althogh hypnotic procedres may facilitate recall, the hypnotist s beliefs freqently work their way into sbjects recollections. Hypnosis can be at least temporarily therapetic and has the potential of bringing significant pain relief. Hypnosis may be an extension both of normal principles of social inflence and of everyday splits in consciosness. Psychoactive drgs also alter consciosness. Depressants act by depressing neral fnctioning. Althogh their effects are pleasrable, they impair memory and self-awareness and may have other physical conseqences. Stimlants act at the synapses by inflencing the brain s nerotransmitters. Hallcinogens can distort jdgment of time and can alter sensations and perceptions. A nmber of those who srvive a brsh with death later recall visionary experiences. Drg effects depend on dosage and the ser s personality and expectations. Introdctory Exercise: Fact or Falsehood? The correct answers to Handot 3 1 are as follows: 1. T 2. T 3. F 4. T 5. T 6. F 7. F 8. F 9. F 10. F 23

2 24 Chapter 3 Consciosness and the Two-Track Mind HANDOUT 3 1 Fact or Falsehood? 1. By observing or brain activity, researchers can tell which of 10 similar objects (hammer, drill, and so forth) we are viewing. 2. Mch of or everyday thinking, feeling, and acting operate otside or conscios awareness. 3. Long-hal trck drivers, becase they are experienced drivers, are able to text while driving withot any serios effects on their safety. 4. Allowed to sleep nhindered, most adlts will sleep at least 9 hors a night. 5. People who sleep 7 to 8 hors a night tend to otlive those who are chronically sleep deprived. 6. The most common dreams are those with sexal imagery. 7. Most psychologists believe that dreams provide a key to nderstanding or inner conflicts. 8. Most people who try cocaine become addicted to the drg. 9. In large amonts, alcohol is a depressant; in small amonts, it is a stimlant. 10. THC, the main ingredient in marijana, stays in the system for only a short time.

3 Chapter 3 Consciosness and the Two-Track Mind 25 Gide Objectives Every qestion in the Test Banks is keyed to one of these objectives. Brain States and Consciosness 3-1. Describe the place of consciosness in psychology s history Explain what is meant by dal processing as revealed by today s cognitive neroscience Discss how selective attention directs or perceptions. Sleep and Dreams 3-4. Define sleep Describe how or biological rhythms inflence or daily fnctioning Describe the biological rhythm of or sleeping and dreaming stages Explain how biology and environment interact in or sleep patterns Describe sleep s fnctions Describe the effects of sleep loss, and identify the major sleep disorders Describe or dreams Describe the fnctions of dreams proposed by theorists. Drgs and Consciosness Explain what sbstance se disorders are, and describe the roles played by tolerance, withdrawal, and addiction in these disorders Discss how the concept of addiction has changed Identify the depressants, and describe their effects Identify the stimlants, and describe their effects Identify the hallcinogens, and describe their effects Explain why some people become reglar sers of consciosness-altering drgs. Brain States and Consciosness Defining Consciosness 3-1. Describe the place of consciosness in psychology s history. Psychology began as the stdy of consciosness, or awareness of orselves and or environment. Bt the difficlty of scientifically stdying consciosness led many psychologists to trn to direct observations of behavior. By the 1960s, psychology was defined as the science of behavior. After 1960, mental concepts began to re-enter psychology, and psychologists were affirming the importance of cognition. Today, investigating states of mind is again one of psychology s prsits. Advances in neroscience made it possible to relate brain activity to sleeping, dreaming, and other mental states. The Biology of Consciosness Lectres: The Mind-Body Problem; Atomatic Processing; Blindsight; Psychological Distance and Evalative Jdgments; The Deliberation-Withot-Attention Effect Exercise: Mindfl Attention Awareness Scale and Mindflness Training PsychSim 6: Who s in Charge? LanchPad: Hidden Prejdice: The Implicit Association Test 3-2. Explain what is meant by dal processing, as revealed by today s cognitive neroscience. Cognitive neroscience is the interdisciplinary stdy of how brain activity is linked with or mental processes. It is helping s to nderstand how specific brain states relate to conscios experiences. Many cognitive neroscientists are exploring and mapping the conscios fnctions of the cortex.

4 26 Chapter 3 Consciosness and the Two-Track Mind Based on or cortical activation patterns, they are beginning to read or minds. For example, they can tell which of 10 similar objects we are viewing. Cognitive neroscientists and others stdying the brain activity nderlying consciosness have discovered a two-track hman mind, each with its own neral processing. Perception, memory, thinking, langage, and attitdes all operate on two levels a conscios, deliberate high road and an nconscios, atomatic low road. Researchers call this dal processing. Conscios information processing enables s to exert volntary control and to commnicate or mental states to others. Beneath the srface, faster nconscios processing occrs simltaneosly on many parallel tracks. Clearly, mch of or everyday thinking, feeling, and acting occrs otside or conscios awareness. The phenomenon of blindsight clearly illstrates this dal processing. For example, vision s dal-processing system operates on two tracks, a visal perception track that enables s to recognize things and to plan ftre actions, and a visal action track that gides or movements. Selective Attention Lectre: Change Blindness; Driving and Cell-Phone Use Demonstrations: Inattentional Blindness Videos; Change Blindness Videos Exercise: Hman Earphones Projects: Driving Behavior Observational Stdy; Raising Awareness: The Prevalence of Inattention LanchPad: Attention; Blindsight : Seeing Withot Awareness; Atomatic Skills: Disrpting a Pilot s Performance; Visal Attention: There s a Gorilla on the Cort; Visal Attention: Piecing Things Together 3-3. Discss how selective attention directs or perceptions. Unconscios parallel processing enables s to take care of rotine bsiness, while seqential processing is best for solving new problems. Selective attention means that at any moment, awareness focses on only a limited aspect of all that we experience. The cocktail party effect refers to or ability to attend to only one voice among many. When talking or texting while driving, or selective attention shifts back and forth from the road to its electronic competition. The process of shifting attentional gears can entail a fatal delay in coping. One analysis of phone records for the moments before a car crash fond cell-phone sers were for times more at risk. Selective attention limits or perception, as many stimli will pass by nnoticed. This lack of awareness is evident in stdies of inattentional blindness. Forms of this inclde change blindness, choice blindness, and change deafness. Some stimli, however, are so powerfl, so strikingly distinct, that we experience popot. Sleep and Dreams 3-4. Define sleep. Exercise: The Sleep IQ Test Sleep is the periodic, natral loss of consciosness, as opposed to nconsciosness reslting from a coma, general anesthesia, or hibernation. Even while asleep, we are processing information, althogh otside or conscios awareness. Biological Rhythms and Sleep Lectre: Circadian Rhythms, Jet Lag, and Sleeping In 3-5. Describe how or biological rhythms inflence or daily fnctioning. Or daily schedle of waking and sleeping is governed by a biological clock known as circadian rhythm. Or body temperatre rises as morning approaches, peaks dring the day, dips for a time in early afternoon, and begins to drop again in the evening. Thinking is sharpest and memory most accrate when people are at their peak in circadian arosal. Age and experience can alter or circadian rhythm. Most 20-year-olds are evening-loving owls ; most older adlts are morningloving larks. Exercise: Larks or Owls? Projects: Keeping a Sleep Diary; Catching the Hypnagogic State

5 Chapter 3 Consciosness and the Two-Track Mind 27 PsychSim 6: EEG and Sleep Stages LanchPad: Sleep: Why We Sleep 3-6. Describe the biological rhythm of or sleeping and dreaming stages. We pass throgh a cycle of for sleep stages that total abot 90 mintes. As we lie awake and relaxed, before we sleep, or EEG shows relatively slow alpha waves. Stage 1 sleep (NREM-1) is characterized by fantastic images resembling hallcinations (hypnagogic sensations). Stage 2 sleep (NREM-2) follows for the next 20 mintes, with its characteristic sleep spindles. Dring Stage 3 slow-wave sleep (NREM-3), the brain emits large, slow delta waves. This slow-wave sleep stage lasts for abot 30 mintes, dring which we are hard to awaken. It is dring this period that children may wet the bed. Reversing corse, we retrace or path throgh these stages with one difference. Abot an hor after falling asleep, we begin approximately 10 mintes of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep in which most dreaming occrs. In this forth stage (also known as paradoxical sleep), we are internally arosed bt otwardly paralyzed (sleep paralysis), or heart rate rises, or breathing becomes rapid and irreglar, or genitals become arosed, and or eyes often dart arond. The sleep cycle repeats itself abot every 90 mintes for yonger adlts (somewhat more freqently for older adlts), with periods of deep NREM-3 sleep progressively shortening and disappearing and periods of REM and NREM-2 sleep lengthening Explain how biology and environment interact in or sleep patterns. People differ in their individal sleep reqirements. For example, newborns sleep twice as mch as adlts. These age-related changes are rivaled by differences in the normal amont of sleep among individals of any age. Twin stdies sggest that these differences may be partially genetic. Sleep patterns are also cltrally inflenced. North Americans get less sleep becase of modern lighting, shift work, and social media diversions, for example. Or sleep pattern is a response to light, which activates light-sensitive retinal proteins, signaling the sprachiasmatic ncles in the hypothalams to case the brain s pineal gland to decrease its prodctivity of sleep-indcing melatonin in the morning and to increase it in the evening. The cycle lasts abot 24 hors, bt it can be disrpted by bright light, time changes, and alterations in or sleep schedle (sch as staying p late and sleeping in on weekends). Why Do We Sleep? Lectre: Sleep and Memory 3-8. Describe sleep s fnctions. The first explanation of why we sleep is that sleep may have played a protective role in hman evoltion by keeping people safe dring potentially dangeros times. A second idea is that sleep may help s recperate, restoring and repairing brain tisse. A third explanation is that sleep restores and rebilds or fading memories of the day s experiences. People trained to perform tasks recall them better even after a short nap. A forth possible reason that we sleep is that sleep feeds creative thinking. After working on a task, then sleeping on it, people solve problems more insightflly than do those who stay awake. Finally, sleep may play a role in the growth process. Dring deep sleep, the pititary gland releases a growth hormone. Frthermore, sleep improves athletic performance. Sleep Deprivation and Sleep Disorders Lectres: How Long Can Hmans Stay Awake?; What Are the Effects of Sleep Deprivation?; Sleep Deprivation and Technology Exercise: Am I Sleep Deprived? (p. 139) Exercise/Project: Epworth Sleepiness Scale (p. 140) LanchPad: Sleep and Sleeplessness: The Effects of Sleep Deprivation: Three Brave Sols 3-9. Describe the effects of sleep loss, and identify the major sleep disorders. People today sffer from sleep patterns that thwart their having an energized feeling of well-being. For stdents, less sleep predicts more conflicts in friendships and romantic relationshps. Findings

6 28 Chapter 3 Consciosness and the Two-Track Mind sggest that sleep deprivation predicts depression and pts people at risk for a depressed immne system, weight gain (for example, by increasing hnger-arosing ghrelin and decreasing hngersppressing leptin), irritability, diminished prodctivity, and slowed performance with greater vlnerability to accidents. Tired people have troble concentrating, which leads to more cyberloafing. Dreams Lectres: Narcolepsy; Sleep Apnea LanchPad: Sleep Terror Disorder One in 10 adlts, and 1 in 4 older adlts, complain of insomnia persistent problems in falling or staying asleep. The most common qick fixes sleeping pills and alcohol can aggravate the problem, redcing REM sleep; they can also lead to tolerance. Rarer bt more severe than insomnia are the sleep disorders narcolepsy and sleep apnea. People with narcolepsy sffer periodic, overwhelming sleepiness, sometimes at the most inopportne times. In severe cases, the person collapses directly into a brief period of REM sleep, with loss of msclar tension. Those who sffer sleep apnea (mostly overweight men) intermittently stop breathing dring sleep. After an airless minte or so, decreased blood oxygen aroses the sleeper to snort in air for a few seconds. Still other sleepers, mostly children, experience night terrors. They sit p or walk arond, talk incoherently, experience a dobling of heart and breathing rates, and appear terrified. Children also are most prone to sleepwalking and sleeptalking, both of which rn in families. Lectre: Dream Content Project: Dreaming and Problem Solving Describe or dreams. REM dreams are vivid, emotional, and often bizarre. They more freqently involve anxiety or misfortne than trimphant achievement for example, repeatedly failing in an attempt to do something, being attacked, prsed, or rejected. Most commonly, the story line of or dreams incorporates traces of previos days nonsexal experiences and preoccpations. Only 1 in 10 dreams among yong men and 1 in 30 among yong women have sexal overtones. Becase or two-track mind contines to monitor or environment while we sleep, sensory stimli may also intrde on or dreams Describe the fnctions of dreams proposed by theorists. Fred believed that a dream s manifest content is a censored version of its latent content, which gratifies the nconscios wishes that wold be threatening if expressed directly. The informationprocessing perspective sggests that dreams help s sift and sort information and fix it in memory. Some physiological theories propose that REM-indced reglar brain stimlation helps develop and preserve neral pathways in the brain. Another explanation (the activation-synthesis theory) is that REM sleep triggers implses in brain areas that process visal images, bt not the visal cortex area, evoking visal images that or brain weaves into a story line. PET scans reveal increased activity in the amygdala dring emotional dreams. The cognitive development perspective maintains that dreams represent the dreamer s level of brain matration and cognitive development and emphasizes top-down control of or dream content. Despite their differences, most theorists agree that REM sleep and its associated dreams serve an important fnction, as shown by the REM rebond that occrs following REM deprivation. Drgs and Consciosness Tolerance and Addiction Lectres: Incentive-Sensitization Theory; Overcoming Addictions Exercise/Project: Signs of Drg Abse Exercise: Drg Effects and the Nervos System

7 3-12. Explain what sbstance se disorders are, and describe the roles played by tolerance, withdrawal, and addiction in these disorders. Psychoactive drgs are chemicals that change perceptions and moods. When the person experiences contined sbstance craving and se despite significant life disrption and/or physical risk, he or she is considered to have a sbstance se disorder. A drg s overall effect depends not only on its biological effects bt also on the ser s expectations, which vary with social and cltral contexts. Contined se of a psychoactive drg prodces tolerance. With contined se of alcohol and some other drgs, the ser s brain chemistry adapts to offset the drg effect (a process called neroadaptation). Cessation of se may prodce the ndesirable side effects of withdrawal. An addiction is a complsive craving of drgs or certain behaviors despite adverse conseqences Discss how the concept of addiction has changed. The concept of addiction has been extended to cover many behaviors formerly considered bad habits or even sins for example, gambling, eating, sex, video gaming, or online srfing. Althogh addictions can be powerfl, many addicts benefit from therapy or grop spport. Labeling an addiction as a disease-needing-treatment can become an all-prpose excse. Also, labeling a behavior doesn t explain it. Types of Psychoactive Drgs Lectre: Mose Party PsychSim 6: Yor Mind on Drgs Exercise/Project: Drg Awareness Psychoactive drgs operate at the brain s synapses by stimlating, inhibiting, or mimicking the activity of nerotransmitters, the brain s chemical messengers. Lectres: Alcohol Consmption in the United States Identify the depressants, and describe their effects. Depressants sch as alcohol, the barbitrates, and the opiates act by redcing neral activity and slowing body fnctions. Each offers its own pleasres, bt at the cost of impaired memory and self-awareness or other physical conseqences. Alcohol is a disinhibitor and ths increases the likelihood that we will act on both helpfl and harmfl implses. It also impairs jdgment, redces self-awareness and self-control, and disrpts memory processes by sppressing REM sleep. Research indicates that when people believe that alcohol affects social behavior in specific ways, and believe that they have been drinking alcohol, they will behave accordingly. In those with alcohol se disorder, prolonged and excessive drinking can shrink the brain. Women, who have less of a stomach enzyme that digests alchol, are especially vlnerable. Barbitrates, or tranqilizers, depress nervos system activity. Prescribed to indce sleep or redce anxiety, in larger doses they can impair memory and jdgment. In combination with alcohol, they can be lethal. The opiates, sch as heroin, also depress neral fnctioning and can case the brain to stop prodcing its own opiates, the endorphins. The narcotics, sch as codeine and morphine (and the synthetic methadone), can lead to addiction. Lectre: Caffeine Is It Harmfl? LanchPad: The Natre and Abse of Ecstasy (MDMA) Identify the stimlants, and describe their effects. Chapter 3 Consciosness and the Two-Track Mind 29 Stimlants, sch as caffeine, nicotine, and the amphetamines, and the even more powerfl cocaine, Ecstasy, and methamphetamines, excite neral activity and speed p body fnctions. As with nearly all psychoactive drgs, they act at the synapses by inflencing the brain s nerotransmitters, and their effects depend on dosage and the ser s personality and expectations. Methampheta mine is highly addictive; over time, it appears to redce baseline dopamine levels. Nicotine triggers the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine, which in trn diminish appetite and boost alertness and mental efficiency; and dopamine and opioids temporarily calm anxiety and redce sensitivity to pain. Cocaine prodces a ephoric rsh and depletes the brain s spply of the ne-

8 30 Chapter 3 Consciosness and the Two-Track Mind rotransmitters dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine. A crash of agitated depression follows as the drg s effects wear off. Crack is a faster-working crystallized form of cocaine. Cocaine may also lead to emotional distrbances, sspiciosness, convlsions, cardiac arrest, or respiratory failre. Ecstasy (MDMA) is both a stimlant and a mild hallcinogen. Ecstasy triggers dopamine release, bt its major effect is releasing serotonin and blocking its reptake. It prodces high energy, emotional elevation, and (given a social context) connectedness with those arond them. Its repeated se may sppress the immne system, damage serotonin-prodcing nerons, and permanently damage mood. LanchPad: The Medical Use of Marijana Identify the hallcinogens, and describe their effects.. Hallcinogens (psychedelics) distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory inpt. Sch experiences closely parallel reports of the hallcinations prodced by loss of oxygen or extreme sensory deprivation, as well as the near-death experience, which are marked by ot-of-body sensations, visions of tnnels and bright lights, and a replay of old memories. LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) and Ecstasy are synthetic hallcinogens; marijana is a natral sbstance. A person s crrent mood and expectations color the emotional experience, which may vary from ephoria to detachment to panic. Marijana s main active ingredient, THC, prodces a variety of effects, inclding disinhibition, a ephoric high, feelings of relaxation, relief from pain, and intense sensitivity to colors, sonds, tastes, and smells. It may also increase anxiety or depression; impair motor coordination, perceptal skills, and reaction time; and disrpt memory formation. Becase THC lingers in the body for more than a week, reglar sers may achieve a high with smaller amonts of the drg than do occasional sers. Some states and contries have passed laws legalizing the possession of small qantities of marijana. In some cases, legal medical marijana has been prescribed to relieve the pain and nasea associated with diseases sch as AIDS and cancer Inflences on Drg Use Lectre: Treating Alcohol Use Disorder Lectre/Project: Factors in Drg Abse and Addiction Project: Debates on Drgs and Society Explain why some people become reglar sers of consciosness-altering drgs. Drg se among U.S. high school seniors declined from 1978 to 1992, then rose, bt has recently been holding steady. Varios stdies indicate that some people are biologically more likely to become vlnerable to particlar drgs. For example, researchers have identified genes that are more common among people and animals predisposed to alcohol se disorder. These genes may prodce deficiencies in the brain s natral dopamine reward system. One psychological factor that contribtes to drg se is the feeling that one s life is meaningless and directionless. Stdies reveal that heavy drg sers often have experienced significant stress or failre and are depressed. Drg se can also have social roots, evident in differing rates of drg se across cltral and ethnic grops. In the United States, drg addiction rates are very low among the Amish, Mennonites, Mormons, and Orthodox Jews. Peer pressre may lead people, especially teenagers, to experiment with drgs. Possible avenes for treatment and prevention involve edcation, boosting people s self-esteem and prpose in life, and inoclation against peer pressre.