1. COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
CONSCIOUSNESS

2. Topics
• Consciousness: Explicit and implicit
memory – Research with primes – Neuro
• Cognitive studies – Sleep and Amnesia –
Modern theories of consciousness – Baars’
• global workspace theory – Functions of
consciousness
09/17/12 Dr.V.Veera Balaji Kumar

3. Definition
• Consciousness is the awareness of
environmental and cognitive events such as
the sights and sounds of the world as well
as of one’s memories, thoughts, feelings
and bodily sensations.
09/17/12 Dr.V.Veera Balaji Kumar

4. • Consciousness is seen as a continuum
ranging from alert attention to
dreaming or drug-induced states
• States that differ dramatically from
normal consciousness are called
altered states
09/17/12 Dr.V.Veera Balaji Kumar

5. History of consciousness
• Dualism is the notion that the mind and body are
separate
• Materialism is the notion that mind and body are
not separate
• Mentalism - believing that conscious soul was the
basis of all reality.
• Physicalism – idea that all conscious experience can
be explained by neurons or psychologically by
observable stimuli (inputs) and responses (outputs).
09/17/12 Dr.V.Veera Balaji Kumar

6. • Pinker argues consciousness can be broken
down into three issues:
• Sentience (feelings)
• Access (ability to report on the content and
product of rational thought)
• Self-knowledge (ability to recognize one’s
experiences are unique)
09/17/12 Dr.V.Veera Balaji Kumar

7. The Sleep-Wakefulness Cycle
• Humans and other animals seem to have an
internal 24-hour biological clock based on
what are referred to as circadian rhythms

8. The Sleep-Wakefulness Cycle
• Jet lag is one example of a disruption to the
circadian rhythm that may effect
performance

9. Sleep as Restorative
• Core sleep repairs the effects of waking
wear and tear on cerebral functions
• Optional sleep fills the time from the end of
core sleep until waking

10. Sleep Cycles
• Kleitman and Dement studied the sleep-
wakefulness cycle using an
electroencephalogram (EEG)
• During an 8-hour sleep period, people go
through five full cycles of five stages of
sleep

11. Sleep Stages
• The most dramatic finding of early
research was rapid eye movement (REM)
sleep
• REM involves high-frequency, low
amplitude brain-wave activity

13. Figure 4.14 EEG Activity during Sleep

14. Sleep Stages
• The first four stages of each cycle are
non-rapid eye movement (NREM)
sleep
• REM occurs only after the first four
stages of each cycle

15. Sleep Stages
• Stage 1 is light sleep
• Brain waves are of low amplitude and
are fast, with mixed frequencies
• In stage 1, the person can be awakened
easily

16. Sleep Stages
• Stage 2 involves low-amplitude, nonrhythmic
brain-wave activity, and deeper sleep
• Stage 3 sleep involves brain waves that are
slower and higher in amplitude than stage 2
• Stage 3 includes some low frequency, high
amplitude delta waves

17. Sleep Stages
• Stage 4 is the deepest type of sleep, and
over 50% of the waves are delta waves
• Sleepers take about 30 to 40 minutes to go
through the four stages of NREM sleep
• Sleepers then go from stage 4, back
through stages 3, 2, and 1

18. Sleep Stages
• REM has been called paradoxical sleep
because of its contradictory nature
• Sleep cycles develop before birth and
continue to change into adulthood

19. Sleep Stages
• Newborns spend nearly half their time in
REM
• From age 1 to age 10, the ratio of REM
sleep to stage 4 sleep drops dramatically
• In later adulthood, people have trouble
sleeping through the night, and
experience a decrease in REM sleep

20. Research with primes
• Peoples’ ability to recognize a word was
measurably enhanced if they had a single
experience with that word or even a related
word.
• Why ?
• Your level of consciousness for that word
would be elevated, greater than if you had
not read that word before.
09/17/12 Dr.V.Veera Balaji Kumar

21. Explicit and implicit memory
• Explicit memory – refers to conscious recall of
information – for e.g. when you are answering a
question on an examination.
• Implicit memory – refers to memory that is
measured through a performance change related
to some previous experience. It is revealed when
previous information facilitates task
performance and does not require conscious
recall of those experiences.
09/17/12 Dr.V.Veera Balaji Kumar

22. Watch
JELLY
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23. Watch
POPULATION
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24. Watch
COLLEGE
09/17/12 Dr.V.Veera Balaji Kumar

25. Watch
UNIVERSITY
09/17/12 Dr.V.Veera Balaji Kumar

26. Subliminal priming
• Richard Nisbett and Lee Ross (1980) at
university of Michigan showed subjects words
that were associated such as OCENAN &
MOON, asked them to free-associate (whatever
came to their mind).
• The primes had an effect on subsequent
performance even when the subject was
unaware of the cause.
• Subliminal priming – effect of a prime that is
presented below the sensory threshold, level of
conscious awareness.
09/17/12 Dr.V.Veera Balaji Kumar

27. Watch
SUN
09/17/12 Dr.V.Veera Balaji Kumar

28. Watch
WORK
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29. 09/17/12 Dr.V.Veera Balaji Kumar