12 - Consciousness Flashcards
define consciousness
state of awareness of sensations or ideas, such as ones that can:
- reflect on those sensations and ideas
- know what it “feels like” to experience them
- report to others that one is aware of these sensations/ideas
what is the cognitive unconscious?
mental activities that enable our interactions with the world
We are unaware of mental activities/processes but _
are aware of their products
*ex. knowing what you ate for dinner but not the processes that lead to remembering it
give 2 examples of unconscious reasoning
- the false fame effect
- tolerating larger electric shocks when they believe their symptoms are due to a placebo
describe why introspection isn’t always accurate (the cognitive unconscious)
introspection relies on after-the-fact reconstruction, which can sometimes be inaccurate
in terms of cognitive unconscious, even awareness of own thoughts during things like problem solving is subject to _
unconscious forces
describe subliminal perception
- people can be influenced by visual inputs they didn’t consciously percieve
- ex. might not be aware you read something on tv but it could impact you later
expectation is of what words precedes another is a key aspect, what happens when you see an unexpected word?
get negative wave after you perceive it
ex. happy>war instead of sad>war
define action slips (unconscious processing)
cases in which you do something differently than intended
*ex. drove home instead of picking up dinner
what optic illusions fall under unconscious processing? Why?
Muller-Lyer illusion, Poggendorff illusion, Ponzo illusion
- have expectations/fill in the blanks without realizing it
unconscious processes operate _ and are _
without supervision, are automatic
the automatic nature of unconscious processes allows _
operating simultaneously (multiple processes can happen at the same time, don’t need much energy)
*also don’t experience decision paralysis
what leads to automaticity?
- biology (have neural architecture that allows us to engage in unconscious processes)
- practice
define metacognitive skills
skills in monitoring and controlling one’s own mental processes
*doesn’t mean you can change thought processes/thinking of the right thing
*aware of what brain is doing/what you’re experiencing, can help you make better decisions
define the mind-body problem
the mind is a diffirent sort of entity from the physical body, yet each can influence the other
- you can move your body, but the initial thought of moving originated in the mind, which is independent of them mind
