14.3 Conscious And Unconscious

Question 0

The most widespread view among nonscientists is ____, the belief that the mind and body are different kinds of substance that exist independently.

Answer 0

dualism

Question 1

Biological explanations of behaviour raise the ____ or ____ problem. What is the relationship between the mind and the brain?

Answer 1

mind-body or mind-brain

Question 2

French philosopher Renee Descartes defended dualism but recognised the vexing issue of how a mind that is not made of ____ could influence the physical brain.

Answer 2

material

Question 3

Descartes proposed that mind and brain interact at a single point in space, which he suggested it was the ____ ____, the smallest unpaired structure he could find in the brain.

Answer 3

pineal gland

Question 4

Nearly all current philosophers and neuroscientists ____ Dualism.

Answer 4

reject

Question 5

The decisive objection is that dualism conflicts with one of the cornerstones of physics, known as the law of ____ of ____ and ____:

Answer 5

conservation of matter and energy

Question 6

So far as we can tell, the total amount of matter and energy in the universe has been fixed since the Big Bang that originated it all. Mater can transform into energy or energy into matter, but neither one emerges from ____ or disappears into ____.

Answer 6

nothing

Question 7

Because matter alters its course only when other matter or energy act upon it, a mind that is not composed of ____ or ____ could not make anything happen, including muscle movements.

Answer 7

matter or energy

Question 8

The alternative to dualism is ____, the belief that the universe consists of only one kind of substance.

Answer 8

monism

Question 9

_____ : the view that everything that exists is material, or physical.

Answer 9

Materialism

Question 10

_____,: the view that only the mind really exists and at the physical world could not exist unless some mind were aware of it.

Answer 10

Mentalism

Question 11

____ ____ : the view that mental processes and certain kinds of brain processes are the same thing, described in different teams.

Answer 11

Identity position

Question 12

The identity position does not say that the mind is the brain. It says that the mind is ____ ____. Mental activity is what happens in the brain.

Answer 12

brain activity

Question 13

The identity position also does not say brain activity “____ ____”. Brain activity does not cause consciousness any more than consciousness causes brain activity. Each is the same as the other.

Answer 13

causes consciousness

Question 14

David ____ (1995) distinguish between what he calls the easy problems and a handful of consciousness.

Answer 14

Chalmers

Question 15

The ____ ____ pertain to such questions as the difference between wakefulness and sleep and what brain activity occurs during consciousness.

Answer 15

easy problems

Question 16

In contrast, the ____ ____ concerns why consciousness exists at all.

Answer 16

hard problem

Question 17

If a cooperative person reports awareness of one stimulus and not another, then he or she was ____ of the first and not the second.

Answer 17

conscious

Question 18

Using this definition, the next step is to present a given stimulus under the two ____. In one condition we expect the observer to be conscious of it, and in the other condition we expect the observer to be unconscious of it.

Answer 18

conditions

Question 19

In both cases the stimulus excites receptors that send a message to the brain, but once the message reaches the brain presumably something different happens for conscious vs. unconscious ____.

Answer 19

processing

Question 20

Many studies use ____: a brief visual stimulus is preceded and followed by longer interfering stimuli.

Answer 20

masking

Question 21

In many cases, just the latter stimulus is presented, in which case it is called ____ ____.

Answer 21

backward masking

Question 22

Hey conscious stimulus also ____ responses for neurons in various brain areas.

Answer 22

synchronises

Question 23

When you see something and recognise it, it evokes activity precisely synchronised in several brain areas, in the frequency of about 30-50 Hz (cycles per second), known as ____ ____.

Answer 23

gamma waves

Question 24

One consequence of synchronised action potentials is that the synaptic imports arrive simultaneously at their target cells, producing ____ ____.

Answer 24

maximal summation

Question 25

Overall, the data imply that consciousness of a stimulus depends on the amount and spread of ____ ____.

Answer 25

brain activity

Question 26

Conscious stimuli also produce more consistent responses from one trial to another than do similar but ____ stimuli.

Answer 26

unconscious

Question 27

Becoming ____ of something means that it’s information takes over more of your brain activity.

Answer 27

conscious

Question 28

If a meaningful stimulus catches your attention faster than a meaningless stimulus, somehow your brain had to know it was meaningful before it became conscious! The conclusion is that much of brain activity is unconscious, and even unconscious activity can influence ____.

Answer 28

behaviour