1. Consciousness Chapter 5 Rice/Psych

2. Bridging Questions: (5 min) (like an entrance task- on your own)  Are we in full control of our thoughts???  What may also do the thinking for us? In what kind of situation?  Do you think hormones play a role in how we think? Why?  Can you make yourself COMPLETELY focus on something without thinking about anything else?

3. What is consciousness?  Consciousness- our awareness of ourselves and the environment  Alice in Wonderland: the ordinary rules of everyday life keep dissolving in a sea of logical contradictions- Alice shrinks at one point then becomes super tall the next- the strangeness of wonderland leads her to smile one minute and cry the next!  “I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think: was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is, ‘Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle!”

4.  Throughout the day, mood, alertness, efficiency, and consciousness are changing. Shifting as dramatically as Alice’s height!  Sometimes we are hyper alert and attentive to our own feelings and other times we daydream

5. A little History – what has been frustrating about consciousness?  Wundt regarded it as the main focus of Psychology, yet by 1900 many psychologists became frustrated with little progress made in its’ study so they turned to behaviorism in the 1920s.  New tools- such as brain scanning, have provided new insights into the process at work during conscious and unconscious mental activity.  Problem- consciousness is defined by the fact that we experience it internally and can’t share it directly with others= therefore we can only gather data about behaviors  When you study brain scans or attention, you are studying observable things, so you are studying behavior!

6. When is Consciousness Helpful?  It is one of the best things about being human! We get to know we exist, think about it, and savor it!  By the 1980s – George Mandler suggested consciousness has 3 functions:  Learning- people typically concentrate on awareness on something when trying to learn it (not until a skill is well practiced does it become automatic)  Making Judgments- people think consciously about alternatives and choices  Troubleshooting- people use conscious mental processes when dealing with an unexpected situation that cannot be handled with automatic, well-learned routines.

7. Consciousness in function  Driving a car-  Person first learning must concentrate on the workings of the controls, and pay attention to every action. Later- driving becomes familiar and no longer requires full attention = on “auto-pilot” aka unconsciously  Consciousness returns when making judgments like choosing where to turn at an intersection  When something surprising happens, we trouble-shoot. So if an animal appears, one may pay attention to it -careful! This is why cops get side-swiped!

8. Unconscious  1. Give me a song that has a good beat that you might want to hear played at a dance/blast in your car (something the class can mostly agree on)  * I will play it and make some observations  2. Turn to somebody near you and tell them about your daily routines and sleeping habits (5 mins)  * Try not to say “um” “uh” of one way or another- write a tally for every time you say it- even if you are trying not to.

9. Unconscious  Uleman and Bargh (1989) – found that researchers used at least 5 different definitions of unconscious mental processes  1. Unaware of it- tap your shoe to music without realizing it  2. Happens without effort- when speaking, you retrieve words in everyday vocab without conscious effort  3. Unintended- you might accidently call one person by another person’s name  4. Runs by itself- you set your alarm to 7 am and find yourself waking up at 6:59am  5. Resists conscious control- a person might not be able to stop saying “um” or “you know” – when you were trying to focus your attention to when you said it, you were using your frontal lobes!

10. More on the Unconscious- It can be driven by Biological Rhythms  Psychobabble- ads etc. online that say they can foretell fluctuations in mood, alertness, physical performance, and predicting good/bad days based off of when you were born.  Try the Daily Horoscope App- then you can see if the day by day descriptions match your days perfectly or not! You can take time to get it now and see if yesterday matched up! Anybody want to share?  Biological Rhythms- more or less REGULAR fluctuation in a biological system that may or may not have psychological implications  In other words- stuff that fluctuates with most people through a day/week/years growing up etc.

11. Entrainment vs. the Endogenous  Entrainment= the synchronization of biological rhythms with external cues, such as fluctuations in daylight  Endogenous- rhythms continuing to occur without external cues =generated from within  Hold your horses! You will get examples…

12. Types of Biological Rhythms  1. Circadian rhythms- occurs every 24 hours  The best-known one is the sleep-wake cycle- but there are hundreds of others that affect physiology and performance  They exist in plants, animals, insects, and human beings.  They reflect the adaptation of organisms associated with the rotation of the earth on its axis (changes in light, air pressure, and temperature)

13. Circadian Rhythms = Endogenous Rhythms?  To identify endogenous rhythms- scientists must isolate volunteers from sunlight, clocks, environmental sounds, and all other cues to time  Participants spent weeks/months in caves and salt-mines  They could sleep, eat, and work whenever they want  Results!- few have lived “days” much shorter/longer than 24 hours, if allowed naps- days averaged 24.3 hours.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF24ZmPwzb0 Start 2:45 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF24ZmPwzb0

14. Circadian Rhythms are Controlled by Biological Clocks Our biological clocks are in a tiny teardrop-shaped cluster of cells in the hypothalamus called the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)- it regulates fluctuating levels of hormones and neurotransmitters which then provide feedback that affects the SCN functioning. During dark hours, one hormone regulated by the SCN is called melatonin *melatonin is secreted by the pineal gland which responds to light and dark- when going to sleep in a darkened room- melatonin rises (falls when u wake up in a light room) My Biological Clock is Ticking

15. Out of Sync Clock  Your clock can be desynchronized when you take a flight across several time zones= jet lagged  Sleep and wake patterns usually adjust quickly, but temperature and hormone cycles can take several days  Your clock is also thrown out of wack when you change shifts at work- start off tired and more likely to have accidents  Conclusion- not all circadian rhythms are perfectly regular, and can be affected by illness, stress, fatigue, excitement, drugs, exercise, mealtimes etc.

16. 2. Moods and Long-Term Rhythms= Controversy  Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)- where a person experiences depression during the winter and an improvement of mood in the spring.  Controversy- may be just people with abnormal melatonin secretion, hard to treat  PMS- every 28 days (I am sure you heard of “that time of month”)  Controversy- the first half has an increase in the hormone estrogen, if conception doesn’t occur, estrogen levels fall. Symptoms as a result- fatigue, irritability, and depression. Evidence shows cramping etc. which could lead to feeling grumpy. Many claim to not have the emotional symptoms – may just notice feelings more at that time/ bias of culture  Testosterone- cycle throughout the day (at height usually in the morning)  Controversy- high levels linked to violence, moodiness, restlessness etc. Testosterone levels tend to rise after behaving aggressively. Like being excited when your fav football team wins!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1V8l0vuuGU (in Spanish sorry- play If time) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1V8l0vuuGU

17. Okay.. Now that you have notes done…  You will need at least a full sheet of lined paper. You will be doing 3 different things, I will be coming around to check you off for first two, then the last one is classwork/homework.

18. 1. Get in-tune with your conscious  For 5 minutes, in complete silence, try to pay attention and write everything you are thinking about. Even if it is about how stupid you think this is.

19. Your Conscious  Was this hard?  What did you think?  Did you keep thinking about yourself thinking?

20. 2. Scenario-  Write your answers to the following. Try to be detailed- you will be interested in the results.  1. You are walking in the woods, describe how it looks  2. You find a cup, what does the cup look like?, what do you do with it?  3. You find a key, how does it look?, what do you do with it?  4. You find a bear, what happens?  5. You find a house, what does it look like?, what do you do?

21. Scenario Analysis  Unconscious meanings (may not be very accurate for you all)  Woods- how you feel about life right now and the course you are taking- you might have had a path with different conditions  Cup- symbolizes wealth/family – was it made out of nice materials? Did you keep it?  Key- your standpoint on education. Keeping it means you find use in it  Bear- current problems and how you deal with them  House- your self-esteem and your mind- were your comfortable there? Is it sturdy? How do you relate to that around you?  ANYONE WILLING TO SHARE? My first time doing this I picked up a red-solo cup and then put it on a tree. I didn’t leave on the ground but I also didn’t keep it. I decorated the forest? Idk….

22. 3. Comic Strip  Create a comic strip depicting somebody going throughout their day  You MUST depict the circadian rhythm in action as well as ONE of the three mood rhythms (SAD, PMS, High Testosterone) in action  Everyone must do their own!  They can be obnoxious, we won’t judge you  They can be stick figures  Have your character interact with at least one other character  It does not have to be a typical day for you  COLOR your comics  These are for classwork/homework- I will collect them SEPARATE from your packets. I may pick some to put them on the wall/put in a PowerPoint to show the class so keep that in mind