9/25/2023

Chapter 3

Consciousness and the

Two-Track Mind

EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY DAVID G. MYERS | C. NATHAN DEWALL

Defining Consciousness

• History
• Late 1900s: Psychology viewed as studying states of
consciousness
• Twentieth century (first half): Consciousness focus was often
replaced by behaviorism. Shift from internal experience to
external behavior.
• After 1960: Consciousness reappeared with cognitive
psychology.
• Current Definition of Consciousness: Awareness of self and
environment
• Features
• Allows assemblage of multiple information sources
• Focuses attention when learning a complex concept or behavior
• Involves different states

Cognitive Neuroscience

• Cognitive
Neuroscience
• Interdisciplinary
study of brain activity
linked with mental
processes
• Conscious
Experiences
• Arise from
synchronized activity
across the brain

1
 9/25/2023

Selective Attention (part 1)

• Selective Attention
• Conscious awareness focused on a particular
stimulus
• Selective Attention and Accidents
• Rapid switching between activities degrades
sustained, focused attention
• Digital device use while driving increases the risk for traffic
accidents
• Talking with passengers also increases this risk

Selective Attention (part 2)

• Inattentional Blindness
• Failing to see visible objects when attention is
directed elsewhere
• Change Blindness
• Failing to notice changes in the environment (form of
inattentional blindness)
• Not noticing when a traffic light changes to green

Dual Processing: The Two-Track Mind

• Dual Processing
• Simultaneous information processing on separate conscious
and unconscious tracks
• Blindsight
• Responding to a visual stimulus without consciously
experiencing it
• Visual action track
• Visual perception track
• Parallel Processing
• Processing many aspects of a stimulus or problem at once
• Sequential Processing
• Processing one aspect of a stimulus or problem at a time; new
information processing or difficult problem solving

2
 9/25/2023

Biological Rhythms and Sleep

• Two Biological Rhythms

• 24-hour biological clock
• 90-minute sleep cycle
• Circadian Rhythm
• Internal biological clock
• Altered by age and experience
• Night owls versus morning types

Biological Rhythms and Sleep (part 3)

• Sleep Stages
• About every 90 minutes,
people cycle through
distinct sleep stages
• NREM-1 (N1) sleep:
Slow breathing and
irregular brain waves;
hallucinations; brief
• NREM-2 (N2): Relaxed
more deeply; 20 minutes;
sleep spindles that aid
memory processing
• NREM-3 (N3): Deep
sleep; 30 minutes; slow
delta waves

Biological Rhythms and Sleep (part 4)

• REM (R) sleep

• Rapid and saw-toothed brain waves; heat rate rise;
rapid and irregular breathing; darting eyes in
momentary activity burst behind closed lids
• Genital arousal; active motor cortex messages
blocked by brainstem; paradoxical sleep; protective
paralysis

3
 9/25/2023

Biological Rhythms and Sleep (part 5)

10

The Stages in a Typical Night’s Sleep

11

Biological Rhythms and Sleep (part 6)

• What Affects Our Sleep Patterns?

• Genetic influences
• Cultural influences
• Effects of presence or absence of light on the 24-
hour biological clock
• Light-sensitive retinal proteins
• Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) that decreases melatonin
production
• Chronic state of desynchronization among night-shift
workers
• Irregular sleep schedules

12

4
 9/25/2023

Why Do We Sleep?

• Sleep Functions
• Protection
• Recuperation
• Restoration and rebuilding of fading day memories
• Feeding creative thinking
• Supporting growth

13

Sleep Deprivation and Sleep Disorders

(part 1)
• Sleep Loss
• Sleep debts
• Sleep debt takes at least 2 weeks for recovery
• In unrestricted sleep, people average 7.5 to 9 hours of
sleep after sleep debt is paid
• High school (28 percent) and college (69 percent) students
report feeling tired or being sleep deprived
• Effects
• Conflicts in friendships
• Depression predictor
• Diminished productivity and increased risk for accidents
• Weight gain
• Physical health

14

How Sleep Deprivation Affects Us

15

5
 9/25/2023

Sleep Deprivation and Sleep Disorders

(part 2)
• Major Sleep Disorders
• Insomnia
• Narcolepsy
• Sleep apnea
• Sleepwalking and sleeptalking
• Night terrors

16

Dreams (part 1)

• What We Dream
• 8 of 10 dreams contain at least one negative event or
emotion
• Failing in some way
• Being attacked, pursued, or rejected
• Experiencing misfortune
• Sexual content (1 in 10 dreams for men; 1 in 30 dreams for
women)
• More common
• Trauma
• Music (higher for musicians)
• Nonverbal sense use (for people who are blind)
• Media experiences

17

Dreams (part 2)

• Why We Dream
• To satisfy own wishes (Freud’s wish fulfillment)
• Manifest and latent content
• To file away memories (Information processing)
• To develop and preserve neural pathways
(physiological function)
• To make sense of neural static (activation-synthesis)
• To reflect cognitive development (cognitive theory)

18

6
 9/25/2023

Tolerance and Addiction in Substance Use

Disorders (part 1)
• A drug’s overall effect depends on its biological
effect and the user’s expectations
• Variations occur with different social and
cultural contexts
• Terms to learn
• Psychoactive drug
• Tolerance
• Withdrawal

19

Sleep Across The Life Span

20

Tolerance and Addiction in Substance Use

Disorders (part 2)
• Substance Use Disorder (American Psychiatric
Association)
• Drug use continues despite significant life disruption
• Brain changes may persist after quitting (cravings)
• Severity varies from mild to moderate to severe
• Indicators
• Diminished control (four indicators)
• Diminished social functioning (three indicators)
• Hazardous use (two indicators)
• Drug action (two indicators)

21

7
 9/25/2023

Tolerance and Addiction in Substance Use

Disorders (part 3)
• Tolerance
• With continued use of alcohol and some drugs (not marijuana), users
develop tolerance as the brain chemistry adapts to offset the drug effect
(neuroadaptation).
• To experience the same effects, users require ever larger doses, which
increase the risk of addiction and developing a substance use disorder.
• Addiction
• Caused by ever-increasing doses of most psychoactive drugs (including
prescription painkillers).
• Prompts the user to crave the drug, to continue use despite adverse
consequences, and to struggle when attempting to withdraw from it
(substance use disorder).
• Users want the drug more than they like the drug.
• Behavior addictions
• Psychologists try to avoid using “addiction” to label driven, excessive
behaviors such as eating, work, sex, and accumulating wealth.

22

Types of Psychoactive Drugs (part 1)

• Three Major Categories f Psychoactive Drugs

• Depressants
• Stimulants
• Hallucinogens
• All do their work at the brain’s synapses
• Stimulate, inhibit, or mimic activity of the brain’s own
chemical messengers, the neurotransmitters

23

Types of Psychoactive Drugs (part 2)

• Depressants: Calm
neural activity and slow
body functions
• Alcohol: Depressant;
disinhibitor
• Alcohol use disorder:
Marked by tolerance,
withdrawal, and drive to
continue problematic use
• Slowed neural
processing
• Memory disruption
• Reduced self-awareness
• Expectancy effects

24

8
 9/25/2023

Types of Psychoactive Drugs (part 3)

• Depressants
• Barbiturates
• Tranquilizers; depress nervous system activity
• Nembutal, Seconal, Amytal (induce sleep or reduce
anxiety)
• Can be lethal when combined with alcohol
• Opiates
• Depress neural functioning
• Opium and derivatives: heroin, methadone; pain narcotics
(OxyContin and fentanyl)
• Cessation of endorphin production

25

Types of Psychoactive Drugs (part 4)

• Stimulants: Excite neural activity and speed up

body functions; rise in energy and self-
confidence
• Example: nicotine
• Highly, quickly addictive; increased risk of dying from
habit; tolerance development
• Cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, pipe, tobacco,
snuff, e-cigarettes
• Smoking correlates with higher rates of depression,
chronic disabilities, and divorce
• Withdrawal related to acute cravings, relapse

26

The Physiological Effects of Nicotine

27

9
 9/25/2023

Types of Psychoactive Drugs (part 5)

• Stimulants
• Cocaine
• Methamphetamine
• Ecstasy (MMDA)

What do you know about each of these

stimulants?

28

Cocaine Euphoria and Crash

29

Types of Psychoactive Drugs (part 6)

• Hallucinogens: Distort perceptions and evoke

sensory images in sensory input absence
• Order of brain hallucinogens
• Simple geometric forms
• More meaningful images
• Feelings of separation from body; dreamlike scenes (like
near-death experience)
• Synthetic: LSD and MDMA (Ecstasy)
• Natural: psilocybin and marijuana

30

10
 9/25/2023

Levels of Analysis for Disordered Drug Use

31

11