Consciousness: General Psychology

The study of consciousness in modern day psychology is becoming increasingly difficult to explain. In the early days of consciousness studies it may have been explained as our experience or awareness (Blackmore, 2010). However, over a number of years, there have been many psychologists who have contributed many important theories towards the explanation of how consciousness works, and its initial existence. As Chalmers states: “There is nothing that we know more intimately than conscious experience, but there is nothing harder to explain” (Chalmers, 1995 p.200). Being one of the leading philosophers in consciousness, David Chalmers introduced the idea of the Hard Problem in 1994. Chalmers defined the hard problem as: “The questions of how physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective experience” (Chalmers, 1995 p.63). Chalmers suggested that he found it difficult to understand how a small mass of grey matter such as the brain could produce conscious experience. These ideas of a ‘hard problem’ in consciousness were rejected by a number of theorists, which will be discussed later in the essay. Another idea which Chalmers has put forward is the zombie. A zombie, according to Chalmers is a being identical to you and I, speaks like you, acts like you, but is not conscious (Blackmore, 2010). A zombie contains no qualia (a physical conscious experience). The idea of the zombie put forward by Chalmers is extremely important in the explanation of consciousness and has been

Years ago, it was presumed that a sleeping person had little or no measurable brain activity. This dated theory has since been dismissed. With the emergence of technology to monitor the stages of sleep, we now know better. It has now been shown that our brain is anything but idle during sleep - albeit performing different functions than when we are

Our understanding of classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning has allowed us to unlock many of the answers we sought to learn about human behavior. Classical conditioning is a technique of behavioral training, coined by Ivan Pavlov, which basically states that an organism learns through establishing associations between different events and stimuli. This helps us understand human behavior in an assortment of ways. It makes it clear that almost everything we do is based on patterns of stimulus and response. For example, if you were bitten aggressively by a dog as a child, you may be still scared of dogs today. That is because the dog caused you pain, which in turn caused you have anxiety towards dogs.

Research has found that REM sleep has evolved to become part of the dreaming process otherwise known as REM sleep-dreaming. Sleep with electroencephalographic evidence of the brain shows that a human’s brain is awake during sleep because involuntary eye movement occurs. This occurs during the dreaming consciousness every human possesses which is part of the secondary consciousness every human has. There is also non-REM sleep which is sleep that occurs without the rapid eye movement. The importance of REM sleep and dreaming has been studied for many years and has gradually become more informative. REM sleep is important for a human because it allows for developmental brain growth which furthers the evolution of humans.

Cognition is a term referring to the mental processes involved in gaining knowledge and comprehension. These processes include thinking, knowing, remembering, judging and problem-solving. These are higher-level functions of the brain and include language, imagination, awareness, and planning. It is believed to be that people acquire their knowledge through their observations of the world around them. The approach to cognition is referred to as rationalism. B.F. Skinner is one of the main theorists who had advocated this point of view towards how people learn and think. Basically, only observable behavior should be considered cognitions, emotions, and moods are far too subjective. Cognition involves not only the things that go on inside our

Each of us learn in different ways. I for one am a hands on learner. I learn best by getting my hands on things and seeing how things work. I am not very good at learning things by simply reading a book and taking a test. Although most of my schooling is just that. Many things influence our learning as well, such as environmental. These can include reinforcements, observations, associations, and punishment. Some of the primary learning theories I will discuss will be classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observational learning.

“Most people dream anywhere from four to seven times per night, with each dream progressively lasting longer as the body remains sleeping” (Woolman). Some people say they don’t experience dreaming at all, which is not possible. What they are really saying is that they don’t remember their dreams, which is perfectly normal. What many do not realize is that in order to go into a “dream state”, it can take about thirty minutes. This is considered the rapid eye movement (REM) cycle. During REM sleep, the human brain is just as active as it is if the person was in a conscious state. The length of a dream is determined by how long the person is sleeping. Studies have shown that drugs and alcohol regularly slow down a person's REM cycle, which results

Cognition is the ability to process and gain knowledge and understanding through senses and experiences. Memory, problem-solving, decision-making, attention, language, comprehension and spatial

In the past twenty-four hours, I have experienced each of these levels of consciousness and below I will describe what I met along the way. There are two major levels of sleep, N-REM (non-rapid eye movement) and REM (rapid eye movement). As mentioned before, there are five stages of consciousness that one goes through while sleeping, these stages are 1, 2, 3, 4, are N-REM (non-rapid eye movement) and REM (rapid eye movement). The different stages categorized by brain activity and behavior while awake and asleep. The only stages of these that I am aware of occurring to me are stage 1 of N-REM and REM. As I start to fall asleep, I enter stage 1 of the N-REM level of sleep. I am aware of this every night when I start to relax and doze off. Before bed, I usually lie down and play a game on my phone to help me relax. While I am in the middle of playing I will drift off to sleep. After falling asleep, I go through stages 2, 3, and 4 without being aware of

Cognition refers to the process in which people are able to acquire and comprehend various forms of knowledge through their thoughts, experiences and use of their sensory systems. This process of cognition is in itself takes various processes. It must be said as early as now that the ultimate result of cognition processes is to result in one learning. The cognitive processes are started by one having to pay attention. This

A hemispherectomy is a surgical process in which the brain of a patient is halved and one of these parts is then removed. The procedure is only ever carried out on individuals who are very young, as their brains are still flexible, pliable enough that the remaining portion will then take on the functions of the half that had been removed. Though this process is rather rare, only carried out when the child in question is experiences dramatic seizures that can only be halted in this way, it brings a crucial element to the table, far beyond the medical benefit for one. Hemispherectomies prove that patients can survive with only half of the brain, and thus, if the

Since classical conditioning is a form of associative learning that causes organisms to anticipate events, I would say that my case of taste aversion toward fish and chips is an example of classical conditioning based on the fact that my brain now associates the smell or taste of this food with

In addition, a recent study, published by Matthew Walker and his colleagues at the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at UC Berkeley, proposed a link between dreaming and emotions. These scientists focused on individuals during REM, rapid eye movement, sleep. REM sleep is one of the many stages the body experiences during sleep, which also stimulates the regions of the brain used for learning. In addition, individuals do the most dreaming during REM sleep. They found that a reduction in REM sleep negatively influences their ability to comprehend and work through complex emotions in day to day life (Scientific

Example 1: An example of classical conditioning which occurred in my life is a car accident that I had been in. The accident occurred at an intersection close to my house and I got really scared. Since then, every time I approach that intersection, I fear thinking about the accident and become afraid and nervous every time I drive

One of the most famous examples of classical conditioning was Watson 's experiment in which a fear response was conditioned in a young boy known as Little Albert. The child initially showed no fear of a white rat, but after the presentation of the rat was paired repeatedly with loud, scary sounds, the child would cry when the rat was present.