Consciousness

Alex Eischeid

Becky Bullard

Filip Mazurczak

Subliminal Consciousness

Also Known As…

• Subconscious perception

• Preconscious processing

• Subliminal thought

• Unconscious thought

• Subliminal thought

So, what is it?

• Information that is currently outside our conscious awareness but we are still available to consciousness or at least to cognitive processes

• Mental operations not immediately available to conscious thought

Ties to Visual Perception

• Visual system must solve certain problems:– Recognizing patterns– Orienting space– Controlling motor

activity

• Bag of tricks theory

Some “Cheap Tricks” include:

• Brain’s default assumption is that illumination comes from above, as in the natural world

More “Cheap Tricks”

• The smallest of a bunch of things is pretty small

• While the biggest of things is pretty big

• Relies on the random or near random distribution of sizes of objects in the world

Figure/Ground Segregation

• First step visual system takes to interpret a scene is segregate the figure and the ground

• This is done quickly, automatically, and unavoidably… aka subconsciously

• Occlusion also serves to segregate figure and ground• Cheap trick: if contour of an object is interrupted by

another object, the first object is behind the second one• More sophisticated: breaking the contour of a regular

figure specifies occlusion

Evolution: Why “Cheap Tricks”?

• A limitation of evolution is that it cannot invest in elegant solutions that take many generations to achieve, because the organisms in every generation must be viable and competitive

• Also, the tricks are just that: cheap. It doesn’t take much genetic info to instantiate them

So what does this have to do with subliminal consciousness?• These mechanisms ARE the neuronal

workings of subliminal consciousness at their finest… hence why you don’t even realize they happen!

• We are immediately conscious of objects and surfaces in the world, not of the processing that leads the visual system to conclude those objects are there

Not Just Visual

• Auditory

• Cognitive

Priming: Evidence of the Subconscious

• Occurs when recognition of certain stimuli is affected by prior presentation of the same or similar stimuli

• Marcel studies• Test of intuition• Anesthesia

experiments

Small Activity

• You will need a piece of paper and a pen.

Evolution of Subconscious

• As we evolved, so did brain processes and demand of brain functionality.

• For energy and capacities sake, certain functions got pushed to the background, or the subconscious.

Subconscious Today

• Allows us to multi-task in our face paced, technology based world.

• Subliminal messaging in advertisements is widespread and companies like to think it is rather effective

Hallucinations

What are hallucinations?

-Different types

Auditory Hallucinations

-Schizophrenia-Loud noises, buzzes, beeps, and/or voices

-May give commands or warnings

Causes

-Abnormal Auditory Cortex-Processes verbal components of speech-Mislabel internal thoughts as external

-2007 MRI experiment

Visual Hallucinations

-Charles Bonnet Syndrome (CBS)

-Versions of hallucinations

-Dangers: Driving, etc.

Causes

-Lack of input into occipital cortex

-Two theories:1. Deafferentation

-Spontaneous neuronal discharge

2. Perceptual Release-Restraint of irrelevant impulses

Treatment

-Antipsychotic drugs (1950)Muscle tremors

-Dopamine

-Atypical antipsychotic medications (1990)

Treatment Cont.

-Group therapy (Cognitive Behavior Therapy)-Changing beliefs

-Changes beliefs, but not frequency

-Combination therapy

Evolution

Two theories:1. Creativity

a. George Handel, Robert Schumann, Isaac Newton

2. Linguistic capabilities

Links

-A Beautiful Mind (5:00)YouTube - A Beautiful Mind

-HallucinationsYouTube - Hallucinations

Threat Simulation Theory: Evolutionary Psychology’s Explanation for Dreaming

Theory developed by Antti Revonsuo

Basic Overview

• In Pleistocene environments, humans were faced by all sorts of dangers, from other humans to predatory animals

• Alternative genetic material gave some individuals the capacity of “rehearsing” such threatening events (i.e., these individuals were capable of dreaming)

• Therefore, the individuals who had this ability were “better prepared” for threatening events, and were more likely to survive them and reproduce

• This is how, according to Threat Simulation Theory (TST), the capacity for dreaming entered the human gene pool

Part of Revonsuo’s “Theory of Consciousness”

• Consciousness is a purely biological phenomenon, for which only the human brain is responsible

• Humans can survive without consciousness, and therefore it is implied that consciousness is an adaptive trait with some advantage in primitive environments

The Implications of TST

• The more negative emotional charge is given off during an event, the more likely an individual is to have dreams about it

• Recall “kin selection theory”: we innately recognize similar genetic material in our relatives, and are therefore more likely to exhibit altruistic behavior towards them

Implications (Continued)

• Therefore, threats directed against family members will be present in TST “rehearsal” dreams

• Each individual has a dream-producing mechanism that is activated when he or she is faced threatening situations

• Therefore, young children are most likely to remember nightmares

Evidence for TST, Part I

• Study of Palestinian children in the same age group

• One group lived in the Gaza Strip and was constantly exposed to violence perpetrated against them and their families

• The other lived in the mostly peaceful city of Galilee; it is important to note that Galilee is much better-off economically than the Gaza Strip

Study of Palestinian Children (Continued)

• Children asked to describe their dreams in a diary (those who did not yet know how to write had their parents write them for them)

• The results were largely consistent with the implications of TST: The children from the Gaza Strip had many more nightmares (involving violence against them and their families) with greater frequency than their Galilean peers

Evidence for TST, Part II• Study of “earliest remembered dreams”

(ERD’s)• Adults between the ages of 15 and 55

described to researchers the earliest dreams that they could remember

• Nightmares outnumbered neutral or positive dreams by a ratio of 3:1

• These were especially remembered in dreamers with unstable family lives (such as those with divorced parents)

ERD study (continued)

• Some recurring motifs:– Wolves (a common predator for humans in

earlier times; therefore, this dream could have an evolutionary origin)

– Swimming and flying• Sound unlikely to support Revonsuo’s theory? I

think not!

Do Fetuses and Infants Dream?

• Psychologists do not know whether fetuses and infants can have dreams, as they are unsure whether dreams are possible without the capacity for verbal expression. However, fetuses have the neurological capacity for dreaming, and sensations of “flying” and “swimming” are very similar to what they experience in utero. This could well be an evolutionary explanation for such dreams.

Evidence for TST, Part III

• Continuity hypothesis of dreaming: dream content reflects concerns of individuals in their waking hours

• Empirical research reveals that those who remember their dreams are more likely to suffer from anxiety and depression

• Sounds like a refutation of TST? No! Remember that evolutionary psychology does not treat anxiety and depression as disorders, but rather as adaptive, albeit irritating mechanisms that enhance survival, homologous to coughs, fevers

Skeptics of TST

• One anti-TST study: South African undergraduate psychology majors recorded their dreams

• Only one in five dreamed of threats, and very few were “ancestral” threats

• Furthermore, few subjects “escaped” from the threatening situation

A Response to This Very Bad Study

• Evolution is a “blind watchmaker” (Dawkins): It is efficient, albeit imperfect

• TST accounts most of all for the origins of dreams, and dreams could have become partially vestigial structures: They retain some of their function (esp. in adverse situations), yet are not exclusively used for that purpose

• Besides, 20% is still a high number!

Response (Continued)

• Dreams could have functions other than threat simulation

• Most importantly, the sample was biased– Something of an upper class– (Relatively) well-off university students are

not exposed to threats on an everyday basis as are, for example, Palestinian children in the war-torn Gaza Strip!

Conclusion

• You may form your own judgments regarding Threat Simulation Theory and, more generally, evolutionary psychology. However, in forming your judgments, remember to critically evaluate questionable studies and, most importantly…