Consciousness: Crash Course Psychology #8

Summary

This script explores the elusive concept of consciousness, comparing it to a 'stream of consciousness' and a brain's 'roving flashlight.' It delves into cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging technologies that reveal brain activity linked to mental processes. The dual process model of consciousness is introduced, highlighting the interplay between deliberate and automatic minds. The script also discusses selective attention, inattentional blindness, and change blindness, illustrating how these phenomena impact our perception and awareness in daily life.

Takeaways

• 🧠 Consciousness is an abstract concept that is difficult to define and measure, yet it is fundamental to our experience of self and environment.
• 🔍 Different fields of science struggle with defining fundamental concepts; psychologists have a complex answer when asked about consciousness.
• 💭 For this conversation, consciousness is loosely defined as our awareness of ourselves and our environment, allowing us to process information from multiple senses.
• 🌊 William James described consciousness as a 'stream of consciousness,' a continuously moving and unbroken flow of thoughts and experiences.
• 🎯 Consciousness enables us to focus and shift our attention, contemplating life and planning actions, despite its elusive nature.
• 🌐 Cognitive neuroscience explores the link between brain activity and mental processes, using neuroimaging to observe brain states and conscious experiences.
• 📈 Neuroimaging technologies have revolutionized psychology by providing visual data on brain activity, but interpretation of these findings is still a subject of debate.
• 🤹‍♂️ Dual process models of consciousness suggest we have both a deliberate and an automatic mind, processing information on different levels.
• 👀 Selective attention is how we focus on specific stimuli while ignoring others, like a spotlight directing our conscious experience.
• 🙉 The cocktail party effect illustrates our ability to selectively attend to one conversation amidst many, highlighting our capacity for auditory focus.
• 🚶‍♂️ Inattentional blindness occurs when we fail to notice obvious things due to focused attention elsewhere, as demonstrated by the Invisible Gorilla experiment.
• 🎩 Magicians use principles of inattentional blindness and change blindness to perform tricks, showing how our perception can be manipulated.

Q & A

What is the riddle presented in the script about?

The riddle is about consciousness, something we all experience constantly but can't easily measure or define.

How does the script describe the concept of consciousness in scientific terms?

Consciousness is described as our awareness of ourselves and our environment, allowing us to process and organize information from various senses.

What is the 'stream of consciousness' as per William James' perspective?

William James viewed consciousness as a continuously moving, shifting, and unbroken stream, emphasizing its fluid and dynamic nature.

How does the script differentiate between the deliberate and automatic layers of consciousness?

The deliberate layer is associated with conscious, focused thought, while the automatic layer is compared to a subconscious processor that handles information without our direct awareness.

What is the role of selective attention in our daily lives?

Selective attention allows us to focus on a particular stimulus while effectively ignoring other stimuli, helping us to concentrate and filter out distractions.

Can you explain the 'cocktail party effect' mentioned in the script?

The cocktail party effect is the phenomenon where one can focus on a single conversation in a noisy environment, highlighting the ability of selective attention to tune out irrelevant sounds.

What is inattentional blindness, and how is it demonstrated in the script?

Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice obvious things when attention is directed elsewhere. The script mentions the Invisible Gorilla experiment, where participants counting basketball passes often miss a gorilla walking through the scene.

How do magicians exploit the concept of inattentional blindness?

Magicians use misdirection, a technique to exploit inattentional blindness, to perform tricks by drawing attention away from the method of the trick.

What is change blindness, and how does it differ from inattentional blindness?

Change blindness is the failure to notice changes in our environment. Unlike inattentional blindness, which is about not noticing something, change blindness is about not recognizing that something has changed.

How does the script relate the study of consciousness to the field of cognitive neuroscience?

The script relates the study of consciousness to cognitive neuroscience by discussing how neuroimaging technologies are used to observe brain activity and link it to mental processes and conscious experiences.

What is the script's stance on the use of neuroimaging in understanding consciousness?

While the script acknowledges the revolutionary impact of neuroimaging on psychology, it also cautions that the technology is new and that there is disagreement on how to interpret its findings, emphasizing that correlation does not equal causation.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 The Elusive Nature of Consciousness

This paragraph delves into the abstract concept of consciousness, posing it as an intrinsic yet immeasurable aspect of human experience. It highlights the difficulty in defining consciousness across various scientific disciplines, from physics to psychology. The script introduces a working definition of consciousness as our awareness of self and environment, allowing for the processing of information from multiple senses. It also touches on different perspectives of consciousness, such as William James' 'stream of consciousness' and the brain's selective attention mechanism. The paragraph emphasizes the dynamic and ever-shifting nature of consciousness, its role in contemplation and planning, and its mysterious yet familiar presence in our lives.

05:03

🔍 The Science of Selective Attention

This paragraph explores the concept of selective attention, illustrating how our consciousness can focus on specific stimuli while ignoring others. It uses the cocktail party effect as an auditory example of this phenomenon and discusses the dangers of inattention, such as when texting while driving. The script also introduces inattentional blindness, citing the Invisible Gorilla experiment to demonstrate how focused attention can lead to missing obvious events. Furthermore, it touches on change blindness, another psychological phenomenon where changes in the environment go unnoticed. The paragraph concludes with a cautionary note on the implications of these attentional biases in real-life situations and a humorous reference to magicians' use of misdirection, ending with a reminder to use our awareness wisely.

Keywords

💡Consciousness

Consciousness is the state of being aware of and able to think and perceive one's surroundings, thoughts, and emotions. In the script, it is described as a fundamental yet abstract concept that is difficult to define and measure. It is central to the video's theme as it is the core subject being explored, with references to how it allows us to process information and experience the world around us.

💡Stream of Consciousness

The term 'stream of consciousness' refers to the continuous flow of thoughts, feelings, and perceptions that make up our conscious experience. American psychologist William James is credited with coining the term. In the video, it is used to illustrate how our conscious experience is always shifting and changing, reflecting the dynamic nature of our awareness.

💡Selective Attention

Selective attention is the cognitive process by which we focus on one particular object or task while ignoring other stimuli. The script explains it as a spotlight on a busy stage, highlighting how our consciousness can concentrate on specific aspects of our environment while filtering out distractions. It is a key concept in understanding how we manage the vast amount of information our senses receive.

💡Neuroimaging

Neuroimaging is a family of neuroscientific techniques that can create images of the brain's structure or activity. The script mentions neuroimaging as a revolutionary tool in cognitive neuroscience, helping scientists to visualize and study the brain's anatomy and functions, which is crucial for understanding the neural correlates of consciousness.

💡Dual Process Models

Dual process models propose that human cognition is divided into two systems: one that is fast, automatic, and unconscious (System 1), and another that is slow, effortful, and conscious (System 2). The script uses this concept to explain how our conscious, deliberate mind can be engaged in one task while our automatic mind processes other information, contributing to our overall experience of consciousness.

💡Inattentional Blindness

Inattentional blindness is a phenomenon where a person fails to notice an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight because they are preoccupied with another task or stimulus. The script cites the 'Invisible Gorilla' experiment as an example, demonstrating the power of selective attention and the potential dangers of inattentional blindness, such as overlooking important details while driving.

💡Change Blindness

Change blindness is the failure to notice changes in a visual scene. The script describes an experiment where a person asking for directions is replaced by another without the subject noticing, illustrating how our attention can be so focused that we do not register changes in our environment. It is related to the video's theme by showing the limits of our conscious awareness.

💡Cognitive Neuroscience

Cognitive neuroscience is the study of how brain activity is linked to mental processes such as thinking, perception, memory, and language. The script positions cognitive neuroscience as a field that uses neuroimaging to explore the connections between brain states and conscious experiences, thereby contributing to our understanding of consciousness.

💡Correlation vs. Causation

The script distinguishes between correlation, which is a statistical relationship between two variables, and causation, which implies that one variable causes the other. It is important in the context of neuroimaging, where observing a brain region's activity during a thought does not necessarily mean that the region is the cause of that thought, emphasizing the need for careful interpretation of scientific findings.

💡Subconscious

The subconscious refers to the part of our mind that is not in our immediate conscious awareness but can influence our thoughts and behaviors. In the script, it is mentioned in the context of the dual process models, where the subconscious processes information automatically and influences our conscious decisions and reactions, highlighting the complexity of our mental processes.

💡Cocktail Party Effect

The cocktail party effect is a phenomenon where a person can focus on a single conversation in a noisy environment while filtering out other sounds. The script uses this effect as an example of selective attention in action, demonstrating how we can concentrate on one stimulus while ignoring others, which is crucial for understanding how we manage auditory information.

Highlights

Consciousness is an abstract concept that is difficult to measure and define.

Consciousness is the awareness of ourselves and our environment, allowing us to process information from various senses.

William James described consciousness as a continuously moving, shifting 'stream of consciousness'.

Consciousness enables us to plan our futures, consider consequences, and reflect on the past.

Neuroimaging technologies are revolutionizing psychology by showing brain activity linked to mental processes.

Structural imaging and functional imaging are two different ways to scan the brain, showing anatomy and activity respectively.

Cognitive neuroscience studies the link between brain activity and mental processes like thinking, perception, memory, and language.

Selective attention is how we focus on one stimulus while tuning out others, like a spotlight on a stage.

The cocktail party effect is an example of selective attention, where one can focus on a single conversation amidst many.

Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice obvious things when attention is directed elsewhere.

The Invisible Gorilla experiment demonstrates the power of selective attention and inattentional blindness.

Magicians exploit inattentional blindness and change blindness in their performances.

Change blindness is the failure to notice changes in our environment, which can be dangerous in certain situations like eyewitness testimonies.

Consciousness is split into deliberate and automatic layers, each supported by its own bio-psycho-social processes.

Selective inattention is the activation of ignoring certain stimuli when our primary attention is focused elsewhere.

The brain processes nearly 11 million bits of information every second, but we consciously register only about 40 bits at a time.

Dual process models of consciousness suggest our minds work on both conscious and subconscious levels simultaneously.

Transcripts

Here’s a riddle, my Hobbitses: What’s something we all experience, all the time,

that we can’t really measure, and barely have words to define?

You can’t hold it in your hand, or take a bite out of it.

It isn’t something you learn or practice; it just IS.

Consciousness.

Every science has certain concepts that are so fundamental, yet abstract, that we have

a hard time finding the appropriate words to describe them.

Ask a physicist and they’ll tell you energy and space defy simple definitions.

Biologists know if something is alive, but have a harder time explaining what life actually

is.

Ask a psychologist what consciousness is, and you’ll get…you’ll get a slippery

answer.

For the purposes of this conversation, we’re going to actually loosely define consciousness

as our awareness of ourselves and our environment.

It’s this awareness that allows us to take in and organize information from many sources

and senses, at once.

American psychologist William James thought of consciousness as a continuously moving,

shifting, and unbroken stream, hence the term “stream of consciousness.”

Others think of it as the brain’s roving flashlight, shining down an unbroken beam

of light that highlights one thing, and then moves on to the next.

The point is, your conscious experience is forever shifting--for example, right now hopefully

you’re focused on the words coming out of my mouth, but with a little shift - your mind

might wander to how you really should shower today, and your chair is uncomfortable, and

you suddenly have to pee, and can you believe what Bernice said?!

Do I smell pizza?

HEY!

EYES HERE!

WE’RE LEARNING!

Beyond that moment-to-moment shifting, consciousness allows us to contemplate life, think about

infinity, and ride a unicycle across a tightrope while juggling melons, at least in theory.

Our consciousness helps us plan our futures, consider consequences, and reflect on the

past.

It is both the most familiar, and the most mysterious part of our lives.

It’s kind of like The Force -- but for the little universes inside our heads.

[INTRO] Throughout our daily lives we flit back and

forth between various states of consciousness, including waking, sleeping, and various altered

states.

These can occur spontaneously, like dreaming, or be physiologically sparked, like a drug-induced

hallucination, or be triggered psychologically, through meditation or hypnosis, for example.

We’re going to take the next three episodes to look closely at these different states

of consciousness, but let’s start with what it really means to be awake.

For centuries, scientists learned what they could about the brain solely through clinical

observation.

And they learned a lot, for sure, but with today’s technology, we’re actually able

to see some of the structures and activity inside a living, working brain - its electrical,

metabolic, and magnetic signatures displayed on screens for our wonder and amusement.

The field of cognitive neuroscience is the study of how brain activity is linked with

our mental processes, including thinking, perception, memory, and language.

Like other kinds of neuroscience, it uses neuroimaging technologies to consider links

between specific brain states and conscious experiences.

And there’s more than one way to scan a brain.

Structural imaging shows the brain’s anatomy, and is useful in identifying large-scale tumors,

diseases, and injuries.

In contrast, functional imaging shows us electromagnetic or metabolic activity in the brain, like blood

flow, to let us observe correlations between specific mental functions and activity in

particular brain areas.

So, yes, neuroimaging has been revolutionizing the field of psychology, much like telescopes

and microscopes did for astronomy and biology.

But on the other hand, some of this technology is very new, and there’s plenty of disagreement

about how to interpret neuroimaging findings.

Remember, correlation does not equal causation.

So, activity in a certain brain region while having certain kinds of thoughts might be

useful to know, but it’s not the end of the conversation.

We’ve already talked a lot about how function is often localized in the brain and how everything

psychological is simultaneously biological--so it stands to reason our thoughts and emotions

could in part be illustrated by a bright flare on a dark screen.

We’ve also collected a fair amount of evidence that we don’t just have one layer of consciousness

- a single tape playing various tunes - but rather, something more like two layers, each

supported by its own personal bio-psycho-social pit crew.

I’m talking about one of the dual process models of consciousness--the idea that our

conscious, deliberate mind could be saying, look!

a squirrel!

while our implicit, automatic mind is simultaneously subprocessing like a computer: color: brown,

tail: bushy, movement: climbing, distance: 20 meters, association: my sister had a squirrel

phobia as a child, implicit bias: I think that squirrels are ruining America.

All of which might weigh upon my behavior upon seeing the little guy.

By some estimates, all your senses are scooping up nearly 11 million bits of information,

EVERY SECOND.

And yet, you consciously register only about 40 at time.

So how do we keep focused and filter out all the chatter to actually get stuff done?

With selective attention, of course!

Selective attention is how we focus our consciousness on one particular stimulus or group of stimuli,

effectively tuning out the rest.

Your consciousness is like a spotlight on a busy stage.

There are other things going on around you that your automatic, subprocessor brain is

covertly registering.

But for those moments when you shine your spotlight, most of the other stimuli fall

away.

Try it at home!

Right now, you’re consciously watching this lesson on consciousness.

You probably don’t notice the feel of your socks on your feet, or the tongue that’s

inside your mouth, always filling up your mouth with tongue!

But as soon as I mention it, the spotlight of your attention turns to them, you feel

those socks on your feet, and you’re like wow!

It’s weird that there’s a tongue in my mouth!

The classic auditory example of selective attention is the cocktail party effect.

You could be in a room with 47 people jabbering away, and yet be able to concentrate your

hearing on one conversation, tuning out the rest of the voices and background music.

But, if the couple next to you were to speak your name, suddenly your cognitive radar would

light up and your attention would whip around to the sound of your name, probably trying

to figure out if Bernice was talking behind your back again.

Bernice!!

This roving spotlight of selective attention is pretty handy most of the time, for spies

and laypeople alike.

But it can also be dangerous, if you’re being dumb, and say, texting and driving.

When you shift your primary selective attention from driving to OMG, LOLOLOLOLOL, you also

unwittingly activate your selective inattention, which means that you failed to see that cyclist

who you almost ran over, which would not only have ruined her life but also yours so DON’T

TEXT AND DRIVE!

In fact, when your full attention is directed elsewhere, you’d be astounded by the scope

of obvious things you fail to notice.

It’s called inattentional blindness.

You may have even already been subject to one of the most famous experiments of inattentional

blindness...the Invisible Gorilla or, sometimes, the Moonwalking bear.

Just google either of those things if you want to be tested on your awareness and then

come back.

Pretty great, right?!

Given the prompt to count the number of passes one team makes, your consciousness is focused

on following the players and the ball, nothing else.

You don’t see the players in black, they’re the distraction...

also you certainly don’t see the dancing gorilla...or bear...whichever one.

The original version of this experiment found that about 50% of people didn’t notice that

there was A GORILLA WALKING THROUGH THE ROOM!

THAT is how powerfully selective our attention can be.

Something to remember next time you’re behind the wheel.

But you know who understands and exploits inattentional blindness better than anyone?

Magicians!

Except they call it misdirection.

Famous modern magician Teller, of Penn and Teller, says “Every time you perform a magic

trick you’re engaging in a experimental psychology.”

And we can’t help but be rubes.

Magicians also prey on our change blindness, the psychological phenomenon in which we fail

to notice changes in our environment.

And no, I don’t mean climate change.

I mean the failure to recognize the difference between what was there a moment ago, versus

what is there now.

For example, I have changed shirts several times since this lesson started.

In a well-known and often-copied experiment, sometimes called the “person swap,” an

experimenter will stop someone in a park and ask for directions.

And then, during some staged interruption, the original experimenter will leave and be

replaced with a totally different person.

Half the time, the subject doesn’t even notice.

Fun!

One of the many perks of studying psychology with me is you learn all kinds of new ways

to mess with people!

But while change blindness makes for some really cool parlor tricks, this failure to

notice certain things can be dangerous -- say, faulty memories lead to false eyewitness testimonies

in court, or when friends get deadlocked in a he-said, she-said disagreement.

So, my friends, use The Force.

But use it wisely.

As one of my favorite psychologists once advised: “A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and

defense, never for attack.”

Actually, that was Yoda.

Anyway, the bottom line is, we are far less aware of what’s going on around us than

we think we are.

And that’s just when we’re awake!

Imagine what might slip your notice when you’re half-asleep, drunk, hypnotized, or hallucinating!

That’s what we’re gonna talk about next time.

Thanks for watching this episode of Crash Course, if you were selectively conscious

of my words, you got introduced the our constant struggle to define consciousness, learned

a little bit about neuroimaging and its developing role in psychological science, how our consciousness

is split into two pieces, deliberate and automatic, and how the brain can be selectively attentive,

selectively inattentive, and blind to changes in some surprisingly major ways.

If you’d like to sponsor an episode of Crash Course Psychology, get a copy of one of our

Rorschach prints, and even be animated into an upcoming episode, just go to subbable.com/crashcourse,

and subscribe.

This episode was written by Kathleen Yale, edited by Blake de Pastino, and our consultant,

is Dr. Ranjit Bhagwat.

Our director and editor is Nicholas Jenkins, the script supervisor is Michael Aranda who’s

also our sound designer, and our graphics team is Thought Café.