Ch.4 Paragraphs

1. What are we conscious of? What different levels of consciousness are there?
     Consciousness can be described as moment-to-moment subjective thought, such as one's current thought or awareness of one's surroundings. There are three levels of consciousness; full consciousness, minimally conscious, and vegetative state. Full consciousness is when a person has a focused awareness and a constant thinking pattern. A minimally conscious person should be able to make some deliberate movements, but not persistent thought, such as when you're watching tv. Vegetative state is when only one's automatic responses are in tact, like coma.
2. What is a "split brain?" What evidence indicates that splitting the brain also splits the mind and consciousness?
     A split brain is when the corpus callosum is severed and the two halves are almost completely isolated from each other. When a brain is split, the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body and vice versa because the eyes function backwards.The left hemisphere is also responsible for speech and language while the right side is more fore logistics, science, etc.
3. What changes in brain activity occur as a person goes to sleep, and how do we measure those changes?
     The brain does not shut down during sleep. It stops receiving many of its sensor messages, but it's still active. It still, to some extent remains aware of the surrounding environment. Sleep is an altered level of consciousness. Scientists use an EEG or electroencephalogram, to measure electrical activity in the brain.
4. What is hypnosis, and what evidence supports the claim that it is an altered state of consciousness?
     Hypnosis is a social interaction during which a person, responding to suggestions, experiences changes in memory, perception, and/ or voluntary action. Evidence gathered by Kihlstrom & Eich suggest that like unconscious stimuli, posthypnotic suggestions can at least subtly influence behaviors. Hypnosis depends on whether or not the subject is suggestible. The left hemisphere interpreter might be involved in people understanding their own behavior, when that behavior results from posthypnotic suggestion, or other unconscious influence. According to sociocognitive theory of hypnosis, hypnotized people behave as expected. In dissociation theory of hypnosis, hypnosis is an altered mental state in which conscious awareness is separated from other aspects of consciousness.