PSYC101

Introduction to
Behavioural Science
Alterations in Consciousness (Chapter 8 of text)
Dr Laura Robinson
laurar@uow.edu.au
• AI for Assessment 2 (Report)

Students may use generative AI tools for this assessment task for idea
generation and outlining/planning. However, students must include any
AI tools used in a reference list. Note that the use of generative AI in
assessments beyond the points outlined here may be grounds for an
Academic Misconduct investigation.
Learning
Objectives
1. Describe the two main
functions of consciousness
2. Distinguish among
perspectives on
consciousness
3. Describe the functions of
sleep
4. Identify types of sleep
disorders
5. Distinguish among the
psychological views of
dreaming
6. Explain how people might
experience altered states of
consciousness
 • “refers to the subjective awareness of mental
events” (Burton et al, p172)
• “encompasses our ever-changing awareness of
thoughts, emotions, bodily sensations, events and
What is actions” (Lilienfeld et al., p162)

consciousness? • Awareness of both

• External stimuli, and
• Internal processes
• Levels
• States
1. The two main functions of consciousness

i. Monitors the self and the environment

• experiences, sensations, thoughts, and emotions
• perceive, interpret, and respond to surroundings
•Adapt, decide and interact
ii. Regulates/controls thoughts and
behaviours
• Surveys potential significant thoughts, emotions,
goals, problem solving…
• Initiate and terminate thought and behaviour

The two functions are intertwined

The Stroop Colour and Word Test (SCWT)

The stroop colour-naming task

Activity
• Interactive Stroop Effect Experiment

• https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/java/ready.html
The Stroop Colour and Word Test (SCWT)

The stroop colour-naming task

The ”Stroop”
Template
(MacLeod, 2015)
 Consciousness and Attention
• Attention –the process of focusing conscious
awareness, providing heightened sensitivity to a
limited range of experience requiring more
extensive information processing.” (Burton, p176)
• 3 functions:
1. Orienting to sensory stimuli
2. Controlling behaviour and the contents of
consciousness
3. Maintaining alertness
• Divided attention – splitting attention between two
complex task
• Dichotic listening tasks
Major components of consciousness

Laureys, S. (2005). The neural correlate of (un)awareness: lessons from the vegetative state.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9, 556-559.
2. Perceptions of
consciousness
Psychodynamic
Cognitive
Psychodynamic Perspectives on
Consciousness
Conscious mental process
• Subjective awareness

Preconscious mental process

• No presently conscious but easily brought into consciousness

Unconscious mental process

• Inaccessible
Subliminal
perception
Cognitive unconscious
• Information-processing mechanisms that operate
outside of awareness (e.g., implicit memory,
procedural knowledge)
• The terms consciousness and working memory are
often used interchangeably
• Functions of unconscious processes:
• Fast and efficient processing
• Adaptive response to environmental stimuli
• Can operate simultaneously
3. SLEEP
Sleep

• Spend over 1/3 of our life asleep

• Incredibly important part of daily life and
biology
• The brain doesn’t shut down during sleep,
some areas actually become more active!
• Why we sleep is still largely a mystery…
• Behavioural characteristics
 Circadian rhythm

• “cyclical changes that occur on a roughly 24 hour basis in many biological process”
• Variations in consciousness are driven partly by biological rhythms
• Biological rhythms are periodic fluctuations in physiological functioning
• Includes:
• Hormone release
• Brain waves
• Body temperature
• Drowsiness
 Stages of sleep

www.sleepfoundation.org
Sleep Quality
• Main components:
• Sleep quality
• Sleep continuity (sleep during loss, sleep initiation & maintenance problems)
• Revitalizing feeling upon waking
• Determinants of sleep quality in College students (Wang & Biro, 2021)
• Identified factors:
1. Lifestyle
2. Mental health
3. Social
4. Physical (positive & negative)
Sleep deprivation
• Functions of sleep: memory consolidation, energy conservation,
maintenance of bodily processes, immune functioning, restoring
bodily functions
• Sleep deprivation:
• Impaired immune system and motor functioning
• Factor in road accidents (fatigue)
• Impacts physical and emotional wellness (e.g., stresses, relationships)
Sleep & Memory
• Sleep has a key role
• Meta-analysis (Newbury et al., 2021)
• 1970 – 2020
• Part 1: Sleep deprivation after learning, 45 studies, 1616 participants
• Significant effect, especially procedural memory tasks
• Part 2: Sleep deprivation before learning, 31 studies, 927participants
• Significant effect
• Implications
Sleep across the lifespan & species
Aging and sleep
Insomnia
Narcolepsy
Sleep apnoea

4. Disorders
of sleep
Activity
• Read the section ”Disorders of Sleep” Lilienfeld et al. (2019) available
as a pdf on Moodle
• Focus on Insomnia, Narcolepsy and Sleep Apnoea
• Respond to the questions found here:
Responses
1. What are some of the signs of Insomnia, and according to the text, what proportion of people is it estimated
to impact?
o having trouble falling asleep (regularly taking more than 30 minutes to doze off)
o waking too early in the morning
o waking up during the night and having trouble returning to sleep
About 9–15 per cent of people
2. What biological factors appear to play a role in narcolepsy?
• Genetic abnormalities
• Brain trauma or accident
• Hormone orexin – they have fewer brain cells producing orexin
3. Why is the quality of sleep disrupted in sleep apnoea?
• Apnoea is caused by a blockage of the airway during sleep -> snore loudly, gasp and sometimes stop
breathing for more than 20 seconds. This struggle to breath wakes the person sometimes several 100/night
 Insomnia
• Most common sleep disturbance
• Includes:
• Having trouble falling asleep (regularly more than
30 mins)
• Waking too early in morning
• Wake up during the night and have trouble
returning to sleep
• 14.8% of Australians (Sleep Health Foundation)
• Sleeping pills can be effective however long-term use
can create dependency and even greater difficulties
falling asleep.
• https://youtu.be/qSOBtp2rrTk?si=NfPDVPfflFE9SqIj – 4
mins
Narcolepsy

• A chronic neurological disorder of excessive

daytime sleepiness
• May occur with other symptoms:
• Cataplexy
• Sleep paralysis
• Hallucination
• Abnormal function of the brain, may be related
to a lack of hypocretin, a brain chemical
• Affects about 1/2000
• Onset usually between 10 and 30 years
• Symptoms may be treated with medication
 Sleep apnea (apnoea)

• Most undiagnosed deadly problem in medicine

• 1 in 10 Australians
• Throat is partly or completely blocked while sleeping
and breathing stops
• Results in briefly waking many times during the night
• Sufferer is not aware it is happening but will feel tired
• Symptoms:
• Tossing and turning
• Snoring
• Waking up gasping
• Tiredness after sleep
 • Heart trouble/failure
Some health risks • Morning headaches
associated with
Apnoea • Raspy throat
• Brain damage/Strokes
• Heavy sweating during the night
• Personality changes
• 10 times higher car accident rate
Hypersomnia (unexplained excess daytime
sleepiness)

Sleepfoundation.org
Dreaming
Dream content
Theories
Dreaming
• Not exclusive to REM sleep
• Virtually universal – even if we can’t remember them
• Content
• Usually first-person experience
• Common dreams – being late, being chased, falling
• Often relates to what is going on in daytime hours
• Can incorporate ‘external’ world (e.g. alarm clocks)
• Many different proposed purposes of dreaming
Key Psychological Perspectives and
dreaming
• Unconscious processes, motivation
Psychodynamic & early experiences

• Process information, make sense of

Cognitive experiences and uses knowledge

• Nervous system and other

Biological biological processes
Activity:
• How does the psychodynamic, cognitive and biological perspectives
explain dreaming?

THINK, PAIR, SHARE

1. THINK through your explanation
2. PAIR up with someone and discuss your explanations
3. SHARE responses
A Psychodynamic View
• Expressions of unconscious desires, conflicts and emotions
• Allows unconscious mind to express repressed thoughts and wishes.
• Latent content
• Manifest content
• Analysis: free association and interpretation
• Symbols of unresolved issues and conflicts
A Cognitive View
• Reflect ongoing cognitive processes
• Various functions
• Influenced by numerous factors
• Emphasises the role of cognition in shaping dream content
• Adaptive function
A Biological View
• No real meaning
• Brain activity, neurotransmitters and neutral networks
• REM -> brain activity similar to wakefulness
• Potentially a mechanism for processing and consolidating memories.
5. Altered states of
consciousness
Hypnosis
Meditation
Psychoactive substances
Hypnosis
“set of techniques that provides people with suggestions for alterations in their
perceptions, thoughts, feelings and behaviours”
• Deep relaxation and suggestibility
• People differ in their susceptibility
• Some research suggests that those who are highly hypnotisable can form more vivid
visual images
• Effects:
• Difficult to ascertain which effects are genuine or unique to hypnosis
• Age regression
• Research suggests some clear and well-document therapeutic effects (e.g. palliative care,
see (Landry et al., 2017)
Meditation
“set of ritualised practice that train attention and awareness” (Lilienfeld, et al.,
2019, p177)
• Two main styles:
• Focused/Concentrative Attention
• Focus on a single thing, eg., breath or a mantra (internal sound)
• Mindfulness/Open Monitoring
• Attention is open but detached
• Increasingly included in treatment approaches
• acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behaviour therapy
(DBT) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT)
• Strong positive effects for inclusion in treatment of depression, anxiety and
borderline personality disorder
Mindfulness training
• Focus attention
• Tolerate emotional discomfort
• Purposely respond to self
• What does the research say?
• Effective for pain management (Labbe, 2011)
• Contribute to less emotional exhaustion and more job satisfaction at work
(Hülsheger et al., 2012)
• Stress and anxiety management, treatment of depression, posttraumatic
stress, sleep quality (see Semple & Burke, 2019)
Altering
consciousness
with drugs
Alcohol and Depressants
• Nervous system depressants
• Decrease inhibition
• Balanced-placebo design
• Expectancies greater than the physiological effects of alcohol
in influencing social behaviours (see Fig 5.7 )
• Sedative Hypnotics
• Relieve anxiety or help fall asleep
• Barbiturates
• Non-barbiturates
• Benzodiazepines
• Dangerous at high dosages, can lead to unconsciousness,
coma and death
Stimulants and Hallucinogens

Amphetamines, cocaine, crack

• Increases dopamine
• Increases energy, mood and euphoria
• Cause paranoia, hallucinations and delusions
• Cocaine is the most powerful natural stimulant
Psychedelics – LSD, marijuana, ecstasy
• Powerful impact on alterations of perception, mood and thought
• Relationship between use of marijuana and anxiety in young people
Tolerance & dependence
Learning
Objectives
1. Describe the two main
functions of consciousness
2. Distinguish among
perspectives on
consciousness
3. Describe the functions of
sleep
4. Identify types of sleep
disorders
5. Distinguish among the
psychological views of
dreaming
6. Explain how people might
experience altered states of
consciousness
References
• Burton, L. J., Westen, D., & Kowalski, R. (2022). Psychology: Australian and New Zealand.
• Landry, M., Stendel, M., Landry, M., & Raz, A. (2018). Hypnosis in palliative care: from clinical insights to the science of self-
regulation. Annals of palliative medicine, 7(1), 125-135.
• Lilienfeld et al. (2019). Psychology: from inquiry to understanding.
• MacLeod, C. M. (2015). The stroop effect. Encyclopedia of color science and technology, 1-6.
• Newbury, C. R., Crowley, R., Rastle, K., & Tamminen, J. (2021). Sleep deprivation and memory: Meta-analytic reviews of studies
on sleep deprivation before and after learning. Psychological bulletin, 147(11), 1215.
• Semple, R. J., & Burke, C. (2019). State of the research: Physical and mental health benefits of mindfulness-based interventions
for children and adolescents. OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine, 4(1), 1-58.
• Peltzer, K., & Pengpid, S. (2016). Sleep duration and health correlates among university students in 26 countries. Psychology,
health & medicine, 21(2), 208-220.
• Wang, F., & Bíró, É. (2021). Determinants of sleep quality in college students: A literature review. Explore, 17(2), 170-177.
• Williamson, A. (2019). What is hypnosis and how might it work?. Palliative Care: Research and Treatment, 12,
1178224219826581.
• www.sleepfoundation.org.au