Consciousness in psychology is the awareness of our thoughts, feelings, and environment. It's explored through dual-processing theory, distinguishing between phenomenal and access consciousness, and recognizing four levels: conscious, preconscious, subconscious, and unconscious. Key features include unity, intentionality, selectivity, and transience. The 'hard problem' highlights the challenge of linking subjective experiences with brain processes.
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Consciousness encompasses our awareness of thoughts, feelings, sensory experiences, and the environment
Consciousness is a subjective experience that is integral to our cognitive functions and behaviors
The translation of neural processes into conscious awareness remains elusive and is a central question in the philosophy of mind
Human cognition operates on two levels, with implicit processes being unconscious and explicit processes involving conscious thought
The brain has the ability to process information through different mechanisms, with implicit and explicit processes often working in parallel
Implicit and explicit processes can interact, highlighting the brain's ability to process information through different mechanisms
Consciousness can be differentiated into phenomenal states, which refer to the raw experience of sensations and emotions, and access states, which relate to the information-processing aspects of consciousness
Philosopher Ned Block emphasized the importance of qualia, the subjective qualities of experiences, in phenomenal consciousness
Phenomenal and access states can interact, but are not always conjoined
Psychology recognizes four levels of consciousness: conscious, preconscious, subconscious, and unconscious
Each level of consciousness has unique characteristics, including what we are aware of, information that can be brought to consciousness, processes below conscious awareness, and desires and feelings that are not readily accessible
The concept of the unconscious level of consciousness was introduced by Sigmund Freud and contains desires and feelings that can affect actions and emotions
Unity allows for the integration of diverse experiences into a single, coherent perception
Intentionality is the quality of consciousness being about something, directed toward particular objects or states of affairs
Selectivity is the capacity to focus on certain stimuli while ignoring others, and transience refers to the dynamic nature of consciousness, with attention continuously moving from one focus to another
The "hard problem" of consciousness involves explaining how and why subjective experiences arise from physical brain processes
While objective measures can detect neural correlates of conscious states, the subjective quality of experiences remains inexplicable by current scientific models
The profound challenge of defining consciousness lies in its personal and complex nature, which resists objective quantification
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Definition of Consciousness
Awareness of thoughts, feelings, sensory experiences, environment.
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John Locke's View on Consciousness
Perception of events in one's own mind.
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Consciousness Role in Psychology
Central to cognitive functions and behaviors.
