Ch 3 Consciousness

What is consciousness? After reading chapter three I believe consciousness is being aware of external activities. All of the things that are involved with consciousness come together because they all involve knowing what is going on around you and inside of your body. All of the different states of consciousness are all still activating the brain and making it figure out what is going on. I believe that I have a better understanding of consciousness because I know all of the different states of consciousness like hypnosis and the different stages of sleep. I also understand more about how our brains work with in itself by communicating between the left and right side of the brain. As it talks about in the split brain section if there was no communication between the two sides we would not be able to understand everything that we need to do perform everyday functions.
I think that the most interesting part about the reading was about dreaming. I thought that it was interesting how different your dreams are between REM dreams and non-REM dreams. REM dreams are much more bizarre and can create a lot more emotion and non-REM dreams feel more like everyday life and do not happen as often. From this I have determined that I believe most of my dreams are non-REM dreams because my dreams are usually pretty normally and don’t usually consist of a lot of emotion.
I believe that the most memorable part of this reading is going to be the section about how can I develop better sleep habits. I found this section interesting because I often find myself having trouble getting to sleep at night so I plan to try some of these techniques to get to sleeper quicker to get better sleep at night.
Key Terms: consciousness, hypnosis, REM,

Consciousness is one’s personal awareness to the external world and what is going on around them, this is a process of brain activity. The example of when a 14 year old first starts driving vrs. how someone drives after 30 years of it really helped me understand the concept of consciousness. When I started driving at age 14 I was alert and always focused on the road and my surroundings, I made sure I came to a complete stop at stop signs and I tried not to get distracted. Now after only 4 short years of driving I feel like I don’t need to focus as much as I did then; I go into autopilot mode. Our conscious levels are always changing. Every different component of our brain/mind work together to process what is going on around us and how to respond to it, it is very important that these different components work together. I always thought consciousness was just being awake and breathing, but this chapter definitely changed my thoughts.

I found it very interesting that even while we sleep our mind analyzes potential dangers, controls body movements, and shifts body parts to maximize comfort. I was always afraid of rolling over on my new puppy in my bed so I never let it sleep with me, but after reading that I realize that our body is aware of our surroundings and tries to avoid situations like that. The most interesting part in chapter three to me was learning about our dreams. I only remember some dreams, so when I don’t recall them when I wake up I just assume I didn’t dream, but everyone dreams. It shocked me that we spend six years of our lives dreaming. I also enjoyed learning about the REM dreams and the Non REM dreams. REM dreams are categorized as more bizarre such as flying and being chased as monsters, and non REM dreams are more like everyday life. I can recall having both dreams; for example last school year I would always dream that my alarm went off and I was awake, and then I would wake up and didn’t know if I was dreaming or if it was real life.

Terms: Consciousness, REM sleep, dreams

Chapter 3 Blog Response
9/4/14

Consciousness is all of a person’s brain activity throughout the day, it can be something they are actively aware that they are thinking about, or something in their external world that triggers them to think about something they aren’t even aware that they were thinking about.

What makes all of the topics in this chapter come together is the fact that each one is creating your brain to be temporarily changed, at least while in that state. All of these make your mind think about things differently. For example; when you are hypnotized, the person who put you under has made you highly suggestible. During this time you may do things that you are unaware, or maybe would not do as willingly if you were in a different state of consciousness. Every state allows your brain to do different things. This causes me to think of consciousness in a much different light because before reading this chapter, I always thought of the word consciousness as being when you are aware of what you are doing.

I always find REM sleep to be very interesting. I enjoy learning about it because the brain seems like a mystery when this is happening. I know that it’s a necessary process to live and that makes me very curious as to what your brain is really doing at that moment and what is the function of that stage of sleep? Although REM is always cool to think about, what I found to be most memorable was the altered state of consciousness that is called flow. I understand why drugs and alcohol would alter your mind, but I did not expect that it would be altered because of being completely engrossed in something enjoyable. I find this to be pretty cool that you can alter your mind from getting immersed in something you enjoy.

Terms: Consciousness, Hypnotized, REM sleep, Flow

Consciousness is our experiences with the outside world combined with our mental activity. Basically, it is the awareness we have of the world around us. The topics discussed in this chapter all deal with consciousness and how we are affected by them. For example, the section about drugs and alternate states of consciousness mentions how our perception and awareness of the external world are different under the influence of different kinds of drugs, meditation, hypnosis, etc. Those topics help us understand that consciousness affects our behavior. I learned a lot about sleep, more specifically, dreaming. I knew that dreaming is more likely to occur during REM sleep, but I did not know that the types of dreams people have depends on the stage of sleep a person is in. I personally tend to have more realistic dreams that deal with my everyday life, so I learned that I most likely remember dreams I have in non-REM sleep. The most interesting topic to me was the split brain condition. I think it’s fascinating how a person will see both objects, but only be able to talk about one of them, yet can pick up the other object without explaining it. I was most surprised by the study that Jonathan Shedler and Jack Block did. I would not have thought that people who experimented with drugs in their adolescent lives are better adjusted than people who never experimented with drugs at all. That really surprised me.
Psychological terms: consciousness, meditation, hypnosis, REM sleep, split brain, dreams

Consciousness is our personal subjective view to the world around us and can change from person to person. It matters not if you are doing something physical as listening to music or watching TV or if you are simply reflecting the day before you go to sleep, each of those things are a part of your consciousness. Drugs can have many different effects on the brain and consciousness and different types of drugs have different effects. Stimulants can cause the dopamine in a brain to increase the amount of time that they sit in the neuron causing the feeling of greater reward when it finally comes down, this is the major factor that causes many to become “hooked” on a drug and continue usage of it. Depressants cause the brain to feel insensitive towards pain and also affect the dopamine in the neurons giving the same feeling as stimulants for reward. The most interesting fact that I found in the chapter are the different levels of sleep that a person goes through in a normal night of rest. What if found interesting is the stage of sleep called REM sleep, even though you are technically asleep your brain is still going through actions and some parts of the brain are more active than they are when you are awake. I also thought it was interesting how the sleep cycle goes through waves from deep sleep to REM sleep through the night until you awaken.
Terms: Consciousness, REM sleep, depressants, stimulants,

Consciousness refers to our moment-by-moment subjective experiences. It is our personal or collective identity, which includes our attitudes and beliefs. Something that I thought was interesting was that scientists still cannot read our thoughts by looking at our brain activity even after all of the advances in technology. Psychology is beginning to reveal how brain activity may give rise to specific subjective experiences. An example of this would be that psychologists can identify objects you are seeing by looking at our brain activity. The most memorable thing that I learned was that our consciousness changes during sleep. There are four different stages of sleep. When you are sleeping you are still somewhat aware of your surroundings. Our mind analyzes many things such as potential danger, controls your body movements, and is able to shift body parts to your own comfort. Everyone dreams unless a brain injury or medication interferes. Most people “claim” that they do not dream, they just don't remember their dreams. There are many sleeping disorders that people get, these are all an affect of our consciousness. My knowledge of consciousness has changed because I don't really think about everything that I do, sometimes I just do things on a whim, but it all comes from my consciousness. I also thought about how I only remember my dreams sometimes and not all the time which is weird. The last thing that I thought was interesting was when the book talked about how meditation and hypnosis and how those effect consciousness. Some psychological terms that I used were consciousness, hypnosis, meditation, four stages of sleep, sleep disorders, and dreams.

Nodira Mussayeva

Now I am pretty sure that I did not know anything about consciousness before I read this chapter. Getting experiences of the external world through our senses such as smell a flower or listen to your favorite song means being conscious. The activation of the particular neurons in the brain produces consciousness and each of us experiences it differently. The reason is the processing of information of the outside world is personal experience and each an individual (brain) will do it dissimilarly. There are two level of consciousness which vary continuously throughout a day. I am sure that all students have noticed that they sometimes begin to daydreaming when the need to read intently the textbook and eventually they did not understand what they read. That is the example of unconscious level. While when we have to perform or learn difficult or unfamiliar task, we are fully conscious. All the topics in this chapter like effects of unconscious on our behavior or which brain's areas are responsible for awareness of information and so on come together to give us full explanation and complete picture of consciousness. These topics are like pieces of puzzle and to realize the meaning of consciousness we need to understand all of aspects and put all pieces of puzzle together.
Before reading this chapter I thought that only one part of our brain is responsible for awareness. However based on global workspace model experiences of consciousness depends on what kind of information our brain is processing. Each area of the brain is responsible for specific type of information. For example listening to your favorite song with which you have lots of memories will activate some specific regions. Thus it is not only one area of the brain is responsible for awareness.
I always was interested in topics about sleep. Why we sleep at night or how it is important and what is dream, these kinds of questions were always in my mind. Consequently, the most interesting part in this chapter was about sleep. As I know now there are 4 stages of sleep and basically we have a deep sleep at 3 and 4 stages which is slow-wave sleep. During the typical night people cycle through the stages about 5 times. Also how different dreams in REM and Non-REM stages of sleep was also interesting. Bizarre dreams like when you fight with monsters or fly away from them are likely to be in REM sleep. While normal dream when you see your friends or other aspects of your everyday life at your dream is Non-Rem sleep.
The most memorable part of this chapter was how sleep deprivation can impair our functions. Based on studies the short deprivation has little effect on strength or other abilities. However a long period of avoiding sleep can lead to attention lapses and reduced short-term memory and extended sleep deprivation can be fatal for us because it compromises the immune system.
Terms used: Consciousness, global workspace model, 5 stages of sleep, slow-wave sleep, Rem and Non-Rem sleep, sleep deprivation.

Consciousness is a fancy way of saying that you are able to understand what you are doing. When reading, you aren’t completely conscious if you read it and don’t take in anything. To be conscious, you have to understand what is going on completely. When conscious, all parts, or at least most, of the body comes together to make it fully understand what is going on around you such as eyes or ears. They will contribute to being fully conscious. When I am driving in Cedar Falls, I am very conscious of what is going on around me because I am not familiar with the area so I do a lot of looking around to make sure I am in the right area or road. At home when I am driving I remember the roads very well, mainly because I live in the country so I see mostly corn and bean fields. The worst I have to look out for is a deer on the road. In the city I have to look for other drivers that may not know what is going on. If they’re not fully conscious, they may hit me or I may hit them. It is important to be conscious because it is safer and it allows people to take in their surroundings. To me, some of the most interesting things in this chapter were about the brain. The brain fascinates me because it can do so much and it takes up very little space in our body. It is amazing how our body can be run by that one part. It was memorable to know that I can develop better sleep habits. Occasionally I have trouble sleeping but that isn’t common for me. It is nice to know how to develop better sleep habits because I can always use more sleep. I also find it kind of weird that when you are in a very deep sleep, your eyes move rapidly. It is weird that REM sleep is the deepest sleep even though you are becoming more active. The body is a surprising thing and the mind only contributes to that. Someday scientist could be able to control people with the use of computers and a further knowledge of the mind and brain.
Words: REM, Consciousness

After reading this chapter I believe that consciousness is being aware of your external environment and internal thoughts, feelings and basic body functions. All of these things allow us to process information about certain situations and things happening in our environment. Before reading this chapter I thought that consciousness was just being awake but now I know that we still have consciousness even while sleeping and that it controls almost all of our mental processes.

From this reading I found the split-brain section of this chapter to be extremely interesting. It was fascinating how people whose brains were surgically split had no problems performing most takes such as walking, talking and thinking. I was totally surprised when I read how when their brain was split each side had its own conscious mind but couldn’t make connections or perform tasks that required both sides of the brain to work together such as talk about something that is recognized by the right brain hemisphere because the ability to produce language is on the left brain hemisphere.

Another really interesting thing from this chapter was reading about how there are four different stages of sleep and how brain activity differs in each level. When we first drift off to sleep we are in stage 1 where we can easily be awoken and wont even realize we were asleep. After stage 1 we fall into stage 2 of sleep where external stimulation gets blocked out keeping us asleep. Stages 3 and 4 are very similar and that is where we are in slow-wave sleep and are extremely hard to wake up but our brain keeps evaluating the environment for danger.

One of the most surprising or memorable things from this chapter is how our brain evaluates our external environment as we sleep to protect us from danger. I have always wondered how we never fall out of bed and can be awoken by certain noises but still are not able to hear sirens or thunderstorms in the middle of the night. But after reading this chapter I know now that our brain evaluates the external environment while we are in a slow-wave sleep, which allows us to stay comfortable in bed and wake up to a relevant or important noise such as the example from the book about a baby crying.

Terms used: consciousness, split brain, right brain hemisphere, left brain hemisphere, slow-wave sleep

Consciousness is the state of being aware of your surroundings. Your level of consciousness can differ depending on what you’re doing. Activities that are unfamiliar to people take a lot more consciousness than activities that they do on a daily basis. Things have become routine require a lower level of consciousness. Many different components come together to form your consciousness. The different sections in the brain each play a different role in forming thoughts, emotions, movements and realizations. Once everything is formed in the different sections it all comes together to form your consciousness. I never realized all of the components to consciousness. A person consciousness depends on many different parts of your brain. I also never realized how your level of consciousness can vary depending upon your life experiences and the current situation at hand.
I found it very interesting how sleeping disorders relate to your consciousness. Three of the sleeping disorders that the text covered were insomnia, sleep apnea and narcolepsy. These three disorders are very different and impact lives in different ways. The experiences range from not being able to sleep at all, to excessive sleepiness, to stopping breathing while asleep. As different as these disorders are, consciousness has a role in all of them.
The most surprising thing that I learned from the reading was the information about the stages of sleep. In stage one, you can be easily awakened and may not realize that you were ever sleeping. In stage two, you are in a deeper sleep and can not as easily be awakened. During stages three and four you fall deeper and deeper into sleep. I never realized that there are different stages of sleep and that after 1.5 hours the steps go in reverse. I found that very surprising and will probably think about it often as I start to fall asleep.

Terms: Consciousness, insomnia, sleep apnea, narcolepsy

After reading this chapter, I now define consciousness as your awareness of your surroundings, feelings, and sensations combined with your mental activity. I think to have a full understanding of something, you need to look at it from every angle. This chapter covered consciousness from all different angles, helping us readers grasp a better understanding. I learned about how consciousness levels vary throughout everyday things. Things you do routinely everyday do not require as much attention because they just come naturally, while things you are not so comfortable doing will require full alertness and attention. Before reading this chapter, I really just defined consciousness as being alert. Now I know there is a lot more to it, and a lot of things can affect it then I knew.
From reading this chapter, I was most interested by the section about sleep affecting consciousness, specifically the dream part. I have some very random, bizarre dreams but I usually remember them come morning time. So it was really interesting to read about how REM sleep is generally when the crazy dreams occur. The activation-synthesis theory was also interesting to think about in an attempt to make a little sense of my weird dreams.
The most memorable thing I read in this chapter was in the section about hypnosis. I never knew that therapists sometimes use this to help patients quit smoking or to lose weight. Even though it says it isn't that successful, it has worked. That was really surprising and interesting to me.
Terms: consciousness, dream, REM sleep, activation-synthesis theory, hypnosis

This chapter was very vague for me because I have a background with consciousness and knowledge of drugs. In high school I learned how to hypnotize people and I know for a fact that it is something more than someone faking. You can honestly tell if someone is faking hypnosis by the way they act under hypnosis. The consciousness of the hypnosis-ee is somewhat easy to tell with some practice. If someone is truly hypnotized then when you tell them to do something they are very bland and not emotional about it. For instance if someone is told to do something completely ridiculous and they smile; chances are they are faking it. You can also tell when someone is hypnotized by if they’re eyes are rapidly moving back and forth. This means they’re brain has entered the REM cycle of sleep which means the brain is very “wild” and imaginative thus extremely susceptible to suggestions. With that being said I did not know about the other cycles of sleep. I did not know that we cycle between stages of sleep when we are sleeping, at least not multiple times in one night. However; hypnosis is not the only way to alter your state of consciousness. Drugs have a huge impact on the brain and most are harmful. One of the things that I will remember for a long time is the picture of the nerve fibers before and after using ecstasy. The picture before shows a lot of connections and the one 18 months after using shows a devastating loss of connections. Really shows that you have to weigh the gains and losses of doing a drug before you ingest such an illegal stimulant drug as ecstasy. So all-in-all this chapter was about the consciousness and how it can be influenced as easily as simply driving on the same road every day and you just zone out; to as “hard” as doing illegal drugs that will forever change your brain once you take them. Consciousness is a thing that changes multiple times in a day and contributes to reasons why we do everyday tasks and how we can go on “auto-pilot” while we do some of the tasks we do so often.
The psychological terms I used were; consciousness, REM, stimulant, hypnosis, stages of sleep

Consciousness according to the book is our moment-by-moment subjective experiences.Consciousness requires you to use your senses to be observant and being alert of the outside world. Consciousness is also being aware what you are thinking about at that exact moment. After reading this chapter, my idea of consciousness really didn’t change, however, I learned more information I didn’t know before. For example, I now know there are four stages of sleep. I learned in stage three and four of sleep people may reach slow-wave sleep and they still process some information during this time. I also did not know after 90 minutes, the sleep cycle reverses to stage one. Another interesting fact I learned is non-Rem and REM sleep have different types of dreams. The most interesting topic to read about was hypnosis. I personally have never been hypnotized, however, I have seen people been hypnotized. I think it was interesting to read about how the hypnotist(s) can say simple things like “you are becoming sleepy” and stuff like that and at some point the person can go under hypnosis. Another interesting fact is that some people can remember what they do or say while experiencing hypnosis while others can't remember anything from their experience. One fact that surprised me was about how hypnotic analgesia is a form of reducing pain. Something else that surprised me was the stages of sleep and how you start over at stage one once you go through all the stages and this continues five times. I was also surprise about how much different the dreams actually are during non-REM and REM sleep. I know now when my dreams are really strange that I was in REM sleep and when I more normal dreams I was in non-REM sleep.
Terms- Consciousness, REM sleep, non-REM sleep, hypnosis

In Chapter three I learned that consciousness is a state in which a person is aware of their surroundings and what they are thinking. The book gave the example of listening to music. You are able to think about the song lyrics and what they mean while at the same time you are able to know what is going on in the environment that a person is in. Before I learned what consciousness is from the book, my understanding of what consciousness was, was when a person was awake or not sleeping. The topic that I found to be most interesting was the topic of dreaming. I have never really known much about dreams, but I was surprised to read that dreams are made from our consciousness. Dreams are different depending on if a person is in REM or non-REM sleep. In REM sleep the dreams can be far-fetched or unrealistic while in non-REM sleep the dreams are completely normal to an average day.

Terms
Consciousness
Conscious
REM
Non-REM

Consciousness is more than just being awake. To be conscious is being able to understand the things going on around you in the environment and your mental activity People may look awake and may seem like they are paying attention, but sometimes this isn’t the case. Some people “shut down” their brains during a class and are not paying attention. I believe that to be fully consciousness you try to understand the information you are learning and participate in group projects. Your brain is then fully devoted to the tasks that you are doing. There are many different states of consciousness that people may experience. Some may be fully conscious of a situation and others may not. The topics discussed throughout the chapter helps us understand that consciousness doesn’t only happen externally but also in our minds as well. Before reading this chapter, I did not know that sometimes we go on autopilot. When we learn something new, we make sure we are fully aware of our surroundings. We are fully conscious. After doing the task or job for a couple years we seem to have no trouble at all. We are not fully alert as we used to be when we first started. After reading the chapter I now understand that having experience with a job can alter how conscious we really are.
The most interesting topic for me was the topic about sleep. I was really surprised that when we go to sleep, our brains regions are more active. I also found it interesting that when we sleep we go through four stages and repeat these stages at least five times. When a person is in slow-wave sleep, they are in a deep sleep. This makes is very hard to a wake up a person. Each person dreams and spends at least six years of their life doing so. I found this interesting because every time I have a dream it usually is an REM dream. I always feel that what I am experiencing in my dream is real.
Terms: consciousness slow-wave sleep, REM sleep, dream

Consciousness is not simply whether or not you are awake. Before reading this chapter, my understanding was that you are either conscious or you are unconscious. However, this is really not the case. There are different levels of consciousness, each relying on the brain’s level of activity and what is being perceived. Even when people are asleep or in comas, they can still retain some amount of consciousness, whether it be that their brain is still processing language or that they react to touch.
The most interesting thing I read was about the woman who was in a persistent vegetative state but would still laugh and respond to external stimuli. I find it really difficult to understand how that could be possible.
Another thing I found interesting was that, although it is such an accepted part of our daily lives, no one is 100% sure as to why people sleep. It seems so obvious, yet when I think about it, I do not even know why. The easy thing to say is that it is because we need rest. But why? Not only that, but what is the significance of dreams? Personally, I like to analyze my dreams and see how they were affected by things that I experienced throughout the day. Yet sometimes there are dreams I have in which the entire plot of the dream will be leading up to an external sound that my brain should have no way of knowing when it is going to happen (lightning, phone ringing, etc.). Dreams come off as something so intangible and difficult to study, so maybe no one will ever truly know their significance.

Terms used: persistent vegetative state, conscious, dream

Consciousness, the thing that most psychologists study and question in their lives. What does it mean to be alive? Many people over the years have developed their own theories about consciousness. Rene Descartes believed that the mind and brain were two separate entities, and this theory became known as Dualism. On the opposite end of this belief is Materialism, which is the idea that the brain and the mind were one and the same, and that the processing of the brain is what allows the experiences of the mind. I lean to the more materialistic view of the life. We need our brain to have a functioning and powerful mind. While reading this chapter, they discussed the meaning of dreams. That was something that peaked my interest throughout this reading. Just the other day after returning from late night activities, I I experienced a dream that I believe may have had some subliminal meaning behind it. I was taking a walk through my mind as I was walking back to my dorm room. Reflecting on the night and when I fell asleep I had a dream that was very odd. I was stuck in a room full of random people doing nothing, and they had syringes that were filled with poison. Perhaps this meant the people I was around that night were only poisonous to me and would only kill me. Dreams are a very complex subject for people to study. My mind immediately drifted toward the movie “Inception” after reading the section about dreams. Having dreams within dreams, and many theories people have developed over the years. REM sleep is the deepest level of sleep according psychologists. Sleep is probably the best part of the day. Sleep is essential when trying to live a happy life. It does so many beneficial things for us as human beings. Repairing damaged tissue, inducing growth hormones, and strengthening of our immune system; these only three things are what sleep is capable of. The list could continue, but I feel we can all agree that sleep is amazing. I am glad I do not have any of those sleep disorders mentioned in this chapter. It's not impossible for me to inherit these disorders later in life, but at this very moment I am grateful to be able to sleep and enjoy a relaxing experience without any interruptions. The question that popped in my head after this reading was, “are we alive, or just breathing”. Its a question, I believe, everyone has at one point or another in their life. Everything we do and experience throughout lives is what affects our consciousness. All our emotions and ideas are something that will be a part of our day for the rest of our lives. We do not have the clear answer to what consciousness actually is because it has such a subjective nature, but great minds continue to arise and study consciousness to give people around the world a better understanding of their experiences.

Terms: Dualism, Materialism, Dreams, REM sleep, consciousness

From the reading, the most interesting topic to me was the sleep disorders section. I have knew that many people are often having trouble falling asleep or going back to sleep after waking up during the night, but the reasons behind it were pretty interesting. There are many reasons for a person to have sleep disorder such as insomnia which is your ability to function are reduced by the chronic inability to sleep, sleep apnea which is being not able to breath for a short periods because the throat closes, and narcolepsy which is falling sleep during waking hours. And also was the dream section. I did not know there are such things as non REM and REM sleep. However, the dreams are different in that they may involve intense emotions, visual and auditory hallucinations, and an acceptance of illogical events. Non-REM dreams feel normal, they may contain activities that you can find in real life, whereas REM dreams are a little wild such a chasing a monster. Both REM and non-REM dreams have the reasons why they are existing. REM dreams results from the activation of the brain structures associated with motivation, emotion and reward. REM dreams happened when some areas of the brain show increased activity, and others show decreased activity.
The most surprising topic to me was the 4 stage sleep. As of before reading, I thought there are three stages which were pre-sleep, sleep, and after sleep. But after reading this chapter, I have learned more about sleep stages. I know that there are four stages which go along with four different kinds of brain activities. The four stages are identifying by the changes in consciousness from Theta waves to Beta waves. I also learned that slow-wave sleep was the stage that your brain still process some information and that is when you are very hard to wake up or disoriented when you do wake up. As well as that cycle is repeated about five times during a night. I thought it was pretty interesting to learn about the brain activities during the four stages of sleeping.
Terms: Dreams, sleep apnea, insomnia, narcolepsy, slow-wave sleep.

What really is consciousness? According to the books definition, it is the combination of a person’s subjective experiences of the external world and the person’s mental activity. So in a nutshell, consciousness is really your personal awareness of your unique thoughts, sensations, and environments. Consciousness is the mechanism that makes us actively aware of information so that we can prioritize what information we need or want to deal with at any moment. There are two different levels of consciousness. There is conscious meaning very alert, and unconscious meaning we weren’t aware of what is going on. An example of conscious is when a teenager starts out driving. The teenager is very aware of the different signs and other cars around. An example of unconscious is sometimes when people read, they soon forgot what they had just read about. They go through the motions but soon forget the information that had just obtained. I now have a better understanding of how our brain activity gives rise to consciousness and how different types of sensory information is processed by different parts of the brain.

The split brain topic was interesting to be. It is very interesting that some people have no effect from having a split brain other than communication issues. Also the stages of sleep were interesting. After stage 1 we fall into stage 2 of sleep where external stimulation gets blocked out keeping us asleep. Stages 3 and 4 are very similar and that is where we are in slow-wave sleep and are extremely hard to wake up but our brain keeps evaluating the environment for danger. The stage of sleep called REM sleep was the stage I found to be the most interesting. Even though you are technically asleep, your brain is still going through actions and some parts of the brain are more active than they are when you are awake.

From this chapter, the most surprising or remarkable thing was about hypnosis. To me, I find it surprising how hypnosis works on some people and not on others.

Psychological terms that you used I used were REM, consciousness, hypnosis, and split brain.

Consciousness is subjective to the individual and is what we experience moment-by-moment as our thoughts and emotions in reaction to the objective physical world around us. Different aspects and functions of the brain were discussed in this chapter. The global workspace model was a main point brought up in section 3.1, it is a psychological theory that consciousness is a product of the each of the specific brain regions’ activity working together at once. All of these separate regions come together to help us form a better understanding of how consciousness really works.
Before reading this chapter I had a basic grasp of the concept of consciousness. I understood that it was about the connection of our minds and brains about the different parts of the brain working together, not only to keep our physical bodies in working order, but also our perception of the world around us in check as well. I understood that even though many people refer to being asleep as “unconscious” you are not unconscious during slumber, but in fact quite the opposite. I also had a pretty good understanding of sleeping and dreams and how they work. However, something I had never really thought about was how there are different levels of consciousness and how more people are more alert at different times than others based on their life experiences.
Sleeping and much more importantly, dreaming have always been vastly interesting to me. Growing up, my mother always had this same fascination with dreams and also a strange knowledge (or at least strange to my eight year-old self, before I researched it some myself) of dream interpretation. We would always discuss our dreams and their possible meanings and I loved it. I’ve always had particularly vivid dreams, so the section on dream interpretation and dream theories was very intriguing to me. If I had to pull out something I found to be the most memorable from this reading it would be the section in which meditation was discussed, particularly how transcendental meditation has been linked to improving health among heart patients.

Psychological terms used: consciousness, global workspace model, dream interpretation, transcendental meditation

What is consciousness? I believe that consciousness is being aware of your surroundings and your mental activity at the same time. You do not have to be awake to be conscious. For example, people in comas say that they remember significant thing happening around them while they asleep in the coma. How do all these different topics that are in this chapter come together to form an all encompassing understanding of consciousness? I believe that all the topics come together as a combination of brain activity. My understanding of consciousness has changed from what i understood it as, being awake, to now it being more of being aware of your environment and your mind at the same time. The most interesting part of this chapter was when the man who was in a vegetative state came out of his coma and claimed he could remember the marriages of his children that happened while he was in the coma.
Terms: consciousness, mental activity, coma, brain activity.

After reading the chapter, I have learned that consciousness is not what I originally thought it to be. Consciousness is the state of being aware of your surroundings. This may mean you are completely alert and awake or it may mean that you are even sleeping. All the topics discussed in the chapter come to form consciousness because they all have their own purpose. For instance, each part of the brain is responsible for different thing. One of the best examples of this is how the left hemisphere of the brain controls the right side of the body and the right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body. It is an amazing thing to understand how all the parts of our brain help each other out in the state of consciousness. Originally, I thought that consciousness was the state of being able to communicate and move around when a person is awake, but it is definitely more complex than that. I thought one of the most interesting things from this chapter was a person’s sleep cycle. I think it is amazing that we have 4 stages of sleep and an REM stage as well. The stage of sleep that interested me most was REM because the brain is so active at that point. To think that a person has an active brain while asleep is very fascinating to me. The subject of sleep is much more interesting than I ever thought before; so much goes on in our brains and mind when we are asleep which proves the brain is a very fascinating thing.
Key terms: consciousness, left hemisphere, right hemisphere, REM

What really is consciousness? Consciousness is one of the most fundamental issues in psychology. What it means to be conscious is people can be conscious of their surroundings even when they don’t appear to be. Conscious is associated with the brain activity, and consciousness refers to our moment by moment subjective experiences. The different topics that deal with subjective experience shows different experiences with consciousness. For example when you listen to music on your I-pod reflecting the songs you hear and what they mean to you. You know you are conscious because you experience through your senses because of what you think. Most psychologist reject dualism for materlism. The idea that the brain and the mind are inseparable, and that is the process of the brain is what allows us to use these different topic with the experiences of the mind. Something interesting I read was in consciousness changes during sleep. When you sleep your conscious experiences the outside world is largely turned off. You remain aware of your surroundings and your brain still processes certain information. People who sleep next to children or pets tend not to roll over onto them. The most memorable thing I read in the chapter was the case of the polish railroad worker got hit by a train in 1988 and fell into a comma. He woke up 19 years later. He was described as being in a minimally conscious state during his coma.
Psychological terms: dualism, materlism, consciousness, conscious

Consciousness is how each of us as a person relate thinks that we see, feel, hear, or touch in either a fantasy world, or in real life and interpret them into our daily lives. It all starts when we think of something with our brain. If our brain is thinking of something simple such as texting, then it will be part of consciousness. It is the idea of the moment by moment living, thinking of something to type, the movements that type it out, and eventually send it. This consciousness differs from chapter one because it is in more detail on how important the brain, neurons, mental activity, and experience is perceived in the world. For example, you are with some friends in a grocery store. You think that the bananas look nice a ripe, but your friend sees them as green, mushy, and uneatable. In reality you are both seeing the same bananas but the subjective nature makes them seem different to each of you.
Something that I found interesting in this chapter is insomnia. It is a disorder that reduces the hours you sleep. Some try everything to get to sleep but can only toss and turn. I find this interesting because it relates back to the brain, the control center of everything we do. People who worry about sleep and how much or how little they get generally don’t get to sleep as long as they want. Insomniacs think about sleep because they are deprived from it, but when it comes time for bed they over think it all and may just focus on some other topic such as what they were watching on TV before going to bed.
Terms: Consciousness, neurons, insomnia

Consciousness is anything you experience, like the book says, you know you are conscious because you are experiencing the outside world through your senses and because you are aware of what you are thinking. It tells you of all the different ways you are/can experience consciousness, and that it’s just not something that happens just because you are awake, or not happening because you got into an accident and are unconscious. After reading this chapter, I have realized that if you are experiencing the outside world through your senses and are aware of what you are thinking then you are conscious. My first most interesting topic is the very first one because it describes how we are conscious. My second favorite topic is unconscious processing sometimes affects behavior because I didn’t know that if you meant to say one thing, but said another, then that was an “unconscious” thought. My most memorable thing about this was that you don’t need to be literally unconscious because you can just do something and mean to do the other, and have that be an unconscious thing.

Terms Used: consciousness, unconscious, conscious,

Consciousness is your personal awareness in your unique thoughts, sensations and environment of the external world. All of the different topics of consciousness all come together to provide brain activity of conscious and subconscious mind. Our brain is not limited to just being aware of our surroundings it also has to do with dreams, memory's and perception. My understanding has stayed the same though this chapter because I have taken a psych class before and learned about the different stages of consciousness and how it effect all different aspects of your life.
The most inter­esting topic I found to be was REM sleep, I always find it to be very intriguing. I love learning about the brain because it seems so complex to understand. Its cray how necessary it is but its also needed to sleep and its interesting to see that the brain is doing during sleep and all the different stages and how it effects your mental status.
The most surprising or memorable thing I learned in this reading had to be about the drugs and how they alter our mental states. Its crazy to think that there are stimulus and such that can change our mental process and the behavior the way they do.

Terms used: Conscious, Rem sleep, Stimulants

When you are conscious you are able to use your senses. An example would be if someone is cooking something is the kitchen and you smell it, and can kind of taste it you are using your senses. You are using smell and taste. The different topics in the chapter talk about whether or not you are conscious during them or how they affect your consciousness. When you are doing the topics that are in the chapter you are conscious.

I did not really know what happened when we went to sleep, but I did not think that we were conscious. When we do sleep we are conscious. It is not the same as when we are awake. I really did not have an understanding of what consciousness was. Now I know that you are always conscious unless you have some serious damage done to your head or you pass out. After reading I now know that we are conscious most of the time.

Dreaming really interests me. It is strange that we can see ourselves like we are in a movie sometimes when we are in a dream. Our brain just puts together these dreams that we go through. It seems strange that our brain is still working when we are asleep. Our brain is always working. Also being able to remember a dream is kind of interesting. Our brain is working that much that we are able to remember what we dreamt. I wonder why it is hard for us to control our own dream. I think it might be because we think that it is actually happening to us.

One thing that surprised me when I was reading was at the beginning of the chapter. The book is talking about the story of Jan Grzebski. The story says that he was hit by a train and then put into a comma. While he was in his comma he was able to say things that were happening. The book says he remembers a wedding. It is interesting to think what happens when you are in a comma. Is it like sleeping for a long time? Can we remember anything while we are in our comma?

Conscious, Dream, Comma

When reading chapter 3 on consciousness which is entirely very interesting topic to me, the amount of science that goes into one being conscious and unconscious and what state a person is in during these moments within the brain. The most interesting thing about this chapter to me was learning about the split brain procedure. A split brain is a condition in which the corpus callosum is surgically cut, and the two hemispheres of the brain do not receive information directly from each other. This means surgeons cut the brain in two and the brain functions normally. It is very surprising to me that the brain can function normal without the corpus callosum because it is a massive bundle of neural fibers, but the only way this surgery can be successful is if the surgeon does not damage the grey matter surrounding the corpus callosum. What was most surprising to me about this entire section on the split brain was that once the surgery happened the brain is now in two but so is the conscious mind. As stated in the text book the two half’s of the brain operate its opposite side of the body meaning the left hemisphere of the brain controls the right side of the body and the right hemisphere of the brain controls the left side of the body, when the brain is then split in two, along with in most people the left hemisphere dominates the ability of language. With the split brain the language is controlled on the left side meaning whatever the right eye is seeing the brain can transform the image into words and what it actually is but if the left eye is looking at an object the brain is not able to turn the object into a word. When reading about the example of flashing an image of a fork on the right side and a spoon on the left and the person could only verbally speak fork but not spoon was amazing to me, but to add to this idea that when a person could be asked to physically grab the spoon the person could.
This chapter was very interesting to me but the ability to split the brain in two and have barely no signs or disabilities from the surgery is very interesting yet the double consciousness within the brain is surprising along with the lack of speech from the visual cue from the left eye, right brain hemisphere.
terms used-
left hemisphere
right hemisphere
split brain
corpus Callosum

Consciousness is ones awareness to what is happening to them and what is happening around them. It is experiencing what is happening around them and processing it. Being able to comprehend what is happing to and around without having to thing about it or tell yourself what is happing. Our conscious forms to make our personality, our traits, all aspects about us. Our conscious have different levels that all come together to make us who we are. I am more aware of how our conscious works now and all the different areas that it affects and how active it really is without us even knowing.
This most interesting thing I read about in the chapter was about the sleep disorders. I myself have insomnia and I never quite understood what was happening behind it. It was nice to read about it and treatments. I avoid the medicine because oh the side affects so it was nice to get a refresher on what happens to insomniacs.
The most surprising thing I read in the chapter was the split brain and how the Left hemisphere controls the right side of the brain and vise versa. I thought it was interesting how the corpus collosum could be cut to separate the hemispheres and the brain can compensate and still work as though it almost never happened.

Consciousness, insomnia, corpus collosum, hemispheres, split brain

Consciousness is an experience, the mental ability, and the mixture or results from brain activity. There are many different levels of consciousness. I thought the most interesting topic in this chapter was reading about the four stages of sleep. I never really thought much about the “process” of sleep, but it just so happens that it’s a system that involves consciousness. The first step is the drifting off to sleep. Stage two is when we become less aware of our external surroundings. Through stages three and four, the slow-wave sleep occurs. Then the REM sleep occurs. Sleeping is very complex, and that is really interesting to me. All of these different topics just mean that a lot of factors are important when it comes to consciousness. Sleep and all its factors have a huge effect on our consciousness. There are also many different states when it comes to consciousness. Meditation, hypnosis, and flow activities all lead to an altered consciousness. Drugs are also tools that can alter the consciousness. Overall, all these topics in chapter 3 effect consciousness. I most surprising and memorable thing in this chapter was sleeping disorders and how common they actually are in life. I knew about insomnia, sleep apnea, and narcolepsy, but I did not realize that they had an effect on many people. I find narcolepsy to be extremely fascinating! Having a major sleepiness during normal times of the day just seem interesting to me. My understanding of consciousness has definitely changed. I did not realize how complex consciousness was, and I did not think that so many factors came into play with consciousness, like drugs, sleeping disorders, and flowing activities.
Psychological terms: Consciousness, slow-wave sleep, REM, meditation, hypnosis, flow activities, sleeping disorders, narcolepsy, insomnia, and sleep apnea.

What really is consciousness? Consciousness doesn’t necessarily mean being awake. You can still be aware of what is happening when in a coma or sleeping. As one of the persons being interviewed said they recall some things happing to them while they were in a coma since 1988 and woke up 19 years later. During the coma they were talking, but it wasn’t able to be understood. I found many things very interesting about this chapter. Such as both of the stories to lead the chapter off. They both got me interested to read on and learn about the brain and consciousness. To start, I found the three stages of consciousness very interesting. I have always noticed myself to do these things like the examples but never knew why. I now have a clearer understanding of the different stages and it makes sense of why they happen. The next thing I found very interesting is the consciousness to different things why we sleep. The four stages of a sleep cycle really sparked my interest as well. I knew that we went through different stages during the night while but I never knew that we went through them, on average, five times during the night. It is weird to think of what I do during my sleep and that I wake up and am clueless of what happened during the night. Which really makes me wonder “what did I do last night?” It also sparked my thoughts of sleep walking. When sleep walking some people don’t remember doing it but how can they know where they are going without being conscious to some extent. Another thing about sleeping is how people will wake up to a crying baby but not an alarm. Some things like that is what really makes me think about what consciousness really is. The last thing that intrigued me is dreaming. I thought that dreaming was pretty simple. It was just when someone was having an image in their head while they were sleeping and nothing else. Dreaming is actually many different things. It was cool to read about the two different types of dreaming. This chapter taught me a lot about the different things of consciousness and gave me a better understanding of it.
Key terms: Consciousness, Dreams

Consciousness is when you are taking in moments with your senses. Scientist and psychologist learn about consciousness by how the brain works throughout different experiments. Consciousness is a fascinating system to me because the brain can do all sorts of things while we aren’t even aware of it. Like when we are sleeping the brain is mostly ‘shut-off’ except we are aware of things that are bright, our movements, and our dreams. Our sleep waves can be slow at some points and speed up at different parts of our sleep. Also when we are reading a text and our mind wonders. We are conscious of our thoughts and just going through the motions of reading but not obtaining any new information. Those who have been in serious accidents that have affected their brain are helpful to study to see what kind of things you can do with a partial part of your brain. Comas are also a big help to study brain waves and brain activity because even though the body is not able to function at that moment the brain may still be dreaming or having flash backs. I thought consciousness meant you have to be alert and ready. Know after reading the text I now understand that we can be conscious and unconscious and we may not even be aware of it.
Vocab Words: Coma, dream, conscious

After reading chapter three, I learned that consciousness is the awareness of things going on around you. When you are conscious, you are aware of the surroundings, things going on in the world, and thoughts. Consciousness in a person's brain activity can be triggered for them to think about that they don't know is going on.
As I was reading this chapter, my understanding of consciousness has become more clear to me and it has also changed how I understand it as well. I think I have a better understanding, because I have learned all the different stages of consciousness. For example, the stages of sleep. While you are asleep, your brain is still active. That brain activity is called k-complexes, which means you are really asleep. Even when are awake, we can still be in an unconscious state of mind and not notice it.
The most interesting part to me was the section of drugs with hallucinogenic effects. Hallucinogenic drugs effect the alteration of sensation and perception. Some of these drugs are MDMA (ecstasy) and marijuana. MDMA can cause slight hallucinations. The serotonin release explains the hallucinogenic properties. More memory problems and ability to perform complex tasks have diminished. Marijuana effects are stimulant, depressant, or hallucinogen. The THC in marijuana make your perceptions more vivid. Doing these drugs will alter your consciousness greatly.
terms: consciousness, k-complexes, MDMA

After reading this chapter I believe that consciousness is being aware of what is around you whether awake or asleep, in addition to being aware of the different processes your body is doing at those times. This chapter made my understanding on the subject much more knowledgeable considering I learned a lot that, before reading, I did not know. All the topics merged helped me understand the difference between many different things such as: REM/Non-REM dreaming, different cerebral parts and their functions, and the varies sleep disorders that many people deal with.
The topic that interested me the most was on how to develop better sleeping habits. We are told a few tips on this subject such as counting sheep, or using less technology towards "bed time." However, I never knew that alcohol could affect your sleep cycle, that exercising causes arousal that interferes with sleep, or to just get up in the morning instead of sleeping in to make up for not getting a lot of sleep. After reading all this, I will definitely be trying it out.
The most surprising or memorable thing I learned in the reading was on how females experience genital arousal in the REM cycle of sleep. I seriously only thought it was associated with males, for the reason that I have never heard a female talk about that (Although men are more open to that stuff than women).
Terms: REM sleep, consciousness, genital arousal

Consciousness is the combination of a person’s subjective experience of the external world and the person’s mental activity. In other words, it is your brain activity and awareness of the world around you. These all come together because the different sections of the brain work together to develop the state of conscious. I thought consciousness was only when you were awake; I didn’t really think or connect comas to consciousness.
The most interesting to me was that what we see with the left eye is interpreted by the right side of the brain and vice versa. Also, the fact that some parts of our brain is more active when we are sleeping, rather than when we are active. Also that our sleep works in cycles, and after about 90 minutes, we enter REM sleep, which is just like stage one and there is a lot of rapid movement of the eyes under the eyelids.
To me, the most memorable thing I learned in this reading was the four different stages of sleep. And there is an instrument that can tell what stage you are in from the brain. An EEG instrument tells by what waves it gets, consisting of beta, alpha, theta, delta, beta or k-complex. Whichever wave is shown defines which stage of sleep the patient is in.
Psychological terms: conscious, EEG, beta, alpha, theta, delta, beta, k-complex, REM sleep

After reading this chapter about consciousness, I believe that consciousness is being aware of what is going on around you. Consciousness is subjective, meaning that people will never view it the same way, because it is personal. This makes it hard to study. They used the example of driving your car to explain consciousness. When you have driven the same road many times, you do not pay as much attention to your surroundings, but if you have never driven on a particular road, you might pay more attention to protect yourself from danger. This chapter also talks a lot about how consciousness can greatly affect your behavior. A commonly known example of this would be a Freudian slip, which means that you are thinking of something, and say something else. My understanding of consciousness has changed since reading this chapter because I can now better understand how the brain works. I learned a lot after reading the section about the areas of the brain, and how a spilt brain works. The areas of this chapter that were most interesting to me were the part about dreaming, and the different sleeping disorders. The sleeping disorders intrigued me because I can relate to it, since my dad has sleep apnea. It explains how often times people with sleep apnea sleep with a breathing device that blows air into their nose or mouth while they are sleeping, to ensure that they get the oxygen that they need to breathe steadily throughout the night. My dad also has a breathing machine, and it has helped him sleep comfortably through the night. The most surprising thing about this chapter would be the section about the split brain. I didn’t realize that the right side of your occipital lobe processes everything located to the left of your nose, and the left side of your occipital lobe processes everything located on the right of your nose. You would think that it would be the other way around, so that really surprised me.
Terms I used: consciousness, subjective, behavior, Freudian slip, split brain, sleep apnea, occipital lobe

Consciousness is experiencing the outside world through your senses and being aware of what you are thinking and feeling. After reading through the small topics that are in consciousness, they all tie back to a person being able to sense the outside world. Like for example how your brain splits the work it has to do in half. My understanding of consciousness has definitely gone up after reading through the chapter.
The most interesting thing for me was for sure everything about sleep and dreams. I’ve learned about it before in a class and also watched a documentary on netflix but whenever the topic comes up I always find myself completely captivated by how our lives depend on sleep, how sleep works, and what dreams are. I think its completely fascinating that sleep can so drastically control our lives. How we go through the stages while we sleep that provoke different kinds of dreams. I for one know that I spend a lot of time in REM sleep due to having clinical depression for five years now. It explains why I fall asleep so suddenly and why its very difficult for me to wake up - regardless of what time it is.
Key Terms: consciousness, stages, REM

Consciousness is the mind and body’s awareness based upon what’s happening in the world and what is happening in your brain. It’s a combination of mental activity and subjective experiences in the world. I think that they all come together because you can’t understand the idea of consciousness without thinking about all the factors, whether it’s the levels of consciousness you exert while doing particular activities or what part of the brain is responsible for a certain task. Prior to reading this chapter I hadn't thought about subliminal perception and how the way a question is phrased can mold your answer. I also hadn't connected hypnosis to consciousness. After reading this chapter, I understand the idea of consciousness much better. I am more aware of the different levels of consciousness, especially sleeping. I never connected sleeping to consciousness before the reading. The subjects that interest me are sleeping patterns and dreams. I think that the sleeping cycle and REM versus non-REM dreams are really interesting. Sticking with the sleep theme, I think that sleep disorders and sleep deprivation are interesting, as well. The most memorable thing that I read in this chapter was the test on rats that were sleep deprived. It stated that if they were sleep deprived for an extended period of time their immune systems would get weak and it would lead to death. This really stuck out to me because when I get busy sleep is what is cut from the schedule, but the repercussions of this could be deadly.

Consciousness, Subliminal Perception, Hypnosis, Sleeping Cycle, REM Dreams, Non-REM Dreams, Sleep Disorders

Consciousness is solely based on your experiences and reactions to them. Anything your senses can detect is your consciousness at work. Since consciousness relies heavily on the senses, the brain consists of cortexes and lobes to process information. Also the brain is identified in hemispheres that control language, actions, and more. I did not know anything about consciousness before the reading, however naturally I was aware of when I am conscious without knowing how the brain activity works. The section I found the most interesting was about dreams. I find this section interesting because I have always been able to distinctly remember my dreams. I learned that there are two types of dreams: rem dreams and non-rem dreams. Rem dreams are defined as bizarre dreams in which things that typically do not happen in everyday life occur. Non-rem dreams are the exact opposite, and everyday experiences are likely to occur. Also, when learning about what dreams mean, I learned of Sigmund Freud’s theory of manifest and latent content. These refer back to the visual content and the meaning behind that content. The act of dreaming was linked back to the brain by the activation-synthesis theory in which proposes neurons in the brain randomly fire during sleep which trigger sensory. I feel my dreams are very vivid and include the senses that this theory speaks of. I now have a better understanding of consciousness, the brain, and how dreams are linked to psychology.
Terms: Consciousness, cortexes, lobes, hemispheres, rem, non-rem, Sigmund Freud’s theory, activation-synthesis theory

Consciousness is your individual awareness of your thoughts, memories, feelings, sensations and environment. Your conscious experiences are constantly shifting and changing. Your thoughts can change dramatically from one moment to the next. The your experience of it though seems smooth and effortless. I think all of these topics come together because no matter what is going on sleeping,awake,on/off drugs, or even when your in an altered state of mind your always conscious. With this chapter my understanding on how consciousness has changed because it shows that no matter what your always conscious. Even when your sleeping your conscious is still active and I did not know that.

I thought that the part about sleep was really interesting. When your asleep you not aware of anything external but your still able to respond to things when necessary like when a baby is crying.I also liked how your dreams are different during REM sleep.

The most memorable part of the chapter was finding out that alcohol is consider a drug. I have never really thought of alcohol as a drug. Reading this chapter it makes since because if how addicting it is and how much it is abused.

Terms. REM, sleep, conscious, and dreams

What is consciousness? After reading this chapter, I believe that consciousness is your own individual responsiveness of your memory, feelings, perceptions, and thoughts. All the different components talked about that are in consciousness all come together, helping provide us with our own conscious and sub-conscious minds.
My understanding of consciousness has changed completely. It’s just not a little voice or tiny person speaking inside my head anymore it’s much more. There are many different states of consciousness that I had no idea of and most of them we have no thoughts of which we’re doing it in.
The topic that was most interesting to me was how hypnosis can produce changes in perception, memory, and action. I find it fascinating how hypnosis can control people on what they do. You can also find inner relaxation while being in hypnosis. I have experienced this many times as I hypnotize my self with YouTube videos. The thing that surprised me most about the reading was hypnosis. In the section of hypnosis, it talked about how hypnosis can take away pain that reduces the brain’s activity in regions that processes pain; therefore, pain is hardly present. After reading about hypnosis, I looked up stories about people who first started undergoing surgical procedures with hypnosis dating back to the 19th century.

Psychological terms: consciousness, hypnosis, perception, memory, thoughts, feelings, conscious, and sub-conscious.

In chapter three the topic I found to be the most interesting had to do with sleep, more specifically, dreaming. I found this to be interesting because it is relatable, and I can recall dreams I’ve had over a decade ago even though I have no idea what I dreamed about last night. When I was younger I would experience many REM dreams, such as flying around my house. I used to have the same REM dream every year on December 23rd (not sure why that date) which involved me being dropped off in the desert and left to wander around until I woke up. As for non-REM dreams I used to imagine waking up and getting ready for school and then all of a sudden I would wake up (for real) and still be in bed, not having moved a muscle. The thing that I found most surprising in this chapter was actually talked about in the introduction. The story of Terri Schiavo, who spent over fifteen years in coma, in a mentally vegetative state, would react to stimuli, and even laugh. Equally as interesting was the story of Jan Grzebski who spent nineteen years in a coma and then woke up one day with a bit of an idea as to what he had missed. All in all the idea of altered states of consciousness is extremely fascinating, whether it be because of a head injury or simple meditation. However, reading about consciousness in this chapter made me realize that I’m not often fully conscious throughout my day, which is definitely something I need to work on. The psychological terms I used were consciousness, REM sleep, dreams, and meditation.

Well, to me consciousness has always equaled awareness, pure and simple. The ability to perceive the world through sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. This chapter has done well to expand upon that and fill in the gaps to form a fuller and more comprehensive understanding of it. It emphasizes that mental activity as well as our subjective understanding is what helps make up what we commonly call the conscious mind. Subtle nuances like the difference between a minimally conscious state, and a persistent vegetative state help to determine the upper limits of what can be considered 'conscious'. Cases like Jan Grzebski make that apparent, being able to recall events that took place around him while he was unresponsive for 19 years. For the most part, I knew about the sleep cycle in regards to psychology, though I didn't know that the brain worked to keep you from dangers such as falling off the bed. I'm still never sleeping on the top bunk, but I digress. Sleeping disorders are always interesting to brush up on, especially sleep apnea. I get that on occasion. Personally I was astounded by the concept of a split brain. As miraculous as that is by itself, I find myself amused by the problem that people with this condition have, not being able to vocalize what they see with the left eye, and the right side of the brain having to work without information from the left side due to the lack of a corpus callosum to connect the two hemispheres.

The keywords are consciousness, sleep apnea, corpus callosum, split brain, and hemisphere.

Consciousness is being fully aware of all senses and surroundings around you. When a person becomes fully aware of what is going on around them through and they are able to react to their surroundings. I also learned all three different levels of consciousness. I had always thought that when a person was conscious they were just awake and thinking. I learned that being conscious is being completely aware of all your surroundings with your mind and also your senses.

I found the subliminal perception to be very interesting. It is very cool to me that we as humans can process our surroundings with our senses but not be aware of what we are sensing because it goes unnoticed.

I found the story of when somebody was born with only half of their brain but half the brain was able to act as an entire brain to be truly amazing. The brain is an awesome organ and that controls everything we do. That is just awesome.

Terms used: Consciousness, subliminal perception

Consciousness is your brain being aware of what’s going on around you. To be conscious you must be aware of your thoughts, and surroundings. All of the parts of consciousness come to together because they all help form our conscious/subconscious brain; this also help form our individual personalities. My idea of conscious before reading this chapter was that you were awake and paying attention, now I understand that it’s so much more than that. I also didn't realize that it ran throw five different parts of the brain. I would have just guessed one. The topic I found most interesting was the dreaming, and sleeping disorders. Some of the disorders like sleepwalking, and Insomnia were very interesting to read and learn about. The thing I found most surprising or memorable thing in chapter three has to be the REM vs. non-REM sleeping. Whenever I have dreams I have boring everyday dreams when all of my friends always talk about these crazy un-realistic dreams. So I thought it was cool reading about how REM sleep is crazy unrealistic dreams and non-REM sleep is normal realistic dreams.
Terms: REM, non-REM, Consciousness, Conscious, and sleepwalking

The best way to define consciousness is as follows: It is your personal and unique awareness of the thoughts, feeling, emotions, and environments that you find yourself in. All the topics regarding consciousness come together because they all are involved in knowledge and awareness within your environment and within yourself. Every state of consciousness is constantly being used and is always contributing to the work of the brain and assists in creating our unique personalities. One of the most interesting parts of this chapter was learning that the brain never “turns off”. It is constantly doing different actions to contribute to the way a person acts. Even as a person sleeps, their brain is still working. In more detail, the while we are sleeping, the brain assess any forms of possible threats; it also controls our body movement when we are sleeping. That’s why some people move around when they sleep; the brain is trying to make the person feel more comfortable by helping them switch positions until they are in the right spot. Dreams were also a very interesting thing to learn about in chapter three. Taking a psychology class in high school helped me better understand this part of the chapter when it talked about REM sleep. Even though we do not always remember our dreams, we still dreamed something. it also went into detail about REM and non-REM dreams. REM dreams is more over the top, having the ability to fly and running away from a monster or person trying to get you. Non-REM dreams are more realistic and are more like the real world.

Terminology: Consciousness, REM sleep, Dreams

The best way to define consciousness is as follows: It is your personal and unique awareness of the thoughts, feeling, emotions, and environments that you find yourself in. All the topics regarding consciousness come together because they all are involved in knowledge and awareness within your environment and within yourself. Every state of consciousness is constantly being used and is always contributing to the work of the brain and assists in creating our unique personalities. One of the most interesting parts of this chapter was learning that the brain never “turns off”. It is constantly doing different actions to contribute to the way a person acts. Even as a person sleeps, their brain is still working. In more detail, the while we are sleeping, the brain assess any forms of possible threats; it also controls our body movement when we are sleeping. That’s why some people move around when they sleep; the brain is trying to make the person feel more comfortable by helping them switch positions until they are in the right spot. Dreams were also a very interesting thing to learn about in chapter three. Taking a psychology class in high school helped me better understand this part of the chapter when it talked about REM sleep. Even though we do not always remember our dreams, we still dreamed something. it also went into detail about REM and non-REM dreams. REM dreams is more over the top, having the ability to fly and running away from a monster or person trying to get you. Non-REM dreams are more realistic and are more like the real world.

Terminology: Consciousness, REM sleep, Dreams

Consciousness is different from person to person. It is what ourselves are thinking of throughout the day and what we are capable of doing. consciousness is physical and mental. I learned that you are not only conscious when you are awake but you are also conscious when you are asleep as well just on a different level. We know that we are conscious when we are sleep because sometimes if we are uncomfortable we move to make our bodies more comfortable or if we hear something really loud we wake up to it. Consciousness is really having the ability to be aware of your external environment which would be like being aware of other cars when driving. The subject that was the most interesting to me was about the brain and how the brain works with being conscious. My dad had a stroke a few years ago and only half of his brain works. the stroke damaged the left side of his brain which seemed to control the right side of the body. Its amazing how having half your brain you can still function and still be able to do most things. What I learned about that I liked was REM sleep, which stands for rapid eye movement. I liked learning about this because not many people know about it but yet everyone does it.

Psychological terms: REM sleep, Consciousness

Consciousness is your awareness of the world around you, but also the way your brain perceives the world around you. There is so much going on in your brain to form that awareness, it's mind boggling. All of these different topics come together to form an understanding of consciousness in the way that they truly show how complex the brain is. It's crazy to think that the brain helps form our personalities and our subconsciousness. I found the most interesting topic to be dreaming, how the brain works during sleep. I knew previously that there was REM sleep, but I never knew that there was a difference between REM dreams and non-REM dreams. The fact that the brain works differently depending on which stage of sleep you're in is so cool to me. The most memorable part of this reading for me would have to be the way our mind works when we're not even thinking about it, subconsciousness. A lot of times when I'm driving I'll feel like I don't know how I got a mile up the road, and that's because of my subconsciousness.

Subconscious, REM, stages of sleep

Consciousness is being aware of your inner mind and external activities around you. All of the things involving consciousness come so one can understand what is going on around them and inside of their body. I found it very interesting that we can be walking around in our daily lives while still in the unconscious state, which has really changed the black and white picture of consciousness I had before. The most interesting part of chapter 3’s reading, to me, was about dreaming. I thought that it was fascinating how there can be different kinds of dreams between REM dreams and non-REM dreams based on how close to one or the other you are. REM dreams being bizarre and creating more emotion, and non-REM dreams feeling like everyday life. This is also why I find it to be the most memorable part of the reading.
Key Terms: consciousness, REM, non-REM

After reading this chapter, I believe that consciousness is experiencing the outside world through your five senses. The different topics that are discussed show that the different parts of our brain work together to show our behavior and conscious and sub conscious minds. My understanding of consciousness has changed a lot learning about how much the brain has to work to be conscious. The topics that were the most interesting to me were the four stages of sleep and dreams. These were interesting to me because I learned that the average person spends 6 years of their life dreaming, yet no one knows if dreaming serves any biological function. The most surprising thing I learned was even when we’re sleeping, our mind is still at work controlling body movement and protecting us from potential danger. The psychological terms that I used were consciousness, conscious, and dreams.

From reading this chapter, I found the research on sleep to be the most interesting to me. I have always been the type of person to go to bed at a decent time to get 7-8 hours of sleep, so to learn about all the sleep patterns and what your brain actually does while you are sleeping, I thought it was very interesting to learn about. Before reading this chapter, I had always thought that when we are sleeping our brains basically shut down or turn off. Turns out, this is when your brain shows the most activity. I never knew the stages of falling asleep, but now I know the four stages: theta waves, K-complexes, delta waves, and beta waves. Each stage has different functions and brain activity. I also found the sleeping disorders to be interesting because I personally know someone with insomnia. I have only been able to hear their personal experience, so to read about the actual facts was helpful in understanding what they are going through. The most surprising section that I read was about dreaming. I don’t remember a lot of my dreams, so to find out what is going on when I’m sleeping, it could help me bring back some sort of memory of the things I had dreamt about the night before. There are different kinds of dreams and different reasons as to why humans dream. Being able to see a visual picture of what parts of the brain function while dreaming really helped me grasp and comprehend the information. I enjoyed learning about REM dreaming and non-REM dreaming. I now know that dreams have meanings and it is possible to learn or become better at how to remember them.

Psych terms: Theta waves, K-complex, Delta waves, Beta waves, insomnia, REM, non-REM

Consciousness is your mental awareness of your surroundings and thoughts. Each topic in the reading explain how different parts of the brain react with different forms of consciousness. Each part works together to form our own way of thinking and our different personalities. Even though our level of consciousness changes at different times each day, if you are fully conscious then your brain is fully aware of what’s going on around you. The more brain activity your use then more conscious you are. I found the spilt brain section of this chapter really interesting because people who had it surgically done had no problem walking talking and learning normally, people who are left brained are right side dominate and the right brain people are left side dominate.
Terms used: consciousness, split brain

The book defines consciousness as “the combination of a person’s subjective experience of the external world and the person’s mental activity; this combination results from brain activity (Grison G-3). What we experience in our lives affects how we communicate and react to the activities around in our daily lives. I’ve never really been much of a sciences girl; I haven’t ever been able to understand it and comprehend what I read in textbooks and what I’ve been told. This chapter however taught me quite a bit about the consciousness and how consciously or unconsciously we are always reacting to the world around us.
When reading this chapter I found the Split Brain section really interesting. Along to go with that I didn’t realize that when you have seizures surgeons can actually do brain surgery and take away the part of your brain that causes the epileptic seizures. Split Brain is a condition in where the corpus callosum is surgically cut, and because of that cut the two hemispheres can no longer receive information directly.
Consciousness, unconsciously, Split Brain

Consciousness is the awareness of the world around us. Before reading the chapter I thought that is was a black and white concept but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Consciousness is complicated with many exceptions to the rule. For example, a person in a coma is perceived as unconscious, but there is evidence that shows people are aware of what is happening around them but are unable to react to it. This chapter brings many elements together to make a broad definition of consciousness. This gave the reader many different angles to look at the not so concrete concept of what consciousness really is. The chapter approached the topic by giving many examples which demonstrates the different states and degrees of consciousness. After reading the chapter I have a broader and more detailed understanding of what true consciousness is.
The section are sleep cycles and dreaming was the most interesting to me. I found it fascinating that there are different types of dreams and different levels of sleep. I have experienced sleep paralysis and since then the dynamics of sleep is intriguing to me. I now realize when sleep paralysis happens in the sleep cycle and why paralysis is important for a good nights sleep. It is most common during REM sleep cycles which is believed to be the cycle in which the most restoration occurs. Along with this, my grandma experience Narcolepsy and until now I never understood why random collapsing would occur. I now know that it is due to excessive sleepiness that occurs during regular waking hours. This was one of the most memorable things I read during this section because I can personally connect with it.
I found the section about split brain disorder to be very surprising. This happens when the corpus callosum is surgically removed. If a person were to tell me before reading the chapter that a brain can function with limited communication between two sides I wouldn’t have believed it. It was interesting and surprising to me that the left and right side of the body coincide with opposite sides of the brain.

Psych Terms: Split Brain, Narcolepsy, Consciousness, REM sleep, corpus callosum

After reading chapter 3, I found that what was most interesting to me was when I read about the circadian rhythms, and the four stages of sleep. I never really thought about how researchers studied brain activity while people slept. Then I realized they used EEG readings to indicate the stages of sleep. I find it interesting that we go through 4 stages of sleep. From being aware of what’s going around us while sleeping, to being able to sleep through sirens, but still wake up to your crying child. It definitely makes me think of how I sleep at night.
The thing that was most memorable to me in chapter three was in the beginning of the chapter when it talked about different levels of consciousness. I found myself daydreaming while reading until I read the part about that in the book. Afterwards I found myself more conscious to what I was reading throughout the rest of the chapter.
Terms: circadian rhythm, EEG, conscious

Consciousness is a persons’ understanding of what is happening around them, not only this knowledge of the external world, but also our internal thoughts. Being conscious is based on how our brains’ process this knowledge of the outside world and the mental activity internally, by the use of our senses and being alert to our surroundings. The book describes consciousness as our moment-to-moment subjective experiences, which are unique to every person. I think this means that for example, I listen to a teacher’s lecture and what I think and feel about the subject could be completely different from another student’s view. Our conscious experience is determined by our mental activity and the part of the brain activated. After reading this chapter, I understand now that being conscious isn’t just being awake and moving, it is how we perceive the world by smelling, hearing, seeing, and feeling things around us.
From the reading, I thought the most interesting aspect was the spilt-brain experiments. It was surprising to me that even with the two hemispheres of the brain completely freed from each other; the patients had no outright problems. Even with a brain split, the person was able to do all normal human functions. The experiment with the pictures of the fork and spoon was fascinating. The patient knew what each of the objects were, but because the left and right sides of the brain are cut off from each other, information cannot pass through. Since only the left side of the brain has the ability to control speech and the right side cannot pass on the information it knows to the interpreter, there is no way for the person to communicate their thoughts. With this experiment, I learned that both sides of the brain need to work together for a person to do even the simplest tasks. Because the one hemisphere preforms functions that the other hemisphere cannot, the brain must always be working together for a person to function properly.

Psychology Terms: Consciousness, Split-brain, Left/Right Hemisphere

Though consciousness is subjective, consciousness refers to the experiencing of the outside world through your senses and being aware of what you are thinking. Consciousness is quite complicated, however. It depends on how much an individual chooses to experience the outside world (as in, how much one chooses to pay attention to what’s going on around him/her), the stimulation that may cause the brain to process subconsciously, the functioning of neurons in all sections of the brain to process the experience, the way an individual’s brain happens to process (any two people may experience the same stimulus in different ways), and whether one is in a stated of altered consciousness or not. Additionally, to be fully conscious of stimuli, the sections of our brains must be able to transfer information among themselves – the most memorable part of the reading for me was the strange processing issues that can occur in cases of split brain (when the left and right hemispheres of the human brain are separated).

Though the reading didn’t change my perspective on consciousness, it did give me a deeper understanding of how all of the components that go into it interact and affect our lives – for example, advertisers take advantage of our subliminal perception, and though we are not conscious of it, our brain takes in the visual tricks, processes them, and stores the message for when we go to purchase products.

When reading, I was very interested in the portion on how sleep affects consciousness – specifically on slow-wave sleep, REM sleep, dreams, and the benefits of sleep. It was fascinating to me how our senses during our sleep are so significant, and due to my interest in health, I loved getting some more ammo on why sleep deprivation is so bad. Similarly, I liked reading about mediation and drug abuse, due to the wide range of apparent benefits and detriments, respectively.

Consciousness, altered consciousness, split brain, subliminal perception, slow-wave sleep, REM sleep, meditation

“Moment-by-moment subjective experiences. And subjective experiences are unique to whoever is experiencing them”, this is the book’s definition of consciousness. I believe that consciousness is very dependent on the person, especially from the description of how people react to different things when asleep, such as a mother sleeping through sirens, but waking up to a crying baby.
Before reading this, I would have described consciousness as the ability to react to certain stimuli; pain responses, verbal responses, or visual responses. But after reading this, I have now learned that even someone in a coma can be conscious, and actually remember things that have gone on around them while being under.
The most interesting thing in this chapter, for me, was learning about the split brain, and the effects it causes to people that have undergone the surgery. It’s fascinating that the people show almost no immediate problems after having their brains practically severed (corpus callosum removed). But it’s very interesting that they cannot verbally communicate why they have made a very reasonable connection, even though their brain knows the answer.

Terms: split brain, consciousness, corpus callosum

Consciousness is basically the idea of being aware to what is going on around you. The book explains it as our moment-by-moment subjective experiences. We all experience consciousness differently. Our consciousness relies on our own process of the outside world and also our internal brain activity to register the experiences we have. All of the parts in the topics come together because they make connections between brain activity and conscious decisions. The split brain idea explained how our perception of things is connected to what our brain allows us to see and absorb. The same went for the consciousness change while on drugs, or sleeping. Our brain activity changes during all of these things, because these different things causes different areas of our brains to light up and react. My idea of the conscious mind has changed because of how much the make-up of the brain effects our conscious and unconscious thoughts. I did not realize all of the connections there were between our brains and our thoughts. I assumed that all of our thoughts were caused by "nurture", but there is also a lot of "nature" involved in the thought process.

I found the idea of a "Freudian slip" interesting. I think the main reason I found this interesting was due to the fact that I myself have experienced this. It's interesting to think how our unconscious thoughts can sometimes surprise us, or even embarrass us, especially if we happen to let a private thought slip through our tongues. This idea makes it interesting to think about all of the day to day unconscious thoughts we have, but are not aware of.

Terms: Consciousness, "Freudian slip", nature/nurture, split brain

Consciousness is a person’s awareness of feelings, sensations, and thoughts at a given moment. The different topics come together because they talk about how the brain comes together to create a conscious and sub-conscious mind. My understanding has changed because now I understand the different stages of sleep and how important sleep really is also, I now know the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) syndrome. SIDS was the most interesting topic to me because there is no known cause but that we do know several risk factors. This syndrome effects infants ages 1 month to 1 year and an apparently healthy infant can die because of SIDS. The most surprising thing from this chapter was the difference of dreams between REM and NREM sleep. REM dreams are vivid, more dramatic and more emotional while NREM dreams are more concerned with current problems than REM dreams. Psychological terms: SIDS, REM, Consciousness, Dreams, Sub-conscious.

Consciousness is defined as our movement-by-movement subjective experiences. I think I could see very well how all the different topics in consciences come together to from a greater understanding of consciences. Learning about the different parts of the brain and how they work together helped me understand more about how they affect consciousness. It also quite interesting to learn about the Left and right sides of the brain and how they interact with each other when they are connected and when they have split brain. My overall understanding of consciousness was diffidently improved after reading this chapter because I could relate to many of the topics. I especially liked reading about sleep and dreaming because it is a topic I am personally interested in and have a little prior knowledge about. Especially being a college student I have lots of experience with changes in amount/quality of sleep and how it directly affects me in different states of consciousness. Dreams I also find really interesting and enjoyed reading about how dreams can differ in REM sleep and non REM sleep. One thing I found really surprising was when someone could be in a coma and still respond to the outside surroundings while not fully being conscious.
Terms: Consciousness, Dreams, Split Brain, REM sleep

I had never really considered meditation an altered state of consciousness until this text put it into context for me. This was a very interesting idea. In addition, I believe the fact that there has been correlation between prolonged brain function and habitual meditation shows just how powerful the act of “using your brain” is. So, not only could this time spent in deep concentration calm and help sort out thoughts, it might even be healthy to do so. I love that using your brain might actually have legitimate consequences. Personally, I hope that more information is found supporting the idea that contemplation or an relaxation may have more physical effects, like better coordination or longer endurance or something. Either way, I might even try meditating given this interesting information.
Before this text, I was not too familiar with certain drugs, such as ecstasy or cocaine. I think what surprised me about ecstasy was that it altered perception and even cause hallucination. I expected it to simply boost someone’s mood or provide them more energy. On thing specifically memorable was the fact that the book said those who use drugs before adulthood are better “adjusted” in later years than those who do not. I never saw anything positive coming from drug use for the most part, probably due to their constant condemnation.
Psychological terms: meditation, consciousness, hallucination,

Consciousness is basically being aware of what you’re doing and the things around you. We do a lot of things unconsciously, from reading to our morning routine. We are unaware of the things we do automatically. What interested me the most in this chapter was the dreaming and the different types of dreaming. The REM dreams stuck out the most to with how much emotion they have and how bizarre they are. The most memorable thing of learned was sleep deprivation and how from lack of sleep it will affect the way you function.

The most interesting and memorable topic from this chapter would be the section on the split brain. It was very interesting to see that a person with their corpus callosum severed can function normally for the most part. When given a test in which the person has two images in front of them, one on the left and one on the right,the left brain will see the right image and verbalize what it is since the left brain controls speech. However, when the right brain sees the image on the left, it cannot verbalize what is seen but can still pickup that object. It's strange to think that people like this really don't know how their brain worked during this test. You may never really know if your consciousness experience is not apart of the norm because it just feels like how it's supposed to be.

After reading this chapter, I have noticed that my consciousness has changed slightly. I now find myself wondering what effects the events that people dream of. I wonder how people see that world differently than I do and I ask myself why do people do the things they do. It has given me a new perspective on how the world works through the eyes of other human beings.

Corpus callosum, consciousness

Consciousness is the how we gather information around us. Different distractions can cause us to lose focus and we have a lower focus. Also we can turn on an autopilot in our brain and we reduce the amount of information we gather around us such as the driving example the book gave us where we drive to a destination without remembering the route or the cars you passed along the way. I think that my perception of consciousness has changed because I thought it was merely the state of being awake, but its more than that because its how well you obtain and process information.

Most interesting to me in this chapter was the studies done on the “split brain” subjects who have their corpus callosum cut. What I liked the most is how both sides worked, but not even the brain itself could process how it was working. For example how J.W., the test subject, saw snow and a chicken claw and when asked to point at two images he picked out a shovel and a chicken. I find it funny that since the right side could not process the picture that he rationalized that he chose the shovel for scooping out the chicken coop. I think it’s amazing how the brain works together but that it may not all even know what it’s aware (or capable) of.

What stayed with me the most through this chapter was how the effects of hypnosis, meditation, and religion can help the conscious brain. This stayed with me because I like how self focusing or self belief can help change the way you think and perceive things.

Terms used: Split Brain, Corpus Callosum

In the book, consciousness is referred to as subjective experiences. I believe what they mean is that consciousness is the awareness of what is happening in a person’s surroundings. Consciousness changes from person to person, therefore it is hard to define. The senses are used to examine surroundings. When a person can examine their surrounds and be aware of what they are thinking that is what is considered “consciousness”. Many things factor into a person’s consciousness, but the general idea of consciousness deals with how our brains process what is going on around us and our mental activity. Humans are mostly conscious but there are different stages of consciousness that determine how aware one truly is. The levels of consciousness vary throughout the day and can vary depending on the motion being performed or by surroundings. Before reading this chapter I didn’t think much about what would impact one’s consciousness but it really has many factors. It was very interesting to me and kept me intrigued.

Personally, I found this chapter to be very interesting and an exciting to learn about. Before reading this chapter, I did not think much about consciousness or the factors that play a role in consciousness. For instance, the amount of sleep affects consciousness. If a person has a sleeping disorder the effect of sleep they get greatly affects their consciousness. What I found to be the most interesting about this chapter was the split brain. It was so interesting to learn about how the different halves of the brain works and that each side controls. Sleep apnea is what I found most surprising because one of my friends has this sleeping disorder. Sleep apnea commonly occurs in middle-aged men but my friend is nineteen and he already has sleep apnea. I knew about his disorder but I didn’t think about how it would affect his consciousness or explained why he was always tired. Although I never really gave it much thought, after reading this chapter it really helped me to understand some factors about his disorder and just how much his disorder can affect his daily life.
Terms used: consciousness, split brain, sleep apnea

The conscious mind is generated by the brain. The brain takes physical and mental information and creates an awareness and sense of what is happening around a person. Due to previous psychology classes I knew a bit about consciousness before, but I did not know how much sleep had an impact on a person’s mental and physical state. I never realized that the brain is so active in sleep. It does turn off some functions in the body (such as movement), but it also turns on functions that are not used during the day. That is when the body can repair the immune system and help make the person feel well rested in the morning. Without sleep the conscious mind can become irritated and unstable. I am sure that the person will not go crazy without sleep, but he will experience drowsiness and unclear thoughts.
The split brain was interesting because a person would have a conscious for each side; however, what was most memorable was how the two parents in South Korea would neglect their living, real daughter for a digital version on a screen. It is amazing how someone can want to escape from real life so much that she would ignore big responsibilities. The parents were not even neglecting her for a drug! If the parents were abusing drugs it would make more sense for them to forget about a child to get the dopamine high. Anyways, I also thought it was interesting how the brain is completely devoted to creating logic for a situation and standing by that logic until the bitter end. For instance, the guy with the split brain he thought that he picked up the shovel to scoop out the chicken coop when in reality his right brain picked the shovel to go with the house surrounded by snow. The left brain made up logic for the right brain’s actions and stuck to that logic. Also during hypnosis, the person being hypnotized strongly believes that she is not feeling pain when her arm is placed in freezing cold water; the brain may be receiving the pain signals but it is not processing the information.
Conscious, split brain, dopamine

Being conscious is being aware of your surroundings and everything going on around you. When you are knocked out or become unconscious is when you are alive but don't know what is happening in your surroundings.
The four stages of sleep were very interesting, it shws how you slowly go into the unconscious but are aware at the same time. Consciousness can be described as the state of mind that you go into such as hypnotism is a state of mind where you do things which are suggested to you. you are aware of what is being suggested, you are just in that state to do whatever is told to you.
I really enjoyed the topic of REM sleep and NON-REM sleep because now i know in which state will i dream about what. I was a very new concept to me, now i have an explanation for my weird dreams.

Terms: REM, non-REM, Dreams, Conscious, hypnotism

Author Profile Page unipanther | September 9, 2014 6:19 PM | Reply
Consciousness is a person’s awareness of feelings, sensations, and thoughts at a given moment. The different topics come together because they talk about how the brain comes together to create a conscious and sub-conscious mind. My understanding has changed because now I understand the different stages of sleep and how important sleep really is also, I now know the sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) syndrome. SIDS was the most interesting topic to me because there is no known cause but that we do know several risk factors. This syndrome effects infants ages 1 month to 1 year and an apparently healthy infant can die because of SIDS. The most surprising thing from this chapter was the difference of dreams between REM and NREM sleep. REM dreams are vivid, more dramatic and more emotional while NREM dreams are more concerned with current problems than REM dreams. Psychological terms: SIDS, REM, Consciousness, Dreams, Sub-conscious.