Unit 3 AOS 1
Mind, brain & body
NWC & ASC
Miss Palma
Review questions
Where does normal waking consciousness
tend to lie on the continuum of awareness?
Where are you more likely to find an altered
state of consciousness?
2. In your own words, define normal waking
consciousness.
3. Are there different states of consciousness
within normal waking consciousness? Explain
your answer.
4. In your own words, define altered state of
consciousness.
1.
Normal waking
consciousness
Altered states
of
consciousness
Key knowledge
Consciousness
Daydreaming
Alcohol-induced
Level of
awareness
States of
consciousness
Content
limitations
Controlled &
automatic
processes
Characteristics
Perceptual &
cognitive
distortions
Emotional
awareness
Self-control
Time
orientation
Characteristics of NWC & ASC
O Level of awareness
O Content limitations
O Attention
O Controlled and automatic processes
O Perceptual and cognitive distortions
O Emotional awareness
O Self-control
O Time orientation
Content limitations
NWC
ASC
O Thoughts are logical
O Content of thoughts
and organised
O Content (type of
information) more
limited/restricted
is broader and
deeper
O Thoughts are
disorganised, bizarre,
creative, unrealistic
Attention in NWC
O Attention relates to the information that you
are actively processing, either consciously or
outside of your conscious awareness.
O We attend to enormous amounts of
information all the time
O Impossible to attend to all information
What attracts our attention?
O New/unusual stimuli
O Changes in stimulation (volume increase,
pain)
O Something that is personally meaningful
(hearing your name spoken)
O Cocktail party effect
Attention is classified into the
following types:
1. Selective attention: refers to the limitations
placed on how much we can focus on at
any given moment on one stimulus to the
exclusion of others
2. Selective inattention: avoidance of
attending to certain information in our
consciousness
3. Divided attention: the capacity to attend to
and perform two or more activities at a
time
Tests
O http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U
2Mvo
O http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubNF9Q
NEQLA
Controlled and automatic
processes in NWC
O Automatic processes: require very little
awareness or little mental effort to be
performed well, and can allow you to do two
things at once
O Controlled processes: required full
awareness and mental effort to focus
attention on the required task
Controlled and automatic
processes in NWC
O Controlled processes require selective
attention
O Automatic processes enable us to have
divided attention
Controlled and automatic
processes in ASC
O Difficult to carry out controlled processes
O Ability to perform some automatic processes
may be impaired
O Some ASC > may be very focused that you
actually find tasks easier
Perceptual and cognitive
distortions
O Perception: the process of organising
sensory input and giving it meaning
O Cognition: relates to mental activities such
as thinking, problem solving, reasoning etc
NWC
ASC
Thoughts are clear, rational and
meaningful
Colour can be perceived as more
vivid or dull
Memories are clear
May not perceive pain or have a
stronger reaction to it
Ability to reason and problem
solve
Thoughts are disorganised
Lack logic, problem solving
impaired
Memories may be innacurate
Emotional awareness
NWC
ASC
Aware of our feelings
Emotions can be heightened –
more intense
Show a range of emotions that
are normal and appropriate for
situation
Emotions can be dulled
Monitor emotions
Emotions may be inappropriate
Can hide true feelings from
others
Self-control
NWC
ASC
Monitor our impulses and
behaviours
Ability to maintain self-control
reduced
Plan what we say and do
Inhibitions are lowered
Reserved, avoid doing anything
risk or embarrassing
Open to suggestion – follow
instructions with little resistance
Time orientation
NWC
ASC
Good awareness of passage of
time
Time is experienced at a different
speed
Understand where we are in time
(day/night, year, hour)
Can focus on past, present and
future