Undergraduate Course: Consciousness and Perceptual Awareness (PSYL10099)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | The sense of being conscious - both of ourselves and of the world around us - is a central aspect of our psychological makeup. It is well established, however, that a great deal of perceptual processing can be accomplished without awareness. This raises several questions that have been the focus of intense research in recent years:
- What neural activity distinguishes conscious and non-conscious perceptual processes?
- What factors determine whether a percept will reach awareness or not?
- How does consciousness interact with faculties such as attention and memory?
- What sorts of neural activity determine states of consciousness (wakefulness, sleep, coma, vegetative state)?
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| Course description |
In this course we will discuss new findings on the above questions, and the theoretical debates they have triggered regarding the nature of consciousness. We will also delve into the fierce ongoing arguments on methodological issues regarding the best ways to rigorously assess people's subjective experience.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Statistics and Methodology (Year 2 level or equivalent)
At least one course on Perception
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| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Familiarity with a range of phenomena used to investigate consciousness and awareness.
- An understanding of the methodological difficulties involved in designing experiments to investigate subjective experience.
- An ability to distinguish and interpret studies employing objective and subjective measures of awareness.
- Knowledge of current theories of consciousness and its neural correlates.
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Reading List
Kentridge, R.W., Heywood, C.A., & Weiskrantz, L. (1999). Attention without awareness in blindsight. Proc. R. Soc. Lond. B 266, 1805-1811.
Hannula, D.E., Simons, D.J., & Cohen, N.J. (2005). Imaging implicit perception: promise and pitfalls. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 6, 247-255.
Laureys, S. (2007). Eyes open, brain shut. Scientific American, May 2007.
Lavie, N. (2006). The role of perceptual load in visual awareness. Brain Research 1080, 91-100.
Sandberg, K., et al. (2010). Measuring consciousness: is one measure better than the other? Consciousness and Cognition 19, 1067-1078.
Soto, D., Mantyla, & Silvanto, J. (2011). Working memory without consciousness. Current Biology 21, R912-913.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Elena Gherri
Tel: (0131 6)50 3340
Email: Elena.Gherri@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Stephanie Fong
Tel: (0131 6)51 3733
Email: S.Fong@ed.ac.uk |
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