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DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences : Psychology

Postgraduate Course: Consciousness and Perceptual Awareness (PSYL11071)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits10 ECTS Credits5
SummaryThe 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)?
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.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Additional Costs None
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. be familiar with a range of phenomena used to investigate consciousness and awareness
  2. gain an understanding of the methodological difficulties involved in designing experiments to investigate subjective experience
  3. gain an ability to distinguish and interpret studies employing objective and subjective measures of awareness
  4. gain knowledge of current theories of consciousness and its neural correlates
Reading List
None
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
Additional Class Delivery Information Lectures: 5 (2 hours each)
Seminar/Tutorials: 5 (3 * 1-hour sessions, 2 * 2-hour sessions)

Attend all lectures as scheduled
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserDr David Podhortzer Carmel
Tel:
Email: dave.carmel@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMiss Toni Noble
Tel: (0131 6)51 3188
Email: Toni.noble@ed.ac.uk
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