Measuring consciousness in dreams: The lucidity and consciousness in dreams scale

In this article, we present results from an interdisciplinary research project aimed at assessing consciousness in dreams. For this purpose, we compared lucid dreams with normal non-lucid dreams from REM sleep. Both lucid and non-lucid dreams are an important contrast condition for theories of waking consciousness, giving valuable insights into the structure of conscious experience and its neural correlates during sleep. However, the precise differences between lucid and non-lucid dreams remain poorly understood. The construction of the Lucidity and Consciousness in Dreams scale (LuCiD) was based on theoretical considerations and empirical observations. Exploratory factor analysis of the data from the first survey identified eight factors that were validated in a second survey using confirmatory factor analysis: INSIGHT, CONTROL, THOUGHT, REALISM, MEMORY, DISSOCIATION, NEGATIVE EMOTION, and POSITIVE EMOTION. While all factors are involved in dream consciousness, realism and negative emotion do not differentiate between lucid and non-lucid dreams, suggesting that lucid insight is separable from both bizarreness in dreams and a change in the subjectively experienced realism of the dream.     

Dual-task decrements in driving performance: The impact of task type,working memory,and the frequency of task performance

Driving while carrying out another (secondary) task interferes with performance, though the degree of interference may vary between tasks and individual drivers. In this study, we focused on two potentially interrelated individual difference variables that may play a role in determining dual-task interference: working memory capacity and the driver’s experience with the relevant secondary task. We used a driving simulator to measure interference, comparing single-task performance (driving alone) with driving performance during three secondary tasks: conversing on a handsfree cellphone, texting, and selecting a song on a touchscreen Mp3 player. Drivers also rated the difficulty of driving while carrying out each secondary task. For the individual difference variables, working memory was measured using the Operation Span test (OSPAN), and experience was assessed in terms of self-reported daily driving exposure and exposure to the relevant secondary tasks (frequency, duration). Overall, we found evidence of dual-task interference, though interference varied between tasks; the texting and Mp3 tasks produced significantly more interference than handsfree cellphone conversation. For the texting and Mp3 song selection tasks, interference was apparent in terms of increased steering variability, but for the Mp3 task there was also compensatory slowing, with drivers slowing down while carrying out the task. OSPAN performance and daily driving exposure were both covariates in predicting the amount of dual-task interference. However, our results suggest that in all but two cases, both involving the texting task, the effects of the OSPAN and the driving and secondary task exposure variables were independent rather than interrelated.     

Consciousness: a neurological perspective

Consciousness is a state so essentially entwined with human experience, yet so difficult to conceptually define and measure. In this article, we explore how a bidimensional model of consciousness involving both level of arousal and subjective awareness of the contents of consciousness can be used to differentiate a range of healthy and altered conscious states. These include the different sleep stages of healthy individuals and the altered states of consciousness associated with neurological conditions such as epilepsy, vegetative state and coma. In particular, we discuss how arousal and awareness are positively correlated in normal physiological states with the exception of REM sleep, while a disturbance in this relationship is characteristic of vegetative state, minimally conscious state, complex partial seizures and sleepwalking.     

An investigation of immune system disorder as a "marker" for anomalous dominance

Geschwind and Galaburda (1987) proposed that immune disorder (ID) susceptibility, along with left handedness and familial sinistrality (FS), is a "marker" for anomalous dominance. The theory predicts lesser left lateralization for language processes, lessened left hemisphere abilities, and enhanced right hemisphere abilities. We assessed language laterality (dichotic consonant vowel task) and performances on spatial and verbal tasks. Subjects were 128 college students. The factors of handedness, sex, FS, and immune disorder history (negative or positive) were perfectly counterbalanced. Left-handers were significantly less lateralized for language and scored lower than right-handers on the spatial tasks. Females scored lower on mental rotation than males, but performed comparably to males on the spatial relations task. The only effect of ID was by way of interaction with FS on both spatial tasks--subjects who were either negative or positive on both FS and ID status factors scored significantly higher than subjects negative for one but positive for the other factor. A speculative explanatory model for this interaction was proposed. The model incorporates the notion that FS and ID factors are comparably correlated, but in opposite directions, with hormonal factors implicated by other research as relevant for spatial ability differences. Finally, no support for the "anomalous dominance" hypothesis predictions was found.     

CONSCIOUSNESS FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Abstract. Human action and experience are the outcome of genes and memes. Not only are both of these represented in consciousness, but consciousness mediates their claims and thus governs our choices. Hence it is important how consciousness is ordered and where it is directed. Sorokin's typology of the sensate and the ideational ("spiritual"), and the dialectic between them, is relevant to this issue. In our period of history, the sensate factors of materialism and secularism need to be dialectically counterbalanced by the reinforcement of memes that value the spiritual intimations of the realm beyond the senses. As we approach the twenty-first century, the memes that will undergird our spirituality will be those that resacralize nature and emphasize our unity as humans with all of universal reality, in an idea of common "beinghood." Spiritual systems that accord with this trend in evolution will have to respect three conditions. They will (1) integrate the sensate and the ideational; (2) reflect the importance of the "flow" state of optimal experience, which matches ever-complexifying skills with comparable challenges; and (3) move the fulcrum of their worldview from the human being to the network of beings and its evolution.     

城市失业工人心理压力探析

城市失业工人存在生活不安定、角色扮演失败、社会比较的不平衡等一些客观潜在的压力源。心理压力又是一种主观感受,因而城市失业工人体验到的压力还受制于以下因素的影响：个体的角色意识和性格类型;家庭主要成员的主观期望和支持程度。探讨其心理压力的影响因素能为相关部门有的放矢地的制定应对措施提供依据。     

The development of children's understanding of "because" and "so"

Children's (5 years, 8 months to 8 years, 4 months) comprehension of "because" and "so" was assessed on both enactment and sentence completion tasks. The use of a within-subject design permitted performance on each task to be interpreted in terms of performance on the other. The pattern of results provided evidence against a componential model for the acquisition of causal connectives. This model holds that the two meaning components (cause, order) are acquired separately, with the order component being acquired several years later than the causal component. The results also were in accord with predictions derived from a contextual model of children's developing understanding of terms expressing logical relationships. This model posits that the understanding of relational terms is initially context dependent, such that children can understand relational terms when they express familiar relationships, but experience difficulty in forming representations of novel relationships solely on the basis of linguistic input. The lexical components of because and so are understood during the context-dependent stage, and the transition from context-dependent to context-independent understanding does not reflect further lexical development, but rather increasing facility in dealing with decontextualized linguistic input.     

SELF OR NO-SELF? CONVERGING PERSPECTIVES FROM NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND MYSTICISM

Abstract. The nature of self is examined in relation to psychological observations which reveal some form of dissociation of knowledge from consciousness. Such dissociations are apparent in cases of blindsight, and amnesic patients displaying implicit memory effects, among others. While amnesic patients, for example, are unable consciously to recall material previously presented, such material does influence subsequent physiological and psychological processes. Thus, it is not the memories themselves that have been lost, but the ability to make conscious connection to them. In attempting to account for such observations, theoreticians generally have posited some kind of "consciousness system" that may become dissociated from brain modules dealing with specific processing.
It is argued here that a view of self along the lines of the Buddhist concepts of no-self and the conditioned nature of "I" introduces a more parsimonious perspective on the neuropsychological data. A theory of the nature of self is presented that constitutes a synthesis between key ideas drawn from Buddhist and other mainly mystical traditions and the scientific observations in psychology. Central to this theory is the role that the left hemisphere's interpreter (Gazzaniga 1985; 1988a; 1988b) plays in constructing a unified "I." This "I" is, in effect, a hypothesis that the mind generates to introduce some coherence into otherwise fragmentary mental elements. Although it appears to be the causal focus of the individual's behavior and experience, it is in fact a retrospective construction and not a true causal structure of the mind. This theoretical view is discussed in relation to various meanings of the term consciousness and also in relation to the relevant neuropsychological cases.     

Hippocampal sharp wave bursts coincide with neocortical "up-state" transitions

The sleeping neocortex shows nested oscillatory activity in different frequency ranges, characterized by fluctuations between "up-states" and "down-states." High-density neuronal ensemble recordings in rats now reveal the interaction between synchronized activity in the hippocampus and neocortex: Electroencephalographic sharp waves in the hippocampus were more probable during down-states than during up-states, and tended to coincide with transitions from down-states to up-states. The form of cortical activity fluctuations and their interactions with sharp waves depend on sleep depth: In deeper sleep stages, characterized by strong neocortical oscillation in the delta range or slower (approximately 0.8-4 Hz), sharp-wave-triggered peri-event time histograms (PETH) are consistent with a longer duration for down-states than for up-states. In lighter sleep, the sharp-wave-triggered PETH suggested longer up-states than down-states. These results highlight the interplay in the hippocampal/neocortical loop: Decreased neocortical input during down-states may be a factor in generation of sharp waves. In turn, sharp waves may facilitate down-to-up transitions. This interplay may reflect joint memory trace reactivation in the hippocampus and in the neocortex, possibly contributing to consolidation of long-term memory: Off-line reactivation of recent neural activity patterns in the hippocampus occurs during 50-100-msec electroencephalographic sharp waves, corresponding to pyramidal-cell population bursts. The neocortical up-states starting in correspondence with sharp waves may be influenced by the reactivated information carried by the hippocampal sharp wave.     

Temporal organization of the brain: Neurocognitive mechanisms and clinical implications

The synchrony between the individual brain and its environment is maintained by a system of internal clocks that together reflect the temporal organization of the organism. Extending the theoretical work of Edelman and others, the temporal organization of the brain is posited as functioning through "re-entry" and "temporal tagging" and binds the wide range of possible times to a unified cognitive experience which is held in unison with the outside world. Dysfunction in this system is reflected in the temporal discord seen in cases of aging, sleep disorder, jet-lag, and shift-work, as well as in mental disorders and drug-induced changes in consciousness. The extent to which neuroendocrine structures contribute to the neurocognitive mechanisms which underlie consciousness has so far not been explored. Therefore, neuroendocrine mechanisms contributing to the temporal organization of the brain are reviewed. It is concluded that time-and its neuroendocrine correlate melatonin-is a binding principle for organizing conscious experience.     

Internalised HIV-stigma,loneliness, depressive symptoms and sleep quality in people living with HIV

Objective: People living with HIV (PLWH) commonly report sleep disturbances which are associated with long-term health consequences, including disease progression. PLWH also experience internalised stigma as a result of their HIV status, which can be associated with increased loneliness and depression. Little attention focuses on the impact of these factors on sleep. Therefore, we examined whether internalised HIV-stigma was indirectly related to poorer sleep quality through higher levels of loneliness and depressive symptoms.

Design: 181 PLWH from across the United States completed an online survey.

Main Study Measures: Internalised HIV-stigma was assessed using the HIV-Stigma Scale, loneliness was assessed using the UCLA-Loneliness Scale-Short Form, depressive symptoms were assessed with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression Index, and Sleep Quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index.

Results: Internalised HIV-stigma was indirectly associated with poorer global sleep quality and daytime sleep dysfunction through both loneliness and depressive symptoms.

Conclusions: PLWH who experience HIV-related stigma may experience greater feelings of loneliness, which are related to increased depressive symptoms and poorer sleep quality. Interventions focused on improving sleep in PLWH should focus on multiple factors that influence sleep, including psychosocial factors such as stigma, social isolation and depressive symptoms.     

The effect of workplace byllying on insomnia: the role of psychological detachment and rumination

A recent number of studies have focused on the relations between psychosocial factors and sleep disturbances. Like other work-related stressors, workplace byllying is associated with several negative consequences. However, few studies have investigated the influence of workplace byllying on disturbed sleep. Insomnia is the most frequent sleep complaint. Several models have highlighted the importance of cognitive factors in the development and maintenance of insomnia. Cognitive styles such as psychological detachment and rumination may be relevant in this process. The aim of the present study is to examine the moderating role of psychological detachment and rumination on the relationship between workplace byllying and insomnia. To minimize the effect of common method variance, we tested our hypothesis using a research design in which we collected data at two points in time separated by 1 month. A total of 523 individuals responded to both phases, with 511 useable surveys. The results of the hierarchical multiple regression analysis provide evidence for the moderating role of psychological detachment and rumination in the workplace byllying process. Thus, these findings are in line with the cognitive models of insomnia.     

"Leaky" Rationality: How Research on Behavioral Decision Making Challenges Normative Standards of Rationality

ABSTRACT— For more than 30 years, decision-making research has documented that people often violate various principles of rationality, some of which are so fundamental that theorists of rationality rarely bother to state them. We take these characteristics of decision making as a given but argue that it is problematic to conclude that they typically represent departures from rationality. The very psychological processes that lead to "irrational" decisions (e.g., framing, mental accounting) continue to exert their influence when one experiences the results of the decisions. That is, psychological processes that affect decisions may be said also to "leak" into one's experience. The implication is that formal principles of rationality do not provide a good enough normative standard against which to assess decision making. Instead, what is needed is a substantive theory of rationality—one that takes subjective experience seriously, considers both direct and indirect consequences of particular decisions, considers how particular decisions fit into life as a whole, and considers the effects of decisions on others. Formal principles may play a role as approximations of the substantive theory that can be used by theorists and decision makers in cases in which the formal principles can capture most of the relevant considerations and leakage into experience is negligible.     

社会分享型提取诱发遗忘的性别差异：来自关系动机的影响作用

社会互动提取任务中,说者的选择性提取会造成听者对相关内容的遗忘,这被称为社会分享型提取诱发遗忘。本研究基于关系动机的视角,分别考察女性组合和男性组合条件下,听者社会分享型提取诱发遗忘的表现特点。结果表明,女性组合中的听者在同性别说者在场的条件下,出现了社会分享型提取诱发遗忘;而男性组合中的听者在同性别说者在场的条件下,无该现象出现。以上结果为关系动机影响社会分享型提取诱发遗忘提供了实证证据。     

Behavioral evidence for task-dependent "what" versus "where" processing within and across modalities

Task-dependent information processing for the purpose of recognition or spatial perception is considered a principle common to all the main sensory modalities. Using a dual-task interference paradigm, we investigated the behavioral effects of independent information processing for shape identificationand localization ofobject features within and across vision and touch. In Experiment 1, we established that color and texture processing (i.e., a "what" task) interfered with both visual and haptic shape-matching tasks and that mirror image and rotation matching (i.e., a "where" task) interfered with a feature-location-matching task in both modalities. In contrast, interference was reduced when a "where" interference task was embedded in a "what" primary task and vice versa. In Experiment 2, we replicated this finding within each modality, using the same interference and primary tasks throughout. In Experiment 3, the interference tasks were always conducted in a modality other than the primary task modality. Here, we found that resources for identification and spatial localization are independent of modality. Our findings further suggest that multisensory resources for shape recognition also involve resources for spatial localization. These results extend recent neuropsychological and neuroimaging findings and have important implications for our understanding of high-level information processing across the human sensory systems.     

意识和无意识的关系--实证的视角

意识和无意识的相互关系曾经是纯粹的哲学问题,科学心理学的诞生促进了对这一问题的实证视角考察。实证取向认为,意识和无意识同属人类心理的机能,并能够在外在的任务操作中表现出来。现代认知心理学发现了对应意识机能的外显过程和对应无意识机能的内隐过程,两者相对独立又共生共存。任何认知过程都是意识和无意识共同作用的产物,两者之间存在复杂的相互作用,并表现出权衡的特点。神经生理学的研究揭示了意识和无意识在发生学意义上可能的先后关系。无意识在心理过程中起的作用是普遍的、抽象的、抗干扰的,而意识则建筑在无意识的基础之上,有着更大的变异性。     

Imagery limitations in totally congenitally blind subjects

Research on totally blind subjects performing tasks that involve visual imagery has often shown that they do not behave differently from matched sighted subjects, even when their blindness is congenital. If visual imagery is based on visual perception, such tasks may not required visual imagery. In the present article visual images are considered as representations maintaining some properties of visible objects and constructed on the basis of information from various sources. Owing to the absence of visual experience, the limitations of such representations are explored in a series of experiments requiring memorization of single nouns, pairs of nouns, or triplets of nouns associated with a cue noun. Recall by blind subjects was impaired when multiple interactive images (with noun pairs and triplets) are formed. The poorer recall of blind subjects reflected also loss of order information. Recall was better for both groups with locative noun cues and high-imagery targets.     

Cross-task cross talk in memory and perception

The application of the additive factors method depends on finding factors that selectively influence processing stages. When all the processes for a task are in series, a factor directly influencing a process might change its output and thereby have indirect influence on succeeding processes. We investigate whether such indirect influence is possible between processes associated with different tasks being performed together. In two dual-task memory scanning and arithmetic experiments with digits as the stimuli for both tasks, information relevant for only one of the tasks nonetheless affected performance of the other. When the same digit was relevant for the two tasks, cross-task facilitation and interference were observed in some cases. Displaying the same digit for both tasks led to relatively fast response times, paralleling the effect of flankers in the response competition paradigm. But repetition of digits in memory slowed responses. It is suggested that the need for control processes to keep task information segregated is responsible for the pattern of effects.     

Neural correlates of consciousness reconsidered

It is widely accepted among philosophers that neuroscientists are conducting a search for the neural correlates of consciousness, or NCC. Chalmers (2000) conceptualized this research program as the attempt to correlate the contents of conscious experience with the contents of representations in specific neural populations. A notable claim on behalf of this interpretation is that the neutral language of "correlates" frees us from philosophical disputes over the mind/body relation, allowing the science to move independently. But the experimental paradigms and explanatory canons of neuroscience are not neutral about the mechanical relation between consciousness and the brain. I argue that NCC research is best characterized as an attempt to locate a causally relevant neural mechanism and not as an effort to identify a discrete neural representation, the content of which correlates with some actual experience. It might be said that the first C in "NCC" should stand for "causes" rather than "correlates."     

Self-consciousness in non-communicative patients

The clinical and para-clinical examination of residual self-consciousness in non-communicative severely brain damaged patients (i.e., coma, vegetative state and minimally conscious state) remains exceptionally challenging. Passive presentation of the patient's own name and own face are known to be effective attention-grabbing stimuli when clinically assessing consciousness at the patient's bedside. Event-related potential and functional neuroimaging studies using such self-referential stimuli are currently being used to disentangle the cognitive hierarchy of self-processing. We here review neuropsychological, neuropathological, electrophysiological and neuroimaging studies using the own name and own face paradigm obtained in conscious waking, sleep, pharmacological coma, pathological coma and related disorders of consciousness. Based on these results we discuss what we currently do and do not know about the functional significance of the neural network involved in "automatic" and "conscious" self-referential processing.