Topics covered and not covered on the consciousness exam

Education Category: General
Ages: 16+

Topics covered on the Consciousness exam (Leiden university - 2019)

Descartes’ theory on the relationship between conscious mind and body
Materialist approaches to consciousness The relationship between epiphenomenalism and functionalism
Qualia
Mary, color scientist
Philosophers’ zombie
Milner & Goodale on the relationship between conscious perception and action
Global Workspace Theory of Baars
The concept of a “Cartesian Theatre”
Dennett’s multiple-drafts theory
Libet’s stimulation of the brain of patients
Libet’s theory of conscious experience
How rich, complete are internal representations of the visual environment
The sensorimotor theory of O’Regan and Noë
Split-brain patients
Hume’s concept of the self
Bundle theory of the self
William James and the “stream of consciousness”
Libet and the relative timing of conscious willing and overt action
Wegner and the relationship between consciously perceived will and voluntary action
The neural correlates of conscious experience in monkeys and humans
Phantom pain and Ramachandran’s technique
The binding problem
Crick & Koch and how the brain solves binding problem
Blindsight  Sensory substitution in blind people
Darwin’s theory of natural selection
Darwin and Lamarck
Consciousness as “health”
Humphrey’s evolutionary theory of consciousness
Are animals conscious?
Can animals speak?
Alternatives to Strong AI
Turing test
Searle’s Chinese Room thought experiment
The impact of unconscious signals
Hallucinations
Visual forms in drug-induced hallucinations
Psi phenomena
Parapsychological studies and methodological shortcomings
Impact of Altered State of Consciousness
How drugs affect cognitive processes
Hobson’s AIM model of sleep
The Retro-Selective Theory of Dreams
Out-Of-Body Experience
Near-Death Experience

Topics not covered:

Orwellian and Stalinesque revisions (p. 83)
Filling the gaps (p. 88-94)
Multiple personality (p. 107-112)
Memes (p. 233-236)
Quantum consciousness (p. 285-289)
Lucid dreams (p. 394-399)
Mystical experiences (p. 414-417)
Chapters 25-27

Access:

Public

Related content or attachment:

Consciousness- Questions and Answers

Online Practice Questions - Consciousness - Blackmore (2^nd edition)

What's the problem? CH.1

1.1 What is meant by the 'mind-body problem'?

1.2 Which philosophical movement emphasizes the view that there is only matter?
            A: epiphenomenalism
            B: dualism
            C: materialism
            D: panpsychism

1.3a What is meant by the philosophical movement 'dualism'?
1.3b Who is a known proponent of dualism?
1.3c From which two movements does dualism exist?

1.4 From which three parts does the subconscious exist according to Freud?

1.5 What are two well-known names that are linked to behaviorism?
            A: Wundt and Skinner
            B: Skinner and Watson
            C: Wundt and Watson
            D: James and Skinner

What is it like to be a...? CH.2

2.1 Block makes a distinction between which two forms of consciousness?
            A: phenomenality and access awareness
            B: qualia and access awareness
            C: phenomenality and subjectivity
            D: qualia and subjectivity

2.2a What are qualia?
2.2b In what way can the added value of qualia be investigated?

2.3 What does the thought experiment of a zombie involve?

2.4 In which four ways can scientists respond to Chalmers' idea that there is a hard problem when we talk about consciousness?

2.5 What are three possible reasons for ignoring the difficult problem?

How do conscious and unconscious activities differ from each other? CH.3

3.1a From which two visual systems can a distinction be made according to Milner and Goodale?
3.1b Milner and Goodale state that a distinction can be made on the basis of fundamentally different tasks performed by the brain. Which categories do they think play an important role in this?

3.2 In which categories can operations be classified in general?

3.3 Which two representational theories exist and what do these theories mean?

3.4 Who designed the 'global workspace theory' (GWT)?
            A: Libet
            B: Milner and Goodale
            C: Perch
            D: Castello

How can the mind be seen as theater? CH.4

4.1 What is meant by the theater as a metaphor?

4.2 What does 'global workspace theory' (GWT) mean (in terms of the mind as theater)?

4.3 What does the 'neural global workspace' model mean?
            A: The model states that we become aware of an event when neurons
            firing for a certain period of time.
            B: The model represents your joy, worries, ambitions, your sense of personal identity
            and free will are nothing more than the coming together of nerve cells.
            C: The model states that conscious experiences are similar to brain activity.
            D: The model states that unconscious processes are being fought for access
            get to the limited capacity of the memory.

4.4 What is the idea of the multiple drafts model?

4.5a What does Dennett's 'myth of double transduction' theory entail?
4.5b Does this theory involve a Cartesian theater (CT)?

What do attention and timing

Access:

Public