Consciousness: How we perceive and become aware of our world

Abstract

Chapter 5 explains how we attend to information and extract meaning through our perceptual processes. It covers topics such as selective attention, divided attention, change blindness, Stroop effect, priming, and so on. The perceptual process, including bottom-up processing and top-down processing, as well as the causes of visual illusion, is described. The human visual system is then briefly introduced to illustrate its limits and explain why perception needs to be constructive in nature. Of particular interest is the influence of culture on perception. The final portion of the chapter is devoted to a discussion on the states of consciousness and covers such concepts as biological rhythm, stages of sleep, dreaming, and its functions, and various forms of sleep disorder.