States of Brain and Mind

Abstract

From the perspective provided by the state concept the selected topics in this volume may be grouped in such a way as to provide a logical order for the reader who may welcome a reading plan to complement the alphabetical arrangement of topics that is appropriate to the "Encyclopedia." In my scheme, the systems that determine which states will occur when are placed at the top. Then I consider three categories of state-dependent phenomena: the lowest and most behavioral level of fixed action pattern (studied by neuroethologists); the intermediate sensory level (studied by psychophysicists); and the highest and most subjective level (studied by psychophysiologists). Next I group those procedures and phenomena by which the conscious states may be altered. With respect to incompleteness, it should particularly be noted that those plastic aspects of brain-mind function in the major area of "Learning and Memory" have been placed in another volume of this series which should be consulted by the interested reader. Likewise, only a small sampling of many possible topics from the vast fields of sensation and perception are found here; the companion volumes, "Sensory Systems I, II," contain many more of them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)