Oh okay, that makes sense. How would you differentiate between a daydream being an ASC where they cannot focus, lower attention etc. and just a NWC as you described?
Hey again Peter,
Regarding the VCAA exam questions I have found 2 for you. This will demonstrate to you how clear and unambiguous VCAA make the distinction between an ASC and a NWC.
The first question is from VCAA 2002 Exam 1. Question 36.
Q. 36: Louis underwent hypnosis as a treatment to help him quit smoking. Afterwards, he was surprised to learn that he had been under hypnosis for half an hour because it seemed to him that only 15 minutes had passed. Louis has most likely experienced:
A. a state of normal waking consciousness
B. an altered state of consciousness.
C. A stream of consciousness
D. an automatic process.
Obviously, the correct answer is B. Adding on to what I said earlier, if the scenario involved some one in a ASC. they would hint it to you, for example they would say something about lowered level of awareness, pr amplified emotions, or in this scenario, they said something about Louis not being able to accurately perceive the passage of time [which is characteristic of an ASC]. So in a nutshell, if the answer was ASC, then there would be a characteristic of an ASC in the question.
This next question is symmetric to the one you came across on the TSSM exam. It is extracted from VCAA Exam 1 2003. Question 32.
Adrienne is completing a test. During the task, Adrienne has thoughts about the part-time work roster her employer changed recently, the party she is attending the next day, and the prospect of getting her Learners permit next week. What is the best way of describing her state of consciousness.
A. normal waking consciousness
B. Altered state of consciousness
C. Focused state of consciousness
D. selective sate of consciousnesses.
Now, I assume you'd know by now that the answer is indeed A. NWC. and I'm going to be honest here, when I first did this I also chose B. But know that I read the examiners report, I released it was really stupid thing because that just doesn't make sense. Because if he was in a ASC. then he would not be able to think about so may things. So as you can see the answer is A, and it's good that you know now because a similar question may come by in the exam.
In relation to the examiners report for this question, only 46% answer A correctly and 34% answers B. the comment on the report is verbatim:
The flow of thoughts described for Adrienne in this question is a
concrete example of William James’ hypothetical construct of the
stream of consciousness referred
to in the previous question.