Altered States of Consciousness, State‐dependent Learning and Patient Education
Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences September 12, 1987 DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-6712.1987.tb00611.x (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Altered states of consciousness |
| Key points | Argues that problems in patient education, typically blamed on patient intellectual or motivational shortcomings or on poor pedagogy by health personnel, may partly stem from state-dependent learning: when patients' consciousness is altered by psychological or somatic changes, information learned in one state may not transfer to another. |
Abstract
ABSTRACT. Evidence as to the existence of various altered states of consciousness are referred to from various fields of research. The effect of mental and physiological states on learning and retrieving is also documented. This evidence is combined to shed a new light on problems in patient education. Problems here are usually explained as stemming from various intellectual or motivational shortcomings in patients, or from pedagogic shortcomings in health personnel. It is hypothesised that part of the problem may stem from the phenomenon of state‐dependent learning in cases where patients' state of consciousness has been altered as a consequence of psychological and/or somatic changes.