Man spends the greater portion of his life in sub-optimum states of consciousness. The paper reviews the experimental literature describing normal human performance at different levels of drowsiness and sleep, as these states are defined by electroencephalographic patterns. Among the types of behavioral responses to stimuli discussed are reflexes, simple movements, detection (i.e. arousal to external stimuli and awareness of internal states), discrimination, learning, and recall. Non-behavioral electroencephalographic responses are also described. Suggestions are made for future research.
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