Lecture 7 - Conscious and Unconscious Mind Working together

Dealing with nagging thoughts of the ngiht

- Eric Klinger said about unfulfilled or pressing goals that the best way to deal with them is to make a concrete plan for what to do about it - say that something like, "tomorrow 9am i will call and make a doctors appointment" - having a concrete plan for how you are going to deal with the thing usually turns off the nagging becuase this is what the unconscious mind is trying to get you to do that it can't do itself - make a concrete plan of action

Walter Mischel: Delay of Gratification

- Gave kids marshmallows and told them not to eat it, to wait as long as they could - turns out that how long they could wait predicted future success, better career, don't do drugs - so ability to not go with impulses, to do something else, this is a good thing but it is conscious and effortful

cognitive transformation

- ability to think of things in a different way - a way that we emotion regulate - kids who can do this are more successful in marshmellow task

Dynamic

- conscious and unconscious influence each other - both operating all the time in a coordinated fashion

Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST)

- for each tile you are asked which one does it match - but there are multiple possible dimensions for you to match on - eventually you figure it out but it may take many tries

Baumeister: the animal-culture interface

- humans have this very smart mind - but what culture gives us, and the ability to communicate with other people gives us, is sort of like the internet, it is access to so much more information, the information that everyone else has - our brain = computer - culture = internet

Ferguson 2008 Experieriement 4

- if people are hungry they are more likely to have automatic attitudes towards words related to eating - have automatic attitudes towards food related stimuli when hungry

Advantage of conscious mind

- if unconscious processes always deal with the present this frees up conscious processes to time travel, remember the past, or plan for the future

delayed gratification (self-discipline)

- is the key to long term success (according to the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment) - putting money away for retirement - controlling impulses helps us get the really important things in our life

Nordgren, Bos, Dijsterhuis 2011 "The Best of Both Worlds: conscious and unconscious thought together" - what to do in most complex decisions

- most complex decisions involve following precise rules and also aggregating information thus have periods of both conscious and unconscious thought, this will produce the best, highest quality decisions a first period of conscious thought (to cull the rule violating apartments from further considerations), followed by a period of unconscious thought to fairly and equally weight all relevant features), results in the best decisions

What we now know about the scope of consciousness

- much smaller - not everything uses consciousness, a lot can happen without it - it is good that we have excepted this since it allows us to get a better idea of what consciousness is really for - since conscious processes are a relatively new development in evolution, they are not redundant - so there has to be some added value, has to be some reason why it evolved / some sort of adaptive function that it serves

Iceberg as a symbol for the mind

- not a good symbol bc an iceberg is static; there are always two realms - the part underwater - the unconscious -and the part above - conscious, this doesn't change - the mind changes so this is not a good metaphor

Consciousness prupose

- not redundant - has different strengths than unconscious - although goal pursuits operate use same structures - so didn't evolve different brain regions to use consciousness more that now we use same brain regions in another way

Masicampo and Baumeister 2011 "Consider it done" Study 1`

- study that shows the effect of a plan in turning off intrusive thoughts - in study 1 the were asked to write about two uncompleted tasks they had to finish - then read a long section of a mystery novel - and they recorded how many time the incomplete goals that they were reminded of in the first task intruded, and it was a lot - intrusive thoughts about the incomplete goal intruded their awareness during reading of the novel a lot - but there was much less intrusion if they had formed a "when, where, and how" plan to accomplish that goal before they started reading the novel Making a plan decreases distracting nature of unfinished goal

What is the advantage of this technique compared to subliminal presentation?

- subliminal presentations are just one shot events and they are very brief and then they are over - this technique allows for the stimulus to be presented for a long time, even though it is blocked by the flash it can be processed as if it was a stimulus out there in the world where things don't just flash and go away they are out there for a long time. "best of both worlds" you have a stimulus that is subliminal but not so brief that it is gone, it is there long enough for your mind to analyze it. This allows you to study the interface between conscious and unconsciousness.

One of the questions you can ask with the continuous flash suppression technique

- the break point - how long does it take for the person to become aware of the stimulus? - can measure the prioritization of unconscious processes for conscious awareness

Where do conscious processes come from?

- they don't come out of no where - they are not an uncaused cause - conscious experiences come out of unconscious processes

Why are dolphins a good metaphor for the unconscious mind?

- they exist in both worlds conscious and unconscious and so do we - where a dolphin is above water is a function of where it was under the water - where it was under the water / unconscious processes, causes in part where it is above water (where it is in consciousness); and where it is consciously on top of the water influences where it goes under the water - it is a cycle, dynamic and it reflects the fact that dolphins exist in both worlds just as humans do - dynamic interplay between conscious and unconscious processes; one influences the other

Unconscious processes in the present

- tied to the present - evolved motives guide behaviour in the present - goal and purposes guide attention allocation, evaluation and behaviour in the present unconscious processes always have to do with the present

Conclusion about consciousness and unconsciousness in goal pursuit

- unconscious goal pursuit intrudes into conscious thought when it has the answer - unconscious mind incubates on it and then pushes it into consciousness when it has the answer at a later time - one time when unconscious will intrude and enter into consciousness - it will give your awareness, the answer you are looking for

Conscious and unconscious working together

- unconscious processes come to the fore when the person adopts a passive, non-critical attitude, whereas focus and efforts to figure out what is going on favor consciousness

Examples of unconscious processes coming to the fore when a person adopts a passive, noncritical attitude, whereas focus and efforts to figure out what is going on favours consciousness

1. Effect of ads during passive viewing (eg. on consumption, on imitation and future behaviour) 2. Automatic attitude effect 3. Natural relaxed impression management - paying attention to the other person promotes mimicry of them which in turn promotes their liking of you and greater bonding 4. Relatedly: Darwin on natural emotional expressions, very trying to appear to have that emotion (Duchenne smiles, for example)

Consciousness is for (summary)

1. Escaping the present, remembering the past, planning for the future 2. Making sense of what you are doing (narrative) 3. Transforming the present for self regulation and emotion regulation 4. Communicating with others, getting along safely with others Not for everything.

Humans are "presentists"

1. We attribute causes of our behaviour and feelings to consciously attended features of our present situation (Gilbert ad Wilson) - last unit, carry-over effects, misattribution of arousal 2. We use our current subjective and phenomenal states as information as to how we felt in the past or will feel in the future. But the influences of the past ad the future, as they are not in our present view, are often under appreciated.

When will unconscious though intrude into conscious thought?

1. When it has reached the goal; come up with the solution 2. When it has done all it can do an now needs conscious thought - this is where the intrusive thoughts of the nights come up; it needs a plan

Unconscious behavioural guidance systems

Attitudes/Evaluation - approach and avoidance tendencies Social perception - action tendencies (mimicry, contagion) various unconscious systems that guide out actions so conscious thought is not necessary for action clearly thus unconscious processes are generally tied to the present

What is consciousness for other than "time travel" / remembering the past/ planning for the future and not thinking of something else?

Communication with others; collaboration and coordination of activities; keeping on good terms with others in groups Communication of information about the world in very important to our success of our communities and ourselves

Continuous Flash Suppression Technique (Tsuchiya and Koch 2005)

Developed this technique. A stimulus is presented to one eye, one visual field while at the same time high contrast flashes are presented to the other eye. The effect of this phenomenon is that you are not aware consciously of what is presented, the stimulus that is presented or the word. The flashes suppress conscious awareness of the stimulus for a time. Eventually you become aware of the material presented to your eye but it takes some time. This allows you to look at things like what determines how long it takes for something to enter consciousness.

Michael Gazzaniga and Joseph LeDoux "The Social Brain" 1984

Discussed impulses coming from right brain and entering into awareness in the left hemisphere Idea is shared by many people that impulses come from somewhere and then we are consciously aware of them come up with a confabulation for the impulse - a consciously constructed life narrative, we are always trying to make sense of incoming impulse through conscious narrative - this is a conscious function based on unconscious impulses

Daniel Dennett (1991) The origin of cosnciousness

Early use of language: to communicate with others, to ask for help but also to listen and respond to others' requests for help. Hearing oneself then would come to activate ones own response to a help request. So now our other brain modules can take that input to work on it. So the actual act of communicating with spoken language to others, actually help connect our own minds. Internal conscious thought grew out of external talking and communicating with other people.

What is consciousness for other than "time travel" / remembering past/ planning for future?

Escaping the past, doing something different, overriding influences of the past

Topic of lecture (1)

How do unconscious and conscious processes work together? Unconscious and conscious processes are connected, unconscious processes merge into conscious ones Unconscious processes can produce conscious ones and vice versa.

Walter Mischel: Delay of Gratification - strategy by the kids that could wait a long time

Most important ability enabling the delay of gratification was the ability to cognitively transform the stimulus (marshmellow or pretzel stick) - kids who were told to imagine them as "fluffy clouds" or "logs" did the best (as measured by how long they could wait) - an important way we emotion regulate, ex. thinking about how we have it better than a lot of other people when we feel bad about ourselves

Vygostsky, Russian Developmental Psychologist (1930s)

Over the course of evolution, the internal conscious thought capabilities grew out of external talking and communicating with other people. Vygotsky said this was happening in kids. Each of us as individuals around age 2/3 first talk to ourselves out loud then silently thereafter. "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" Ability to consciously think, decide, and chose, only happens around age 4 - this is when full blown self control abilities begin

Advantage of the conscious mind - Dijksterhuis and Nordgren 2011 / how do conscious and unconscious thought processes differ?

Overall, conscious processes enable a seperation from reality - imagination, simulation fo the future -- they are not constrained by reality as are unconscious processes. Consciousness is for remembering the past, and planning for the future. Ability to make plans for the future is a unique thing that conscious processing can do. Unconscious effects are largely triggered by objects and events in the outside world - that is, the present reality.

The New Look (1940s) Jermome Bruner and Leo Postman

Preconscious analysis of meaning prior to conscious perception of the stimulus. Screening the world before stimuli enter conscious awareness. We are analyzing the environment and then the product of those analyses enters consciousness; the analysis part is preconscious this is useful because they give us the objects/ building blocks of conscious experiences; we don't have to figure out things such as "that's a tree" "that's a road" these are given to us with meaning directly attached to them, and that's what we perceive certainly then unconscious influences affect consciousness during perception

Hannah Arendt The "Two-in-One" of Consciousness

She notes that the original title of Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind was "The Science of the Experience of Consciousness" Internal dialogue - see this with Socartes as well. The "Two-in-One" of Conscious thought "It is this duality of myself within myself that makes thinking a true activity, in which I am both the one who asks and the one who answers" Shoe notes that consciousness and conscience were the same word in languages for a long time and even today in French they are the same word. And consciousness means, literally, "to know with myself"

Impulses don't come from consciousness

W. James 1890 - consciousness is not the source of behavioural impulses rather it is more like a gate keeper that has veto power Gazzaniga 1984 - impulses from right hemisphere, narrative-like understanding of them from left hemisphere (hypnotism ex. ) Libet (1985) impuses come before conscious awarness of them Wegner 2001 - conscious agency (source of impulses) and illusion produced by attrubutional deduction; no true conscious causation

Topic 2 of lecture

What is consciousness for? Behaviourist view - everything driven by the environment. Cognitive revolution - everything driven by consciousness. Bandura said that you attend to everything 24 hours 7 days a week. Cognition drives everything you do .

Consciousness is better at rule following Dulany 1968

Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST) trial by trial learning takes time, potential for many errors but what if experimenter tells you the rule at the start? How long does it take you to adapt if rule is changed? Low and behold there is perfect performance as soon as ppl are told the rule. Telling participants the rule produces perfect performance from the start. This may seem very obvious, but this is exactly what language and sharing of information gives us, gives our species, and incredible advantage in accumulating knowledge and building on what previous generations have learned.

Unconscious thought theory - how can unconscious thought produce better decisions?

bc limitations of conscious processes - they are slow and can only focus on a limited number of features at the same time. unconscious processes run in parallel and are faster so can process the 12 features better than conscious processes can. Also, conscious attention can dwell on some features more than others, giving them too much weight in the final outcome.

Neisser

cognitive psychology Believed that executive processes guide attention and goals, thoughts and judgements and behaviour. Was assumed that all of these executive processes were happening in the conscious mind. You are fully aware and attending to everything.

Abir et al 2018 Study

following up on todorov's face processing research, faces higher in power and dominance broke into conscious awareness sooner than other (less dominant) faces break point was faster for more dominant faces saying that we are more sensitive to the presence of high dominance faces in the world but is unconscious awarness that is giving the more dominant face to conscious awarness at the faster rate - this is an unoncsious analysis / process the unconscious analysis is what determines what is the high dominant face a clear example of unconscious processes driving and determining conscious awarness

Masicampo and Baumeister 2011 - study 4 -

goal to list as many sea creatures as they could (or not, in control condition) But first, had to work on anagram task - solving anagrams such as TEFSRO and HEVAS The upcoming goal of listing sea creatures was on their mind and interfered with (decreased performance) solving anagrams but not if they had made a plan on how to list sea creatures, before working on the anagram task (i.e. listing letters of the alphabet and then a sea creature for each letter)

Xu, Schwarz, and Wyer 2015

hungry people buy more of anything, non food related things too in part one of study ppl were shown subliminal words, since shown so fast couldn't report on them except if they were hungry they could report on words related to food and eating so now with need state they could identify words about food so if had the need state could cause these otherwise unconscious stimuli to be in conscious awareness.

Conscious and unconscious together

preconscious analysis determines conscious experience; current goals which can be very conscious (such as being hungry you are aware of this) or unconscious help determine preconscious analysis and further conscious experience so this is an ongoing cycle also true for goals such as those you have put a lot of conscious effort into trying to solve - the more important the goals are and the more you work on them consciously the more likely it is that they will also be pursued unconsciously when your mind is elsewhere

Conscious --> unconscious

preconscious sensitivity to external stimuli because of current goals and need state more likely to notice things that are relevant to our current goal, this facilitates goal pursuit

Unconscious --> Conscious

the emergence of conscious experience out of unconscious processes there are many ways that unconscious processes influence conscious ones

Intrusive thoughts about the goal

the spontaneous thoughts of the night are about future tasks that you haven't done yet, and if you haven't done them you need to do them and they require planning that the unconscious mind can't do so it wakes up the conscious mind

Fichten et al 2001 - intrusive thoughts of the night - can't easily control them or turn them off

unconscious processes asking for help from conscious ones, working on these problems while sleeping but can't solve them best way to deal with this is to get up and work on the task for 15 minutes so that you can put it to rest

Nordgren, Bos, Dijsterhuis 2011 "The Best of Both Worlds: conscious and unconscious thought together"

using both where each is most effective produces the best decisions. Conscious thought better for following clear rules. Unconscious thought better for integrating numerous features across multiple dimensions.

Cooperation and Coordination (M Tomasello et al )

why did we develop the internet in the first place? The motivation to share psychological states and the capacity to coordinate one's behaviour with others are what differentiates us from all other animals This is the reason we have so much more progress, why only humans have this - bc of our ability to communicate and share information, it gives us a gigantic advantage.

Conscious and unconscious together ex.

working together to solve problems and get important tasks and goals accomplished. Ex. Kekule benzene ring, dreaming in front of the fire, comes up with benzene ring theory; after much conscious problem solving, comes up with answer unconsciously and then goes back to thinking about it consciously, so it is an ongoing cycle