14 conscious and unconscious thought

neural correlate

An event in the nervous system that occurs at the same time as, and may be the biological basis of, a specific mental event or state

processing fluency

An improvement in the speed or ease of processing that results from prior practice in using those same processing steps familiarity/accuracy Like qualia, we experience our own fluency, but no one else can, and we cannot explain what our experience of fluency feels like

D.B.

D.B. developed a tumor in occipital cortex. After removal, D.B. could not see anything in the left half of the world in front of him. D.B. insisted he could not see items, but he could guess their identity and location correctly. D.B. has what researchers call "blind sight" This dissociation shows that consciousness is not needed for visual perception.

mind-body problem

How are mind and body connected? What is used to explore this field

To bring attention to bear on a situation, executive control needs several things

Needs actions it can initiate in the situation and things it can do to override unconscious processing Needs some means of representing its goals and subgoals to guide the actions taken; also needs means to represent the plan Needs to know what is going on in the mind. What is coming in? How can it be integrated? Needs to know how smoothly things are going, so can know whether adjustments are needed These prerequisites for executive control, fit with the traits necessary for conscious experience

attention

Neurons compete for conscious attention; those with the highest firing rates typically get linked together by workspace neurons Prefrontal cortex sustains and amplifies activity in systems like the neuronal workspace, depending on the goals/needs of the system workspace is limited but controllable / chosen

Neuronal workspace hypothesis

Neurons that literally connect one area of the brain to another, allowing communication between different areas of the brain Linking these stimuli into a dynamic, coherent representation leads to consciousness.

However, this sense of knowing may come from incorrect after-the-fact reconstructions of how we think we reasoned\

Participants in a study who read a passage from Rabbit Run attributed their emotions to a particular sentence Those who read the passage without the sentence had the same emotional response After-the-fact reconstructions are based on unconscious beliefs about why we act as we do May, or may not, be correct; we have no way of verifying them But we believe them to be actual memories

Qualia (philosopher's term)

The subjective experience of something Cannot be conveyed to another person

read this Thinking about an object or idea after the stimulus has been removed (working memory) Reflecting on relationships or combinations among various inputs or ideas (generativity, creativity) Adjusting the processing in one system in light of what is going on in other systems (flexibility)

The workspace idea may also help us understand sleep Communication through the neuronal workspace breaks down when we are asleep and not dreaming Therefore, we are not conscious of our state or our "thoughts" even though brain is quite active

The workspace makes possible a range of important behaviors.

Thinking about an object or idea after the stimulus has been removed (working memory) Reflecting on relationships or combinations among various inputs or ideas (generativity, creativity) Adjusting the processing in one system in light of what is going on in other systems (flexibility)

Action slips

When trying to do something different, you end up doing what is normal or habitual. An example is driving to school when you intended to go to the store.

4. Which is NOT something that various cases of unconscious processing have in common? a) They all rely on ill-defined processing across several cognitive processes. b) They are accompanied in the person who is acting without an internal sensation of agency. c) They are typically guided by the situation itself. d) Each is specialized, doing a job in an identifiable domain.

a

1. When participants were shown a passage from Rabbit Run and asked to point to the section that was responsible for their emotional reaction, they a) were each confident in their answers and all pointed to the same section. b) agreed about which section was responsible but were proven incorrect. c) both a and b d) neither a nor b

c

3. Which of the following statements is TRUE? a) The cognitive conscious allows for efficiency at the cost of flexibility. b) Remembering is not a reconstructive process. c) Conscious processing is less efficient than unconscious processing and is also more sophisticated. d) To act on information to which we have access, we usually do not need a reason to take the information seriously.

c

2. The unconscious is NOT a) dependent on well-established routines. b) composed of relatively specialized parts. c) guided by habit. d) connected to executive function.

d

binding problem

how features are linked together so that we see unified objects in our visual world rather than free-floating or miscombined features talking about attention and synchronization

Consciousness

is a state of awareness of sensations or ideas, such that we can: Reflect on these sensations and ideas Know what it "feels like" to experience these sensations and ideas Report to others that we are aware of these sensations and ideas

cognitive unconscious

mental activities below the level of awareness that make cognition possible Word recognition process overregularize stimuli to be more similar to the spelling patterns of English so CQRN is recognized as CORN

Metacognitive skills

methods of learning, studying, solving problems skills that allow people to monitor and control their own mental processes Linked to the broader set of skills of executive control Crucial for children as well as adults Metacognition useful for control during test taking, for example Children develop metacognitive skills, starting in early childhood

metamemory

understanding of how memory works knowledge about, awareness of, and control over one's memory, is particularly important Metamemory also includes beliefs about memory