Consciousness - An Introduction (ch19)

How does unconscious processing work? - Chapter 19

Conscious and unconscious processing

Scientists had a very early interest in unconscious processing (also called implicit or subliminal perception ). We know that there can be perception without consciousness. People can think for themselves that they have not perceived anything consciously, while their behavior shows that they have observed something.

We do not assume that we have two selves: one for conscious processing and one for unconscious processing. In earlier experiments, conscious experiences were defined in terms of what people themselves said they had observed. This sounds logical, but this method has a disadvantage. Whether someone says that he or she has perceived something consciously depends on how careful someone is with his or her judgment. There is no clear limit to indicate between when someone has observed something or not. Behaviorists did not want to be dependent on whether people said they had observed something. They wanted to make objective measuring instruments so that there was no need for them. This is a strange idea, since saying whether you have observed something,is as reliable (or unreliable) as pressing a button to make it clear that you have observed something.

Priming

Marcel showed that people react faster to a target if the prime matches this. Marcel made the primes unrecognizable to participants by placing a visual distractor on the image immediately after the prime appeared. People could not consciously perceive the prime. Even so, the target was reacted even faster. This phenomenon is also called ' semantic priming' .

Cheesman and Merikle distinguished between:

1. objective threshold value, and

2. subjective threshold value.

The objective threshold value represents the level of detection in which a distinction is made between perceptual information on the basis of random phenomena. The subjective threshold value is about the value at which participants say that they could not distinguish between perceptual information and that their answers come from random phenomena.

Cheesman and Merikle used the Stroop test where participants have to name the color of a word after being primed with a colored word. Corresponding (congruent) colors and words provide a faster response time. When colors and words do not match, there is incongruity. Cheesman and Merikle drew the conclusion that there is unconscious processing when information is presented below the subjective limit value and above the objective limit value.

Unconsciousness and emotion

It is also possible that unconscious perception affects the emotions of people. Threatening images (which people deny having seen) can evoke emotional reactions and change perceptual thresholds. Sometimes it even happens that people who have been sedated have nevertheless unconsciously observed what the surgeon said during the operation.

Merikle and Daneman state that unconsciously observed information leads to automatic reactions and that consciously observed information leads to more flexible reactions. However, it can not be said with certainty that unconsciously observed information causes automatic reactions . It is also possible that more flexible reactions cause awareness or that flexible responses and conscious processes are the same.

Brain scans also show that unconscious perception can be found in the brain. Unconsciously perceived images of frightened faces lead to more activity in the amygdala compared to happy faces. This confirms that even when information is unconsciously processed, there can still be effects on different parts of the brain that would also be activated when the same stimuli were consciously observed.

The implications of unconscious perception

The idea of ​​a Cartesian theater must be wrong, since it has been found that unconscious processing also influences the actions of the human being. Cartesian theater assumes that information enters consciousness and that "I" can choose what he or she does with this information.

Cartesian materialism is also wrong, because in this vision it is also believed that something 'comes' into consciousness, as is the case with Cartesian theater. In Cartesian materialism, it is not believed in a "self" that looks at a mental screen in its own head (which is an assumption in Cartesian theater). With our findings about the influence of unconscious processing, we can conclude that these visions can not be correct.

Solve problems

Opinions vary widely as to whether unconscious problem solving takes place. Broadbent and Berry have conducted studies showing that it is possible to unconsciously solve problems. It happens that people who are good at performing a task can explain very poorly how they accomplish the task. Sometimes people do not even know what information they used to complete a task during an experiment.

Lewicki proved that without people knowing it, they can become better at performing a task on a computer screen. He believes that unconscious information processing processes are faster than conscious ones and that they are also more refined. Among scientists there are differences of opinion about how 'smart' unconscious cognition is.

Claxton states that many tasks can best be performed without interference from consciousness. Many experiments show that when trying to learn something explicit, implicit learning can suppress.

Intuition

Sometimes insight can come much later than desired. Intuition can be seen as making decisions or drawing conclusions without explicit processing or reasoning.

There are three parts of intuition. First, there are cognitive processes that allow the brain to derive information from complex patterns and guide behavior. Cognitive processes probably contribute to many everyday skills; from playing computer games to guessing which row will probably be the shortest in the supermarket. In addition, there are social skills that make us feel that someone is unreliable, for example. We also use social skills when we want to estimate when the best time is to bring bad news to someone. These skills are quickly picked up by children. Women have better verbal skills and are more interested in social relationships. For these reasons they might well have a better developed intuition.Finally, there are still emotions. Intuitive knowledge is often accompanied by emotions.

People with damaged frontal lobes become very superficial on an emotional level. This ensures that they become indecisive. They find it difficult to make choices about the smallest things. They can rationally weigh alternatives, but they lack in-depth emotions. Because of this they can not sense which choice is right.

Creativity

Creativity can be seen as a way in which explicit and intuitive skills come together. However, it is not clear where creativity comes from. For example, many famous writers and painters say that their best work comes to them. The question is where it comes from. They do not feel that they consciously make a beautiful painting or write a beautiful poem; it all seems to go by itself. It therefore seems as if there is 'selfless' creativity, being a force that comes from the outside.

Creative people score high on fantasizing, hypnotizability, and 'absorption'. This last term stands for being able to easily blend into a book or film. We could also show creativity from an evolutionary framework. Perhaps creativity allows people to bring together cultural knowledge ('memes') in special ways to form new memes. They must be motivated for this and can sense which combinations of memes go well together.

Resources:Blackmore; Susan. (2010). Consciousness, Second Edition An Introduction. Abingdon, Oxon: Taylor & Francis.