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Processing
Brain activity
-conscious tasks show much more brain activity than automated tasks
-try this out: ask yourself was this decision conscious? Can you clearly tell whether
a decision was conscious or not?
-for emotional stimuli, conscious or unconscious, amygdala is activated
-philosophical problem: if every impression has an effect on the brain, what is the
difference between the conscious and the unconscious impressions? Cant be simply
the quantitative amount of activity.
False metaphors
-unconscious as an unintelligent worker that does the boring jobs so that the
intelligent conscious can flourish
-how can this be if perception, learning, memory, and problem solving can all happen
unconsciously?
-what metaphor should we use?
Blindsight
-Peirce and Jastrow (1885): consciously cannot tell the difference between images,
but subconsciously can, revealed through correct responses to questions
-Problems with empirical evidence: subjective differences on how cautious people
are (e.g. how willing they are to say yes, I see it) no defnite boundary between
what is in and out of consciousness
-Cheesman and Merikle (1984) propose objective threshold and subjective
threshold: when unconsciously given data really has no effect on participants
perception VS. does have an effect
Subliminal messages
-Vicary (1957) claims to increase sales of cola and popcorn by flashing subliminal
messages during a flm (but no actual data)
-Dijksterhuis (2005) subliminal messages can alter ones thoughts but rarely ones
behavior
-popular subliminal self-help videos or games (reduce anxiety, lose weight, etc.) have
no proven effect other than placebo effect
Emotional effects
-Kihlstrom (1996): people less likely to consciously see threatening stimuli than
neutral stimuli
-Uleman (2005): photos of people with distinctive physical features are paired with
positive/negative events affects the participants later responses to strangers who
share similar features
Creative Flow
Csikszentmihalyi 2002
[A] good life is one that is characterized by complete absorption in what one does.
Flow as a state of optimal experience, including heightened creativity and optimized
modes of development or artistic production.
The flow concept
Creative Flow
Questions
-Is the unconscious overused as an all-purpose explanation or piece of evidence to
support wacky theories? (e.g. multiple personality disorder, dream interpretation)
-Verifability? (Karl Poppers requirement of refutability)
-Or is the unconscious genuinely the answer, but it is too general/broad, and we
need to break it down into more specifc sub-structures?
-How would one try to break down the unconscious? Is it even possible?
Questions (continued)
-Is the unconscious a paradigm started by Freud? What paradigms from the past did
the unconscious replace, and can you imagine what future paradigms might replace
it?
-Can you tie the unconscious into the theories resulting Libets experiment and
Split-brain studies? Is the unconscious the puppetmaster, and the consciousness the
voice in retrospect trying to explain our movements?
-Is it possible to create true AI if we cannot perceive or conceptualize the
unconscious?
Citations
Blackmore, S. (2010). Chapter nineteen: Unconscious processing. Consciousness: An
introduction (2nd ed., pp. 308-324). New York: Routledge.
Galgut, E. (2005). Wishful Thinking and the Unconscious: A Reply to Gouws. South
African Journal Of Philosophy, 24(1), 14-21.