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(Un)consciousness

(Un)consciousness. Can we act on something without being conscious of it? In this post-behaviorist age, we can study this question again Unconscious actions cast doubt on the impression that we are “ in control ” Do we all have multiple “ I ” s?. Meaning without awareness of word (Marcel).

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(Un)consciousness

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  1. (Un)consciousness • Can we act on something without being conscious of it? • In this post-behaviorist age, we can study this question again • Unconscious actions cast doubt on the impression that we are “in control” • Do we all have multiple “I”s?

  2. Meaning without awareness of word (Marcel) XXXXX Nurse Present or absent (Y/N)? Is “Doctor” or “Street” related? • “Was word present?” is at chance but • “Which word is related?” is better than chance • Results are contrary to traditional information processing stages of first sensory, then semantic • Early priming based on meaning

  3. Presence/absence Graphic similarity Related meaning

  4. PIPES HORSE SADDLE MONEY PENNY FLOWER RACKET PLUMBER PIPES FLOWER GARDEN DREAM DREAM SLEEP MONEY SADDLE TENNIS RACKET

  5. Being famous without being recognized (Jacoby) • Read subjects a list of non-famous names to remember • Peter Franklin, Mary Evans, Philip Zoronski, etc. • One day later, have subjects rate how famous different names are, and try to recognize old names from list • Famous names: Sally Fields, John Dean • New non-famous name: Penny Steven • Old non-famous name: Mary Evans

  6. Being famous without being recognized • If name is recognized, then the probability of saying that the old non-famous is famous is LESS than for a new non-famous name • If name is not recognized, then the probability of saying that the old non-famous name is famous is MORE than for a new non-famous name • Dissociation: Opposite effects of name if consciously versus unconsciously in memory

  7. Mere exposure • Mere exposure effect - people like something better if it is familiar • Effect is found even if people don’t remember seeing the thing before, or if it was presented very briefly • Hot and cool cognition (Zajonc)

  8. Unconscious influences on decisions • Influence of similarity (Lewicki) • “Random” Blond (or brunette) person is rude to subject • Subject has choice of two people to return survey to, one with blond and one with brunette hair • Subject tends to return survey to person with opposite hair color as the person who was rude to them • Subject very rarely gives hair color as a reason for selecting an experimenter • Decisions sometimes poorer if “rationally” made (Wilson) • Poster study: control group happier than “justify” group • Jam study: control agrees more with experts than “justify” group • Verbal overshadowing: worse at remembering colors if described

  9. Blind sight • Caused by scotomas (dark spots) in occipital lobe region • Primary visual pathway is disrupted, but others remain • Patient feels like they are blind, but they avoid obstacles, and can “guess” the location of a light very accurately. • Problem with voluntary, willed action • Won’t reach for water in blindspot if thirsty • Analog in people with normal vision: Peripheral vision

  10. Unconscious priming • Automatic priming from one object to the next • Priming: Presentation of a priming object just before another object leads to facilitated processing of the second object if they are related. • Judge “Good” or “Bad”: Faster to make decision if priming word has the same value (“valence”) as a following word • Primitive unconscious influence: “Enemy fails” primes negative, not positive, words. Judge valence of this word Priming word (only 50 ms) XXXXXX DEATH LOSE XXXXXX HAPPY WIN FAST Slow

  11. Implicit Attitude Testhttp://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ • Two categorization tasks • Task 1: • Press “1” for a black face or a positive word like ‘victory’ • Press “2” for a white face or a negative word like ‘loser’ • Task 2: • Press “1” for a black face or a negative word like ‘loser’ • Press “2” for a white face or a positive word like ‘victory’ • For white subjects, Task 2 is typically easier than Task 1 • white subjects do not indicate a conscious preference for white people • Task 1 is also easier than Task 2 for black subjects in the U.S., but not as strong an effect. • Other implicit attitudes • Old is bad, young is good • Woman go with humanity majors, men with science • Your own political party is good • Design an experiment to test whether the implicit attitudes test measures racism (extra credit)

  12. If we can do so much unconsciously, what is consciousness for? • Organizes and structures thoughts • Consciousness as a bottleneck for highlighting specific important aspects of the world

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