ON CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS "COGNITION"

WHY DID I HAVE YOU READ CHAPTER 14 AFTER CHAPTER 1?

IN CHAPTER 1 (AND RELATED LECTURES), THE POINT WAS MADE THAT MUCH OF WHAT WE WANT TO STUDY IN COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY IS NOT ACCESSIBLE TO INTROSPECTION... i.e., IS "UNCONSCIOUS".

IN RECENT YEARS SOME PSYCHOLOGISTS HAVE ATTEMPTED TO UNDERSTAND (AND STUDY) THE RELATIVE ROLES OF THE CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS

THE COGNITIVE vs THE FREUDIAN UNCONSCIOUS


FREUD COGNITIVE
-A CONFLICT MODEL THOUGHT ARE ACTIVELY CONFINED TO THE UNCONSCIOUS BECAUSE THEY PROVOKE THREAT -NO ACTIVE CONFLICT
-CONSCIOUS MIND GOVERNED BY "REALITY" -PSYCHIC DISTRESS NOT RELEVANT
-UNCONSCIOUS MIND GOVERNED BY INSTINCTS THE "PLEASURE PRINCIPLE" -THE MACHINERY OF ORDINARY INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONING; SOME OF WHICH DOES NOT REACH CONSCIOUS AWARENESS

EVIDENCE THAT WE ARE NOT AWARE OF CAUSAL FACTORS (BUT CAN STILL MAKE ATTRIBUTIONS)

E.G., CONSIDER THE CLASSIC TWO-STRING PROBLEM
 

HOW DO PEOPLE SOLVE THIS?

TWO GROUPS: ONE GIVEN (UNKNOWNLY) A HINT: "ACCIDENTAL" MOVEMENT OF THE STRINGS

WHEREAS THE OTHER GROUP NOT GIVEN THE HINT

FIND: MORE PEOPLE SOLVE THE PROBLEM IN THE HINT CONDITION.
HOWEVER
WHEN QUESTIONED ABOUT HOW THEY SOLVED THE PROBLEM. NONE OF THE PARTICIPANTS NOTED THE IMPORTANCE OF THE HINT (INSTEAD MAKING ATTRIBUTIONS ABOUT PROBLEM SOLVING SKILLS ETC)

THAT IS, EVEN THOUGH IT IS CLEAR THAT GIVING THE HINT HAD A CAUSAL EFFECT ON PROBLEM SOLUTION, PEOPLE WERE UNAWARE OF THE HINT AND THE ROLE THAT IT PLAYED IN SOLUTION


BUT SOMETIMES ONE CAN FIND EVIDENCE THAT WHAT REACHES CONSCIOUSNESS DOES HAVE A PREDICTIVE EFFECT

EXAMPLE: FEELING OF KNOWING (HART, 1965; 1967) CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING STUDY:

PHASE 1: ASK PEOPLE A SET OF GENERAL KNOWLEDGE TYPE QUESTIONS, SUCH AS "WHAT IS THE LARGEST PLANET IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM?"

PHASE 2: FOR THOSE QUESTIONS PEOPLE CANNOT ANSWER, GET A MEASURE IF THEY THOUGHT THEY WOULD RECOGNIZE IT, IF IT WERE GIVEN TO THEM IN A MULTIPLE CHOICE FORMAT

PHASE 3: ACTUALLY GIVE A RECOGNITION TASK
E.G., IS THE LARGEST PLANET IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM

PLUTO   VENUS   EARTH   JUPITER

QUESTION: DO PEOPLE ACCURATELY PREDICT (PHASE 2) HOW WELL THEY WOULD PERFORM (PHASE 3 DATA)

SOME BASIC COGNITIVE TASKS

PRIMING: DOES THE PRESENTATION OF A STIMULUS (THE PRIME) FACILITATE THE PROCESSING OF THE NEXT STIMULUS, THE TARGET, (RELATIVE TO A CONTROL CONDITION)

A. REPETITION PRIMING; PRESENTATION OF THE SAME ITEM

B. SEMANTIC PRIMING; OCCURS WHEN THE PRIME IS SEMANTICALLY RELATED TO THE TARGET (RELATIVE TO THE CONTROL WHERE THE PRIME IS AN UNRELATED ITEM)

THE STROOP TASK: A TASK IN WHICH A PERSON IS PRESENTED A COMPOUND STIMULUS (IN THE ORIGINAL VERSION, A COLOUR WORD PRINTED IN EITHER THE SAME COLOUR (CONGRUENT CASE) OR IN ANOTHER COLOUR (INCONGRUENT CASE)

THE TASK: NAME THE COLOUR (AND IGNORE THE WORD)

FIND: (AGAIN RELATIVE TO THE APPROPRIATE CONTROLS, SUCH AS THE SPEED TO NAME COLOUR PATCHES, OR THE COLOURS OF NON-COLOUR WORDS SUCH AS box) PRODUCING THE NAME OF THE COLOUR IN THE INCONGRUENT CASE PRODUCES A LARGE INTERFERENCE EFFECT--- LONGER Rts)

USUALLY INTERPRETED AS AN AUTOMATIC EFFECT (THAT IS, FOR LITERATE PEOPLE, IF PRESENTED WITH A WORD THEY READ IT AUTOMATICALLY---CAN'T STOP THE PROCESS)


SEMANTIC PRIMING ( a study by marcel, 1980)

USED POLYSEMOUS WORDS (i.e, WORDS WITH ONE SPELLING AND PRONUNCIATION BUT MORE THAN ONE MEANING, SUCH AS BAT OR PALM

USED LEXICAL DECISION TASK (DECIDING WHETHER OR NOT A LETTER STRING IS A REAL WORD)

BASED ON SEMANTIC PRIMING: THE FENDING THAT PRESENTATION OF A WORD--THE PRIME-- (E.G., DOCTOR) SPEEDS UP THE PROCESSING OF SEMANTICALLY RELATED WORDS --THE TARGET--(E.G., NURSE) RELATIVE TO THE CONTROL CONDITION IN WHICH THE TARGET HAS BEEN PRECEDED BY AN UNRELATED WORD

MANIPULATED:
(1) THRESHOLD OF PRESENTATION
(2) CONGRUITY
 
CONG Hand Palm WRIST (MAKE A LEXICAL DECISION)
INCON Tree Palm 

Manipulate threshold		 WRIST (MAKE A LEXICAL DECISION)

NOTE: FIRST WORD IN TRIO IS ABOVE THRESHOLD, SECOND WORD IS EITHER ABOVE OR BELOW THRESHOLD

FIND
SUPRALIMINAL TRIALS: PRIMING (FASTER RT IN MAKING THE LEXICAL DECISION) ONLY IN CONGRUENT CASES

SUBLIMINAL TRIALS: PRIMING FOR BOTH THE CONGRUENT AND INCONGRUENT CASES


THE STROOP EFFECT;

TASK: PRESENT A LIST OF COLOUR WORDS, PRINTED IN DIFFERENT COLOURS;

NAME COLOUR, IGNORE WORD
FIND: (RELATIVE TO CONTROL: INTERFERENCE...EVIDENCE THAT ONE CANNOT IGNORE THE WORD)

CHEESMAN AND MERIKLE STUDY

IS THERE DIFFERENT EFFECTS OBSERVED ABOVE AND BELOW THE THRESHOLD (LIMEN) FOR CONSCIOUSNESS

TASK
X //////// COLOUR WORD PRIME //////// COLOUR PATCH
fixation Mask (e.g., the word "red") Mask measure RT to name

MANIPULATED: (1) PRIME PRESENTED EITHER ABOVE OR BELOW THRESHOLD, AND (2) THE PROBABILITY THAT THE PRIME WAS THE SAME (PREDICTED) AS THE COLOUR PATCH, P=.75 or .25

RESULTS
 
P=.25 P=.75
SUBLIMINAL CONGRUENT
INCONGRUENT		 473 ---->
500		 454
500

______________________BENEFIT BUT NO COST______________________
P=.25 P=.75
SUPRALIMINAL CONGRUENT
INCONGRUENT		 445 ---->
540 <----		 409
586
BOTH A BENEFIT AND A COST

WHAT WOULD BE REQUIRED TO SHOW SUBLIMINAL EFFECTS ON CONSUMERS?
1. EVIDENCE THAT A MESSAGE IS PICKED UP UNCONSCIOUSLY (AND NOT CONSCIOUSLY)

2. THE UNCONSCIOUS MESSAGE HAS TO BE PROCESSED "DEEPLY"... THAT IS, ONE HAS TO EXTRACT "MEANING"

3. THE DEEPLY PROCESSED MEANING HAS TO INFLUENCE THE CHOICES THAT ONE MAKES ('BUY COCA COLA') OR ONE'S ATTITUDE (BECOME MORE SELF CONFIDENT)

A STUDY IN SUBLIMINAL EFFECTS OF A SELF HELP TAPE (ON SELF-ESTEEM AND MEMORY) (Greenwald et al., 1991)

USED COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE SELF-HELP AUDIOTAPES

PRETEST: MEASURES OF MEMORY AND SELF-ESTEEM
 
LABELS: HELPS MEMORY HELPS ESTEEM
/ \ / \
memory* self-esteem   memory self-esteem*

LISTEN DAILY FOR A MONTH

POST-TEST: MEASURES OF MEMORY AND SELF-ESTEEM

FIND: BELIEFS ABOUT HOW ONE PERFORMS IS RELATED TO THE LABEL GIVEN TO THE TAPE, REGARDLESS OF THE ACTUAL CONTENT

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS ACROSS THE BOARD

2. Unconscious works in a reflexive way, i.e., uses routines (and routines often occur with much practice and hence are performed without attention). A routine is a sequence that is run off without many decision points (ie where the routine can be stopped, or altered for instance). Thus the unconscious allows mental tasks to be performed rapidly and, at the same time, frees up limited attentional resources to other aspects of performance
-however note: such a gain is made at the cost in mental flexibility
-an hypothesis: in many tasks it may be adaptive to sacrifice flexibility for efficiency; but for many other tasks we can't afford this flexibility (and thus remain conscious of what we are doing); what type of tasks would one then be conscious of...novel tasks are one obvious case. Others might , by their nature, require frequent monitoring and adjustment, or , there may be context-driven situations for which routines are available but we choose not to use the routine in order to actively inhibit a habitual action

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