The evolution of consciousness or, why are we awake?
Music, ‘You Don’t Need an iPod’ by Uncle Seth (who are fast becoming the official band of Dave’s Psychology Lectures… Look for an interview with them soon on thunderbird six)
Oh, for those interested in wireless hacking, packet sniffing etc that I mentioned in class, check out ethereal
I notice that most of the examples you gave of “conscious cognition” are of what is often called “body memory”. I both study and teach t’ai chi, and it’s really interesting to regularly teach it, because it means I have to stay aware of how I do what I do. When I started teaching, I was at a total loss to describe any of it. (When it comes to touch typing, however, I still have no idea where my fingers go…)
On what I think is the only non-body memory example you gave, reading–my Mom teaches first grade, and I periodically ask her how you teach someone to read. Her less than illuminating response is something along the lines of “I just do.”
I think you mean unconscious cognition?
Knwoing the meaning of words is a good one, so is like knowing facts about the world, that kind of thing. (I have not listened to this one in ages so I may be off base here..)
I think you mean unconscious cognition?
Indeed I do (did)–that is what happens when I try doing several things at once (i.e. filling out rebate forms, paying bills, listening to a lecture, and typing). “They” say multi-tasking is counter productive, perhaps correctly…
The meaning of words is deeply embedded, to be sure, and unconscious so far as simple words go (how do I know what “is” means? or “the”?). But I do know how I know what some more, um, difficult? complicated? esoteric? words mean–from their roots, or the meaning in a different language. Of course, that just shoves the question back a step. (I think I have a headache.) But…I was under the impression that learning language was different than other learning, or did I not understand Pinker’s thesis? I read some of his books on language, but it was several years ago, I could be misremembering; I seem to recall he argues that language is hardwired. Or is that only grammar?
I would think knowing facts about the world is different from knowing how to do something. Some of it is kind of definitional, no? –Like, water is wet, fire is hot–so, maybe language. Less basic facts…well, I’m one of those people who are always, annoyingly, saying, “I read somewhere that…” and not being able to say where. People, myself included, certainly pick up lots of “facts about the world” and have no idea how they know them, but they are often not facts at all. Whereas, knowing how to walk (a very complex task, actually) is something people do without needing to think about.
I guess my intuitive sense was that knowing how to do something is different than knowing something–but after thinking about it a bit, possibly the difference is feedback, which would make knowledge about how to do things more self-correcting than just ‘knowing” things. If you’re wrong about how to ride a bike, you fall down. If you’re wrong about how hard it will be to invade a country, you get elected President.
yeah knowing facts is called semantic memory, knowing how to is procedural. They are actually dissociable. People with very sepcific brain lesions have one and not the other.
Other examples of stuff we know but that are not umm body like (not that everything is not encoded in our brains which is part of our bady). Let’s say things that do not require action.
“That’s my mother”
“Hey look, hot chick”
“Circles are round”
“There is a beer Store on Spadina just south of Bloor, I will get some beer on the way back to the hotel” (I may have just used that one…)
Thanks! Face recognition is a good one; not that I’m very good at it, but it’s definitely something that one just knows (or not, as the case may be). This subject is definitely a good think…