04 - Chapter 4: The Associative Machine

Chapter 4: The Associative Machine

• the surprising workings of S1 — e.g. consider the words “Bananas Vomit” — S1 assumes the words are connected, temporally, causally à slight nausea, some phys’l responses,  altered memory ( i.e. more responsive to assoc’d words), sense of surprise
• associative activation — responses are instantaneous, involuntary
• N.B. this complex of responses is coherent — a self-reinforcing pattern of cognitive, emotional, & phys’l responses that is both diverse & integrated, associatively coherent
• starting fr. completely unexpected event (2 simple words, oddly juxtaposed),
• S1 tried to make sense, linked words in causal story;
• evaluated possible threat (mild to moderate);
• created context for future develop’ts, preparing for events suddenly now more likely;
• also created a context for the current event, evaluating how surprising it was
• note that for S1 mere conjunction of 2 words rep’d reality, hence body reacted as mild reaction to real thing, also emotional response & phys’l recoil included — cognition is embodied, i.e.you think w. your body, not only brain
• assoc’n of ideas, associative memory —much happens at once, an idea is activated, activates many ideas, they activate others, often unconscious
• we have limited access to the workings of our minds

The Marvels of Priming

• priming effect — once exposed to one word, more ready to detect assoc’d words — then the primed idea can prime more ideas, altho more weakly, ripple effect

• priming can be result of event (not just words, ideas), we may not be aware — e.g. “the Florida effect,” students in Fla. primed w. words suggesting old age afterwards walked more slowly, i.e. word primed idea of old age, wh. then primes behaviour; no awareness — the ideomotor effect, an idea primes an action — reciprocal priming, walking abnormally slowly primes ideas of old age — nodding head primes for positive response, shaking head for negative

Primes that Guide Us

• priming shows we are not as autonomous as we think
• e.g. voting affected by location of polling booth, booth in school increases support for educ’n — priming w. reminders of money à more independent, persistent, selfish, less social, i.e. individ’ism —images of Big Brother à less independent thinking — reminders of mortality à more open to authoritarian ideas — shame àinclination to think of & buy soap (the “Lady Macbeth” effect)

• 
  e.g. image placed in front of coffee machine, how many people pay for their coffee?
• conscious self does not want to believe in power of priming, but it is true
• S1 is the “stranger in you” — largely unknown, but in control of much of what you do — S1 give impressions à beliefs — S1 impulses à choices, actions — S1 interprets what happens to you & around you, linking the present w. the recent past & w. expect’ns abt the near future — S1 contains the model of the world that instantly evaluates events as normal or surprising —source of your rapid & often precise intuitive judg’ts —does most of this without conscious awareness of its activities
• S1 is also the origin of many of the systematic errors in our intuitions

Speaking of Priming

·         “The sight of all these people in uniforms does not prime creativity.”

·         “The world makes much less sense than you think. The coherence comes mostly from the way your mind works.”

·         “They were primed to find flaws, and this is exactly what they found.”

·         “His System 1 constructed a story, and his System 2 believed it. It happens to allel

·         “I made myself smile and I’m actually feeling better!”