06 - Chapter 6: Norms, Surprises, & Causes

Chapter 6: Norms, Surprises, & Causes

 in sum:

• our mind can rep. the structure of the world by associative links —vast networkof various types of ideas — the spreading activation in assoc. machine is auto’
• but we (S2) can control to search memory, & program memory to look for & direct attnetion to certain items in the environ’t

Assessing Normality

• main function of S1 is to maintain & update a model of your personal world — model rep’s what is normal in it — made of assoc’ns linking ideas of circumst’s, events, actions, outcomes that occur together  w. some regularity, occur together or near in time — links form, strengthen à rep’n of structure of events in your life, determines your interp’n of present & expect’ns of future.
• Surpise is v. impt.
• 2 kinds of expect’n:  (a) active, conscious (e.g. waiting for event),  (b) passive expect’n, not waiting but not surprised, normal event
• just one event can alter what seems normal — “How many animals of each kind did Moses take into the ark?” Biblical context makes name Moses (wrong) seem normal
• detect’n of abnormality is v. fast — even when req’ing much knowl., e.g. upper-class voice says, “I have a large tattoo on my back”
• norms, share w. others to enable communic’n
• S1 accesses norms of categories, knows range of plausible values, most typical cases

Seeing Causes and Intentions

• S1 sorts out causes, constructs coherent story — e.g. “Fred’s parents arrived late. The caterers were expected soon. Fred was angry.”
• S1’s story can be erroneous — e.g. day Saddam captured, Bloomberg News service first headline: U.S. Treasuries Rise; Hussein Capture May Not Curb Terrorism, 30 min. later bond prices fell, headline: U.S. Treasuries Fall; Hussein Capture Boosts Allure Of Risky Assets
• e.g. “After spending a day exploring beautiful sights in the crowded streets of New York, Jane discovered that her wallet was missing.” à stronger assoc. w. word ‘pickpocket’ than word ‘sights’ — S1 constructs story
• we (S1) perceive causality (cf. Kant, the mind imposes causality on our perceptions) — e.g. film of shapes “pushing” each other, chasing, cowering, i.e. physical causality, also intentional causality
• source of religion here? S1 separating physical & intentional causality à disembodied self, mind, soul
• N.B. intuition of causality very impt. à often apply causal think wrongly, esp. when statistics is appropr.— S1 not statistical (S2 can be trained to think statistically)

Speaking of Norms & Causes

·         “When the second applicant also turned out to be an old friend of mine, I wasn’t quite as surprised. Very little repetition is needed for a new experience to feel normal!”

·         “When we survey the reaction to these products, let’s make sure we don’t focus exclusively on the average. We should consider the entire range of normal reactions.”

·         “She can’t accept that she was just unlucky; she needs a causal story. She will end up thinking that someone intentionally sabotaged her work.”