The Role of Affections in Decision Making

“many forms of decision making, especially those that involve a high level of risk and uncertainty, involve biases and emotions that act at an implicit level[1].” Experiences and conditioning that has been acquired in critical conditions may contribute to the repetitive triggering of previous correct decisions due to the feelings felt in the body or affections at the same time.

Affections make us select the cognitive processses according to the situation that we are in[2]. “For example, when things go smoothly and we face no hurdles in the pursuit of our goals, we are likely to rely on our pre-existing knowledge structures and routines, which have served us well in the past. Once things go wrong, however, we abandon this reliance on our usual routines and focus on the specifics at hand to determine what went wrong and what can be done about it. Hence, our actions, and the context in which we pursue them, are represented at a greater level of detail when things go wrong than when things go well (see Wegner & Vallacher, 1986).”

“Consistent with these conjectures, being in a negative affective state is associated with a narrowed focus of attention (e.g., Broadbent, 1971; Bruner, Matter, & Papanek, 1955; Easterbrook, 1959) and a higher level of spontaneous causal reasoning (e.g., Bohner, Bless, Schwarz, & Strack, 1988), paralleling the observation that failure to obtain a desired outcome shifts attention to a lower level of abstraction (e.g., Wegner & Vallacher, 1986)[2].”

“Intention is a form of volition. Intention depends on the condition based on time, place, event or other. Intention mechanism can be vitally important to exit or in being unable to exit pre-reflective consciousness in the cases of emrgency or contemplation[3].”

“the attentional blink has been shown to be modulated by emotional stimuli, as subjects are significantly better at detecting T2 when it is an emotion-laden word (e.g., rape) than when it is a neutral word (Anderson, 2005).[4]”

“Emotional content can change the formation and recollection of a memory event, consistent with findings in both human and animal studies. Compared to neutral items, humans remember better emotionally arousing information, including emotionally charged stories, film clips, pictures, and words[4].”

“The French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal once wrote, ‘The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of.’ This message – that emotion and cognition are separate systems that seldom interact – has a long history in Western philosophy and science. However, the past two decades have seen a remarkable shift in this view as behavioral and neuroscience data have demonstrated that emotion and cognition not only interact, but that their integrative operation is necessary for adaptive functioning[5].”


With my wishes of good will.
Ali R+ SARAL

REFERENCES:
[1] Nasir Naqvi, Baba Shiv, and Antoine Bechara, 2006 Association for Psychological Science , Current Directions in Psychologial Science, “The Role of Emotion in Decision Making, A Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective”, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Neurology, University of Iowa College of Medicine; Graduate School of Business, Stanford University; and Brain and Creativity Institute, and Department of Psychology, University of SouthernCalifornia
[2] Norbert Schwarz, Situated Cognition and the Wisdom of Feelings: Cognitive Tuning, University of Michigan Manuscript of a chapter in L. Feldman Barrett & P. Salovey (eds.), The wisdom in feeling (pp. 144-166). New York, Guilford Press, 2002
[3] Ali R+ SARAL, The Function of Volition in Providing Consciousness , http://largesystems-atc-en.blogspot.com/2011/04/function-of-volition-in-providing.html
[4] Luiz Pessoa, “Cognition and Emotion”, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN,http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Cognition_and_emotion
[5] Kevin N. Ochsner1 and Elizabeth Phelps, “Emerging perspectives on emotion–cognition interactions”, Department of Psychology, Columbia University, 1190 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NY 10027, USA, Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA

The Function of Volition in Providing Consciousness

-Love stays vigil through thinking-

Volition is a form of feeling. Consciousness is a higher function which determines the form of cognition.

There are various types of consciousness[2]:
- Reflected
- Pre-reflected
- Others

In the reflective or observing consciousness one is aware of his/her self. One uses the subject ‘I’ in his/her inner talk. One observes what he/she id doing and is aware of it being done by one’s self[4].

In the pre-reflective, non-observing consciousness one is not aware of what he/she is doing. For example one is not aware of how he has driven from home to job. Tasks are done without the observational awareness.

Intention is a form of volition. Intention depends on the condition based on time, place, event or other. Intention mechanism can be vitally important to exit or in being unable to exit pre-reflective consciousness in the cases of emrgency or contemplation.

Intent and volition limit and direct cognition[3].

Feelings think.

REFERENCES:
[1] Saral, Ali R+, Gözlemci Bilincin Dikkat Hataları:
http://largesystems-atc.blogspot.com/2011/03/gozlemci-bilincin-dikkat-hatalar.html
[2] Saral, Ali R+, Attention Mistakes of the Pre-Reflective Consciousness
http://largesystems-atc-en.blogspot.com/2011/04/attention-mistakes-of-pre-reflective.html
[3] edited by Benjamin Libet, Anthony Freeman and Keith Sutherland.The volitional brain : towards a neuroscience of free will, Thorverton : Imprint Academic, 1999.
[4] Gallagher Shaun, Zaham Dan, The Phenomenological Mind,Routledge, 2009.

Attention Mistakes of the Pre-reflective Consciousness

Pre-reflective consciousness is ‘Gözlemci Bilinç’ or exactly ‘ön-yansıtıcı bilinç’ in Turkish.
Reflective consciousness is ‘yansıtıcı bilinç’.


Reflective consciousness is the consciousness that we use when we talk, think etc. As in saying ‘I have the command’. We are aware of not only doing something but also that it is we(I) that is doing it.
The pre-reflective consciousness deals with only the perception of the task, the necessary response giving and doing the job. As if it is somebody else acting… The reason behind the term pre-reflective is
İn this type of consciousness although a sense of self is missing the task is actually done by that person.
The person feels its existance by performing that task but naming or identifying that being is not the condition. ‘Pre-reflective’ consciousness is a reflection of consciousness from the environment that interacts. This indirect reflection of consciousness from the environment is not ‘reflective’ as in the case of consciousness adrressing itself.


Please note the reference below which you can find from the Library of Congress.

Effortless attention : a new perspective in the cognitive science of attention and action / edited by Brian Bruya. Cambridge, Mass. : The MIT Press, c2010.

There are other types of consciousnesses or levels of consciousness. Non-conscious or automatic etc.
Sub-conscious processes are a type of non-conscious processes. I will ponder on the how and where to use of these in the future.


In an accident close to the Rhein-Karldap control region in the year 1992 the pilot had entered the height level wrong. There have been many developments and research in many areas since then. In the spot light of these my question is: What may be the reason for attention mistakes during the use of pre-reflective consciousness? What can be done to stop these?


An ATCO has to do many things in a difficult situation, so he uses divided attention. His concentration increases too. This leads to an increase in his thinking speed. The increase in his thinking speed pushes his mind from reflective consciousness to pre-reflective consciousness. The operational conversations moves towards the standard jargon also.


Now the question is, why do mistakes or mishaps, slips happen during the use of pre-reflective consciousness?

1-Overload. Some external reasons make cause attention mistakes.

2-Internal reasons. Affective or self related problems may cause the pre-reflective consciousness fail.
When you say or think ‘I’ or feel a feeling or the worst of it if you feel need for something the pre-reflective consciousness weakens.

3-Motivation. I will ponder on this later. Will and intention are keys in the control of the type of consciousness. A general malaise in volition may cause serious problems in the level of pre-consciousness. I have caused once an interrupt of service to the airplanes in the air during my service at Karlsruhe-Germany ATC area control center and severe lack of motivation was one of the reasons.

Some interesting references:

Unconscious Behavioral Guidance Systems, John A. Bargh,Department of Psychology, Yale University
Ezequiel Morsella, Department of Psychology, San Francisco State University; Department of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco - 2009

Oxford handbook of human action / edited by Ezequiel Morsella, John A. Bargh,Peter M. Gollwitzer. - 2009

Towards a Computational Model of Perception and Action in Human Computer Interaction
Pascal Haazebroek and Bernhard Hommel, Cognitive Psychology Unit & Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition,Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden, 2333 AK The Netherlands - 2009

Situation Awareness vs Self Awareness

'to exist is, for consciousness, to appear to itself' (Sartre, [1]).

Situation Awareness is the Perception of the elements in the Environment within a Volume of Time and Space, the Comprehension of their Meaning,and the Projection of their Status in the Near Future (Endsley, [2]).

SA is related to medical, safety(fire), defense, energy, transportation, any large systems, that require performance abilities from pilots, captains, drivers, operators or performers.

An airline pilot's SA may include[2]:
Geographic(location of own A/C, airport, cities, way points etc),
spatial(altitude,heading, velocity, flight path etc),
system(A/C status info etc),
environmental(weather, visibility etc.)

Situation Awareness is the result of operator consciousness.

Awareness is the result of the function named consciousness:
Towards a Mathematical Model of Consciousness(http://largesystems-atc.blogspot.com/2010/12/towards-mathmetical-model-of.html)

Awareness = Consciousness( time, subject, context,experience, knowledge, affections, algorithm )

algoritm = Neural Network (previous Consciousnesses())

Situation Awareness is the result of the algorithm used at that moment by the operator in correlation with the context, experience, knowledge and affections.

Namely, situation awareness is determined by the type and character of the consciousness that the operator has at that moment.

There are different types of consciousnesses.
reflective consciousness - self-awareness - feel your own existence while you act
pre-reflective consciousness - unify with the objects, percieve your existence through the objects you interact
unreflected consciousness - autonomous processing

Different operational situations may require different type of consciousness or set of mind.

The operator/performer should not only be aware of the situation he is in but also be aware of the mode of consciousness he has.

Ali R+ SARAL


[1] Sartre-P10,'Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions', 'according to Husserl'.

[2] 2001, Endsley: Training for Situation Awareness
http://www.raes-hfg.com/reports/22may01-SitAssessment/220501-endsley.pdf

[3] 2000, Endsley: Theoretical Underpinnings of Situation Awareness-A Critical Review
http://zonecours.hec.ca/documents/A2007-1-1399574.TheoricalUnderpinningsofSituationAwareness_ACriticalReview.pdf

[4] 1996, Endsley, Rogers: ATTENTION DISTRIBUTION AND SITUATION AWARENESS IN AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL
http://www.satechnologies.com/Papers/pdf/HFES96-ATC-SA.pdf

The Effect of Concentration on Self

When we hold something in our hand we feel its shape, heat, texture, humidity and thoughness.

We feel the same attributes of our hand relative to that object at the same time.

Anything that we percieve with our body makes us percieve our body also.

Everything that we percieve with our body reminds us the self. They nourish the self and makes it stronger.

Any kind of systems operator - from a simple driver to a pilot or air traffic controller, nuclear – thermal energy reactor operator –must control how much they concentrate and which things they divide their attention.

Situation awareness requires the preservation of self at even the most critical moments against full automaticity.

High concentration directed at external things stops the effect of their reflections on the self.

This situation causes the air traffic controller who has just solved a critical route conflict, to forget the other minor cases which still require to be handled.

The controller should use tactile control instruments (driving wheel design etc) or touch things while controlling so that he maintains self through touching. Moving, touching control strips are necessary for the maintanance of controller’s self and hence his viewpoint.

Body neurishes self.

TOWARDS A MATHMETICAL MODEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Consciousness is a function. Its output is awareness.

Awareness = Consciousness( … )

Consciousness may produce different awarenesses qualitatively or quantitatively depending on time. For example the awareness of self may change at different moments of the day. Consciousness depends on time.

Awareness = Consciousness( time, … )

Consciousness changes for different subjects. A person may be more cost aware while an other does not. Also we can talk about the consciousnesses of a single person or a group of person. For example, human rights consciousness of a country or nation.

Awareness = Consciousness( time, subject, … )

Consciousness may change based on the context. Different contexts may cause the consciousness function to produce different awarenesses. Seeing a piano carried may make you think the weight of it while listening a performance may make you think about the instrument quality of it. Consciousness depends on context.

Awareness = Consciousness( time, subject, context, … )

Consciousness may change according to the experience of the person it belongs to. An experienced engineer may handle a problem and estimate its difficulty much different than a novice. Experience helps form the consciousness indirectly and as part of the background. A collection of past awarenesses may help form the experience. Experience is more than a collection of awarenesses but it also includes their interactions with each other and with knowledge as a whole.

Awareness = Consciousness( time, subject, context, experience, … )

Consciousness may change according to the amount and quality of knowledge it belongs to.

Awareness = Consciousness( time, subject, context, experience, knowledge, … )

Consciousness is a function or a process. The outcome is awareness. Awareness must be calculated from the input parameters, time, subject, context, experience, knowledge and the last parameter. This calculation may be done with an algorithm. Actually this algorithm can be defined as Consciousness itself… This brings us to the conclusion that Conciousness is
somewhat recursive.

Awareness = Consciousness( time, subject, context, experience, knowledge, Consciousness(…) )

Thinking of the development process of a child, and taking consciousness function as a constant such as sleeping vs being awake, the formula given above can explain the accumulation of experience and knowledge.

The problem with this approach is Consciousness function itself is not constant even during a day and also it changes gradually through a longer period of time. Consciousness learns and improves itself. This can be seen in artificial neuralworks with a learning mechanism.
If we make a change according to this point, a final formula could be:

Awareness = Consciousness( time, subject, context,
experience, knowledge, algorithm )
algoritm = Neural Network (previous Consciousnesses())

I admit that this may look quite subjective for some but it is possible to reduce this assertion to concrete examples and narrow the subjectivity to the point of objectivity.

For example, if we design a system which checks numbers in its input, and senses a sequence that increases by two, the context becomes absolute. Experience may be formulated as past sequences that comply with the increase by two rule. Knowledge becomes the mathmetical calculation. The biggest difficulty is simulating the evolution from experience to knowledge. Knowledge may be limited first as sensing a regular increase, than sensing a regular increase of two. Neural Network algorithm and its learning ability may be used to teach this to the system.

Again, the key thing here is application. This model may be useful, if only applied in a specific domain to handle a specific problem.

On the Nature of Decision Making

The difficulty of making decisions can be made easier by choosing the right decision process. The approach, the epistemology of decision making has to be correctly chosen to make a difficult decision.

We have developed various techniques for making difficult decisions. Partial decisions, delayed decisions, temporary decisions, imperfact decisions, incomplete decisions, reduced decisions, extended decisions.. When studied closely each of these make decision taking easier.

Partial decisions may be implemented in many ways. The basic principle is dividing a difficult task to smaller pieces. The decision may be taken as an aggregate of decisions made on various parts of the main task. The sub divisions may even be given by different individuals. A decision may be divided to subdecisions which are spreaded through time. This may be useful for time dependent tasks. Flight Plan Processing uses this tecnique for ensuring the safe surveillence of air craft.

Delayed decisions also help to clarify complex situations and minimize risk. Air traffic controllers try to delay their decisions as much as possible to avoid unnecessary moves and reduce risk.

Temporary decisions are used when nothing is clear but something has to be done. The chances are your choice may be correct. It is used emergency situations. Temporary decisions are used by companies when they do not have the ability to see the economic situation or the situation of their operations.

Imperfact decisions are made when the ability of the workers or company is not enough. An imperfact decision is taken nevertheless to continue working and improve it ASAP.

An incomplete decision is not an imperfact decision. You make an incomplete decision with open options to be selected later on. It is used when flexibility is required.

Reduced decisions are logically reduced from the required decisions. They are not necessarily the same as the original decision but its results give the linearly independent items of the original decision.

Extended decisions may make things easier by enhancing the results area of the original decision.

It is not enough to educate and train students who can just think excellently. Students of mentally demanding professions should be trained to develop skills and habits of how they can reduce their load of thinking.