24 Ekim 2012 Çarşamba
Too Much Attention May Cause Forgetting
Focusing on a certain thing may cause other things to be forgotten for sometime. After relaxing the focus one may find nothing left from the forgotten things. This may be detrimental where a large systems controller has to return back to handle the normal workload after a critical problem is solved[1,2,3].
Forgetting is inherent in the nature of focusing. “selective attention and behavioral inhibition are two sides of the same coin: Attention is the effect of biasing competition in favor of task-relevant information, and inhibition is the consequence that this has for the irrelevant information[4]”. It is inevitable that irrelevant things will be forgotten when one focuses.
Once focused, brain tries to keep its focus till the goal is achieved.
“PFC must maintain its activity robustly against distractions until a goal is achieved,[4]”. This also makes it impossible to maintain other things in the current memory.
The brain maintains our goals and rewards. “The aim of the cognitive system is not only to predict reward but to pursue the actions that will ensure its procurement[4].”
Setting clear goals and rewards helps to succeed in the current task but increases the exclusion effect of the forgotten current memories. The existence of a reward increases the forgetting effect tremendously.
Many drivers have experienced forgetting the portable parking sign and driving on-hitting it. It is sometimes distraction... But other times when there is no distraction, it is because you have hurry to reach somewhere and you focus all your skill and ability to get out of that narrow parking lot. Too much focusing is not good. Focusing should be proportionate with the task ahead + should have some leeway.
When there are other people in the car the German saying may help: ‘The car is driven not only by the driver but by all the passengers’. There are situations when the large systems operator must really focus his effort. In these situations a copilot, disributed processing of a team serves to replace the forgetting effect.
Unfortunately there are some cases that there exists only one pilot or the ATCO is alone for a short moment etc. In this case, time related intention may be set by the same person. If his volition is in perfact shape, he will automatically remember the waiting tasks as soon as he completes the emergency case. This requires a healthy balance and cooperation between the subconscious and conscious of the operator(I will make a few comments on this later).
Ali R+
Refs:
[1] ICAO -Threat and Error Management (TEM) in Air Traffic Control
PRELIMINARY EDITION - 2005
...
9. ATSP External Threats
9.4.1 Controllers from adjacent units may forget to coordinate traffic,
[2] Steven T. Shorrocka, Barry Kirwanb: Development and application of a human error identification tool for air traffic control; EUROCONTROL Experimental Centre, BP15, F91222, Bretigny Sur Orge, France, February 2002
...
(i) Perception: errors in visual detection and visual search, and errors in listening.
(ii) Memory: forgetting (or misrecalling) temporary or longer-term information, forgetting previous actions, and forgetting planned actions.
(iii) Judgement, planning and decision-making: errors in judging aircraft trajectories, errors in making decisions, and errors in planning.
(iv) Action execution: actions or speech performed notas-planned.
...
Memory: Controllers could forget to issue a planned instruction (e.g. FL or heading) after a distraction, or may forget received information. Reduced separation generally allows less time to address resulting situations, and places more demand on the pilot to sight traffic or request and implement avoiding action. Other errors of memory could include forgetting to check the position of traffic previously observed at long range. With reduced separation minima, it is possible that controllers could delay such checks, knowing that traffic will take more time to cover the distance to separation minima.
[3] Thomas Bove: Development and Validation of a Human Error Management Taxonomy in Air Traffic Control, November 2002
...
type of unintended actions and involve memory failures. Such memory failures can manifest themselves through, for example, forgetting planned items or forgetting intentions.
[4] Earl K. Miller(1), Jonathan D. Cohen(2): AN INTEGRATIVE THEORY OF PREFRONTAL CORTEX FUNCTION
(1)Center for Learning and Memory, RIKEN-MIT Neuroscience Research Center and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139; e-mail: ekm@ai.mit.edu
(2)Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behavior and Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544; e-mail: jdc@princeton.edu
23 Ağustos 2012 Perşembe
Focus vs. Concentrate
‘To focus’ and ‘to concentrate’ are two different forms of ‘attention[3]’.
Attention contains an element of interest and a determination to deal with a certain thing. Focus is “ a point at which rays (as of light, heat, or sound) converge or from which they diverge[4]”. More abstractly focus is “a center of activity, attraction, or attention[4]”. All three of these terms have their roots in absolute usages. They have gained more abstract meanings through the time.
More precisely, attention is “ a condition of readiness for applying the mind to something[1]”. To focus is “to bring into attentional focus[1]”, “to cause to be concentrated[1]”. To concentrate is “to bring or direct toward a common center or objective[2]”, “to focus one's powers, efforts, or attention[2]”. Please refer to the references for extensive dictionary entries.
In one of the forms of visual attention “attention is concentrated to a specific area of the visual scene (i.e. it is focused),” “The focus is an area that extracts information from the visual scene with a high-resolution, the geometric center of which being where visual attention is directed [5].”
To focus is by definition to exclude something and direct the attention to the focused area. This is the same for visual or abstract focusing. To focus on an object means to gather our attention to that specific object and exclude others.
To concentrate is more abstract than to focus by definition. In terms of looking with your eyes, , concentrating means to look at something and see other things only in relation to this reference point. To focus means to look at something and not see other things at all.
Concentric means ‘having a common centre[6]’. It also means ‘to make dense[2]’. To concentrate on an abstract thing means to focus in the beginning on only that thing but than begin to look for all the things semantically related to this focused thing and progress in spheres of abstraction outwards and far from the beginning point.
Focusing implies unconditional exclusion by definition. Concentrating implies inclusion of every possible related thing to a limited subject. For every concentration effort probably there is a focusing stage at the beginning.
Focusing and concentrating are mental functions that belong to human mind. The character of these functions give strong clues on their origins in the mind.
“selective attention and behavioral inhibition are two sides of the same coin: Attention is the effect of biasing competition in favor of task-relevant information, and inhibition is the consequence that this has for the irrelevant information[7].” Selective attention is a Pre Frontal Cortex (PFC) function.
PFC provides many executive control functions including the sense of consciousness.
It is more difficult to find specific limited similarities for concentrating. Concentrating implies strong memory access (probably long term and short term), Anterior Cingulate Cortex for checking whether the semantically related item is really related and usefull, PFC fro executive control and keeping the matter under the control of the ‘will’ and probably others.
A carefull comment can be made after these. Concentrating needs more flexibility and relaxing than focusing. You need brute force to focus immediately, but a more relaxed and flexible attitude and possibly more interaction[8] while concentrating.
Memory retrieval is faster when done as an automatic process. Automatic processes need a more relaxed and flexible attitude. Increased interaction also may help to create interruptions which ACC needs to intervene to check the correctness of the current process[9].
Ali R+ SARAL
REFERENCES:
[1] Merriam-Webster
Definition of FOCUS
transitive verb
1a : to bring into focus b : to adjust the focus of (as the eye or a lens)
2: to cause to be concentrated
3: to bring (as light rays) to a focus : concentrate
intransitive verb
1: to come to a focus : converge
2: to adjust one's eye or a camera to a particular range
3: to concentrate attention or effort
Examples of FOCUS
1. She has an amazing ability to focus for hours at a time.
2. I wasn't able to focus the camera.
3. I wasn't able to get the camera to focus.
First Known Use of FOCUS
1775
[2] Merriam-Webster
Definition of CONCENTRATE
transitive verb
1a : to bring or direct toward a common center or objective : FOCUSb : to gather into one body, mass, or force c : to accumulate (a toxic substance) in bodily tissues
2a : to make less diluteb : to express or exhibit in condensed form
intransitive verb
1: to draw toward or meet in a common center
2: GATHER, COLLECT
3: to focus one's powers, efforts, or attention
Origin of CONCENTRATE
com- + Latin centrum center
First Known Use: 1641
[3] Merriam-Webster
Definition of ATTENTION
1a : the act or state of applying the mind to something b : a condition of readiness for such attention involving especially a selective narrowing or focusing of consciousness and receptivity
2: OBSERVATİON, NOTİCE; especially : consideration with a view to action
3a : an act of civility or courtesy especially in courtshipb : sympathetic consideration of the needs and wants of others : ATTENTİVENESS
...
Examples of ATTENTION
1. We focused our attention on this particular poem.
2. My attention wasn't really on the game.
3. You need to pay more attention in school.
4. She likes all the attention she is getting from the media.
5. The actor avoids drawing attention to himself.
6. The book has received national attention.
7. The trial is getting a lot of public attention.
8. The children were competing for the teacher's attention.
9. A cat on a leash is sure to attract attention.
10. I would like to call your attention to a problem we are having.
Origin of ATTENTION
Middle English attencioun, from Latin attention-, attentio, from attendere
First Known Use: 14th century
[4]Merriam Webster
Definition of FOCUS
1a : a point at which rays (as of light, heat, or sound) converge or from which they diverge or appear to diverge; specifically : the point where the geometrical lines or their prolongations conforming to the rays diverging from or converging toward another point intersect and give rise to an image after reflection by a mirror or refraction by a lens or optical system b : a point of convergence of a beam of particles (as electrons)
2a : FOCAL LENGTH b : adjustment for distinct vision; also : the area that may be seen distinctly or resolved into a clear image c : a state or condition permitting clear perception or understandingd : DİRECTİON 6c
3: one of the fixed points that with the corresponding directrix defines a conic section
4: a localized area of disease or the chief site of a generalized disease or infection
5a : a center of activity, attraction, or attentionb : a point of concentration
6: the place of origin of an earthquake or moonquake
7: directed attention : EMPHASİS
Examples of FOCUS
1. He's successful, but he feels that his life lacks focus.
2. His life lacks a focus.
Origin of FOCUS
New Latin, from Latin, hearth
First Known Use: 1644
[5] Free online dictionary
focal point
n 1. (Physics / General Physics) Also called principal focus the point on the axis of a lens or mirror to which parallel rays of light converge or from which they appear to diverge after refraction or reflection
2. a central point of attention or interest
Selective Attention
In cognitive psychology there are at least two models which describe how visual attention operates. These models may be considered loosely as metaphors which are used to describe internal processes and to generate hypotheses that are falsifiable. Generally speaking, visual attention is thought to operate as a two-stage process.[11] In the first stage, attention is distributed uniformly over the external visual scene and processing of information is performed in parallel. In the second stage, attention is concentrated to a specific area of the visual scene (i.e. it is focused), and processing is performed in a serial fashion.
The first of these models to appear in the literature is the spotlight model. The term "spotlight" was inspired by the work of William James who described attention as having a focus, a margin, and a fringe.[12] The focus is an area that extracts information from the visual scene with a high-resolution, the geometric center of which being where visual attention is directed. Surrounding the focus is the fringe of attention which extracts information in a much more crude fashion (i.e. low-resolution). This fringe extends out to a specified area and this cut-off is called the margin.
[6] Merriam-Webster
Definition of CONCENTRIC
1: having a common center
2: having a common axis : COAXİAL
Origin of CONCENTRIC
Middle English consentrik, from Medieval Latin concentricus, from Latin com- + centrum center
First Known Use: 14th century
[7] AN INTEGRATIVE THEORY OF PREFRONTAL CORTEX FUNCTION
Earl K. Miller, Center for Learning and Memory, RIKEN-MIT Neuroscience Research Center and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT.
Jonathan D. Cohen, Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behavior and Department of Psychology, Princeton
[8]George Bush, Phan Luu and Michael I. Posner
Cognitive and emotional influences in anterior cingulate cortex
The cognitive subdivision is part of a distributed attentional network. It maintains strong reciprocal interconnections with
lateral prefrontal cortex (BA 46/9), parietal cortex (BA 7), and premotor and supplementary motor areas6. Various functions
have been ascribed to the ACcd, including modulation of attention or executive functions by influencing sensory or response
selection (or both); monitoring competition, complex motor control, motivation, novelty, error detection and working
memory; and anticipation of cognitively demanding tasks (see Refs 1,3,5,6,14–17 for reviews).
The affective subdivision, by contrast, is connected to the amygdala, periaqueductal gray, nucleus accumbens, hypothalamus,
anterior insula, hippocampus and orbitofrontal cortex6, and has outflow to autonomic, visceromotor and endocrine systems. The ACad is primarily involved in assessing the salience of emotional and motivational information and the regulation of emotional responses5,6,15,18.
[9] AN INTEGRATIVE THEORY OF PREFRONTAL CORTEX FUNCTION
Earl K. Miller, Center for Learning and Memory, RIKEN-MIT Neuroscience Research Center and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT.
Jonathan D. Cohen, Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behavior and Department of Psychology, Princeton
There was no differential activation observed within ACC during this period. In contrast, strong activation was observed in ACC during the period of stimulus presentation and responding. This activity was greater for conflict than congruent stimuli.
Attention contains an element of interest and a determination to deal with a certain thing. Focus is “ a point at which rays (as of light, heat, or sound) converge or from which they diverge[4]”. More abstractly focus is “a center of activity, attraction, or attention[4]”. All three of these terms have their roots in absolute usages. They have gained more abstract meanings through the time.
More precisely, attention is “ a condition of readiness for applying the mind to something[1]”. To focus is “to bring into attentional focus[1]”, “to cause to be concentrated[1]”. To concentrate is “to bring or direct toward a common center or objective[2]”, “to focus one's powers, efforts, or attention[2]”. Please refer to the references for extensive dictionary entries.
In one of the forms of visual attention “attention is concentrated to a specific area of the visual scene (i.e. it is focused),” “The focus is an area that extracts information from the visual scene with a high-resolution, the geometric center of which being where visual attention is directed [5].”
To focus is by definition to exclude something and direct the attention to the focused area. This is the same for visual or abstract focusing. To focus on an object means to gather our attention to that specific object and exclude others.
To concentrate is more abstract than to focus by definition. In terms of looking with your eyes, , concentrating means to look at something and see other things only in relation to this reference point. To focus means to look at something and not see other things at all.
Concentric means ‘having a common centre[6]’. It also means ‘to make dense[2]’. To concentrate on an abstract thing means to focus in the beginning on only that thing but than begin to look for all the things semantically related to this focused thing and progress in spheres of abstraction outwards and far from the beginning point.
Focusing implies unconditional exclusion by definition. Concentrating implies inclusion of every possible related thing to a limited subject. For every concentration effort probably there is a focusing stage at the beginning.
Focusing and concentrating are mental functions that belong to human mind. The character of these functions give strong clues on their origins in the mind.
“selective attention and behavioral inhibition are two sides of the same coin: Attention is the effect of biasing competition in favor of task-relevant information, and inhibition is the consequence that this has for the irrelevant information[7].” Selective attention is a Pre Frontal Cortex (PFC) function.
PFC provides many executive control functions including the sense of consciousness.
It is more difficult to find specific limited similarities for concentrating. Concentrating implies strong memory access (probably long term and short term), Anterior Cingulate Cortex for checking whether the semantically related item is really related and usefull, PFC fro executive control and keeping the matter under the control of the ‘will’ and probably others.
A carefull comment can be made after these. Concentrating needs more flexibility and relaxing than focusing. You need brute force to focus immediately, but a more relaxed and flexible attitude and possibly more interaction[8] while concentrating.
Memory retrieval is faster when done as an automatic process. Automatic processes need a more relaxed and flexible attitude. Increased interaction also may help to create interruptions which ACC needs to intervene to check the correctness of the current process[9].
Ali R+ SARAL
REFERENCES:
[1] Merriam-Webster
Definition of FOCUS
transitive verb
1a : to bring into focus b : to adjust the focus of (as the eye or a lens)
2: to cause to be concentrated
3: to bring (as light rays) to a focus : concentrate
intransitive verb
1: to come to a focus : converge
2: to adjust one's eye or a camera to a particular range
3: to concentrate attention or effort
Examples of FOCUS
1. She has an amazing ability to focus for hours at a time.
2. I wasn't able to focus the camera.
3. I wasn't able to get the camera to focus.
First Known Use of FOCUS
1775
[2] Merriam-Webster
Definition of CONCENTRATE
transitive verb
1a : to bring or direct toward a common center or objective : FOCUS
2a : to make less dilute
intransitive verb
1: to draw toward or meet in a common center
2: GATHER, COLLECT
3: to focus one's powers, efforts, or attention
Origin of CONCENTRATE
com- + Latin centrum center
First Known Use: 1641
[3] Merriam-Webster
Definition of ATTENTION
1a : the act or state of applying the mind to something b : a condition of readiness for such attention involving especially a selective narrowing or focusing of consciousness and receptivity
2: OBSERVATİON, NOTİCE; especially : consideration with a view to action
3a : an act of civility or courtesy especially in courtship
...
Examples of ATTENTION
1. We focused our attention on this particular poem.
2. My attention wasn't really on the game.
3. You need to pay more attention in school.
4. She likes all the attention she is getting from the media.
5. The actor avoids drawing attention to himself.
6. The book has received national attention.
7. The trial is getting a lot of public attention.
8. The children were competing for the teacher's attention.
9. A cat on a leash is sure to attract attention.
10. I would like to call your attention to a problem we are having.
Origin of ATTENTION
Middle English attencioun, from Latin attention-, attentio, from attendere
First Known Use: 14th century
[4]Merriam Webster
Definition of FOCUS
1a : a point at which rays (as of light, heat, or sound) converge or from which they diverge or appear to diverge; specifically : the point where the geometrical lines or their prolongations conforming to the rays diverging from or converging toward another point intersect and give rise to an image after reflection by a mirror or refraction by a lens or optical system b : a point of convergence of a beam of particles (as electrons)
2a : FOCAL LENGTH b : adjustment for distinct vision; also : the area that may be seen distinctly or resolved into a clear image c : a state or condition permitting clear perception or understanding
3: one of the fixed points that with the corresponding directrix defines a conic section
4: a localized area of disease or the chief site of a generalized disease or infection
5a : a center of activity, attraction, or attention
6: the place of origin of an earthquake or moonquake
7: directed attention : EMPHASİS
Examples of FOCUS
1. He's successful, but he feels that his life lacks focus.
2. His life lacks a focus.
Origin of FOCUS
New Latin, from Latin, hearth
First Known Use: 1644
[5] Free online dictionary
focal point
n 1. (Physics / General Physics) Also called principal focus the point on the axis of a lens or mirror to which parallel rays of light converge or from which they appear to diverge after refraction or reflection
2. a central point of attention or interest
Selective Attention
In cognitive psychology there are at least two models which describe how visual attention operates. These models may be considered loosely as metaphors which are used to describe internal processes and to generate hypotheses that are falsifiable. Generally speaking, visual attention is thought to operate as a two-stage process.[11] In the first stage, attention is distributed uniformly over the external visual scene and processing of information is performed in parallel. In the second stage, attention is concentrated to a specific area of the visual scene (i.e. it is focused), and processing is performed in a serial fashion.
The first of these models to appear in the literature is the spotlight model. The term "spotlight" was inspired by the work of William James who described attention as having a focus, a margin, and a fringe.[12] The focus is an area that extracts information from the visual scene with a high-resolution, the geometric center of which being where visual attention is directed. Surrounding the focus is the fringe of attention which extracts information in a much more crude fashion (i.e. low-resolution). This fringe extends out to a specified area and this cut-off is called the margin.
[6] Merriam-Webster
Definition of CONCENTRIC
1: having a common center
2: having a common axis : COAXİAL
Origin of CONCENTRIC
Middle English consentrik, from Medieval Latin concentricus, from Latin com- + centrum center
First Known Use: 14th century
[7] AN INTEGRATIVE THEORY OF PREFRONTAL CORTEX FUNCTION
Earl K. Miller, Center for Learning and Memory, RIKEN-MIT Neuroscience Research Center and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT.
Jonathan D. Cohen, Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behavior and Department of Psychology, Princeton
[8]George Bush, Phan Luu and Michael I. Posner
Cognitive and emotional influences in anterior cingulate cortex
The cognitive subdivision is part of a distributed attentional network. It maintains strong reciprocal interconnections with
lateral prefrontal cortex (BA 46/9), parietal cortex (BA 7), and premotor and supplementary motor areas6. Various functions
have been ascribed to the ACcd, including modulation of attention or executive functions by influencing sensory or response
selection (or both); monitoring competition, complex motor control, motivation, novelty, error detection and working
memory; and anticipation of cognitively demanding tasks (see Refs 1,3,5,6,14–17 for reviews).
The affective subdivision, by contrast, is connected to the amygdala, periaqueductal gray, nucleus accumbens, hypothalamus,
anterior insula, hippocampus and orbitofrontal cortex6, and has outflow to autonomic, visceromotor and endocrine systems. The ACad is primarily involved in assessing the salience of emotional and motivational information and the regulation of emotional responses5,6,15,18.
[9] AN INTEGRATIVE THEORY OF PREFRONTAL CORTEX FUNCTION
Earl K. Miller, Center for Learning and Memory, RIKEN-MIT Neuroscience Research Center and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT.
Jonathan D. Cohen, Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behavior and Department of Psychology, Princeton
There was no differential activation observed within ACC during this period. In contrast, strong activation was observed in ACC during the period of stimulus presentation and responding. This activity was greater for conflict than congruent stimuli.
31 Temmuz 2012 Salı
Relaxing After High Concentration - 3
A FUNCTION OF IMAGENING
We adjust our concentration level by looking and seeing. They normally balance each other through the natural flow of the events in the daily life. This balance determines the thinking speed. Motivation, dreaming about success or dreaming about things that will come with success increases our bodyly and mental capacity hence helps us to succeed.
Let’s return back to the vision metaphor. If we focus on something and look at it sternly, our looking focus gets smaller, concentration increases to maximum, on the other hand ambient vision begins to increase and after a while our vision gets blurred and our eyes begin to contemplate. There is a natural control mechanism that stops the increase in the concentration. Focused vision based on conscious control is balanced by ambient vision which is controlled by subconscious in the daily life.
Unfortunately, when doing things professionally or using long duration high concentration we stop this natural mechanism with our control mechanism and determination. As a result of this, we are left with a mental tiredness at the end of the job that we can not get rid of with the natural mechanisms of our mind. To relax from high concentration we should erase the memory areas that were used, or forget everything related to this task. This is not a simple operation. The experience that is gathered, the knowledge that is attained must be organized and stored but at the same time the unnecessary information details, semantic relations that are gathered shall be erased or in the computing jargon ‘garbage collection’ must be done. Hence,mental activity does not end at the end of the task. The Project Evaluation meeting is important not only for the preservation of the organization experience but also it serves the mental health of the individuals who participated in the project.
One of the things that the garbage collection in the human mind is done with, is imagening. In the evaluation meetings that I have mentioned above, alternative suggestions on how to do things and, what would have happened, would enable us to see other possibilities and opportunities besides the routine pieces of the task.
I will write an other article on the organization aspect of the subject. The working memory that we use for cognition is not similar to a computer memory. It is not organized as linear located cells on a page. It is fragmented and distributed with many interconnections. Indeed the working memory is a collection of neurons distributed in the brain that can be kept connected and reached during a certain time frame. Even the input buffers and the long term buffers may be included to the working memory as needed. This happens when long duration high concentration is used and is frequent in software development.
In order to relax, the relational connections shall be erased. The connections can not be erased with a single commend like a computer. Accept in the case of electric schock... Something has to be overwritten in order to be forgotten. Infact, this is impossible.If the information has stayed under the attention for a considerable duration, it will be connected to a very wide network. This is an automatic connection process which may reach very high abstraction levels. Nevertheless if something is not updated proportionate to its tenure under attention, it will finally get forgotten or, its retrieval become extremely difficult. Of course this is related with the subject matter, personal things related to te very self are difficult to forget.
McKIM proposes this solution in the “Directed Imagination” section of his book ‘Experience in Visual Thinking’: “Control the passive negative worries and transform them to a productive imagination. If you worry about a failure, dream the positive success instead. If you are afraid of missing a deadline, dream the happiness you will fell when you catch it...” McCim also mentions that one should use professional advise when utilizing imagination.
I believe added to the methods related to decreasing the thinking speed, imagining or day-dreaming may also help. Imagining small dreams related to the job done that day, may be completely absurd, unrelated, funny dreams, freeing your mind, imagination, subconscious from everything may help to forget the already created load of semantically related connections.
In his work named ‘Imagination and Emotion’ Sartre states that “the necessity for a consciousness to imagine is the ability to propose an unreal hypothesis”. In short, in order to imagine, you should propose a hypothesis Outside the existing phenomenons and against the reality theyconvey. If pondered upon, one can see that this is close to being impossible if tried to achieve completely. Sartre proposes that this can be done at least using a certain point of view. Sartre states “In order to imagine, conciousness should be able to escape from the world; should be able to withdraw from the world with its own effort”. For this, “Conciousness must be free”.
Sartre’s ‘Imagination and Emotion’ includes strong clues that after long duration high concentration, imagening may do the ‘garbage collection’ that I have described above. I will further elaborate in my future articles on this matter.
“Man becomes great to the extent that he controls his imagination.” (Rolf Alexander, The Mind in Healing, Dutton).
Ali R+ SARAL
29 Temmuz 2012 Pazar
Relaxing After High Concentration - 2
To Forget – To Empty the Mental Energy
What does ‘mentally relaxing’ mean? It is to forget the thing you have focused your attention on together with its semantical relations. Namely, to forget what you pay attention to and its relations.
To concentrate is focusing your attention to a certain subject and remember related things , thus forget the unrelated things. Hence you erase things unrelated to the subject from your working memory. You remember and bring relavent things into your working memory instead.
In fact the working memory of the mind should not be viewed like a computer addressed page. It should be viewed as a network and even networks of networks of which connection weights can be adjusted and reduced to null.
When focusing the weights of connections between some specific neurons increase. These neurons have to be related to the subject and may be located at various parts distributed in our brain.
High concentration occurs when the application duration ofdedicated attention and the character of focusing is augmented. Long duration high concentration occurs when concentration on a subject continuously for three or six months. The mind accumulates a large amount of information on a specific subject and tries to find a solution (for example in large software projects).
In the case of long duration high concentration, the brain adds buffers related to perception to the working memory and the short term memory layer(episodic and other). The slowness in the body movements of large systems engineers or the behaviour of surgeons after operations, for ex. Both group has the tendency to put their personal belongings always to the same locations... are the result of extreme mental load. This difficulty is the result of the working memory expanding over average size and short term memory getting overloaded with too many relations. Episodic memory and buffer memories related with basic senses get added to the working memory. The situation gets to the stage that you begin to forget simple things such as you have stopped at the previous red light. Smell and taste senses get weaker.
Under heavy load, the brain does not only lncrease the relations of the elements in the subject matter but also takes meaures to increase the relational mechanisms and elavating precautions. It changes the neuraş networks’ propogational properties by making the body secrete hormones. Hence, thresholds for making decisions change and it gets easier to resolve a decision regardless of whether it is right or wrong. The hormones that affect this, affects the person’s affections also. It is not a coincidence that engineers get increasingly more sensitive at the end of difficult projects or calm people get belligerent... Strangely, things get calmed down by the end of the project.
The commands that the brain sends to the body under heavy mental load affects not only the affective behaviour and decision thresholds of the person. The affective changes affect the thinking speed also. The new propogation conditions created by the hormones does not only affect the macro level decision making but also affects the micro events of relational connection establishing and determination of connection weights. For ex. The abrupt and mostly correct reactions shown under emergency conditions depend on the adjustment of the thinking speed as well as automatic processes.
A global result of high and long duration concentration is that the mental control ability of the person increases over normal levels. An indication of this is the increase in the speaking native and foreign languages ability, also an increase in the perception sensitivity. You begin to notice things on your computer screen that you normally did not see before. You begin to remember the relational details of past events that you have not noticed before.
An even more increase of the thinking speed causes serious problems. You begin to see halucinations or hear sounds. Difficulties in using the language begin. You begin to hear other languages when speaking your native tongue. The same problems recur in your mind continuously.
A person under stress has difficulty to forget(interalia). The inability to put aside everything and to look at problems with a fresh mind stops the chance of finding solutions as well as deepening of the mental disturbance. It may not be a good solution to go to a long nice vacation in this situation. When you open the house door on your return, you will find the same problems exactly as you have left them behind.
If paid attention the stages that the problem occurs most seriously give strong clues to its solution. Forgetting is one of these. If we can forget even some details of the things that happened after a mentally loaded day, if they do not come back to your mind this means everything is OK.The key to relaxing, to stay away from the bad effects of high concentration is forgetting.
Forgetting destroys the semantic relations network formed by the high concentration, erases the connection weights created for this network. The destroying-reduction of the connection weights reduces the cognitive ability and slows down the thinking speed. Although speed is a chemical or hormonal phenomenon logical structure may have a slowing effect on the speed.
Forgetting, specifically forgetting the context, reduces the load on the memory hence reduces the enforcement of the perception buffer memories to act as the working memory. The speed of the forgetting process may cause negative effects after heavy concentration periods. The person begins to get interested with many cmopletely unrelated subjects using the mental capacity he/she has created. Such as pushing self to remember details of things in the past, thinking extremely abstract subjects. He tries to continue to push self mentally with other activities.
When stopping long duration high concentration or even stopping the daily working process,mental activities with increasingly lower densities may help. One should leave some time to the brain to adjust. For example, listening English news first, then Turkish news, and then an art program and then an entertainment program... Close the TV and sip some tea on your favorite armchair...
By the way, what does normal people do when they use high concentration sometimes? They do not do anything intentional. Their physique and the personality that they have developed protects them. The problem occurs on people who work on large systems with critical responsibilities, concentrating highly for long durations or jobs requiring to carry a subject in one’s mind for long durations. These people break down the resistence their brains show to high concentration by material or immaterial motivations. If these people are not trained to take precautions against these problems they become prone to serious mental risks.
When your mind gets tired your attention drops and you begin to think different subjects. As an example to your mind taking autonomous precautions is seeing halucinations when the thinking speed increases too much. Infact halucination is a way of getting rid of excessive mental energy.
Your behavioural patterns may have a protective effect. For example, a person under heavy load tries to act using more plans. Programming and planning, designing require a high amount of mental effort hence, help to empty the brain from mental energy. These not only organize the tasks to do but also helps to spend the excessive mental energy.
The problem is the excessive increase in the mental energy and the thinking speed because of the excessive concntration. They remain at these high levels for durations as long as 3 – 6 months and they do not drop down to normal levels during this long period of time. This unreducing mental energy and thinking speed causes permanent changes in the brains of the related employees. The employees must be trained against the bad side effects of long duration high concentration and they must be screened psychologically in a systematic way.
My next article will propose a method to relax for large systems employees who have critical duties. The most important problem with a tired mind is being unable to forget that day and its difficulties. There must be some memory mechanisms in order to forget easily. If we can analize these mechanisms carefully may be we can develop some useful techniques.
What does ‘mentally relaxing’ mean? It is to forget the thing you have focused your attention on together with its semantical relations. Namely, to forget what you pay attention to and its relations.
To concentrate is focusing your attention to a certain subject and remember related things , thus forget the unrelated things. Hence you erase things unrelated to the subject from your working memory. You remember and bring relavent things into your working memory instead.
In fact the working memory of the mind should not be viewed like a computer addressed page. It should be viewed as a network and even networks of networks of which connection weights can be adjusted and reduced to null.
When focusing the weights of connections between some specific neurons increase. These neurons have to be related to the subject and may be located at various parts distributed in our brain.
High concentration occurs when the application duration ofdedicated attention and the character of focusing is augmented. Long duration high concentration occurs when concentration on a subject continuously for three or six months. The mind accumulates a large amount of information on a specific subject and tries to find a solution (for example in large software projects).
In the case of long duration high concentration, the brain adds buffers related to perception to the working memory and the short term memory layer(episodic and other). The slowness in the body movements of large systems engineers or the behaviour of surgeons after operations, for ex. Both group has the tendency to put their personal belongings always to the same locations... are the result of extreme mental load. This difficulty is the result of the working memory expanding over average size and short term memory getting overloaded with too many relations. Episodic memory and buffer memories related with basic senses get added to the working memory. The situation gets to the stage that you begin to forget simple things such as you have stopped at the previous red light. Smell and taste senses get weaker.
Under heavy load, the brain does not only lncrease the relations of the elements in the subject matter but also takes meaures to increase the relational mechanisms and elavating precautions. It changes the neuraş networks’ propogational properties by making the body secrete hormones. Hence, thresholds for making decisions change and it gets easier to resolve a decision regardless of whether it is right or wrong. The hormones that affect this, affects the person’s affections also. It is not a coincidence that engineers get increasingly more sensitive at the end of difficult projects or calm people get belligerent... Strangely, things get calmed down by the end of the project.
The commands that the brain sends to the body under heavy mental load affects not only the affective behaviour and decision thresholds of the person. The affective changes affect the thinking speed also. The new propogation conditions created by the hormones does not only affect the macro level decision making but also affects the micro events of relational connection establishing and determination of connection weights. For ex. The abrupt and mostly correct reactions shown under emergency conditions depend on the adjustment of the thinking speed as well as automatic processes.
A global result of high and long duration concentration is that the mental control ability of the person increases over normal levels. An indication of this is the increase in the speaking native and foreign languages ability, also an increase in the perception sensitivity. You begin to notice things on your computer screen that you normally did not see before. You begin to remember the relational details of past events that you have not noticed before.
An even more increase of the thinking speed causes serious problems. You begin to see halucinations or hear sounds. Difficulties in using the language begin. You begin to hear other languages when speaking your native tongue. The same problems recur in your mind continuously.
A person under stress has difficulty to forget(interalia). The inability to put aside everything and to look at problems with a fresh mind stops the chance of finding solutions as well as deepening of the mental disturbance. It may not be a good solution to go to a long nice vacation in this situation. When you open the house door on your return, you will find the same problems exactly as you have left them behind.
If paid attention the stages that the problem occurs most seriously give strong clues to its solution. Forgetting is one of these. If we can forget even some details of the things that happened after a mentally loaded day, if they do not come back to your mind this means everything is OK.The key to relaxing, to stay away from the bad effects of high concentration is forgetting.
Forgetting destroys the semantic relations network formed by the high concentration, erases the connection weights created for this network. The destroying-reduction of the connection weights reduces the cognitive ability and slows down the thinking speed. Although speed is a chemical or hormonal phenomenon logical structure may have a slowing effect on the speed.
Forgetting, specifically forgetting the context, reduces the load on the memory hence reduces the enforcement of the perception buffer memories to act as the working memory. The speed of the forgetting process may cause negative effects after heavy concentration periods. The person begins to get interested with many cmopletely unrelated subjects using the mental capacity he/she has created. Such as pushing self to remember details of things in the past, thinking extremely abstract subjects. He tries to continue to push self mentally with other activities.
When stopping long duration high concentration or even stopping the daily working process,mental activities with increasingly lower densities may help. One should leave some time to the brain to adjust. For example, listening English news first, then Turkish news, and then an art program and then an entertainment program... Close the TV and sip some tea on your favorite armchair...
By the way, what does normal people do when they use high concentration sometimes? They do not do anything intentional. Their physique and the personality that they have developed protects them. The problem occurs on people who work on large systems with critical responsibilities, concentrating highly for long durations or jobs requiring to carry a subject in one’s mind for long durations. These people break down the resistence their brains show to high concentration by material or immaterial motivations. If these people are not trained to take precautions against these problems they become prone to serious mental risks.
When your mind gets tired your attention drops and you begin to think different subjects. As an example to your mind taking autonomous precautions is seeing halucinations when the thinking speed increases too much. Infact halucination is a way of getting rid of excessive mental energy.
Your behavioural patterns may have a protective effect. For example, a person under heavy load tries to act using more plans. Programming and planning, designing require a high amount of mental effort hence, help to empty the brain from mental energy. These not only organize the tasks to do but also helps to spend the excessive mental energy.
The problem is the excessive increase in the mental energy and the thinking speed because of the excessive concntration. They remain at these high levels for durations as long as 3 – 6 months and they do not drop down to normal levels during this long period of time. This unreducing mental energy and thinking speed causes permanent changes in the brains of the related employees. The employees must be trained against the bad side effects of long duration high concentration and they must be screened psychologically in a systematic way.
My next article will propose a method to relax for large systems employees who have critical duties. The most important problem with a tired mind is being unable to forget that day and its difficulties. There must be some memory mechanisms in order to forget easily. If we can analize these mechanisms carefully may be we can develop some useful techniques.
16 Temmuz 2012 Pazartesi
Relaxing After High Concentration- 1
What can be done after a tiring day to relax? Even people working in normal jobs have to spend effort to relax after some heavy loaded days. This article is the first of a series that explains some of the techniques that can be used to relax... After the first article which is about ‘Focal’ and ‘ambient’ vision types and their relation to relaxing, I will write about getting rid of mental energy by using it for nothing and the function of imagination. As the last point of interest, I will propose a technique to get rid of the high concentration and relax by alluding to Sartre’s “Imagination and Consciousness”.
Every engineer, air traffic controller, large systems operator who work with computers have to focus their attention to a small area for long periods of time. These people have difficulty looking at large areas and at distant things when they get out of their working place.
Our mental operations related to vision are of two kinds- focal and ambient. Focal vision is almost always related with fovea which is without rods and related with small details, pattern recognition. For example reading writings and identifying small things. Ambient vision is related with seing things on the periphery not the center. It is related with orientation and ego motion – to feel the speed and direction of our own movement[1].
Our focal and ambient vision abilities and mental resources define each other actively. For example, we can read a book while we walk down the aisle or we can read the street names while we drive. This situation show that there is an effective time sharing between them, they are executed by different brain structures and their information processing characteristics are different.
It is suggested that an effective time sharing between focal and ambient vision exists because the ambient vision is an automatic process[1]. The mental tiredness created by the concious process of the focal vision in the case of long durations, may be elavated by the automatic process of ambient vision. The problem, at this point arises in the case of long duration high concentration. High concentration stops the automatic process triggering. Hence, the relaxing of the vision mechanism of the mind by its natural balancing becomes impossible. The relaxing of the mind in some cases by driving a car may be related to the balanced use of automatic processes and attention.
The mind’s vision processing gives strong hints about its whole processing. The focal and ambient vision mechanisms may abstractly be related to focusing on a subject and feel the peripheral concepts and objects related to this subject automatically. For example, it is mind’s ambient like mechanisms that enables us to trust him.
When you look at the carpet under the table, even though some of the patterns are behind the table’s legs you still percieve the situation as if you see the whole carpet. The mind deducts the continuation of patterns from the way day come and although they are not seen it is felt as if they are[2]. The deduction of patterns may be related with the ambient vision and more general automatic processing of the brain.
When we see an object, our mind deals with its visual attributes primarily. It completes the missing parts with good continuation if they can not be seen. As the time passes, the semantic tree objects begin to get triggered. An object passes to the working memory after staying in the perception memory for a certain amount of time.
Hence it begins to trigger the semantic connections related to itself[3]. When you see a person, even though you do not focus on him, his height, suit colour, physical attributes, gender, etc. And his abstract attributes get triggered and gets prepared to serve your attention. In fact Sartre’s example for visual completion is valid for mental completion also.
Focusing infact is leaving enough time for looking. If we look at a constant object and continue to do so for a long time, our attention concentrates on that object. Blinking period increases, even our breathing decreases. A large systems engineer who works with high concentration for long durations gets physically tired even by simply concentrating. The engineer focuses on a specific subject and related issues, building semantic relations. This process continues iteratively till it converges to a solution. To change a single line of code in an air traffic control system the whole system has to be studied in relation to this change and its functional effects have to be analized. This process requires a high level of concentration to be maintained for upto six months.
Not only people who work at long duration high concentration jobs but also even students who prepare for finals have difficulty in relaxing after a complete working day. Everyone has developed a personal technique to relax intuitively or by experience. My point is, large systems operators have to be trained to learn and apply these techniques systematically...
Let’s return back to the vision metaphor. If we focus on something and look at it sternly, our looking focus gets smaller, concentration increases to maximum, on the other hand ambient vision begins to increase and after a while our vision gets blurred and our eyes begin to contemplate. There is a natural control mechanism.
We adjust our concentration level by looking and seeing. The balancing of each of focal and ambient vision in the flow of the normal life adjusts our mind’s thinking speed[4]. At the beginning of our cognitive evolution lies in the visual ability. Systematic seeing and looking may give us some clues for relaxing after long duration heavy concentration.
After high concentration jobs with focused vision one should give more chance to the automatic processes of the ambient vision. It would be usefull to stay 3-4 hours in an environment with a wide view and far distances. To view the depths not the surface, the view not the objects but the volume created between them would be useful. To view objects in their context and imagine the missing parts that can not be seen.
After non-visual jobs that concentrate on abstract concepts it would be useful to stay in a wide view environment with horizon and a far sea sight too. To look at the things on the surface, to view objects without their relations, to bring everything to the surface would be necessary...
References:
[1] Wickens, C. D., “Multiple Resources and Performance Prediction”, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Institute of Aviation USA
[2] Sartre, J. P., “Basic Writings - Imagination and Emotion, The Psychology of Imagination, Consciousness and Imagination”, Edited By Stephen Priest, Routledge, 2005
[3] Saral, A. R., “Düşünüş Durağanlığı”, http://largesystems-atc.blogspot.com/2008/09/dn-duraanlii.html
[4] Saral, A. R., “Farklılaşan Beyin”, http://largesystems-atc.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
Some allusions::
[1] Multiple resources and performance prediction
CHRISTOPHER D. WICKENS*
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Institute of Aviation Willard Airport, Aviation
Human Factors Division, Aviation Research Laboratory, 1 Airport Road, Savoy, IL 61874,
USA
Keywords: Attention; Performance; Time sharing workload.
4.3. Visual channels
In addition to the distinction between auditory and visual modalities of processing, there is good evidence that two aspects of visual processing, referred to as focal and ambient vision, appear to define separate resources in the sense of
(a) supporting efficient time-sharing,
(b) being characterized by qualitatively different brain structures, and
(c) being associated with qualitatively different types of information processing
(Leibowitz et al. 1982, Weinstein and Wickens 1992, Previc 1998).
Focal vision, which is nearly always foveal, is required for fine detail and pattern recognition (e.g. reading text, identifying small objects). In contrast, ambient vision heavily (but not exclusively) involves peripheral vision, and is used for sensing orientation and ego motion (the direction and speed with which one moves through the environment). When we successfully walk down a corridor while reading a book, we are exploiting the parallel processing or multiple resource capabilities of focal and ambient vision, just as we are when keeping the car moving forward in the centre of the lane (ambient vision) while reading a road sign, glancing at the rear view mirror or recognizing a hazardous object in the middle of the road (focal vision).
Aircraft designers have considered several ways of exploiting ambient vision to provide guidance and alerting information to pilots, while their focal vision is heavily loaded by 166 C. D. Wickens perceiving specific channels of displayed instrument information (Stokes et al. 1990, Liggett et al. 1999) It is appropriate to ask whether the successful time sharing of focal and ambient visual tasks results because ambient vision uses separate resources, or because it uses no resources at all; that is, processing from ambient vision may be said to be 'preattentive' or automated. At the present time, insufficient data exist to answer this question, as few researchers have attempted to examine dual task performance of two ambient tasks. One study (Weinstein and Wickens 1992), however, did suggest that the second (pre-attentive/automatic) explanation offered above may in fact be the more correct one.
[2] Jean-Paul Sartre: Basic Writings, Edited By Stephen Priest, Routledge, 2005
Imagination and Emotion, The Psychology of Imagination, Consciousness and Imagination
P 95
For an objects or any element of an object there is a great difference between being grasped as nothing and being-given-as-absent.
…
For instance, the arabesques of the rug I am viewing are both in part given to my intuition. The legs of the arm chair which stands before the window conceal certain curves, certain designs. But I nevertheless seize these hidden arabesques as existing now, as hidden but not at all as absent. … I grasp what has been given me of their continuation.
…
It is therefore in the way in which I grasp the data that I posit that which is not given as being real. Real by the same right as the data, as that which gives its meaning and its very nature. Likewise the successive tones of a melody are grasped by appropriate retentions as that which makes of the tone now heard exactly what it is. In this sense, to percieve this or that real datum is to percieve it on the foundation of total reality as a whole.”
P96
“If I want to imagine the hidden arabesques, I direct my attention upon them and isolate them, just as I isolate on the foundation of an undifferentiated universe the thing I actually percieve. I cease to grasp them as empty but constituting the sense of the percieved reality, instead I present them to myself, in themselves. But at the moment that I cease to concieve them as continuous present in order to grasp them in themselves, I grasp them as absent. Of course they really exist over there, under the chair , and it is over there that I think of them, but in thinking of them where they are not given to me, I grasp them as nothing for me. Thus the imaginative act is at once constitutive, isolating and annihilating.
Every engineer, air traffic controller, large systems operator who work with computers have to focus their attention to a small area for long periods of time. These people have difficulty looking at large areas and at distant things when they get out of their working place.
Our mental operations related to vision are of two kinds- focal and ambient. Focal vision is almost always related with fovea which is without rods and related with small details, pattern recognition. For example reading writings and identifying small things. Ambient vision is related with seing things on the periphery not the center. It is related with orientation and ego motion – to feel the speed and direction of our own movement[1].
Our focal and ambient vision abilities and mental resources define each other actively. For example, we can read a book while we walk down the aisle or we can read the street names while we drive. This situation show that there is an effective time sharing between them, they are executed by different brain structures and their information processing characteristics are different.
It is suggested that an effective time sharing between focal and ambient vision exists because the ambient vision is an automatic process[1]. The mental tiredness created by the concious process of the focal vision in the case of long durations, may be elavated by the automatic process of ambient vision. The problem, at this point arises in the case of long duration high concentration. High concentration stops the automatic process triggering. Hence, the relaxing of the vision mechanism of the mind by its natural balancing becomes impossible. The relaxing of the mind in some cases by driving a car may be related to the balanced use of automatic processes and attention.
The mind’s vision processing gives strong hints about its whole processing. The focal and ambient vision mechanisms may abstractly be related to focusing on a subject and feel the peripheral concepts and objects related to this subject automatically. For example, it is mind’s ambient like mechanisms that enables us to trust him.
When you look at the carpet under the table, even though some of the patterns are behind the table’s legs you still percieve the situation as if you see the whole carpet. The mind deducts the continuation of patterns from the way day come and although they are not seen it is felt as if they are[2]. The deduction of patterns may be related with the ambient vision and more general automatic processing of the brain.
When we see an object, our mind deals with its visual attributes primarily. It completes the missing parts with good continuation if they can not be seen. As the time passes, the semantic tree objects begin to get triggered. An object passes to the working memory after staying in the perception memory for a certain amount of time.
Hence it begins to trigger the semantic connections related to itself[3]. When you see a person, even though you do not focus on him, his height, suit colour, physical attributes, gender, etc. And his abstract attributes get triggered and gets prepared to serve your attention. In fact Sartre’s example for visual completion is valid for mental completion also.
Focusing infact is leaving enough time for looking. If we look at a constant object and continue to do so for a long time, our attention concentrates on that object. Blinking period increases, even our breathing decreases. A large systems engineer who works with high concentration for long durations gets physically tired even by simply concentrating. The engineer focuses on a specific subject and related issues, building semantic relations. This process continues iteratively till it converges to a solution. To change a single line of code in an air traffic control system the whole system has to be studied in relation to this change and its functional effects have to be analized. This process requires a high level of concentration to be maintained for upto six months.
Not only people who work at long duration high concentration jobs but also even students who prepare for finals have difficulty in relaxing after a complete working day. Everyone has developed a personal technique to relax intuitively or by experience. My point is, large systems operators have to be trained to learn and apply these techniques systematically...
Let’s return back to the vision metaphor. If we focus on something and look at it sternly, our looking focus gets smaller, concentration increases to maximum, on the other hand ambient vision begins to increase and after a while our vision gets blurred and our eyes begin to contemplate. There is a natural control mechanism.
We adjust our concentration level by looking and seeing. The balancing of each of focal and ambient vision in the flow of the normal life adjusts our mind’s thinking speed[4]. At the beginning of our cognitive evolution lies in the visual ability. Systematic seeing and looking may give us some clues for relaxing after long duration heavy concentration.
After high concentration jobs with focused vision one should give more chance to the automatic processes of the ambient vision. It would be usefull to stay 3-4 hours in an environment with a wide view and far distances. To view the depths not the surface, the view not the objects but the volume created between them would be useful. To view objects in their context and imagine the missing parts that can not be seen.
After non-visual jobs that concentrate on abstract concepts it would be useful to stay in a wide view environment with horizon and a far sea sight too. To look at the things on the surface, to view objects without their relations, to bring everything to the surface would be necessary...
References:
[1] Wickens, C. D., “Multiple Resources and Performance Prediction”, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Institute of Aviation USA
[2] Sartre, J. P., “Basic Writings - Imagination and Emotion, The Psychology of Imagination, Consciousness and Imagination”, Edited By Stephen Priest, Routledge, 2005
[3] Saral, A. R., “Düşünüş Durağanlığı”, http://largesystems-atc.blogspot.com/2008/09/dn-duraanlii.html
[4] Saral, A. R., “Farklılaşan Beyin”, http://largesystems-atc.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
Some allusions::
[1] Multiple resources and performance prediction
CHRISTOPHER D. WICKENS*
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Institute of Aviation Willard Airport, Aviation
Human Factors Division, Aviation Research Laboratory, 1 Airport Road, Savoy, IL 61874,
USA
Keywords: Attention; Performance; Time sharing workload.
4.3. Visual channels
In addition to the distinction between auditory and visual modalities of processing, there is good evidence that two aspects of visual processing, referred to as focal and ambient vision, appear to define separate resources in the sense of
(a) supporting efficient time-sharing,
(b) being characterized by qualitatively different brain structures, and
(c) being associated with qualitatively different types of information processing
(Leibowitz et al. 1982, Weinstein and Wickens 1992, Previc 1998).
Focal vision, which is nearly always foveal, is required for fine detail and pattern recognition (e.g. reading text, identifying small objects). In contrast, ambient vision heavily (but not exclusively) involves peripheral vision, and is used for sensing orientation and ego motion (the direction and speed with which one moves through the environment). When we successfully walk down a corridor while reading a book, we are exploiting the parallel processing or multiple resource capabilities of focal and ambient vision, just as we are when keeping the car moving forward in the centre of the lane (ambient vision) while reading a road sign, glancing at the rear view mirror or recognizing a hazardous object in the middle of the road (focal vision).
Aircraft designers have considered several ways of exploiting ambient vision to provide guidance and alerting information to pilots, while their focal vision is heavily loaded by 166 C. D. Wickens perceiving specific channels of displayed instrument information (Stokes et al. 1990, Liggett et al. 1999) It is appropriate to ask whether the successful time sharing of focal and ambient visual tasks results because ambient vision uses separate resources, or because it uses no resources at all; that is, processing from ambient vision may be said to be 'preattentive' or automated. At the present time, insufficient data exist to answer this question, as few researchers have attempted to examine dual task performance of two ambient tasks. One study (Weinstein and Wickens 1992), however, did suggest that the second (pre-attentive/automatic) explanation offered above may in fact be the more correct one.
[2] Jean-Paul Sartre: Basic Writings, Edited By Stephen Priest, Routledge, 2005
Imagination and Emotion, The Psychology of Imagination, Consciousness and Imagination
P 95
For an objects or any element of an object there is a great difference between being grasped as nothing and being-given-as-absent.
…
For instance, the arabesques of the rug I am viewing are both in part given to my intuition. The legs of the arm chair which stands before the window conceal certain curves, certain designs. But I nevertheless seize these hidden arabesques as existing now, as hidden but not at all as absent. … I grasp what has been given me of their continuation.
…
It is therefore in the way in which I grasp the data that I posit that which is not given as being real. Real by the same right as the data, as that which gives its meaning and its very nature. Likewise the successive tones of a melody are grasped by appropriate retentions as that which makes of the tone now heard exactly what it is. In this sense, to percieve this or that real datum is to percieve it on the foundation of total reality as a whole.”
P96
“If I want to imagine the hidden arabesques, I direct my attention upon them and isolate them, just as I isolate on the foundation of an undifferentiated universe the thing I actually percieve. I cease to grasp them as empty but constituting the sense of the percieved reality, instead I present them to myself, in themselves. But at the moment that I cease to concieve them as continuous present in order to grasp them in themselves, I grasp them as absent. Of course they really exist over there, under the chair , and it is over there that I think of them, but in thinking of them where they are not given to me, I grasp them as nothing for me. Thus the imaginative act is at once constitutive, isolating and annihilating.
16 Mayıs 2012 Çarşamba
Notes from AN INTEGRATIVE THEORY OF PREFRONTAL CORTEX FUNCTION
My notes from: AN INTEGRATIVE THEORY OF PREFRONTAL CORTEX FUNCTION (41 pages)
Earl K. Miller, Center for Learning and Memory, RIKEN-MIT Neuroscience Research Center and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT.
Jonathan D. Cohen, Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behavior and Department of Psychology, Princeton
Abstract ... cognitive control stems from the active maintenance of patterns of activity in the prefrontal cortex that represent goals and the means to achieve them. They provide bias signals to other brain structures whose net effect is to guide the flow of activity along neural pathways that establish the proper mappings between inputs, internal states, and outputs needed to perform a given task.
INTRODUCTION ...
Simple behaviors can rely on relatively straightforward interactions between the brain’s input and output systems. Animals with fewer than a hundred thousand neurons (in the human brain there are 100 billion or more neurons) can approach food and avoid predators. For animals with larger brains, behavior is more flexible. ...
...
To deal with this multitude of possibilities and to curtail confusion, we have evolved mechanisms that coordinate lower-level sensory and motor processes along a common theme, an internal goal.
...
It is well positioned to coordinate a wide range of neural processes: The PFC is a collection of interconnected neocortical areas that sends and receives projections from virtually all cortical sensory systems, motor systems, and many subcortical structures. ...
The Role of the PFC in Top-Down Control of Behavior
The PFC is not critical for performing simple, automatic behaviors, such as our tendency to automatically orient to an unexpected sound or movement. These behaviors can be innate or they can develop gradually with experience as learning mechanisms potentiate existing pathways or form new ones. These “hardwired” pathways are advantageous because they allow highly familiar behaviors to be executed quickly and automatically (i.e. without demanding attention). However,these behaviors are inflexible, stereotyped reactions elicited by just the right stimulus. They do not generalize well to novel situations, and they take extensive time and experience to develop. These sorts of automatic behaviors can be thought of as relying primarily on “bottom-up” processing; that is, they are determined largely by the nature of the sensory stimuli and well-established neural pathways that connect these with corresponding responses.
By contrast, thePFC is important when “top-down” processing is needed; that is, when behavior must be guided by internal states or intentions. The PFC is critical in situations when the mappings between sensory inputs, thoughts, and actions either are weakly established relative to other existing ones or are rapidly changing. This is when we need to use the “rules of the game,” internal representations of goals and the means to achieve them. Several investigators have argued that this is a cardinal function of the PFC...
...
This illustrates one of the most fundamental aspects of cognitive control and goal-directed behavior: the ability to select a weaker, task-relevant response (or source of information) in the face of competition from an otherwise stronger, but task-irrelevant one. Patients with frontal impairment have difficulty with this task... ...
Overview of the Theory
We assume that the PFC serves a specific function in cognitive control: the active maintenance of patterns of activity that represent goals and the means to achieve them. They provide bias signals throughout much of the rest of the brain, affecting not only visual processes but also other sensory modalities, as well as systems responsible for response execution, memory retrieval, emotional evaluation, etc.
The aggregate effect of these bias signals is to guide the flow of neural activity along pathways that establish the proper mappings between inputs, internal states, and outputs needed to perform a given task. This is especially important whenever stimuli are ambiguous (i.e. they activate more than one input representation), or when multiple responses are possible and the task-appropriate response must compete with stronger alternatives. From this perspective, the constellation of PFC biases...can be viewed as the neural implementation of attentional templates, rules, or goals, depending on the target of their biasing influence.
...
When a behavior meets with success, reinforcement signals augment the corresponding pattern of activity by strengthening connections between the PFC neurons activated by that behavior. This process also strengthens connections between these neurons and those whose activity represents the situation in which the behavior was useful, establishing an association between these circumstances and the PFC pattern that supports the correct behavior.
...
But we believe that this general notion can explain many of the posited functions of the PFC. The biasing influence of PFC feedback signals on sensory systems may mediate its role in directing attention (Stuss &
Benson 1986; Knight 1984, 1997; Banich et al 2000), signals to the motor system may be responsible for response selection and inhibitory control (Fuster 1980, Diamond 1988), and signals to intermediate systems may support short-term (or working) memory (Goldman-Rakic 1987) and guide retrieval from long-term memory (Schachter 1997, Janowsky et al 1989, Gershberg & Shimamura 1995).
Without the PFC, the most frequently used (and thus best established) neural pathways would predominate or, where these don’t exist, behavior would be haphazard. Such impulsive, inappropriate, or disorganized behavior is a hallmark of PFC dysfunction in humans (e.g. Bianchi 1922, Duncan 1986, Luria 1969, Lhermitte 1983, Shallice & Burgess 1996, Stuss & Benson 1986).
Minimal Requirements for a Mechanism of Top-Down Control
There are several critical features of our theory. First, the PFC must provide a source of activity that can exert the required pattern of biasing signals to other structures. We can thus think of PFC function as “active memory in the service of control.” It follows, therefore, that the PFC must maintain its activity robustly against distractions until a goal is achieved, yet also be flexible enough to update its representations when needed. It must also house the appropriate representations, those that can select the neural pathways needed for the task. In sofar as primates are capable of tasks that involve diverse combinations of stimuli, internal states, and responses, representations in the PFC must have access to and be able to influence a similarly wide range of information in other brain regions. That is, PFC representations must have a high capacity for multimodality and integration. Finally, as we can acquire new goals and means, the PFC must also exhibit a high degree of plasticity. Of course, it must be possible to exhibit all these properties without the need to invoke some other mechanism of control to explain them, lest our theory be subject to perennial concerns of a hidden “homunculus.”
...
pattern of deficits following PFC damage as a loss of the ability to acquire and use behavior-guiding rules. ...
...
A GUIDED ACTIVATION THEORY OF PFC FUNCTION ...
A Simple Model of PFC Function ...
Guided Activation as a Mechanism of Cognitive Control
...the role of the PFC is modulatory rather than transmissive. That is, the pathway from input to output does not “run through” the PFC. Instead, the PFC guides activity flow along task-relevant pathways in more posterior and/or subcortical areas.
...
This distinction between modulation vs transmission is consistent with the classic pattern of neuropsychological deficits associated with frontal lobe damage. The components of a complex behavior are usually left intact, but the subject is not able to coordinate them in a task-appropriate way (for example, a patient who, when preparing coffee, first stirred and then added cream). ...
Active Maintenance in the Service of Control...
another critical feature of our theory: the importance of sustained activity as a mechanism of control...
...
executive control involves the active maintenance of a particular type of information: the goals and rules of a task.
...
selective attention and behavioral inhibition are two sides of the same coin: Attention is the effect of biasing competition in favor of task-relevant information, and inhibition is the consequence that this has for the irrelevant information.
...
In particular, we believe that PFC-mediated control is complemented by another form of control dependent on the hippocampal system. The hippocampus is important for binding together information into a memory of a specific episode (Eichenbaum et al 1999, McClelland et al 1995, Squire 1992, Zola-Morgan & Squire 1993). By contrast, we suggest that the PFC, like other neocortical areas, is more important for extracting the regularities across episodes—in the case of the PFC, those corresponding to goals and task rules, rather than episodic memories of actually performing the task. We further posit that the PFC uses “activity-based” control; that is, its ongoing activity specifies the pattern of neural pathways that are currently needed. If PFC activity changes, so does the selected pattern of pathways.
By contrast, the hippocampus may provide a form of “weighted-based” control; it helps consolidate permanent associative links between the pieces of information that define a long-term memory (Cohen & O’Reilly 1996, O’Reilly et al 1999, O’Reilly 2000). To use the railroad metaphor, the hippocampus is responsible for laying down new tracks and the PFC is responsible for flexibly switching between them. As noted below, interactions between the PFC and the hippocampus may provide a basis for understanding prospective forms of control, such as planning.
Updating of PFC Representations
In the real world, cognitive control is highly dynamic...is highly flexible. So long as suitable representations exist within the PFC, activating them can quickly invoke a goal or rule, which can be flexibly switched to others as circumstances demand. That is, it is easier and faster (and perhaps less costly) to switch between existing tracks than it is to lay new ones down.
...
PFC representations are selectively responsive (adaptive) to task-relevant stimuli (Rainer et al 1998b), yet they are resistant to interference (robust) from distractors (Miller et al 1996). Conversely, two hallmarks of damage to the PFC are perseveration (inadequate updating) and increased distractibility (inappropriate updating)
...
Recent modeling work suggests that hierarchical updating and the sequencing of actions may rely on interactions between the PFC and the basal ganglia.
13 Nisan 2012 Cuma
Quotations from "The Prefrontal Cortex: Minireview"
My quotations from: The Prefrontal Cortex: Minireview
Complex Neural Properties for Complex Behavior
Earl K. Miller*
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and The Center for Learning and Memory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
...
The PF cortex is a collection of cortical areas in the most anterior portion of the frontal lobes (Figure 1). It has long been associated with high-level, “executive” processes needed for voluntary goal-directed behavior. Its damage in humans does not produce a single, characteristic deficit. Rather, it results in disturbances in a variety of functions, including attention, memory, response selection, planning, and inhibitory control.
Studies of the neural basis of PF function in monkeys focused primarily on active short-term, or working memory. They have revealed that when a delay is imposed between a visual stimulus and a response based on it, many PF neurons show sustained stimulus-related activity (Goldman-Rakic, 1994; Fuster, 1995). Because sensory inputs are often fleeting, this short-term maintenance may be fundamental to many cognitive functions. However, complex behavior requires more than temporary storage. Relevant sensory inputs need to be selected and integrated with other information common to the goal at hand. Also needed are the executive mechanisms that determine, for example, which stimuli are relevant and should be selected. Much less is known about the neural basis of these higher functions.
...
In many views of cognition, the type of executive control thought to be mediated by the PF cortex is synonymous with attentional selection, that is, the ability to voluntarily focus awareness on certain sensory inputs, thoughts, or actions. Selection is necessary because higher-order cognitive functions are severely limited in capacity. Indeed, at a given moment we are aware of only a small fraction of available sensory information.
Given these capacity limitations, the ability to ignore distractions and select behaviorally relevant information is critical. Evidence that the lateral PF cortex is involved in selection processes comes from a number of studies, including a recent study by Rainer et al. (1998b)
...
Earlier target selection in the PF cortex suggests that the visual cortex may “inherit” target information from the PF cortex. That is, that the PF cortex may be a source of the top-down signals that mediate attentional selection in the visual cortex (Desimone and Duncan.)
Complex behavior, however, depends on more than selecting sensory information. To benefit from past experience, we must be able to select (recall) stored knowledge. Watanabe (1996) demonstrated this ability in PF neurons. He found that when monkeys could predict that a specific reward would appear (e.g., raisins, cabbage, etc.), the activity of many PF neurons reflected that expected reward. This ability to prospectively” code predicted events is thus critical for choosing among response alternatives.
Integration
Sensory processing is highly fragmented. Even within a modality, different stimulus attributes may be separately processed. The primate cortical visual system, for example, is thought to analyze the form and color information to identify a stimulus (i.e., what it is) largely from information about stimulus location (i.e., where it is). An area involved in complex behavior, however, needs to have access to diverse information.
Even actions almost invariably require satisfying multiple, diverse constraints. When I search for my coffee cup, for example, I have in mind not only what it looks like but also where it is likely to be. So, somewhere and somehow, diverse information such as what and where needs to come together. Given its role in organizing behavior and its extensive connections, the PF cortex seems a likely region where integration might be evident, particularly when integration is needed for behavior.
...
Other studies have also found that many PF neurons process both object identity and location.
...
Interconnections between different PF regions (Figure 1) could result in a population of PF neurons with multimodal properties.
Associative Learning, Rules, Context, and Cognitive Control
The complexity of primate behavior is partially attributable to the fact that primates can acquire new goals and manners of achieving them. Not surprisingly, the PF cortex is thought to be central to this ability. Its executive role in brain function has been hypothesized to result from the acquisition and representation of “rules” that guide goal-directed behavior.
Rule learning depends on forming arbitrary associations between disparate, but behaviorally related, information. We learn that “red” means “stop,” for example. The PF cortex seems well positioned to play a role in associative learning. It is interconnected with all sensory systems, with the motor system, and with limbic structures involved in long-term memory and affect; it is truly “association cortex.”
...
Thus, PF activity can reflect stimuli, associated actions, and expected consequences.
...
Cohen and colleagues have suggested how the ability of PF neurons to reflect conjunctions of behaviorally related information might result in mechanisms for executive control. They posit that control emanates from representation of context (Cohen and Servan-Schreiber, 1992). Context is the constellation of task-relevant information needed to guide a given behavior.
...
Top-down signals from the PF cortex are excitatory and represent the to-be-attended item. These signals increase activity of neurons that process the relevant information and, by virtue of the mutual inhibition, suppress activity of neurons processing irrelevant information. Context representations may act in a similar fashion. However, rather than convey only visual attributes, context representations are thought to be multimodal and include information about stimuli, actions, etc., that have become associated through experience. Thus, they can bias motor as well as sensory processing and also allow appropriate actions to be selected and executed.
Conclusions
Recent studies have shown that, consistent with their putative role in the highest level of cognitive function, PF neurons have complex response properties that are highly dependent on, and shaped by, task demands. They selectively process and integrate information needed for a common behavioral goal. Thus, its extensive connections and the ability of its neurons to be modified by experience may allow the PF cortex to play a role in knitting together behaviorally relevant associations, a process needed for acquisition of “rules” that guide goal-directed behavior. This may result in a representation of context, a template of a previously successful configuration of sensory and response-related information that biases processing in other brain regions in favor of task-relevant information. Such complicated and malleable activity would be expected for a region so closely linked with the complexity and flexibility that are the hallmarks of primate behavior.
Complex Neural Properties for Complex Behavior
Earl K. Miller*
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and The Center for Learning and Memory
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139
...
The PF cortex is a collection of cortical areas in the most anterior portion of the frontal lobes (Figure 1). It has long been associated with high-level, “executive” processes needed for voluntary goal-directed behavior. Its damage in humans does not produce a single, characteristic deficit. Rather, it results in disturbances in a variety of functions, including attention, memory, response selection, planning, and inhibitory control.
Studies of the neural basis of PF function in monkeys focused primarily on active short-term, or working memory. They have revealed that when a delay is imposed between a visual stimulus and a response based on it, many PF neurons show sustained stimulus-related activity (Goldman-Rakic, 1994; Fuster, 1995). Because sensory inputs are often fleeting, this short-term maintenance may be fundamental to many cognitive functions. However, complex behavior requires more than temporary storage. Relevant sensory inputs need to be selected and integrated with other information common to the goal at hand. Also needed are the executive mechanisms that determine, for example, which stimuli are relevant and should be selected. Much less is known about the neural basis of these higher functions.
...
In many views of cognition, the type of executive control thought to be mediated by the PF cortex is synonymous with attentional selection, that is, the ability to voluntarily focus awareness on certain sensory inputs, thoughts, or actions. Selection is necessary because higher-order cognitive functions are severely limited in capacity. Indeed, at a given moment we are aware of only a small fraction of available sensory information.
Given these capacity limitations, the ability to ignore distractions and select behaviorally relevant information is critical. Evidence that the lateral PF cortex is involved in selection processes comes from a number of studies, including a recent study by Rainer et al. (1998b)
...
Earlier target selection in the PF cortex suggests that the visual cortex may “inherit” target information from the PF cortex. That is, that the PF cortex may be a source of the top-down signals that mediate attentional selection in the visual cortex (Desimone and Duncan.)
Complex behavior, however, depends on more than selecting sensory information. To benefit from past experience, we must be able to select (recall) stored knowledge. Watanabe (1996) demonstrated this ability in PF neurons. He found that when monkeys could predict that a specific reward would appear (e.g., raisins, cabbage, etc.), the activity of many PF neurons reflected that expected reward. This ability to prospectively” code predicted events is thus critical for choosing among response alternatives.
Integration
Sensory processing is highly fragmented. Even within a modality, different stimulus attributes may be separately processed. The primate cortical visual system, for example, is thought to analyze the form and color information to identify a stimulus (i.e., what it is) largely from information about stimulus location (i.e., where it is). An area involved in complex behavior, however, needs to have access to diverse information.
Even actions almost invariably require satisfying multiple, diverse constraints. When I search for my coffee cup, for example, I have in mind not only what it looks like but also where it is likely to be. So, somewhere and somehow, diverse information such as what and where needs to come together. Given its role in organizing behavior and its extensive connections, the PF cortex seems a likely region where integration might be evident, particularly when integration is needed for behavior.
...
Other studies have also found that many PF neurons process both object identity and location.
...
Interconnections between different PF regions (Figure 1) could result in a population of PF neurons with multimodal properties.
Associative Learning, Rules, Context, and Cognitive Control
The complexity of primate behavior is partially attributable to the fact that primates can acquire new goals and manners of achieving them. Not surprisingly, the PF cortex is thought to be central to this ability. Its executive role in brain function has been hypothesized to result from the acquisition and representation of “rules” that guide goal-directed behavior.
Rule learning depends on forming arbitrary associations between disparate, but behaviorally related, information. We learn that “red” means “stop,” for example. The PF cortex seems well positioned to play a role in associative learning. It is interconnected with all sensory systems, with the motor system, and with limbic structures involved in long-term memory and affect; it is truly “association cortex.”
...
Thus, PF activity can reflect stimuli, associated actions, and expected consequences.
...
Cohen and colleagues have suggested how the ability of PF neurons to reflect conjunctions of behaviorally related information might result in mechanisms for executive control. They posit that control emanates from representation of context (Cohen and Servan-Schreiber, 1992). Context is the constellation of task-relevant information needed to guide a given behavior.
...
Top-down signals from the PF cortex are excitatory and represent the to-be-attended item. These signals increase activity of neurons that process the relevant information and, by virtue of the mutual inhibition, suppress activity of neurons processing irrelevant information. Context representations may act in a similar fashion. However, rather than convey only visual attributes, context representations are thought to be multimodal and include information about stimuli, actions, etc., that have become associated through experience. Thus, they can bias motor as well as sensory processing and also allow appropriate actions to be selected and executed.
Conclusions
Recent studies have shown that, consistent with their putative role in the highest level of cognitive function, PF neurons have complex response properties that are highly dependent on, and shaped by, task demands. They selectively process and integrate information needed for a common behavioral goal. Thus, its extensive connections and the ability of its neurons to be modified by experience may allow the PF cortex to play a role in knitting together behaviorally relevant associations, a process needed for acquisition of “rules” that guide goal-directed behavior. This may result in a representation of context, a template of a previously successful configuration of sensory and response-related information that biases processing in other brain regions in favor of task-relevant information. Such complicated and malleable activity would be expected for a region so closely linked with the complexity and flexibility that are the hallmarks of primate behavior.
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