Consciousness has less control than believed, according to new theory

[INTP]

Consciousness -- the internal dialogue that seems to govern one's thoughts and actions -- is far less powerful than people believe, serving as a passive conduit rather than an active force that exerts control, according to a new theory proposed by an SF State researcher.

Associate Professor of Psychology Ezequiel Morsella's "Passive Frame Theory" suggests that the conscious mind is like an interpreter helping speakers of different languages communicate.

"The interpreter presents the information but is not the one making any arguments or acting upon the knowledge that is shared," Morsella said. "Similarly, the information we perceive in our consciousness is not created by conscious processes, nor is it reacted to by conscious processes. Consciousness is the middle-man, and it doesn't do as much work as you think."

Morsella and his coauthors' groundbreaking theory, published online on June 22 by the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences, contradicts intuitive beliefs about human consciousness and the notion of self.

Consciousness, per Morsella's theory, is more reflexive and less purposeful than conventional wisdom would dictate. Because the human mind experiences its own consciousness as sifting through urges, thoughts, feelings and physical actions, people understand their consciousness to be in control of these myriad impulses. But in reality, Morsella argues, consciousness does the same simple task over and over, giving the impression that it is doing more than it actually is.

"We have long thought consciousness solved problems and had many moving parts, but it's much more basic and static," Morsella said. "This theory is very counterintuitive. It goes against our everyday way of thinking."

According to Morsella's framework, the "free will" that people typically attribute to their conscious mind -- the idea that our consciousness, as a "decider," guides us to a course of action -- does not exist. Instead, consciousness only relays information to control "voluntary" action, or goal-oriented movement involving the skeletal muscle system.

Compare consciousness to the Internet, Morsella suggested. The Internet can be used to buy books, reserve a hotel room and complete thousands of other tasks. Taken at face value, it would seem incredibly powerful. But, in actuality, a person in front of a laptop or clicking away on a smartphone is running the show -- the Internet is just being made to perform the same basic process, without any free will of its own.

The Passive Frame Theory also defies the intuitive belief that one conscious thought leads to another. "One thought doesn't know about the other, they just often have access to and are acting upon the same, unconscious information," Morsella said. "You have one thought and then another, and you think that one thought leads to the next, but this doesn't seem to be the way the process actually works."

The theory, which took Morsella and his team more than 10 years to develop, can be difficult to accept at first, he said.

"The number one reason it's taken so long to reach this conclusion is because people confuse what consciousness is for with what they think they use it for," Morsella said. "Also, most approaches to consciousness focus on perception rather than action."

The theory has major implications for the study of mental disorders, Morsella said. "Why do you have an urge or thought that you shouldn't be having? Because, in a sense, the consciousness system doesn't know that you shouldn't be thinking about something," Morsella said. "An urge generator doesn't know that an urge is irrelevant to other thoughts or ongoing action."

The study of consciousness is complicated, Morsella added, because of the inherent difficulty of applying the conscious mind to study itself.

"For the vast majority of human history, we were hunting and gathering and had more pressing concerns that required rapidly executed voluntary actions," Morsella said. "Consciousness seems to have evolved for these types of actions rather than to understand itself."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150623141911.htm

 

[Destiny]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150623141911.htm

Lol reading this article reminds me of a movie that I watched, "Bates Motel". That movie is actually based on a real person, Ed Gein, who has a strange obsession with his own mother. He believes that all women are whores except his own mother. When his mother died from stroke, his entire world ended up falling apart, and he started digging up graves, started dressing up like his mother, and he also preserved her room etc. His feelings for his mother actually exceeds the boundaries of a normal mother-son relationship.This is a good example of how consciousness is something that can't always be controlled.

Some people feel romantic attraction toward their own family, some feel attraction toward animals, some feel attraction toward children. All these are thoughts that people shouldn't even be having in the first place... But how often are people able to control their conscious thoughts? Not very often. I think it's human's nature to ponder about things that they shouldn't think about, to have urges that they shouldn't have. Why? Because it's human's nature to be attracted to the unknown. People think about thoughts they shouldn't have, because deep down, there is a part of them that is filled with curiosity, a part of them that is attracted to the danger of a forbidden fruit.

However, I don't agree that people aren't able to control their conscious actions and that the concept of free-will is like sitting behind a laptop or smartphone and operating the internet. Just because they have those thoughts doesn't necessarily mean they have to act on those thoughts. A person can have dark thoughts without acting on those thoughts. And this is what is defined as free-will. The only exception to this is when a person has mental illness. But supposedly a person doesn't have any mental illness, I believe that they would be able to control themselves from acting on those thoughts.

 

[Jaguar]

The theory, which took Morsella and his team more than 10 years to develop, can be difficult to accept at first, he said.

I've been aware of it for decades and is anything but difficult to accept. Now, someone like my dad? He was flummoxed when I suggested he wasn't really in control.

 

[Duffy]