Reading a book on psychology has its benefits and bitterness. Slowly, and steadily, you realize your strengths and shortcomings. It is pleasing to know that even you suffer the same problems. It is indeed tempting not to share knowledge, and instead move for world domination, maybe Hitler knew this too, but here is my artistic self, dominating rationality. Oh, and that was a joke. It wasn’t so bad.
This essay, further, will explain to you, how our brain works, in brief, and focus more on Cognitive Associativity and its far reaching consequences.
It is conventional in psychology to describe brain as a system of two primary actors: System 1 and System 2. System 1 is responsible for most of the stimuli responses. It also associates with memory and provides with intuition. Intuition is that quick answer that pops up when you read the following questions and try to answer them quickly:-
Such laborious work requires effort, which System 1 is not designed to provide. System 2 is the logical, rational and algorithmic part of your brain, which does all the effortful, and out of the ordinary work. The topic at hand is Cognitive Associativity, and we will be moving on to that now.
System 1 has many tasks, one of which is Cognition, i.e., changing state of mind on account of perception. System 1 quickly and continuously maps percept information to various memories and related information, which is called Cognitive Associativity. The most basic effect of this is on behavior and feelings. For example if I were to ask your opinion on oranges, and then ask you to think of a shape, like right now think of a shape, you are sure to think of a circle or alike. As soon as you read “orange”, System 1 brought information related to oranges to your working memory, one of which is its round shape, and that is what the lazy System 1 gave you. If I ask you about your “dinner”, and then ask you to fill in SO_P, you are more likely to complete it as soup, not soap.
A lot of times we judge unfairly or present bias to certain things, which is one of the consequences of this very phenomenon. What are the effects of this in daily life? Very subtle percepts are able to bring a change in System 1’s state. Your emotions and feelings too have a great effect, because, they too are mapped to related information and memories. So if you are angry, System 1 brings in more events and emotions that are related to anger. For example, if you see a dog lying in middle the of a road, you are more likely to shoo it away, or even hit it, but if you are happy, you may think of it as cute or even pet it, because that is what System 1 brings to you. Then there is the adage “One must stay calm and composed to avoid unsound judgment”, which is explained through the same phenomenon. Calmness is prerequisite to rational judgment.
Even our physical state has a large effect on our behavior. Even leisurely posture is a percept, and System 1 follows the same procedure every time. Read the following statement:-
If you sit straight you will be more attentive, because System 1 will lose attention to System 2, as maintaining posture is an effortful task. If you try to walk faster than your normal speed, again System 2 takes over and you are more attentive and more in control. But that does not mean System 1 is inactive. In case of emergencies, System 1 takes over. While driving, if you happen to concentrate more on other passengers or maybe on your cellphone, and if a car suddenly brakes in front of you, System 1 takes over.
Ever wondered why a song keeps repeating over and over in your head, even if you haven’t heard it in recent times. Simply because somehow your System 1 managed to associate it with some percept. Maybe nationalism, or an emotional memory.
How does the world exploit your inability to control your Cognition? All the advertisements you see or the decorations that are set up, have a sole purpose, to evoke emotions or relate to memories, or even create a new memory. The better and more an advertisement associates, the more it is called upon in case a related event is perceived. So advertisements for jewelry are usually associated with major life events, like marriages, birthdays etc. When you think of such events, that memory of advertisement may crop up into your working memory, and your judgment will suffer.
Even locations affect our judgment. For example, if polling occurs at a school, people are likely associate the location with children, children welfare, education etc. and instinctively vote for a candidate who assures of improvement in such subjects.
Now that you know how affected you are, you must have a great urge to dump System 1, and always use System 2 through effortful thinking. That is like judging a book by its cover. Cognitive Association has many benefits too, and we should train our System 1 to appreciate our priorities and exploit our memory. If System 1 does not continuously build an abstract road network in your mind when you are driving through a place, you will surely have to search through every visual memory of the road to make it to your destination. System 1 does many such jobs silently and effectively. You don’t always put effort in remembering where your cellphone is? Finding it is natural and automatic. That is System 1 for you.
The best way to train your System 1 is to consciously and repeatedly tell it what to do under a situation, by either rehearsing it or meditating over it. You should take care of how often you associate to things you don’t want to creep up to you and constantly associate to better things. If you crowd the things you don’t like with better objects, your System 1 will weigh the later as more important. System 2, or effortful thinking, can be another option in case instinctive responses or intuition is not helping, which happens automatically in most cases.
To conclude, you should bring up or think of the things, that you want your mind to associate with naturally and continuously. But, care must be taken not to take it too far. Putting a lot of effort into thinking can exhaust you. Perhaps, meditating or goal setting are better alternatives. Well that is up to you.
Hope you enjoyed this article and reached as far as THIS! Leave comments :-) Thank You.
This essay, further, will explain to you, how our brain works, in brief, and focus more on Cognitive Associativity and its far reaching consequences.
It is conventional in psychology to describe brain as a system of two primary actors: System 1 and System 2. System 1 is responsible for most of the stimuli responses. It also associates with memory and provides with intuition. Intuition is that quick answer that pops up when you read the following questions and try to answer them quickly:-
Here is the fun part. Most of you must have, at first, answered the second question with 10, which is incorrect, correct being 5. Your intuitive “guess” was 10, because System 1 is lazy, and it does not like to put in efforts. If you answered the question with 5, you must have thought of 10 instinctively. There is no denying it.“What is 2+2?”“If a ball and a bat cost 110 together, and the bat costs 100 more than the ball, how much does the ball cost?”
Such laborious work requires effort, which System 1 is not designed to provide. System 2 is the logical, rational and algorithmic part of your brain, which does all the effortful, and out of the ordinary work. The topic at hand is Cognitive Associativity, and we will be moving on to that now.
System 1 has many tasks, one of which is Cognition, i.e., changing state of mind on account of perception. System 1 quickly and continuously maps percept information to various memories and related information, which is called Cognitive Associativity. The most basic effect of this is on behavior and feelings. For example if I were to ask your opinion on oranges, and then ask you to think of a shape, like right now think of a shape, you are sure to think of a circle or alike. As soon as you read “orange”, System 1 brought information related to oranges to your working memory, one of which is its round shape, and that is what the lazy System 1 gave you. If I ask you about your “dinner”, and then ask you to fill in SO_P, you are more likely to complete it as soup, not soap.
A lot of times we judge unfairly or present bias to certain things, which is one of the consequences of this very phenomenon. What are the effects of this in daily life? Very subtle percepts are able to bring a change in System 1’s state. Your emotions and feelings too have a great effect, because, they too are mapped to related information and memories. So if you are angry, System 1 brings in more events and emotions that are related to anger. For example, if you see a dog lying in middle the of a road, you are more likely to shoo it away, or even hit it, but if you are happy, you may think of it as cute or even pet it, because that is what System 1 brings to you. Then there is the adage “One must stay calm and composed to avoid unsound judgment”, which is explained through the same phenomenon. Calmness is prerequisite to rational judgment.
Even our physical state has a large effect on our behavior. Even leisurely posture is a percept, and System 1 follows the same procedure every time. Read the following statement:-
It is as simple as that. If anyhow you are in discomfort, System 1 sees that as a state and brings to you things that have discomforted you in the past. In such cases, divert attention.“I smiled, and it actually made me happier”
If you sit straight you will be more attentive, because System 1 will lose attention to System 2, as maintaining posture is an effortful task. If you try to walk faster than your normal speed, again System 2 takes over and you are more attentive and more in control. But that does not mean System 1 is inactive. In case of emergencies, System 1 takes over. While driving, if you happen to concentrate more on other passengers or maybe on your cellphone, and if a car suddenly brakes in front of you, System 1 takes over.
Ever wondered why a song keeps repeating over and over in your head, even if you haven’t heard it in recent times. Simply because somehow your System 1 managed to associate it with some percept. Maybe nationalism, or an emotional memory.
How does the world exploit your inability to control your Cognition? All the advertisements you see or the decorations that are set up, have a sole purpose, to evoke emotions or relate to memories, or even create a new memory. The better and more an advertisement associates, the more it is called upon in case a related event is perceived. So advertisements for jewelry are usually associated with major life events, like marriages, birthdays etc. When you think of such events, that memory of advertisement may crop up into your working memory, and your judgment will suffer.
Even locations affect our judgment. For example, if polling occurs at a school, people are likely associate the location with children, children welfare, education etc. and instinctively vote for a candidate who assures of improvement in such subjects.
Now that you know how affected you are, you must have a great urge to dump System 1, and always use System 2 through effortful thinking. That is like judging a book by its cover. Cognitive Association has many benefits too, and we should train our System 1 to appreciate our priorities and exploit our memory. If System 1 does not continuously build an abstract road network in your mind when you are driving through a place, you will surely have to search through every visual memory of the road to make it to your destination. System 1 does many such jobs silently and effectively. You don’t always put effort in remembering where your cellphone is? Finding it is natural and automatic. That is System 1 for you.
The best way to train your System 1 is to consciously and repeatedly tell it what to do under a situation, by either rehearsing it or meditating over it. You should take care of how often you associate to things you don’t want to creep up to you and constantly associate to better things. If you crowd the things you don’t like with better objects, your System 1 will weigh the later as more important. System 2, or effortful thinking, can be another option in case instinctive responses or intuition is not helping, which happens automatically in most cases.
To conclude, you should bring up or think of the things, that you want your mind to associate with naturally and continuously. But, care must be taken not to take it too far. Putting a lot of effort into thinking can exhaust you. Perhaps, meditating or goal setting are better alternatives. Well that is up to you.
Hope you enjoyed this article and reached as far as THIS! Leave comments :-) Thank You.
