BE3: Cognition, Attitude, Motivation and Behaviour
Lecture 1 – 07/09/2021
Impulsive and reflective processes in behavioural control
Mental representations
Mental representations; any mental content or operation that stands for something else in the
world.
- They help us understanding the world around us. -> we define first and then see, use mental
representations and then observe the world around us.
- Other functions are classification, additional attributes (what can we do with this object,
what are the characteristics of this object/person etc.), it steers attention and interpretation,
plays a role in communication and thinking.
- Mental representations have certain characteristics;
Availability; all kinds of knowledge is available to us and we have it stored in our
head.
Accessibility; while there is a lot of knowledge in our brain, only a small part of it is
accessible -> activation potential of available knowledge.
How is knowledge stored?
Computer metaphor models; based on the idea that the mind works like a computer.
- Associative network models; relationship between different nodes can become active,
which can cause a mental representation by spreading activation.
Activation is facilitated for associations that are more strongly available in the
network.
- Schema models; people use mental representations they have about an object and related
objects/situations and the schemas steer our behaviour.
Schemas operate like a lens; behaviours and associations that are related to the
schema are activated, which are adjusted within a specific situation.
- Predictive coding; based on Bayesian processes -> priors (expectations) affect perception
and influence how we see the world around us, which is followed by a posterior (updated by
perception).
Priors; knowledge about specific objects and situations, expectations about a
situation.
Posterior; prior is updated to a specific situation, comparison between perception
and prior.
- Connectionist models; links that may facilitate or inhibit information. -> parallel distribution
processing.
Similar to dynamic models, similar to neurons that fire in the brain; by firing one
neuron a specific set of neurons gets activated, which represents the knowledge
that we have.
However, in this model, different nodes don’t have information in itself, but the
activation of sets of notes represent a specific mental representation.
The representations are not static, but influenced by the environment; the
environment influences the input, which results in output.
Multiple format models; there are different memory systems (mental representations), because we
learn in a different way in different situations.
- Knowledge is stored in different brain areas; semantic memory system, procedural memory
system and affective memory system.
- Different memory systems produce different kinds of behaviour.
, - Learning and memory are closely connected and different types of learning lead to different
kinds of behaviour.
Embodied cognition; we represent mental representations in our bodies and even outside of our
bodies.
- Even by thinking about specific mental representations, you might activate to some extent
the information that is stored in the mind in your body; modal way of representation of
knowledge. -> there is a partial re-experience of a situation when activating mental
representations.
Modality-specific; representations are constituted of sensory experiences.
Situated cognition; mental representations result from dynamic interactions between the mind, the
body and the environment.
- By relying less on internal information, the brain can delegate to features in the
environment and simplify decision making (post-its, telephone).
Behaviour regulation
Dimensions in thinking in automaticity; contribute to automatic behaviour and processes.
1. Level of consciousness
2. Level of intentionality; if you perform behaviour without intending it, is it regarded to be
more automatic than when you do intend it.
3. Level of controllability; certain behaviour is controllable or not controllable by your
brain/body, which is part of the automaticity of behaviour.
4. Level of efficiency; behaviour can be difficult to learn, but overtime you learn how to do it so
well that it can be done in an efficient (automatic) way. -> sometimes, you can even do other
stuff while performing one act.
Reflective impulsive model; dual-process model of behaviour. Look at powerpoint slide for accurate
picture of impulsive reflective system.
- Impulsive vs. reflective system; work in parallel, impulsive system is always on (there are
always associations activated), but reflective system needs some motivation and
opportunity.
Impulsive processes; based on associations -> spreading activation which may lead
to the activation of motor behaviour; every representation of movement awakens in
some degree the actual movement which is its object.
Reflective processes; behaviour in the reflective systems is based on choices and
decision (propositions).
o Choices lead to intentions, which lead to motor representations.
- These choices can be based on a full consideration of pros and cons, intuition or anything in
between (deep thinking vs. no thinking and in between).
- Only if there is sufficient processing time, intention and cognitive capacity to extract
meaning of a negation (message) will the reflective system be engaged and the task
completed.
- There can be a conflict between reflective and impulsive system; could lead to for example
avoidance motivation.
Process with the strongest motivation will lead to the behavioural outcome; if there
is time to reflect, the reflective system will probably predict the outcome.
Understanding priming effects
Prime -> mental representations -> behaviour
Behavioural primal effects which not well replicated in multilap studies; empirical inconsistencies.
- Conceptual priming can be replicated, but seems very robust and broad.
, - A lot of studies are underpowered; change of finding a false positive is really big when
looking at previous and earlier studies.
- Recent studies still find a small behavioural priming effect, despite the underpowered
studies.
Theoretical aspects of difficulty replicating behavioural priming; is the prime that is used suitable to
activate similar mental representations?
- The process has to be considered, not only the prime that is being used in the experiment.
- There are a lot of moderators during priming; every prime can work differently for every
person in terms of value, self-relevance etc.
- New models focus on the way a prime affects behaviour.
New model is situated inference model;
1. Prime exposure; activation of knowledge, specific prime activates all kinds of
available knowledge which activates mental representations about this specific
topic.
2. Misattribution; activated associations are misattributed to own experiences and
responses, accessible content is assumed to be caused by perception of the local
target.
3. Afforded questions; misattributed information is used to answer all kind of
questions (construal priming, behavioural priming, goal priming).
