Automated behavioral control

Question 1

Automatic/emotional System

Answer 1

Automatic/Emotional system:
Quick, unflexible, parallel (efficient reaction on standard situations);
Decoding the valency of a stimulus (good vs bad) and trigger an immediate behavior (Go vs. no-go)
Immediate satisfaction of needs
Sub-symbolic and non-verbal information processing.
ALWAYS part of information processing (here and now)

Question 2

Controlled/Cognitive System

Answer 2

Controlled/Cognitive system
slow, flexible, serial: efficient reaction in complex and new situations
Complex decoding of the substantive meaning of a stimulus and thorough review of it’s truth. Triggers a differentiated and planned behavior
Symbolic and verbal information processing
ONLY with enough capacity and motivation; ADDITIONALLY involved in information processing. (over time)

Question 3

Asymmetry of information processing

Answer 3

Asymmetry of information processing: more nerve fibers from amygdala to neocortex then vice versa —> our emotions influence our conscious thinking way more than the other way around.

Question 4

2 Types of emotional information processing

Answer 4

2 types of emotional information processing:
Easy situation: emotional information gets directly to the limbic system —> Quick and automatic processing —> low road
Complex situation: emotional information gets send to the cortex and will be analyzed, before getting send to the limbic system —> High road.

Question 5

Theory of automatic believing

Answer 5

Theory of automatic believing (Gilbert 1991)
Incoming information is believed in the first moment, without any possibility of resistance (automatic processing)
And the second step, we value the information about it’s boolean.
Automatic and controlled processing is very important in thought suppression (Daniel Wegner), as well as in the activation of stereotypes and prejudices.

we cannot process negations automatically (only with strategy, like a yellow parrot)

Control processing needs mental energy and is exhausting. —> therefore only activated with enough mental capacity and motivation

Question 6

Perception-Behavior Link

Answer 6

Imitation of other people –> Brezel in train, Ice cream, words etc.
We like things, that are like us or that are like we would like to be

Question 7

Priming

Answer 7

Priming: cells that fire together, wire together

Priming is the process by which recent experiences increase the accessibility of the scheme, trade, or concept (Aronson, Wilson, Akert 2002)

Music defines walking pace or the preference of wine

Question 8

Subliminal advertising

Answer 8

Subliminal advertising:

only works in the focus point and only, if the incentive is already there! (choosing Lipton iced tea, if very thirsty.

Question 9

Deliberation without attention effect:

Answer 9

People make better decisions, if they follow their gut feeling. (and when the decision is complex)

People make better decisions, if they do specific analysis. (and the decision is simple).

Question 10

UT-System

Answer 10

The capacity of the UT system is way bigger than that off the CT system
The UT system works from the stimulus bottom up and integrates all information to one Picture.
The weighting of information in the UT system is intuitive and holistic (Feeling)
The UT system they searches for holistic pattern recognition and works not that exactly.

Question 11

CT-System

Answer 11

The CT system works top-down and processes the information through expectation and schemata. This can lead to distortion of information
The waiting of information in the CT system is strongly dependent on contexts and unstable through time (arguments).
The CT system works in the regular way and precise.