Automatic Behavior and Free-Will Flashcards
Some thoughts and behaviors seem to occur “automatically”
Without my intention and beyond my control
Who is in charge?
Intuitively we feel as though we are the ones making the conscious decisions
Evidence against free-will
Behavior can occur before awareness is possible
Types of Automatic Behaviors
- Reflexes and Instincts
- Unconscious Behavior
- Sleepwalking
- Patient with neurological conditions
- Preconscious Behavior
- Behaviors on autopilot
- Priming effects
- Habits
- Frequently repeated behaviors
- Behavioral Conditioning
Triggers for habitual behaviors may not be consciously known
Habit of constantly checking your phone?
Could be triggered by feelings of boredom or awkwardness? Could be triggered by a desire to avoid doing other things (procrastination) ?
Automatic Habits - Rats run the same maze over and over
as the rat repeats the maze, brain activity decreases over time
Habitual behaviors require…
less conscious effort
THE HABIT LOOP
Cue, Routine, Reinforcer
Cue (Habit Loop)
A stimulus that triggers the behavior
Routine
The behavior is triggered
Reinforcer
The subjective benefits that comes from the behavior
Conditioning
Learning to associate stimuli with specific behavior responses
Conditioning can be learned without…
conscious awareness
Classical Conditioning
Learned association between a neutral stimulus and a different stimulus that triggers a behavioral response (eventually the neutral stimulus will trigger the response)
Operant Conditioning
Learning through reinforcement and punishment (reinforced behaviors increase, punished behaviors decrease)
Operant conditioning involves learning to behave specific ways to ……
get benefits or avoid punishments
Animal Training
Operant Conditioning (Reward behavior you want, punish bevaior you don’t want)
Animal Recognizing the sound of a treat cabinet
Classical Conditioning (the neutral stimulus is causing a behavioral response)
B. F. Skinner
All forms of human behavior could be explained by patterns of reward and punishments
Positive Reinforcement
Behavior to increase - because you were given a pleasant reward (Dog gets a treat to sit)
Negative Reinforcement
Behavior to increase - because you took away something bad (Kids crying so that their parents will buy them toys because they want to “take away something bad”)
Positive Punishment
Behavior to decrease - because a averse stimulus is received (A child stops crying because they are spanked)
Negative Punishment
Behavior to decrease -
because a pleasant stimulus is removed
(a child stops misbehaving because their freedom is taken away by being grounded)
Classical conditioning is learning that….
there is an association between two things
Habits lead to reinforcement
- Positive reinforcement - get something good
- Negative reinforcement - avoid something bad
Procrastination
Reinforcer - do something enjoyable, avoid what’s not enjoyable
Eating Junk/fast food
Reinforcer - taste good immediate gratification, avoidance of cooking
You didn’t choose your genes, your parents, your elementary school…
- You weren’t even self aware until you were about 3 years old
Every decision you make is…
caused by internal and external factors
The discovery of the scientific and physical laws of the world…
lead us to understanding the physical world in linear cause and effect (everything that happens was caused by what came before)
Determinism
Free-will can’t exist because human beings are physical beings - physical beings must follow cause and effect
Agentic Causation
Free will cna exist because human beings have minds - minds do not have to follow the law of cause an effect
Democritus
Ancient Greek Philosopher - argued free-will does not exist - humans as physical objects, everything that has happened and will happen is predetermined
Modern science, medicine, and technology are all based on deterministic laws
scientific observation shows the universe operates according to principles of cause and effect
Indeterminism
Aristotle and Epicurus - Argued humans are responsible for their own actions, thus determinism must be false (or else no one would be responsible for their crimes)
Randomness does not equal choice….
It means you can’t predict what will happen
- It doesn’t mean you can choose what happens
Compatibilism (Soft determinism)
David Hume
- A middle way between determinism and agentic causation - Reconciling moral responsibility and agentic causation (Free will and determinism can both be true) We don’t observe the full “truth” of reality
- Even thought what we may see as cause and effect, there is more to it than we can see
Compatibilism allows for moral responsibility
“passions” may be beyond our control, but the moral person uses “reason” to veto passionate impulses
Libertarianism (type of indeterminism)
Free-will must exist, therefore… determinism must not be true (cause of human actions must be seperate from causes in the physical world)
Kant proposed that determinism MUST be true for the physical world but….
there must also exist another (non-physical) world outside of physical space and time (non-physical events could cause changes in the physical world)
Free-will Debate
- How much of the world is pre-determined?
- Is it possible that everything that will ever happen has already been set in motion? (Determinism)
How can you have free will if God already knows what you will do?
If God knows everything that is going to happen…
then wouldn’t God also be responsible for every choice that was ever made?
- If God doesn’t know what choice you’ll make… then God can’t be all-knowing
- The dorsalateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is associated with conscious decisions to move
- Or, maybe just associated with the feeling that we decided to act
- But, does this brain area actually caused us to act?
Readiness potential
- Activity in the brain’s motor cortex that precedes a movement
- Brain activity gradually increases prior to a voluntary movement
- THe readiness potential begins up to one second before the actual movement
Libet’s Study of Voluntary Action
- Record and time brain and muscle activity while subjects made voluntary decisions about motor movements
- Does the readiness potential start before the person has decided to move?
Timing of three events
- 1) Start of the muscle movement (M)
- 2) Start of the readiness potential (RP)
- 3) When the intention to move occurs (W)
- This was labeled “W” for “will”
- Timing of the Will
- Participants watch a clock-like display
- A spot of light that moves in clockwise in a circle
- Participants watch a clock-like display
- Mentally track where the clock was when they felt intention to move
- Method had led to accurate reports of when participants had received a sensory stimulus
- After moving, they report the “time” when they felt the decision to move
Results
- Readiness potential began about 550ms before the action
- Conscious intent was about 200ms before the action
- Readiness potential came before the decision to act!
- Brain already started the behavior 350ms before the person “detected to act”
Libets interpretation - - Rules of cause and effect suggest…
The brain initiates the action independent of conscious will
- The conscious mind simply becomes aware that the action is going to happen
We can’t control out impulses to initiate an action - But…
when we become consciously aware of an impulse
- Our conscious minds can “veto” the action
