Lecture 13 - Goals II Flashcards
Automotive model (Bargh, 1990)
• Goals can be activated or triggered by environmental
stimuli/cues
• Because we have frequently and consistently chosen goal in situation in past
• Situation cues habitual response
• Often, we pursue goals out of conscious awareness and
without conscious intent
• Theory not about being pushed this way and that by
subliminal messages
-Rather, we are unaware of the influences or consequences of those stimuli on our thoughts and actions
Does conscious thought lead to actions
Experiment
We decide what we want and what we do
-Ex. “I want to lose weight”
I will not eat that chocolate cake” AND, I don’t eat chocolate cake!
-Conscious will start-point of goal pursuit
-Thoughts precede actions
-But not always true…
Experiment
Move index finger at time of your choice Measured timing of: -Action -Brain readiness potential -Awareness of decision to act
RESULTS
Brain preparatory response (RP) preceded action
- Decision preceded action
- But, brain preparatory response preceded conscious awareness of decision to act
- (Conscious) thoughts did NOT precede actions
Finger tip experiment caused controversy
Exp. Provoked considerable interest and intense controversy
-Unperceived causes (e.g., TMS) d/n impact experience of conscious will-(Participants report consciously willing movements even
though movements caused by TMS)
-Transcranial magnetic stimulation was used to move a finger after they heard a click
-(via applied stimulation to motor cortex)
-Influenced the movement
-People attributed this to their will
Alien hand syndrome
-Hand functions with a “mind of its own”
Schizophrenia associated with ‘anomalistic will’ thoughts that occur w/o prior anticipation not originating from self (distorted agency - the thought came from elsewhere)
-Automatisms (e.g., automatic writing) attributed to spirits; again, (lack of) exp. of will misleading about cause of action
The illusion of Conscious Will
The Illusion of Conscious Will
- Wegner: could our deep intuition about power of
conscious will result from a “sleight of mind”?
-Consciousness is the way the mind “estimates
authorship” (Wegner, 2003)
i.e. when we experience a thought as before an action, that is us.
When we do not, do we say it is not us?
How might our will work unconsciously
The Unconscious Will
(Clusters & Aarts, 2010)
-Conscious will to act starts out unconsciously
-Sometimes goals arise and operate unconsciously
-Environment primes goals
e.g.
All of these have been shown to happen after priming with a word
- Cooperation words might cause you to work together in economic game
- “stockbroker” might make one work harder for $
- Leather briefcase might make one more competitive
- Library could influence one to talk quietly
But, even though ps not aware of connection, maybe
prime caused them to form a conscious intention?
BUT
- Subliminally* prime achievement words è work harder
- Subliminally* prime drinking words è fluid consumption
Goals are mental representations that are stored “beacons for behavior”
e.g. if mom is primed you might look for opportunities to make her proud
2 hypotheses for unconscious will
H1: People can unconsciously prepare feasible actions to pursue goal (expectancy)
H2: People can unconsciously detect reward value of goal (value)
Unconscious action
preparation & execution
Move arm to grab cup of coffee
- Limited understanding or motoric and sensory processes involved!
- What, then, are we “willing” if we do not know these muscle patterns?
- Actions & outcomes associated on perceptual, sensory and motor level
- They become so via repeated activation
- Muscle contractions associated with grabbing cup
- Representation of outcome prepares and controls sensory perception and action to produce outcome
IDEOMOTOR PRINCIPLE
Goal and motor plan linked and strengthened through
experience (including the experience of perception and sensory processes)
Habits
Are an example of unconscious goals
-An instance of automatic goal-action association
-Activating goals should spread to linked actions
(“unconscious action preparation”)
-Prime goal to travel/get somewhere (e.g., University”)
-Does that activate “action plan” to achieve goal?
Remember: activation depends on presence and strength of goal-action representation
Habits study 1 (bike riding and go to uni)
Recruit habitual and non-habitual bicycle users
(frequency of using bicycle)
-Primed/not-primed with goal to travel (e.g., having to
attend lecture)
Tell them to do a “2nd Study”: lexical decision task to test cognitive accessibility of bicycle (i.e., action) following presentation of locations (e.g., University) that are
associated with previously primed goal to travel
DV is the reaction time to things that are associated with bike riding - if the person’s reaction time, when primed, is faster in the habitual biker condition and not the other, this is evidence for stronger connections between a goal (go to uni) and an action plan (use a bike to do this)
RESULTS
This is what happened
Habits Study 2 (Can we create strong goal-action links via implementation
intentions?)
If we use an II to fomulate an explicit link between travel and biking, will this decrease reaction times for these participants?
Recruit habitual and non-habitual bicycle users (frequency of using bicycle)
G1: Implementation intention: Plan travel goals when, where and how to get to city center mall
G2: Or, plan steps to repair a flat tire
“2nd Study”: complete same lexical decision task as Study 1
DV RT on lexical study
RESULTS
Via Implementation Intentions, the same connections between goal and plan were observed bin habitual bike users and their travel goal AND non-habitual bike users and their goal
Thus they added a stronger link in the non-habitual bike riders group
The IIs add NOTHING to the group who already has strong links between travel and using a bike
In the non-II condition we observed the same differenced in RT between habitual and non habitual bike users as in study 1
Unconscious reward processing
Experience is dynamic and goals cannot be understood
in isolation
-Various opportunities and distractions requires flexibility and persistence
-Reward signals can readily be picked up by the brain to
tell us whether it is worth pursuing a specific goal and
forego other opportunities
-So unconsciously processing these is very important
Pessiglione et al (2007)
Reward coding by the conscious and unconscious mind
(experiment)
- Do imaging of the ventral striatum throughout task
- This area is associated with reward
- Participants told they would Earn $ by squeezing handgrip
- 2 x 2
- 1 £ or 1 penny
- Supraliminal vs. subliminal cue
RESULTS
People squeeze harder on high reward trials, regardless
of cue type
-Hand-grip force also associated with activity in basal forebrain (VS, etc. correcting for regions involved in force production)
-And skin conductance (a marker for arousal)
How?
Goal: make $
-Action: Squeeze handgrip
-Affective tag: feels good to make $
-Co-activation: goal + action + affective tag
-Again relies on prior associations
-Work hard = $$$ + affective tag (“feels good”)
Performing well = mom proud + affective tag (“feels good”)
The feels good association is created over 20 years of constant coactivation
Reward coding by the conscious and unconscious mind
Is prior association necessary?
Is prior association necessary? What about simple coactivation of goal and positive affect…
Prime (subliminally):
- Positive stimuli
- Physical exertion (“exert” “vigorous”)
- Physical exertion + Reward (“good” “pleasant”)
By using the worlds in ()
DV Measure handgrip…
RESULTS
Those primed with
Physical exertion + Reward
Squeezed the hardest
Hence, you can create the associations just through priming (you do not need to have had long term exposure to create these links)
In fact, this is important as via coactivation of response and reward we do social learning
This is how goal representations acquire their intrinsic value
