Mental causation

Question 1

Theoretically how are minds and bodies related?

Answer 1

> Interactive substance

> Psychophysical parallelism

Question 2

What are the three kinds of mental causation?

Answer 2

> Physical to mental
Mental to mental
Mental to physical

Question 3

Is there are psychological or philosophical basis in the concept of mental to physical causation?

Answer 3

No:
> Davidson (1963)
> Not possible unless we treat mental as a physical trait
> Violates the causal closure principle

Question 4

What did Davidson (1963) propose?

Answer 4

anomalous monism

Question 5

What is the causal closure principle?

Answer 5

No causal chain involving a physical event will ever cross over into the non-physical

Question 6

What is the intention stance system?

Answer 6

> All activities are complex stimulus-response set ups

> Distinguishes the physical level from the design and intentional levels of description

Question 7

What is intentionality?

Answer 7

> Intensions are action plans

> This is the basis for agency

Question 8

According to intentionality, what is the difference between an intention and a desire?

Answer 8

> Intentions initiate actions, even if delayed, and persist until goal achievement
Desires can persist without the intent or need to initiate an action

Question 9

What are the limitations of intentionality?

Answer 9

> No explanation for automatic actions
Causal basicness is a relative concept
Intentional basicness can be dissociated from causal basicness

Question 10

What are the implications of the stance that there is no intentionality?

Answer 10

Agency (intentionality) is a requirement for consciousness

Question 11

What do Libet (1985) and Soon et al (2008) both propose?

Answer 11

The representational content of an intention should include lower level components (eg, motor schemata, neuromuscular activity)

Question 12

What did Libet (1979) demonstrate?

Answer 12

> EEG
Readiness potential
Showed readiness potential using perceived touch and neural stimulation

Question 13

What is readiness potential, as defined by Libet?

Answer 13

Electrical signal in the brain 0.5s before physical movement was carried out

Question 14

What are the implications of Libet (1979)

Answer 14

> Perception of external stimulus by the ‘conscious mind’ involves automatically subtracting 0.5s
Intentionally delay in perception

Question 15

What did Libet demonstrate in the 90s?

Answer 15

> Clock face / hand movement study

> Readiness began 300 ms before the conscious desire to act

Question 16

What are the implications of the Libet studies from the 90s?

Answer 16

> Voluntary acts are initiated unconsciously
Consciousness is unfaithful
Consciousness may be used to veto actions

Question 17

What did Haggard, Clark and Kalogeras (2002) find?

Answer 17

> Compared perception of event timeline with the physical reality
If an event is causal linked to an intentional action it is judged to take place 46ms earlier (key press and following tone)

Question 18

What is a possible explanation for the effect found by Haggard, Clark and Kalogeras (2002)?

Answer 18

> Temporal and spatial contiguity facilitate causality judgements
Intentional binding

Question 19

What are explanations for re-ordering (reorganising events so causes are closely followed by effects)?

Answer 19

> Haggard et al (2002) - intentional binding

> Stetson et al (2006) - perceived timing of sensory events shifts wrt perceived timing of actions

Question 20

What is intentional binding?

Answer 20

As probability of causality increases, perceived temporal and spatial contiguity decrease. This is to link the two events more strongly