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branches ::: cognitive, Cognitive Science

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OBJECT INSTANCES [0] - TOPICS - AUTHORS - BOOKS - CHAPTERS - CLASSES - SEE ALSO - SIMILAR TITLES

TOPICS
SEE ALSO


AUTH

BOOKS
Blazing_the_Trail_from_Infancy_to_Enlightenment
Cybernetics,_or_Control_and_Communication_in_the_Animal_and_the_Machine
Infinite_Library
Kosmic_Consciousness
The_Seals_of_Wisdom
Toward_the_Future

IN CHAPTERS TITLE

IN CHAPTERS CLASSNAME

IN CHAPTERS TEXT
1.010_-_Self-Control_-_The_Alpha_and_Omega_of_Yoga
1.01_-_Who_is_Tara
1.02.2.1_-_Brahman_-_Oneness_of_God_and_the_World
1.02_-_MAPS_OF_MEANING_-_THREE_LEVELS_OF_ANALYSIS
1.03_-_APPRENTICESHIP_AND_ENCULTURATION_-_ADOPTION_OF_A_SHARED_MAP
1.04_-_THE_APPEARANCE_OF_ANOMALY_-_CHALLENGE_TO_THE_SHARED_MAP
1.05_-_THE_HOSTILE_BROTHERS_-_ARCHETYPES_OF_RESPONSE_TO_THE_UNKNOWN
1.06_-_Man_in_the_Universe
1.07_-_The_Farther_Reaches_of_Human_Nature
1.10_-_GRACE_AND_FREE_WILL
1.1.2_-_Commentary
1.A_-_ANTHROPOLOGY,_THE_SOUL
2.06_-_Reality_and_the_Cosmic_Illusion
2.06_-_Works_Devotion_and_Knowledge
2.10_-_Knowledge_by_Identity_and_Separative_Knowledge
2.26_-_The_Ascent_towards_Supermind
2.28_-_The_Divine_Life
3-5_Full_Circle
4.01_-_THE_COLLECTIVE_ISSUE
4.01_-_The_Principle_of_the_Integral_Yoga
4.20_-_The_Intuitive_Mind
5.06_-_Supermind_in_the_Evolution
Blazing_P1_-_Preconventional_consciousness
Blazing_P2_-_Map_the_Stages_of_Conventional_Consciousness
Blazing_P3_-_Explore_the_Stages_of_Postconventional_Consciousness
BS_1_-_Introduction_to_the_Idea_of_God
DS4
ENNEAD_04.05_-_Psychological_Questions_III._-_About_the_Process_of_Vision_and_Hearing.
MoM_References
The_Act_of_Creation_text
The_Logomachy_of_Zos

PRIMARY CLASS

SIMILAR TITLES
cognitive
Cognitive Science
Theory of Cognitive Development (Piaget)

DEFINITIONS


TERMS STARTING WITH

cognitive ability: the psychological concept that refers to such processes as perceiving, knowing, recognising, conceptualising, judging, and reasoning.

cognitive ::: a. --> Knowing, or apprehending by the understanding; as, cognitive power.

cognitive appraisal theory: devised by Lazarus, stating that our cognitive appraisal of a situation in crucial in experiencing emotions.

cognitive: a process of information storage and retrieval, which can be utilised flexibly in behaviour. In humans, cognitive?relates to mental operations sometimes termed thought processes, eg reasoning, calculation and planning.

cognitive architecture "architecture" A computer architecure involving {non-deterministic}, multiple {inference} processes, as found in {neural networks}. Cognitive architectures model the human brain and contrast with single processor computers. The term might also refer to software architectures, e.g. {fuzzy logic}. [Origin? Better definition? Reference?] (1995-11-29)

cognitive architecture ::: (architecture) A computer architecure involving non-deterministic, multiple inference processes, as found in neural networks. Cognitive architectures model the human brain and contrast with single processor computers.The term might also refer to software architectures, e.g. fuzzy logic.[Origin? Better definition? Reference?] (1995-11-29)

cognitive architecture ::: The Institute of Creative Technologies defines cognitive architecture as: "hypothesis about the fixed structures that provide a mind, whether in natural or artificial systems, and how they work together – in conjunction with knowledge and skills embodied within the architecture – to yield intelligent behavior in a diversity of complex environments."[81]

cognitive behavioural programmes: programmes designed to modify behaviour by changing attitudes and thoughts.

cognitive behavioural therapies: techniques that involve helping clients to identify their negative, irrational thoughts and to replace these with more positive, rational ways of thinking.

cognitive computing ::: In general, the term cognitive computing has been used to refer to new hardware and/or software that mimics the functioning of the human brain[82][83][84][85][86][87] and helps to improve human decision-making.[88][89] In this sense, CC is a new type of computing with the goal of more accurate models of how the human brain/mind senses, reasons, and responds to stimulus.

cognitive development: the growth of cognitive (thinking) abilities. This may be studied by examining changes in the form and structure of children's thinking as they get older, or by looking at individual differences in the power of children's thinking as measured, e.g. by IQ tests.

cognitive dissonance: in Festinger's theory, a state of tension created when there are conflicts between an individual's behaviour and beliefs, or between two beliefs.

cognitive interview: an interview technique designed to be used by police investigators to help elicit accurate information from eyewitnesses.

cognitive labelling theory: Schachter and Singer's theory that it is the combination of physiological arousal and cognitive appraisal that leads to the experience of emotion.

cognitive map: Tolman's term for the mental representation of learned relationships among stimuli.

cognitive model of abnormality: the view that stresses the role of cognitive problems (such as illogical thought processes) in abnormal functioning.

cognitive neo-association theory: Berkowitz's theory that thoughts, memories and behaviour may be triggered by affective states and/or priming.

cognitive neuroscience:a hybrid discipline aimed at identifying the biological bases of cognitive processes by combining techniques for the study of cognitive processes with measures of physiological processes.

cognitive pathology: a phenomenon whereby researchers selectively ignore simplifying assumptions and other limitations which are part of the foundations of their theories and methods.

cognitive processes: aspects of mental 'behaviour' that focus on the acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of knowledge, for instance in memory and perception.

cognitive psychology: research field in psychology that focuses on mental processes used to acquire, store, retrieve and use knowledge.

cognitive restructuring: in Ellis's rational-emotive therapy, a process for modifying faulty beliefs and the negative emotions they produce, in order to develop realistic beliefs and self acceptance.

cognitive science ::: The interdisciplinary scientific study of the mind and its processes.[90]

cognitive science: the study of human intelligence and of the symbol-processing nature of cognition.

cognitive therapy: a form of therapy which focuses on the role of faulty beliefs and thought patterns in abnormal behaviour; because it also encourages testing beliefs via behavioural strategies, it is sometimes called' cognitive behavioural therapy'. See also rational-emotive therapy.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ::: Treatment involving the combination of behaviorism (based on the theories of learning) and cognitive therapy (based on the theory that our cognitions or thoughts control a large portion of our behaviors).

Cognitive computing - the simulation of human thought processes in a computerized model. Cognitive computing involves self-learning systems that use data mining, pattern recognition and natural language processing to mimic the way the human brain works.

Cognitive Dissonance ::: he realization of contradictions in one&

Cognitive liberty - (or the “right to mental self-determination”) is the freedom of an individual to control his or her own mental processes, cognition and consciousness.

Cognitive Meaning, Cognitive Sentence: See Meaning, Kinds of, 1. Cognoscendum: (pl. cognoscenda) (Lat. cognoscere, to know) The object of a cognition. Cognoscenda may be real and existent e.g. in veridical perception and memory; abstract and ideal e.g. in conception and valuation; fictitious, e.g. in imagination and hallucination. See Object, Objective. -- L.W.

Cognitive Psychology ::: The sub-field of psychology associated with information processing and the role it plays in emotion, behavior, and physiology.

Cognitive science - the study of thought, learning, and mental organization, which draws on aspects of psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and computer modeling. See /r/cogsci

Cognitive Therapy ::: The treatment approach based on the theory that our cognitions or thoughts control a large part of our behaviors and emotions. Therefore, changing the way we think can result in positive changes in the way we act and feel.


TERMS ANYWHERE

2. cognitive or noetic obstructions [to omniscience] (S. jNeyāvarana; T. shes bya'i sgrib ba; C. suozhi zhang 所知障)

accommodation: in Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the process of changing existing schemas when new information cannot be assimilated.

Accommodation ::: The creation of new cognitive schemas when objects, experiences, or other information does not fit with existing schemas.

action selection ::: A way of characterizing the most basic problem of intelligent systems: what to do next. In artificial intelligence and computational cognitive science, "the action selection problem" is typically associated with intelligent agents and animats—artificial systems that exhibit complex behaviour in an agent environment.

Adler (1870-1937)- an Austrian doctor and psychologist, who was initially influenced by Freud, and later developed his own theory of personality andpsychotherapy, through “individual psychology”. Adler strongly believed in treating each patient holistically as a “whole person”, and a range of his ideas and techniques have been applied to a variety of psychology, including cognitive behavioural therapy and holistic psychology.

Aesthetics. Any system or program of fine art emphasizing the ideal (s.) is Aesthetic Idealism. The view that the goal of fine art is an embodiment or reflection of the perfections of archetypal Ideas or timeless essences (Platonism). The view of art which emphasizes feeling, sentiment, and idealization (as opposed to "literal reproduction" of fact). The view of art which emphasizes cognitive content (as opposed to abstract feeling, primitive intuition, formal line or structure, mere color or tone). Psychology. The doctrine that ideas or judgments are causes of thought and behavior, and not mere effects or epiphenomena, is Psychological Idealism.

agent architecture ::: A blueprint for software agents and intelligent control systems, depicting the arrangement of components. The architectures implemented by intelligent agents are referred to as cognitive architectures.[15]

aklistAjNAna. (T. nyon mongs can ma yin pa'i mi shes pa; C. buran wuzhi; J. fuzen muchi; K. puryom muji 不染無知). In Sanskrit, "unafflicted ignorance," a form of ignorance that affects those who have destroyed the KLEsAVARAnA (afflictive obstructions) but not the JNEYAVARAnA (cognitive obstructions). The term is used specifically in the MAHAYANA tradition to refer to ARHATs, who have been liberated from rebirth (SAMSARA) but who are still presumed to possess this subtlest form of ignorance. These cognitive obstructions are considered to result from fundamental misapprehensions about the nature of reality and serve as the origin of the afflictive obstructions. The buddhas therefore encourage the arhats to overcome even this unafflicted ignorance and enter the BODHISATTVA path that leads to buddhahood.

Alambana. (P. Arammana; T. dmigs pa; C. suoyuan; J. shoen; K. soyon 所縁). In Sanskrit, "objective support," "sense object," or "object of cognition"; in epistemology, the object of any one of the six sensory consciousnesses (VIJNANA), i.e., visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile, and mental objects. In the mainstream traditions, these objects were considered to be the external constituent in the cognitive relationship between subject and object, whereby the contact (SPARsA) between, e.g., an olfactory sensory object (e.g., gandha) and the olfactory sense base (GHRAnENDRIYA) produces a corresponding olfactory consciousness (GHRAnAVIJNANA). Sense objects thus correspond to the six external "sense-fields" or "spheres of perception" (AYATANA) and the six external "elements" (DHATU). The term Alambana is also used in instructions on meditation to describe the object upon which the meditator is to focus the mind. See also ALAMBANAPRATYAYA.

Also artificial creativity, mechanical creativity, creative computing, or creative computation. ::: A multidisciplinary endeavour that includes the fields of artificial intelligence, cognitive psychology, philosophy, and the arts.

Also artificial emotional intelligence or emotion AI. ::: The study and development of systems and devices that can recognize, interpret, process, and simulate human affects. Affective computing is an interdisciplinary field spanning computer science, psychology, and cognitive science.[13][14]

Also cognitive augmentation, machine augmented intelligence, and enhanced intelligence. ::: The effective use of information technology in augmenting human intelligence.

Also brain–computer interface (BCI), neural-control interface (NCI), mind-machine interface (MMI), direct neural interface (DNI), or brain–machine interface (BMI). ::: A direct communication pathway between an enhanced or wired brain and an external device. BCI differs from neuromodulation in that it allows for bidirectional information flow. BCIs are often directed at researching, mapping, assisting, augmenting, or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions.[231]

Also machine intelligence. ::: Any intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and other animals. In computer science, AI research is defined as the study of "intelligent agents": any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals.[27] Colloquially, the term "artificial intelligence" is applied when a machine mimics "cognitive" functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as "learning" and "problem solving".[28]

Also theoretical neuroscience or mathematical neuroscience. ::: A branch of neuroscience which employs mathematical models, theoretical analysis and abstractions of the brain to understand the principles that govern the development, structure, physiology, and cognitive abilities of the nervous system.[97][98][99][100]

Alzheimer's disease: A degenerative brain disorder, which is characterised by gradual memory loss, deteriorating cognitive skills, increasing disorientation and a reduction in intellectual ability. Linked to the deterioration of acetylcholine pathways in the brain.

Anoetic: (Gr. a + noetikos, from nous, the mind) Applied to pure sensations, affective states and other pre-cognitive or non-cognitive states of mind. -- L.W.

Anti-metaphysics: 1. Agnosticism (q.v.). 2. Logical Positivism (see Scientific Empiricism (1)) holds that those metaphysical statements which are not confirmable by experiences (see Verification 4, 5) have no cognitive meaning and hence are pseudo-statements (see Meaning, Kinds of, 1, 5), -- R.C.

assimilation: in Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the process of fitting new information into existing schemas.

attribution (of causality): the way in which we infer the causes of our own or another person's behaviour according to a set of cognitive rules and biases. As a result of these strategies we decide whether a person's behaviour is caused by their own stable characteristics, or whether it is a result of situational influences.

autopoiesis ::: Proposed by biologist Humberto Maturana and cognitive scientist Francisco Varela, autopoiesis refers to the “self-production” or “self-making” of an organism. In Integral Theory, it is derived by looking at the biological phenomenology of an organism. A firstperson approach to a third-person singular reality. The inside view of the exterior of an individual (i.e., the inside view of a holon in the Upper-Right quadrant). Exemplary of a zone-

availability heuristic: a rule of thumb used to make decisions about frequencies of events based on how easily relevant examples can be remembered a cognitiveshort cut

Avajjana. In PAli, "advertence," that is, adverting the mind toward a sensory object, which is the first of seven functions in the cognitive process that ultimately lead to sensory consciousness (P. viNNAna, S. VIJNANA). When the unconscious mind (P. BHAVAnGASOTA) is interrupted by the presence of a sensory object, the mind first performs the function of "adverting" toward the object. Thereafter, the mind performs in sequence the functions of "seeing" (P. dassana), "receiving" (P. sampaticchana), "investigating" (P. santīrana), and "determining" (P. votthapana). Immediately after this, the mind generates six or seven "impulse moments" (P. javanacitta) associated with either wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral classes of consciousness, after which it reverts to the bhavanga.

Avarana. (T. sgrib pa; C. zhang; J. sho; K. chang 障). In Sanskrit and PAli, "obstruction," "obstacle," or "hindrance." In MAHAYANA literature, two types of Avarana are commonly described: "obstructions that are the afflictions," or "afflictive obstructions" (KLEsAVARAnA), and cognitive or noetic obstructions, viz., "obstructions to omniscience" (JNEYAVARAnA). sRAVAKAs and PRATYEKABUDDHAs can be freed from the afflictive obstructions, but only BODHISATTVAs are able to free themselves from the cognitive obstructions. In the YOGACARA system, the cognitive obstructions result from fundamental misapprehensions about the nature of reality. Because of the attachment that derives from the reification of what are actually imaginary external phenomena, conceptualization and discrimination arise in the mind, which in turn lead to pride, ignorance, and wrong views. Based on the mistakes in understanding generated by these cognitive obstructions, the individual engages in defiled actions motivated by anger, envy, etc., which constitute the afflictive obstructions. The afflictive obstructions may be removed by followers of the srAvaka, pratyekabuddha, and beginning bodhisattva paths by applying various antidotes or counteragents (PRATIPAKsA) to the afflictions or defilements (KLEsA); overcoming these types of obstructions will lead to freedom from further rebirth. The cognitive obstructions, however, can only be overcome by advanced bodhisattvas who seek instead to achieve buddhahood, by perfecting their understanding of emptiness (suNYATA) and compassion (KARUnA) and amassing a great store of merit (PUnYA) by engaging in the bodhisattva deeds (CARYA). Buddhas, therefore, are the only class of beings who have overcome both types of obstructions and thus are able simultaneously to cognize all objects of knowledge in the universe. The jNeyAvarana are therefore sometimes translated as "obstructions to omniscience." In the elaboration of the obstructions in the YogAcAra text CHENG WEISHI LUN (*VijNaptimAtratAsiddhi), there are ten types of Avarana that are specifically said to obstruct the ten types of suchness (TATHATA) correlated with the ten stages of the bodhisattva path (DAsABHuMI): (1) the obstruction of the common illusions of the unenlightened (pṛthagjanatvAvarana; C. yishengxing zhang); (2) the obstruction of deluded conduct (mithyApratipattyAvarana; C. xiexing zhang); (3) the obstruction of dullness (dhandhatvAvarana; C. andun zhang); (4) the obstruction of the manifestation of subtle afflictions (suksmaklesasamudAcArAvarana; C. xihuo xianxing zhang); (5) the obstruction of the lesser HĪNAYANA ideal of PARINIRVAnA (hīnayAnaparinirvAnAvarana; C. xiasheng niepan zhang); (6) the obstruction of the manifestation of coarse characteristics (sthulanimittasamudAcArAvarana; C. cuxiang xianxing zhang); (7) the obstruction of the manifestation of subtle characteristics (suksmanimittasamudAcArAvarana; C. xixiang xianxing zhang); (8) the obstruction of the continuance of activity even in the immaterial realm that is free from characteristics (nirnimittAbhisaMskArAvarana; C. wuxiang jiaxing zhang); (9) the obstruction of not desiring to act to bring salvation to others (parahitacaryAkAmanAvarana; C. buyuxing zhang); and (10) the obstruction of not yet acquiring mastery over all things (dharmesuvasitApratilambhAvarana; fa weizizai zhang). These ten obstructions are overcome by practicing, respectively: (1) the perfection of giving (DANAPARAMITA); (2) the perfection of morality (sĪLAPARAMITA); (3) the perfection of forbearance (KsANTIPARAMITA); (4) the perfection of energetic effort (VĪRYAPARAMITA); (5) the perfection of meditative absorption (DHYANAPARAMITA); (6) the perfection of wisdom (PRAJNAPARAMITA); (7) the perfection of expedient means (UPAYAPARAMITA); (8) the perfection of the vow (to attain enlightenment) (PRAnIDHANAPARAMITA); (9) the perfection of powers (BALAPARAMITA); and (10) the perfection of omniscience (jNAnapAramitA). See also KARMAVARAnA; NĪVARAnA.

avidyA. (P. avijjA; T. ma rig pa; C. wuming; J. mumyo; K. mumyong 無明). In Sanskrit, "ignorance"; the root cause of suffering (DUḤKHA) and one of the key terms in Buddhism. Ignorance occurs in many contexts in Buddhist doctrine. For example, ignorance is the first link in the twelvefold chain of dependent origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPADA) that sustains the cycle of birth and death (SAMSARA); it is the condition that creates the predispositions (SAMSKARA) that lead to rebirth and thus inevitably to old age and death. Ignorance is also listed as one of the root afflictions (S. MuLAKLEsA) and the ten "fetters" (SAMYOJANA) that keep beings bound to saMsAra. AvidyA is closely synonymous with "delusion" (MOHA), one of the three unwholesome roots (AKUsALAMuLA). When they are distinguished, moha may be more of a generic foolishness and benightedness, whereas avidyA is instead an obstinate misunderstanding about the nature of the person and the world. According to ASAnGA's ABHIDHARMASAMUCCAYA, for example, moha is the factor of nescience, while avidyA is the active misconstruction of the nature of reality; he uses the analogy of twilight (= moha) falling on a coiled rope (= reality), which someone in the darkness wrongly conceives to be a snake (= avidyA). Due to the pervasive influence of ignorance, the deluded sentient being (PṚTHAGJANA) sees what is not self as self, what is impermanent as permanent, what is impure as pure, and what is painful as pleasurable (see VIPARYASA); and due to this confusion, one is subject to persistent suffering (duḥkha) and continued rebirth. The inveterate propensity toward ignorance is first arrested in the experience of stream-entry (see SROTAAPANNA), which eliminates the three cognitive fetters of belief in a perduring self (SATKAYADṚstI), attachment to rules and rituals (S. sĪLAVRATAPARAMARsA), and skeptical doubt (S. VICIKITSA). AvidyA is gradually alleviated at the stages of once-returners (SAKṚDAGAMIN) and nonreturners (ANAGAMIN), and permanently eliminated at the stage of arhatship (see ARHAT), the fourth and highest degree of sanctity in mainstream Buddhism (see ARYAPUDGALA).

awareness: in biological psychology, awareness comprises a human's or an animal's perception and cognitive reaction to a condition or event. Awareness does not necessarily imply understanding, just an ability to be conscious of, feel or perceive.

basic structures of consciousness ::: 1. “Empty” levels of consciousness used as a general measure of vertical development. A measure of the degree or “altitude” of awareness in any particular stream. These altitudes are often described using the colors of the natural rainbow: Infrared, Magenta, Red, Amber, Orange, Green, Teal, Turquoise, Indigo, Violet, Ultraviolet, and Clear Light. 2. Enduring structures that are actually laid down along these markers of altitude and thus are roughly synonymous with basic levels of consciousness. These are the rungs in any developmental ladder. Cognitive development, for instance, is often used since it is necessary but not sufficient for development in other lines.

cognitive ability: the psychological concept that refers to such processes as perceiving, knowing, recognising, conceptualising, judging, and reasoning.

cognitive ::: a. --> Knowing, or apprehending by the understanding; as, cognitive power.

cognitive appraisal theory: devised by Lazarus, stating that our cognitive appraisal of a situation in crucial in experiencing emotions.

cognitive: a process of information storage and retrieval, which can be utilised flexibly in behaviour. In humans, cognitive?relates to mental operations sometimes termed thought processes, eg reasoning, calculation and planning.

cognitive architecture "architecture" A computer architecure involving {non-deterministic}, multiple {inference} processes, as found in {neural networks}. Cognitive architectures model the human brain and contrast with single processor computers. The term might also refer to software architectures, e.g. {fuzzy logic}. [Origin? Better definition? Reference?] (1995-11-29)

cognitive architecture ::: (architecture) A computer architecure involving non-deterministic, multiple inference processes, as found in neural networks. Cognitive architectures model the human brain and contrast with single processor computers.The term might also refer to software architectures, e.g. fuzzy logic.[Origin? Better definition? Reference?] (1995-11-29)

cognitive architecture ::: The Institute of Creative Technologies defines cognitive architecture as: "hypothesis about the fixed structures that provide a mind, whether in natural or artificial systems, and how they work together – in conjunction with knowledge and skills embodied within the architecture – to yield intelligent behavior in a diversity of complex environments."[81]

cognitive behavioural programmes: programmes designed to modify behaviour by changing attitudes and thoughts.

cognitive behavioural therapies: techniques that involve helping clients to identify their negative, irrational thoughts and to replace these with more positive, rational ways of thinking.

cognitive computing ::: In general, the term cognitive computing has been used to refer to new hardware and/or software that mimics the functioning of the human brain[82][83][84][85][86][87] and helps to improve human decision-making.[88][89] In this sense, CC is a new type of computing with the goal of more accurate models of how the human brain/mind senses, reasons, and responds to stimulus.

cognitive development: the growth of cognitive (thinking) abilities. This may be studied by examining changes in the form and structure of children's thinking as they get older, or by looking at individual differences in the power of children's thinking as measured, e.g. by IQ tests.

cognitive dissonance: in Festinger's theory, a state of tension created when there are conflicts between an individual's behaviour and beliefs, or between two beliefs.

cognitive interview: an interview technique designed to be used by police investigators to help elicit accurate information from eyewitnesses.

cognitive labelling theory: Schachter and Singer's theory that it is the combination of physiological arousal and cognitive appraisal that leads to the experience of emotion.

cognitive map: Tolman's term for the mental representation of learned relationships among stimuli.

cognitive model of abnormality: the view that stresses the role of cognitive problems (such as illogical thought processes) in abnormal functioning.

cognitive neo-association theory: Berkowitz's theory that thoughts, memories and behaviour may be triggered by affective states and/or priming.

cognitive neuroscience:a hybrid discipline aimed at identifying the biological bases of cognitive processes by combining techniques for the study of cognitive processes with measures of physiological processes.

cognitive pathology: a phenomenon whereby researchers selectively ignore simplifying assumptions and other limitations which are part of the foundations of their theories and methods.

cognitive processes: aspects of mental 'behaviour' that focus on the acquisition, storage, retrieval and use of knowledge, for instance in memory and perception.

cognitive psychology: research field in psychology that focuses on mental processes used to acquire, store, retrieve and use knowledge.

cognitive restructuring: in Ellis's rational-emotive therapy, a process for modifying faulty beliefs and the negative emotions they produce, in order to develop realistic beliefs and self acceptance.

cognitive science ::: The interdisciplinary scientific study of the mind and its processes.[90]

cognitive science: the study of human intelligence and of the symbol-processing nature of cognition.

cognitive therapy: a form of therapy which focuses on the role of faulty beliefs and thought patterns in abnormal behaviour; because it also encourages testing beliefs via behavioural strategies, it is sometimes called' cognitive behavioural therapy'. See also rational-emotive therapy.

(b) In epistemology: Epistemological dualism is the theory that in perception, memory and other types of non-inferential cognition, there is a numerical duality of the content or dntum immediately present to the knowing mind and (sense datum, memory image, etc.) and the real object known (the thing perceived or remembered) (cf. A. O. Lovejoy, The Revolt Against Dualism, pp. 15-6). Epistemological monism, on the contrary identifies the immediate datum and the cognitive object either by assimilating the content to the object (epistemological realism) or the object to the content (epistemological idealism). -- L.W.

Bolwby (1907 -1990): a British psychologist, who focused primarily on attachmentbonds between a caregiver and a child, and how the strength or deprivation of the bond may affect the child’s cognitive, social and emotional development, epitomised in Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis.

centration: a characteristic of the preoperational stage of cognitive development. Children centre on one aspect of a problem and overlook other perceptual factors.

cerebral cortex: an area of the brain resembling a folded sheet of grey tissue that covers the rest of the brain. The cerebral cortex directs the brains higher cognitive and emotional functions. It is divided into two almost symmetrical halves called the cerebral hemispheres. Each hemisphere contains four lobes. Areas within these lobes regulate all forms of conscious experience such as emotion, perception, thought and planning as well as unconscious cognitive and emotional processes. The cerebral cortex includes the frontal lobe, occipital lobe, parietal lobe and temporal lobe.

Clouding of consciousness is a global impairment in higher central nervous functioning. All aspects of cognitive functioning are affected. On mental status examination it is manifest by disorientation in time, place and person, memory difficulties caused by failure to register and recall, aphasia, dyspraxia, and agnosia. Impaired perception functioning leads to illusions and hallucinations often in the visual sensory modality. This then causes agitation and distress and secondary delusions. The term 'confusion state' is sometimes used to mean clouding of consciousness, but should be avoided if at all possible because it is ambiguous.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ::: Treatment involving the combination of behaviorism (based on the theories of learning) and cognitive therapy (based on the theory that our cognitions or thoughts control a large portion of our behaviors).

Cognitive computing - the simulation of human thought processes in a computerized model. Cognitive computing involves self-learning systems that use data mining, pattern recognition and natural language processing to mimic the way the human brain works.

Cognitive Dissonance ::: he realization of contradictions in one&

Cognitive liberty - (or the “right to mental self-determination”) is the freedom of an individual to control his or her own mental processes, cognition and consciousness.

Cognitive Meaning, Cognitive Sentence: See Meaning, Kinds of, 1. Cognoscendum: (pl. cognoscenda) (Lat. cognoscere, to know) The object of a cognition. Cognoscenda may be real and existent e.g. in veridical perception and memory; abstract and ideal e.g. in conception and valuation; fictitious, e.g. in imagination and hallucination. See Object, Objective. -- L.W.

Cognitive Psychology ::: The sub-field of psychology associated with information processing and the role it plays in emotion, behavior, and physiology.

Cognitive science - the study of thought, learning, and mental organization, which draws on aspects of psychology, linguistics, philosophy, and computer modeling. See /r/cogsci

Cognitive Therapy ::: The treatment approach based on the theory that our cognitions or thoughts control a large part of our behaviors and emotions. Therefore, changing the way we think can result in positive changes in the way we act and feel.

cognitivism ::: 1. In ethics, cognitivism is the philosophical view that ethical sentences express propositions, and hence are capable of being true or false. More generally, cognitivism with respect to any area of discourse is the position that sentences used in that discourse are cognitive, that is, are meaningful and capable of being true or false. ::: 2. In psychology, cognitivism is the approach to understanding the mind that argues that mental function can be understood as the 'internal' rule bound manipulation of symbols. See Cognitivism (psychology).

concrete operational period: In Piaget's stages of cognitive development, a period between ages seven and eleven during which children gain a better understanding of mental operations. Children begin thinking logically about concrete events, but have difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts.

Concrete Operational Stage ::: According to Piaget, the stage of cognitive development where a child between the ages of 7 and 12 begins thinking more globally and outside of the self but is still deficient in abstract thought.

confirmation bias: a form of cognitive error based on the tendency to seek out information which supports one's beliefs, and ignore contradictory information.

connectionism ::: An approach in the fields of cognitive science, that hopes to explain mental phenomena using artificial neural networks.[120]

CONSCIOUSNESS—All forms of sensation, feeling, perception, planning and thought; a comprehensive tern for the complement of all our cognitive energies.

consciousness: is regarded to comprise qualities such as subjectivity, self-awareness, sentience, and the ability to perceive the relationship between oneself and one's environment. It is a subject of much research in philosophy of mind, psychology, neuroscience, and cognitive science.

constructive theories of perception: top-down (or concept driven) theories that emphasise the need for several sources of information in order to construct our perception of the world. In addition to information available in the sensory stimulus, we need to use higher cognitive processes, according to this theory, to interpret the information appropriately.

control(psychological): the sense that one can anticipate events that occur in one's environment - a feeling that one can accomplish things and is not at the mercy of forces beyond one's control. Types of control include: informational, decisional, behavioural, cognitive and retrospective.

Critical Period ::: A time frame deemed highly important in developing in a healthy manner; can be physically, emotionally, behaviorally, or cognitively.

(c) The relation between psychology and epistemology is particularly intimate since the cognitive processes of perception, memory, imagination, conception and reasoning, investigated by empirical psychology are the very processes which, in quite a different context, are the special subject matter of epistemology. Nevertheless the psychological and epistemological treatments of the cognitive processes of mind are radically different: scientific psychology is concerned solely with the description and explanation of conscious processes, e.g. particular acts of perception, in the context of other conscious events; epistemology is interested in the cognitive pretentions of the perceptions, i.e. their apparent reference to external objects. In short, whereas psychology is the investigation of all states of mind including the cognitive in the context of the mental life, epistemology investigates only cognitive states and these solely with respect to their cognitive import. Psychology and epistemology are by virtue of the partial identity of their subject matter interdependent sciences. The psychology of perception, memory, imagination, conception, etc. affords indispensable data for epistemological interpretation and on the other hand epistemological analysis of the cognitive processes may sometimea prove psychologically suggestive. The epistemologist must, however, guard against a particularly insidious form of the genetic fallacy: viz. the supposition that the psychological origin of an item of knowledge prejudices either favorably or unfavorably its cognitive validity -- a fallacy which is psychologism at its worst.

dementia: disorder characterised by considerable deterioration in cognitive function, for instance in loss of memory. Different types of dementia include corticial dementias (e.g. Alzheimers disease) and sub-cortical dementias (e.g. Huntingtons disease).

dharmameghā. (T. chos kyi sprin; C. fayun di; J. hounji; K. pobun chi 法雲地). In Sanskrit, "cloud of dharma," the tenth and final "ground" or stage (BHuMI) of the BODHISATTVA path, just prior to the attainment of buddhahood. On the dharmameghā bhumi, the bodhisattva is at the point of attaining the dharma-body (DHARMAKĀYA) that is as vast as the sky, becomes autonomous in interacting with all material and mental factors, and gains all-pervasive knowledge, which causes the excellent dharma to fall like rain from a cloud, nurturing the entire world and increasing the harvest of virtue for sentient beings. This stage is also described as being pervaded by meditative absorption (DHYĀNA) and mastery of the use of DHĀRAnĪ, just as the sky is filled with clouds. According to the CHENG WEISHI LUN (*VijNaptimātratāsiddhisāstra; chap. 11), each of the ten stages of the bodhisattva path leads to the attainment of one of the ten types of suchness (TATHATĀ); these are accomplished by discarding one of the ten kinds of obstructions (ĀVARAnA) through practicing one of the ten perfections (PĀRAMITĀ). In the case of the dharmameghā bhumi, the obstruction of not yet acquiring mastery over all dharmas (fa wei zizai zhang) is removed through the perfection of knowledge (JNĀNAPĀRAMITĀ), leading to the suchness that serves as the support for mastery over action (ye zizai deng suoyi zhenru; *kriyādivasitāsaMnisrayatathatā) and the ability of the bodhisattva to ripen the minds of sentient beings. The tenth stage thus removes any remaining delusions regarding the use of the supernatural knowledges or powers (ABHIJNĀ) or the subtle mysteries, giving the bodhisattva complete autonomy in manipulating all dharmas. As the culminating stage of the "path of cultivation" (BHĀVANĀMĀRGA), the dharmameghā bhumi still contains the last and most subtle remnants of the cognitive obstructions (JNEYĀVARAnA). These obstructions will be completely eradicated through the adamantine-like concentration (VAJROPAMASAMĀDHI), which marks the transition to the "ultimate path" (NIstHĀMĀRGA), or "path where no further training is necessary" (AsAIKsAMĀRGA), i.e., an eleventh stage of the buddhas (TATHĀGATABHuMI) that is sometimes also known as the "universally luminous" (samantaprabhā).

Egocentric ::: The thinking in the preoperational stage of cognitive development where children believe everyone sees the world fro the same perspective as he or she does.

Either sort of enquiry involves an investigation into the meaning of ethical statements, their truth and falsity, their objectivity and subjectivity, and the possibility of systematizing them under one or more first principles. In neither case is ethics concerned with our conduct or our ethical judgments simply as a matter of historical or anthropological record. It is, however, often said that the first kind of enquiry is not ethics but psychology. In both cases it may be said that the aim of ethics, as a part of philosophy, is theory not practice, cognition not action, even though it be added at once that its theory is for the sake of practice and its cognition a cognition of how to live. But some mornlists who take the second approach do deny that ethics is a cognitive discipline or science, namely those who hold that ethical first principles are resolutions or preferences, not propositions which may be true or false, e.g., Nietzsche, Santayana, Russell.

Ellis, Albert ::: A cognitive Psychologist who developed the concept of Rational-Emotive Therapy.

embodied cognitive science ::: An interdisciplinary field of research, the aim of which is to explain the mechanisms underlying intelligent behavior. It comprises three main methodologies: 1) the modeling of psychological and biological systems in a holistic manner that considers the mind and body as a single entity, 2) the formation of a common set of general principles of intelligent behavior, and 3) the experimental use of robotic agents in controlled environments.

Emerging technologies - technologies that are perceived as capable of changing the status quo. These include a variety of technologies such as educational technology, information technology, nanotechnology, biotechnology, cognitive science, robotics, and artificial intelligence.

emotion ::: 1. An affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced, as distinguished from cognitive or volitional states of consciousness. Also abstract ‘feeling" as distinguished from the other classes of mental phenomena. 2. A state of mental agitation or disturbance. **emotion"s, emotions.

emotion: an pattern of intense changes in physiological arousal, behavior, cognitive processes and environmental influences that are described in subjective terms such as happiness, fear or anger.

Emotive Meaning: Emotive, as distinguished from the cognitive, meaning of a statement is its ability to communicate an attitude or emotion, to inspire an act of will without conveying truth. Exclamations, commands and perhaps ethical and aesthetic judgments are emotive but not cognitive. -- L.W.

enduring structure ::: A structure that remains in existence, fully functioning, yet is subsumed in higher structures (e.g., cognitive structures). See transitional structure.

equilibration: in Piaget's theory of cognitive development, maintaining balance between the environment and the mental structures (schemas) which we use to represent that environment.

(e) The problem of the A PRIORI, though the especial concern of the rationalist, confronts the empiricist also since few epistemologists are prepared to exclude the a priori entirely from their accounts of knowledge. The problem is that of isolating the a priori or non-empirical elements in knowledge and accounting for them in terms of the human reason. Three principal theories of the a priori have been advanced: the theory of the intrinsic A PRIORI which asserts that the basic principles of logic, mathematics, natural sciences and philosophy are self-evident truths recognizable by such intrinsic traits as clarity and distinctness of ideas. The intrinsic theory received its definitive modern expression in the theory of "innate ideas" (q.v.) of Herbert of Cherbury, Descartes, and 17th century rationalism. The presuppositional theory of the a priori which validates a priori truths by demonstrating that they are presupposed either by their attempted denial (Leibniz) or by the very possibility of experience (Kant). The postulational theory of the A PRIORI elaborated under the influence of recent postulational techniques in mathematics, interprets a priori principles as rules or postulates arbitrarily posited in the construction of formal deductive systems. See Postulate; Posit. (f) The problem of differentiating the principal kinds of knowledge is an essential task especially for an empirical epistemology. Perhaps the most elementary epistemological distinction is between non-inferential apprehension of objects by perception, memory, etc. (see Knowledge by Acquaintance), and inferential knowledge of things with which the knowing subject has no direct apprehension. See Knowledge by Description. Acquaintance in turn assumes two principal forms: perception or acquaintance with external objects (see Perception), and introspection or the subject's acquaintance with the "self" and its cognitive, volitional and affective states. See Introspection; Reflection. Inferential knowledge includes knowledge of other selves (this is not to deny that knowledge of other minds may at times be immediate and non-inferential), historical knowledge, including not only history in the narrower sense but also astronomical, biological, anthropological and archaeological and even cosmological reconstructions of the past and finally scientific knowledge in so far as it involves inference and construction from observational data.

Extraspective situations: "Situations in which we seem to be in direct cognitive contact with other minds and their states". (Broad.) -- H.H.

F. C. S. Schiller, the Oxford pragmatist or humanist, is, if anything, more hostile to rationalism, intellectualism, absolute metaphysics and even systematic and rigorous thinking than James himself. In his Humanism (1903) and his most important book Studies in Humanism (1907), he attempts to resolve or deflate metaphysical issues and controversies by practical distinctions of terms and appeal to personal, human factors, supposedly forgotten by other philosophers. Schiller wrote about many of the topics which James treated: absolute metaphysics, religion, truth, freedom, psychic research, etc., and the outcome is similar. His spirited defense of Protagoras, "the humanist", against Socrates and his tireless bantering critique of all phases of formal logic are elements of novelty. So also is his extreme activism. He goes so far as to say that "In validating our claims to 'truth' . . . we really transform them [realities] by our cognitive efforts, thereby proving our desires and ideas to be real forces in the shaping of the world". (Studies tn Humanism, 1906, p. 425.) Schiller's apparent view that desires and ideas can transform both truth and reality, even without manipulation or experiment, could also be found in James, but is absent in Dewey and later pragmatists.

Festinger (1919-1989): a renowned social psychologist who developed the theories of cognitive dissonance (whereby incongruity between beliefs or behaviours cause psychological discomfort) and social comparison theory.

Finance ::: is a term describing the study and system of money, investments, and other financial instruments. Some people prefer to divide finance into three distinct categories: public finance, corporate finance, and personal finance. There is also the recently emerging area of social finance. Behavioral finance seeks to identify the cognitive (e.g. emotional, social, and psychological) reasons behind financial decisions.

Formal Operational Stage ::: Pavlov&

frontal lobe: the area of the cortex in front of the central fissure, and above the lateral fissure; involved in motor control and cognitive processes.

heuristic: cognitive strategies, or rules of thumb? Heuristics provide informal strategies to aid problem solving, which are usually more successful than random search, but less effective than algorithms..

History, Philosophy of: History investigates the theories concerning the development of man as a social being within the limits of psychophysical causality. Owing to this double puipose the philosophy of history has to study the principles of historiography, and, first of all, their background, their causes and underlying laws, their meaning and motivation. This can be called the metaphysics of history. Secondly, it concerns itself with the cognitive part, i.e. with historic understanding, and then it is called the logic of history. While in earlier times the philosophy of history was predominantly metaphysics, it has turned more and more to the methodology or logic of history. A complete philosophy of history, however, ought to consider the metaphysical as well as the logical problems involved.

Hobbes, Thomas: (1588-1679) Considering knowledge empirical in origin and results, and philosophy inference of causes from effects and vice versa, regarded matter and motion as the least common denominators of all our percepts, and bodies and their movements as the only subject matter of philosophy. Consciousness in its sensitive and cognitive aspects is a jarring of the nervous system; in its affectional and volitional, motor aspects, a kick-back to the jar. Four subdivisions of philosophy cover all physical and psychological events: geometry describing the spatial movements of bodies; physics, the effects of moving bodies upon one another; ethics, the movements of nervous systems; politics, the effects of nervous systems upon one another. The first law of motion appears in every organic body in its tendency, which in man becomes a natural right, to self-preservation and self-assertion. Hence the primary condition of all organic as of all inorganic bodies is one of collision, conflict, and war. The second law of motion, in its organic application, impels men to relinquish a portion of their natural right to self-assertion in return for a similar relinquishment on the part of their fellows. Thus a component of the antagonistic forces of clashing individual rights and wills is established, embodied in a social contract, or treaty of peace, which is the basis of the state. To enforce this social covenant entered into, pursuant to the second law of motion, by individuals naturally at war in obedience to the first, sovereignty must be set up and exercised through government. Government is most efficient when sovereignty, which has in any case to be delegated in a community of any size, is delegated to one man -- an absolute monarch -- rather than to a group of men, or a parliament.

In Reconstruction in Philosophy (New York, 1920, p. 156), Dewey states "When the claim or pretension or plan is acted upon it guides us truly or falsely; it leads us to our end or away from it. Its active, dynamic function is the all-important thing about it, and in the quality of activity induced by it lies all its truth and falsity. The hypothesis that works is the true one, and truth is an abstract noun applied to the collection of cases, actual, foreseen and desired, that receive confirmation in their work and consequences". The needs and desires which truth must satisfy, however, are not conceived as personal and emotional (as with James) but rather as "public" in some not altogether explicit sense. Although Dewey emphasizes the functional role of propositions and laws (and even of sensations, facts and objects), and describes these materials of knowledge as means, tools, instruments or operations for the transformation of an indeterminate situation into a determinate one in the process of inquiry (Logic, The Theory of Inquiry, N. Y., 1938), he does not clearly deny that they have a strictly cognitive role as well, and he once states that "the essence of pragmatic instrumentalism is to conceive of both knowledge and practice as means of making goods -- excellencies of all kinds -- secure in experienced existence". (The Quest for Certainty, N. Y., 1929, p. 37.) Indeed, in his Logic (p. 345), he quotes with approval Peirce's definition "truth is that concordance of an abstract statement with the ideal limit towards which endless inquiry would tend to bring scientific belief, . . ." Here truth seems to be represented as progressive approximation to reality, but usually it is interpreted as efficacy, verification or practical expediency.

In Scholasticism: Whatever is known is, as known, an accident of the knowing soul and therefore caused by an informing agent. All knowledge ultimately is due to an affection of the senses which are informed by the agency of the objects through a medium. The immutation of the sense organ and the corresponding accidental change of the soul are called species sensibilis impressa. The conscious percept is the species expressa. Intellectual knowledge stems from the phantasm out of which the active intellect disengages the universal nature which as species intelligibilis impressa informs the passive intellect and there becomes, as conscious concept. the species expressa or verbum mentis. Sensory cognition is a material process, but it is not the matter of the particular thing which enters into the sensory faculties; rather they supply the material foundation for the sensible form to become existent within the mind. Cognition is, therefore, "assimilation" of the mind to its object. The cognitive mental state as well as the species by which it originates are "images" of the object, in a metaphorical or analogical sense, not to be taken as anything like a copy or a reduplication of the thing. The senses, depending directly on the physical influence exercised by the object, cannot err; error is of the judging reason which may be misled by imagination and neglects to use the necessary critique. -- R.A.

Insolubilia: See Paradoxes, logical. Inspection: (Lat. inspection, from inspectus, pp. of inspicere, to look into) Rudimentary knowledge of qualities and relations between qualities as given in immediate experience, (see Presentational Immediacy) in contradistinction to perception, memory, introspection and other higher cognitive processes which are conversant not with qualities but with objects. -- L.W.

Intellect: (Lat. intellects from intellegere, to understand) The cognitive faculty of the mind as it operates at higher abstract and conceptual levels. -- L.W.

Intellect: The cognitive faculty of the mind as it operates at higher abstract and conceptual levels.

intellectual development: (Piaget) concluded that intellectual development is the result of the interaction of hereditary and environmental factors. As the child develops and constantly interacts with the world around him, knowledge is invented and reinvented. His theory of intellectual development is strongly grounded in the biological sciences. He saw cognitive growth as an extension of biological growth and as being governed by the same laws and principles. Piagetargued that intellectual development controlled every other aspect of development - emotional, social, and moral.

Intelligence amplification (IA) - (also referred to as cognitive augmentation and machine augmented intelligence) refers to the effective use of information technology in augmenting human intelligence.

Intentionalism: Theory of mind and knowledge which considers intentionality a distinctive if not the defining characteristic of mind and the basis for mind's cognitive and conative functions. See Intentional Theory of Mind. -- L.W.

Jaspers, Karl: (1883-) Inspired by Nietzsche's and Kierkegaard's psychology, but aiming at a strictly scientific method, the "existentialist" Jaspers analyzes the possible attitudes of man towards the world; the decisions which the individual must make in inescapable situations like death, struggle, change, guilt; and the various ways in which man meets these situations. Motivated by the boundless desire for clarity and precision, Jaspers earnestly presents as his main objective to awaken the desire for a fuller, more genuine philosophy, these three methods of philosophizing which have existed from te earliest times to the present: Philosophical world orientation consisting in an analysis of the limitations, incompleteness and relativity of the researches, methods, world pictures of all the sciences; elucidation of existence consisting of a cognitive penetration into reality on the basis of the deepest inner decisions experienced by the individual, and striving to satisfy the deepest demands of human nature; the way of metaphysics, the never-satisfied and unending search for truth in the world of knowledge, conduct of life and in the seeking for the one being, dimly seen through antithetic thoughts, deep existential conflicts and differently conceived metaphysical symbols of the past. Realizing the decisive problematic relation between philosophy and religion in the Middle Ages, Jaspers elevates psychology and history to a more important place in the future of philosophy.

Jnanendriya: A Sanskrit term for one of the five indriyas (q.v.) of knowledge, the cognitive senses or powers of hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, and tasting.

Jnanendriya: (Skr.) One of the five indriyas (q.v.) of knowledge, the cognitive senses or powers of hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, and tasting. -- K.F.L.

jNeyāvarana. (T. shes bya'i sgrib pa; C. suozhizhang; J. shochisho; K. sojijang 所知障). In Sanskrit, "cognitive obstructions," or "noetic obscurations"; the second of the two categories of obstructions (ĀVARAnA), together with the afflictive obstructions (KLEsĀVARAnA), that must be overcome in order to perfect the BODHISATTVA path and achieve buddhahood. In the YOGĀCĀRA and MADHYAMAKA systems, the cognitive obstructions are treated as subtler hindrances that serve as the origin of the afflictive obstructions, and result from fundamental misapprehensions about the nature of reality. According to Yogācāra, because of the attachment deriving ultimately from the reification of what are actually imaginary external phenomena, conceptualization and discrimination arise in the mind, which lead in turn to pride, ignorance, and wrong views. Based on these mistakes in cognition, then, the individual engages in defiled actions, such as anger, envy, etc., which constitute the afflictive obstructions. The afflictive obstructions may be removed by followers of the sRĀVAKA, PRATYEKABUDDHA, and beginning BODHISATTVA paths, by applying various antidotes or counteragents (PRATIPAKsA) to the afflictions (KLEsA); overcoming these types of obstructions will lead to freedom from further rebirth. The cognitive obstructions, however, are more deeply ingrained and can only be overcome by advanced bodhisattvas who seek instead to achieve buddhahood, by perfecting their understanding of emptiness (suNYATĀ). Buddhas, therefore, are the only class of beings who have overcome both types of obstructions and thus are able simultaneously to cognize all objects of knowledge in the universe; this is one of the sources for their unparalleled skills as teachers of sentient beings. The jNeyāvarana are therefore sometimes translated as "obstructions to omniscience."

judgments ::: Basic attitudes that can be taken toward any phenomena. There are at least three major judgments that humans at Orange altitude or higher can make: aesthetic (Is it attractive?), moral (Is it good?), and cognitive (Is it real?).

klesāvarana. (T. nyon mongs kyi sgrib pa; C. fannao zhang; J. bonnosho; K. ponnoe chang 煩腦障). In Sanskrit, "afflictive obstructions," or, more literally, the obstructions that are the afflictions. This is the first of the two categories of obstructions (ĀVARAnA), together with the cognitive or noetic obstructions (JNEYĀVARAnA), that the MAHĀYĀNA holds must be overcome in order to complete the BODHISATTVA path and achieve buddhahood. In the YOGĀCĀRA system, based on the mistakes in understanding generated by the cognitive obstructions, the individual engages in defiled actions, such as anger, envy, etc., which constitute the afflictive obstructions. The afflictive obstructions may be removed by followers of the sRĀVAKA, PRATYEKABUDDHA, and beginning BODHISATTVA paths, by applying various antidotes or counteragents to the afflictions (KLEsA); overcoming these types of obstructions will lead to freedom from further rebirth (and specifically the PARICCHEDAJARĀMARAnA, or "determinative birth-and-death"). The cognitive obstructions, however, can be overcome only by advanced bodhisattvas who aspire instead to achieve buddhahood.

KL-ONE ::: A frame language.Not to be confused with KL1.[An Overview of the KL-ONE Knowledge Representation System, R.J. Brachman and J. Schmolze, Cognitive Sci 9(2), 1985]. (1994-11-18)

KL-ONE A {frame language}. Not to be confused with {KL1}. ["An Overview of the KL-ONE Knowledge Representation System", R.J. Brachman and J. Schmolze, Cognitive Sci 9(2), 1985]. (1994-11-18)

KRL ::: Knowledge Representation Language. A frame-based language.[An Overview of KRL, a Knowledge Representation Language, D.G. Bobrow and T. Winograd, Cognitive Sci 1:1 (1977)].

KRL {Knowledge Representation} Language. A {frame}-based language. ["An Overview of KRL, a Knowledge Representation Language", D.G. Bobrow and T. Winograd, Cognitive Sci 1:1 (1977)].

leadership: the ability of an individual or member of a group to influence other group members, in achieving group goals. A variety of characteristics have been proposed to contribute to a successful leader, including cognitive ability, charisma, and leadership motivation.

lines ::: Relatively independent streams or capacities that proceed through levels of development. Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences is one example of the study of developmental lines. There is evidence for over a dozen developmental lines, including cognitive, moral, self-identity, aesthetic, kinesthetic, linguistic, musical, and mathematical. Integral Theory generally classifies these lines according to one of three types: cognitive lines (as studied by Jean Piaget, Robert Kegan, Kurt Fischer, etc.); selfrelated lines (e.g., morals, self-identity, needs, etc.); and capacities or talents (e.g., musical capacity, kinesthetic capacity, introspective capacity). Cognitive development is necessary but not sufficient for development in the self-related lines and appears to be necessary for most of the capacities.

Lumen naturae; lumen naturale: Latin for light of nature or natural light, equivalent to luman naturalis rationis, in medieval philosophy and theology denoted the ordinary cognitive powers of human reason unaided by the supernatural light of grace, lumen gratiae, or divine revelation, lumen fidei.

Lumen naturale: Natural light, equivalent to lumen naturalis rationis, in medieval philosophy and theology denoted the ordinary cognitive powers of human reason unaided by the supernatural light of grace, lumen gratiae, or divine revelation, lumen fidei. -- J.J.R.

Main works: Method of Ethics 1875; Outlines of the History of Ethics (5th ed. 1902); Scope and Method of Economic Science, 1885; Lect. on Philosophy of Kant, 1905. Sign: (Lat. signum, sign) Logic has been called the science of signs. In psychology that which represents anything to the cognitive faculty. That which signifies or has significance, a symbol. Semasiology or sematology is the science of signs. See Logic, symbolic; Symbolism.

māna. (T. nga rgyal; C. man; J. man; K. man 慢). In Sanskrit and Pāli, "pride," "conceit"; also known as asmimāna, the "'I am' conceit." The eighth of ten "fetters" (SAMYOJANA) that keep beings bound to the cycle of rebirth (SAMSĀRA), pride arises from comparing oneself to others and manifests itself in three ways: viz., as the feeling that one is equal to, inferior to, or superior to others. Pride is a deep-seated and habitual affective response to other persons and continues to exist in subtle form in the minds of stream-enterers (SROTAĀPANNA), once-returners (SAKṚDĀGĀMIN), and nonreturners (ANĀGĀMIN) even though they have eliminated the "cognitive" fetter of personality belief (SATKĀYADṚstI). Māna is permanently eliminated upon attaining the stage of worthiness (ARHAT), the fourth and highest degree of Buddhist sanctity (ĀRYAPUDGALA). According to the SARVĀSTIVĀDA ABHIDHARMA, there are seven kinds of conceit. The first kind is simply called "māna," which refers to a sense of superiority toward those who are inferior and a sense of pride in the idea of being equal to those who are equal. "Atimāna" is haughtiness, the insistence on one's superiority when in fact one is a mere equal to another person or the insistence on being equal to those who are in fact superior to oneself. "Mānātimāna" is "pride and conceit," the insistence on one's superiority when in fact the person to whom one is comparing oneself is superior. "Asmimāna" is the conceit "I am," the deriving of a sense of an enduring self from grasping onto external objects and the internal five aggregates (SKANDHA). "ADHIMĀNA" is the overestimation of or bragging about one's spiritual accomplishments. "ABHIMĀNA" has been variously interpreted as arrogance or "false humility," admitting of another's slight superiority when in fact he or she is vastly superior. "Mithyāmāna" is hypocrisy: posturing as a virtuous person when in fact one lacks virtue.

Meaning, Kinds of: In semiotic (q. v.) several kinds of meaning, i.e. of the function of an expression in language and the content it conveys, are distinguished. An expression (sentence) has cognitive (or theoretical, assertive) meaning, if it asserts something and hence is either true or false. In this case, it is called a cognitive sentence or (cognitive, genuine) statement; it has usually the form of a declarative sentence. If an expression (a sentence) has cognitive meaning, its truth-value (q. v.) depends in general upon both   the (cognitive, semantical) meaning of the terms occurring, and   some facts referred to by the sentence. If it does depend on both (a) and (b), the sentence has factual (synthetic, material) meaning and is called a factual (synthetic, material) sentence. If, however, the truth-value depends upon (a) alone, the sentence has a (merely) logical meaning (or formal meaning, see Formal 1). In this case, if it is true, it is called logically true or analytic (q. v.); if it is false, it is called logically false or contradictory. An expression has an expressive meaning (or function) in so far as it expresses something of the state of the speaker; this kind of meaning may for instance contain pictorial, emotive, and volitional components (e.g. lyrical poetry, exclamations, commands). An expression may or may not have, in addition to its expressive meaning, a cognitive meaning; if not, it is said to have a merely expressive meaning. If an expression has a merely expressive meaning but is mistaken as being a cognitive statement, it is sometimes called a pseudo-statement. According to logical positivism (see Scientific Empiricism, IC) many sentences in metaphysics are pseudo-statements (compare Anti-metaphysics, 2).

memory ::: 1. The mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experience. 2. The act or an instance of remembering; recollection. 3. The cognitive processes whereby past experience is remembered. Memory, memory"s, memories.

methodological behaviorism ::: The objective study of third-person behavior; the data of psychology must be inter-subjectively verifiable; no theoretical prescriptions. It has been absorbed into general experimental and cognitive psychology.

Mochin d&

Mulapariyāyasutta. (C. Xiang jing; J. Sokyo; K. Sang kyong 想經). In Pāli, "Discourse on the Root Instruction" or the "Roots of Phenomena"; the first sutta in the MAJJHIMANIKĀYA (an untitled recension of uncertain affiliation appears in the Chinese translation of the EKOTTARĀGAMA; there is also a related SARVĀSTIVĀDA recension that appears as the 102nd SuTRA in the Chinese translation of the MADHYAMĀGAMA). Preached to a gathering of monks in Ukkatthā, the Buddha explains the basis of all phenomena under twenty-four categories (e.g., the four material elements, the heavens, sensory cognition, etc.), noting that the nature of these phenomena is truly knowable only by a TATHĀGATA. The Buddha describes the different cognitive capacities of four types of persons: ordinary worldlings (PṚTHAGJANA), disciples engaged in higher training, worthy ones (ARHAT), and perfect buddhas (SAMYAKSAMBUDDHA).

multimodal therapy: a cognitive behavioural therapy developed by Lazarus, which aims to consider all aspects of a disorder. To be effective, seven different dimensions, represented by BASIC IB?(behavior, affects, sensations, images, cognitions, interpersonal relationships, and biological functioning) must be focused on and treated.

nativism: that aspects of cognitive processes and behaviour are innate.

Natural election: The inherent desire of all things for all other things in a certain order. First employed by Francis Bacon (1561-1626) in a passage quoted by A. N. Whitehead (1861-) from the Silva Silvarum "there is a kind of election to embrace that which is agreeable and to exclude or expel that which is ingrate". First erected into a philosophical principle by John Laird (1887-) in The Idea of Value, following a suggestion m Montaigne's Essays. Value, considered as a larger category than human value, an ingredient of the natural world but regarded without its affective content. Syn. with objective value, as independent of the cognitive process. -- J.K.F.

Nishitani Keiji. (西谷啓治) (1900-1990). Japanese philosopher and member of what came to be known as the KYOTO SCHOOL, a contemporary school of Japanese philosophy that sought to synthesize ZEN Buddhist thought with modern Western, and especially Germanic, philosophy. Nishitani was schooled in Ishikawa prefecture and Tokyo and graduated from Kyoto University in 1924 with a degree in philosophy. A student of NISHIDA KITARo (1870-1945), the founder of the Kyoto School, Nishitani became a professor in the Department of Religion at Kyoto University in 1935 and from 1937 to 1939 studied with Martin Heidegger in Freiburg, Germany. He later chaired the Department of Modern Philosophy at Kyoto Prefectural University from 1955 to 1963. In such works as his 1949 Nihirizumu (translated in 1990 as The Self-Overcoming of Nihilism) and Shukyo to wa nani ka ("What Is Religion?," 1961, translated in 1982 as Religion and Nothingness), Nishitani sought to synthesize German existentialism, Christian mysticism, and what he considered to be Zen experience. Where German philosophy, which is governed by logic and cognitive thinking, addressed ontological questions regarding the self, he argued that such means as Christian mysticism and Zen meditation could complement German philosophy in constructing a path to a complete realization of the self. Nishitani took issue with Nietzsche's nihilism by borrowing from the Buddhist concept of emptiness (suNYATĀ) to argue that recognition of the self as empty brings one to an understanding of things as they are (viz., the Buddhist concept of suchness, or TATHATĀ), and hence a true understanding and affirmation of oneself. Nishitani's philosophical justification of Japan's wartime activities, notably his contributions to the well-known journal Chuokoron ("Central Review") in the early 1940s, has become a controversial aspect of his work.

Noetic: Ihe character some entities have due to their resulting from the activity of nous or reason. Thus those concepts which are non-sensuous and non-empirical but are conceived by reason alone are noetic, the noetic aspects of reality are those which are knowable by reason. In a more general sense, "noetic" is equivalent to "cognitive". -- C.A.B.

Nootropics - also referred to as smart drugs, memory enhancers, neuroenhancers, cognitive enhancers, and intelligence enhancers, are drugs, supplements, nutraceuticals, and functional foods that purportedly improve mental functions such as cognition, memory, intelligence, motivation, attention, and concentration. See /r/Nootropics

Object: (Lat. objectus, pp. of objicere, to throw over against) In the widest sense, object is that towards which consciousness is directed, whether cognitively or conatively The cognitive or epistemological object of mind is anything perceived, imagined, conceived or thought about. See Eptstemological Object. The conative object is anything desired, avoided or willed. -- L.W.

object permanence: an understanding that objects that continue to exist, despite being hidden from sight or awareness. An important cognitive concept that, according to Piaget, does not develop until infants are eight months old or more.

ontology 1. "philosophy" A systematic account of Existence. 2. "artificial intelligence" (From philosophy) An explicit formal specification of how to represent the objects, concepts and other entities that are assumed to exist in some area of interest and the relationships that hold among them. For {AI} systems, what "exists" is that which can be represented. When the {knowledge} about a {domain} is represented in a {declarative language}, the set of objects that can be represented is called the {universe of discourse}. We can describe the ontology of a program by defining a set of representational terms. Definitions associate the names of entities in the {universe of discourse} (e.g. classes, relations, functions or other objects) with human-readable text describing what the names mean, and formal {axioms} that constrain the interpretation and well-formed use of these terms. Formally, an ontology is the statement of a {logical theory}. A set of {agents} that share the same ontology will be able to communicate about a domain of discourse without necessarily operating on a globally shared theory. We say that an agent commits to an ontology if its observable actions are consistent with the definitions in the ontology. The idea of ontological commitment is based on the {Knowledge-Level} perspective. 3. "information science" The hierarchical structuring of knowledge about things by subcategorising them according to their essential (or at least relevant and/or cognitive) qualities. See {subject index}. This is an extension of the previous senses of "ontology" (above) which has become common in discussions about the difficulty of maintaining {subject indices}. (1997-04-09)

optimal mismatch theory: based on Piagets theory of intellectual development, aims to accelerate learning by 'mismatching' a child's current level of competence with a set of problems slightly more complex than this level. If there is a correct, optimal?difference between what they can do, and what is being asked of them, children then experience a cognitive conflict and seek to find solutions through their own actions.

paricchedajarāmarana. (C. fenduan shengsi; J. bundan shoji; K. pundan saengsa 分段生死). In Sanskrit, "determinative birth-and-death," one of the two categories of SAMSĀRA as delineated in the CHENG WEISHI LUN (*VijNaptimātratāsiddhi), along with transfigurational birth-and-death (PARInĀMIKAJARĀMARAnA); this is saMsāra as experienced by ordinary sentient beings taking rebirth within the three realms of existence (TRAIDHĀTUKA). (In this compound, jarāmarana does not mean only "old age and death," but is used as an abbreviation for the whole panoply of human experience, viz. "birth, old age, sickness, and death.") While the mind-made bodies (MANOMAYAKĀYA) of ARHATs or great BODHISATTVAs may undergo transfigurational birth-and-death (parināmikajarāmarana) and are thus able to change their appearance and life span at will, the physical bodies of ordinary sentient beings are restricted in their longevity, appearance, and size and are thus subject to determinative birth-and-death. The main causes and conditions that lead to determinative birth-and-death are contaminated action (SĀSRAVA-KARMAN) and the afflictive obstructions (KLEsĀVARAnA); transfigurational birth-and-death is instead conceived to result from uncontaminated action (ANĀSRAVA-KARMAN) and the cognitive obstructions (JNEYĀVARAnA) that still remain even after overcoming the afflictive obstructions.

parināmikajarāmarana. [alt. parināmikijarāmarana] (C. bianyi shengsi; J. henyaku shoji; K. pyonyok saengsa 變易生死). In Sanskrit, "transfigurational birth-and-death," one of the two categories of SAMSĀRA as delineated in the CHENG WEISHI LUN (*VijNaptimātratāsiddhi), along with determinative birth-and-death (PARICCHEDAJARĀMARAnA); this is saMsāra as experienced by an ARHAT or great BODHISATTVA (vasitāprāptabodhisattva). (In this compound, jarāmarana does not mean only "old age and death," but is used as an abbreviation for the whole panoply of human existence, viz. "birth, old age, sickness, and death.") Since these noble (ĀRYA) beings have already achieved some measure of enlightenment, when they undergo rebirth and death in the three realms of existence (TRAIDHĀTUKA), these occur as a "transfigurational birth-and-death" of the "mind-made body" (MANOMAYAKĀYA), not a "determinative birth-and-death" of the physical body. Although these beings have overcome the afflictive obstructions (KLEsĀVARAnA) that tie one to the cycle of saMsāra (and specifically to paricchedajarāmarana), they may still be subject to the cognitive obstructions (JNEYĀVARAnA) that block full understanding (JNĀNA); thus, while they may still engage in actions, these are non-karma-producing actions (viz., "uncontaminated actions," or ANĀSRAVAKARMAN) that do not lead to a determinative rebirth. While such beings may then appear to be reborn, these rebirths are actually transfigurations of their mind-made bodies (manomayakāya), which may be manipulated at will to change their appearances or to extend their life spans indefinitely.

PET (positron emission tomography) scans: a technique for imaging brain activity by recording the extent of metabolic activity in different regions of the brainduring different cognitive or behavioural activities, through injecting a radioactive substance.

Piaget (1896-1980): a Swiss developmental psychologist whose work has had a huge influence on psychology and education. Piaget defined four sequential stages of cognitive development; the sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational and formal operational stages, each characterised by different ways of thinking. Through development a child develops ?a target="_blank" href="https://www.itseducation.asia/psychology/s.htm

POPLOG A multi-language programming environment, which includes the languages {Pop-11}, {ML}, {Common Lisp} and {Prolog}. It supports mixed-language programming and {incremental compilation} and includes a comprehensive {X Window System} interface. It is built on top of a two-stack {virtual machine}, PVM. POPLOG was developed at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. ["POPLOG's Two-Level Virtual Machine Support for Interactive Languages", R. Smith et al, in Research Directions in Cognitive Science, v.5 (1992)].

POPLOG ::: A multi-language programming environment, which includes the languages Pop-11, ML, Common Lisp and Prolog. It supports mixed-language programming and It is built on top of a two-stack virtual machine, PVM. POPLOG was developed at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.[POPLOG's Two-Level Virtual Machine Support for Interactive Languages, R. Smith et al, in Research Directions in Cognitive Science, v.5 (1992)].

pratigha. (P. patigha; T. khong khro; C. chen; J. shin; K. chin 瞋). In Sanskrit, "aversion," "hostility," or "repulsion," one of the primary mental afflictions (KLEsA) and closely synonymous with "ill will" (DVEsA). In the VAIBHĀsIKA school of SARVĀSTIVĀDA ABHIDHARMA, pratigha is listed as the second of the six fundamental afflictions (MuLAKLEsA), along with greed (RĀGA), ignorance (AVIDYĀ), conceit (MĀNA), doubt (VICIKITSĀ), and wrong views (DṚstI). These six klesas, along with bhavarāga (the desire for continued existence) constitute the latent afflictions (anusayakilesa) in the Pāli ABHIDHAMMA. The YOGĀCĀRA school also uses the same list of six fundamental klesas, including pratigha but replacing māna with stupidity (mudhi). In Buddhist psychology, when contact with sensory objects is made "without introspection" (ASAMPRAJANYA), aversion can arise. Since aversion is a psychological reaction that is associated with repulsion, resistance, and active dislike of a displeasing stimulus, it can also generate secondary mental afflictions (UPAKLEsA) that have pratigha as their common foundation, including "anger" (KRODHA), "enmity" (UPANĀHA), "agitation" (PRADĀSA), "envy" (ĪRsYĀ), and "harmfulness" (VIHIMSĀ). Because pratigha includes both cognitive and affective dimensions, it is not removed through insight upon entry into the path of vision (DARsANAMĀRGA), but is abandoned only after repeated training on the path of cultivation (BHĀVANĀMĀRGA).

prefrontal cortex ::: Cortical regions in the frontal lobe that are anterior to the primary and association motor cortices; thought to be involved in planning complex cognitive behaviors and in the expression of personality and appropriate social behavior.

Preoperational Stage ::: Piaget&

Presentational Immediacy: (Lat. praesens ppr. of praeesse, and in + medius, middle) Presentational immediacy characterizes any items which are in the direct cognitive presence of the mind such as sense data, images, emotional and affective data. Immediacy is ascribed by some epistemologists to higher levels of knowledge, e.g. perception and memory and by the mystic to the knowledge of God. -- L.W.

qizuisheng. (J. shichisaisho; K. ch'ilch'oesŭng 七最勝). In Chinese, "the seven unsurpassed [qualities of the perfections]." According to the CHENG WEISHI LUN (S. *VijNaptimātratāsiddhi), the "perfections" (PĀRAMITĀ) of a BODHISATTVA are distinguished from other forms of virtuous and wholesome practices because of their seven unsurpassed qualities. They are the following: (1) being firmly anchored in the BODHISATTVA lineage (see GOTRA) (anzhu zuisheng); (2) being firmly founded on BODHICITTA, the bodhisattva's aspiration to lead all beings to deliverance (yizhi zuisheng); (3) being permeated with the intention to take pity in all sentient beings (yiguo zuisheng); (4) implementing all good deeds, not just a limited number (shiye zuisheng); (5) being compatible with all skillful means (see UPĀYA) and not constrained by just a limited number of them (qiaobian zuisheng); (6) ultimately leading to perfect BODHI (huixiang zuisheng); and (7) being undefiled by the two obstructions of KLEsĀVARAnA (afflictive obstructions) and JNEYĀVARAnA (cognitive obstructions) (qingjing zuisheng).

Rational Emotive Therapy ::: A Cognitive Therapy based on Albert Ellis&

reasoning: is the mental (cognitive) process of looking for reasons for beliefs, conclusions, actions or feelings.

rehearsal: refers to the cognitive process involving the repetition of an item in order to maintain it in short-term memory.

Reversibility ::: A child&

sakti (Shakti) ::: Energy, Force, Strength, Will, Power; the self-existent, self-cognitive, self-effective Power of the Lord which expresses itself in the workings of prakrti. ::: saktih [nominative]

sakti (shakti) ::: force, power; capacity; the supreme Power, the "Consakti scious Force which forms and moves the worlds", the goddess (devi) who is "the self-existent, self-cognitive Power of the Lord" (isvara, deva, purus.a), expressing herself in the workings of prakr.ti; any of the various aspects of this Power, particularly Mahesvari, Mahakali,Mahalaks.mi or Mahasarasvati, each corresponding to an aspect of the fourfold isvara and manifesting in an element of devibhava or daivi prakr.ti; the soul-power which reveals itself in each element of the fourfold personality (brahmasakti, ks.atrasakti, vaisyasakti and sūdrasakti); "the right condition of the powers of the intelligence, heart, vital mind and body", the second member of the sakti catus.t.aya; the sakti catus.t.aya as a whole; spiritual force acting through the siddhis of power. sakti catustaya sakti

Samprajnata-samadhi: Cognitive trance; state of superconsciousness, with the triad of meditator, meditation and the meditated; Savikalpa-samadhi.

schema: mental frameworks which structure knowledge, beliefs and expectations, of objects, people and situations, to guide cognitive processes and behaviour.

Schema ::: The cognitive structure utilized to make sense of the world.

Science of Science: The analysis and description of science from various points of view, including logic, methodology, sociology, and history of science. One of the chief tasks of the science of science is the ana1ysis of the language of science (see Semiotic). Scientific empiricism (q.v.) emphasizes the role of the science of science, and tries to clarify the different aspects. Some empiricists believe that the chief task of philosophy is the development of the logic and methodology of science, and that most of the problems of traditional philosophy, as far as they have cognitive meaning (see Meaning, Kinds of, 1, 5), may be construed as problems of the science of science. -- R.C.

secure attachment: an attachment bond between the mother (or primary caregiver) and infant, whereby the mother is sensitive and responsive to the childs needs, who will not experience significant distress at separation from the caregiver, but who seek comfort from caregiver when frightened. Secure attachment is related to healthy subsequent cognitive and emotional development as adults, including high self-esteem and the ability to maintain loving, trusting relationships.

senses: are the physiological methods of perception. The senses and their operation, classification, and theory are overlapping topics studied by a variety of fields, most notably neuroscience, cognitive psychology (or cognitive science), and philosophy of perception.

Sensorimotor Stage ::: The first stage in Piaget&

SOL ::: 1. (language) Simulation Oriented Language.2. Second-Order lambda-calculus.3. Semantic Operating Language. Language for manipulating semantic networks for building cognitive models, particularly for natural language understanding. Explorations in Cognition, D.A. Norman et al, W.H. Freeman 1974.4. Shit Outta Luck.

SOL 1. "language" {Simulation Oriented Language}. 2. {Second-Order lambda-calculus}. 3. Semantic Operating Language. Language for manipulating semantic networks for building cognitive models, particularly for natural language understanding. "Explorations in Cognition", D.A. Norman et al, W.H. Freeman 1974. 4. Shit Outta Luck.

spatial-temporal reasoning ::: An area of artificial intelligence which draws from the fields of computer science, cognitive science, and cognitive psychology. The theoretic goal—on the cognitive side—involves representing and reasoning spatial-temporal knowledge in mind. The applied goal—on the computing side—involves developing high-level control systems of automata for navigating and understanding time and space.

sraddhā. (P. saddhā; T. dad pa; C. xin; J. shin; K. sin 信). In Sanskrit, "faith" or "confidence," a term that encompasses also the sense of "belief." Faith has a wide range of meanings in Buddhism, ranging from a kind of mental clarity and positive disposition toward the Buddha (which is often attributed to an encounter with a buddha or with the bodhisattva in a former life), to a sense of conviction about the efficacy of the Buddhist path (MĀRGA), to a commitment to follow that path. In addition to its cognitive dimensions, which will be described more fully below, faith also has important conative and affective dimensions that are frequently recounted in Buddhist literature. The conative is suggested in the compulsion towards alms-giving (DĀNA), as described for example in encounters with previous buddhas in the Pāli APADĀNA, or in the pilgrim's encounter with an object of devotion. The affective can be seen, perhaps most famously, in Ānanda's affection-driven attachment to the Buddha, which is described as a result of his deep devotion to, and faith in, the person of the Buddha. These multiple aspects of faith find arguably their fullest expression in the various accounts of the story of the Buddha's ARHAT disciple VAKKALI, who is said to have been completely enraptured with the Buddha and is described as foremost among his monk disciples in implicit faith. In the ABHIDHARMA, faith is listed as the first of the ten major omnipresent wholesome factors (KUsALAMAHĀBHuMIKA) in the seventy-five dharmas list of the SARVĀSTIVĀDA school and as a virtuous (KUsALA) mental factor (CAITTA) in the hundred-dharmas roster (BAIFA) of the YOGĀCĀRA school and in the Pāli abhidhamma. Faith is one of the foundational prerequisites of attainment, and its cognitive dimensions are described as a clarity of mind required for realization, as conviction that arises from the study of the dharma, and as a source of aspiration that encourages one to continue to develop the qualities of enlightenment. Faith is listed as the first of the five spiritual faculties (INDRIYA), together with diligence (VĪRYA), mindfulness (SMṚTI), concentration (SAMĀDHI), and wisdom (PRAJNĀ). The faculty of faith is usually considered to be the direct counteragent (PRATIPAKsA) of ill-will (DVEsA), not of doubt (VICIKITSĀ), demonstrating its affective dimension. Faith generates bliss (PRĪTI), by which brings about serenity of mind and thought; in addition, faith also produces self-confidence, engendering the conative characteristic of diligence (vīrya). Faith and wisdom (prajNā) were to be kept constantly counterpoised by the faculty of mindfulness (smṛti). By being balanced via mindfulness, faith would guard against excessive wisdom, which could lead to skepticism, while wisdom would protect against excessive faith, which could lead to blind, uncritical acceptance. Thus faith, in the context of the spiritual faculties, is a tacit acceptance of the soteriological value of specific beliefs, until such time as those beliefs are verified through practice and understood through one's own insight. There are four main soteriological objects of faith: (1) the efficacy of moral cause and effect (viz., KARMAN) and the prospect of continued rebirth (PUNARJANMAN) based on one's actions; (2) the core teachings about the conditioned nature of the world, such as dependent origination (PRATĪTYASAMUTPĀDA) and the three marks of existence (TRILAKsAnA), viz., impermanence (ANIYATA), suffering (DUḤKHA), nonself (ANĀTMAN); (3) the three jewels (RATNATRAYA) of the Buddha, DHARMA, and SAMGHA; and (4) the general soteriological outline of the path (MĀRGA) and the prospect of release from affliction through the experience of NIRVĀnA.

  Sri Aurobindo: ". . . thought in itself, in its origin on the higher levels of consciousness, is a perception, a cognitive seizing of the object or of some truth of things which is a powerful but still a minor and secondary result of spiritual vision, a comparatively external and superficial regard of the self upon the self, the subject upon itself or something of itself as object.” *The Life Divine

tathāgatabhumi. (T. de bzhin gshegs pa'i sa; C. rulai di; J. nyoraiji; K. yorae chi 如來地). The "stage of a thus gone one," the name given in the LAnKĀVATĀRASuTRA to an eleventh ground or stage (BHuMI) of the BODHISATTVA path that constitutes the fruition of buddhahood (buddhaphala). The tenth BODHISATTVABHuMI, DHARMAMEGHĀ, the culminating stage of the "path of cultivation" (BHĀVANĀMĀRGA), still contains both subtle remnants of the cognitive obstructions (JNEYĀVARAnA) as well as seeds of the afflictive obstructions (KLEsĀVARAnA). These obstructions will be completely eradicated through the diamond-like samādhi (VAJROPAMASAMĀDHI), which marks the transition to the "ultimate path" (NIstHĀMĀRGA), or the "path where no further training is necessary" (AsAIKsAMĀRGA). This stage is the tathāgatabhumi, which is also sometimes known as the "universally luminous" (samantaprabhā).

Telegnostic situations: "Cognitive situation in which a mental event belonging to another mmd is the sole objective constituent." (Broad). -- H.H.

The idealistic doctrine known as Conceptual Realism identifies the logical (and at times the perceptual) content of experience with universals (essences, objectives, subsistents, etc.) considered as non-mental, i.e. as essentially independent of cognitive subjects.

theological noncognitivism ::: The argument that religious language, and specifically words like "God" (capitalized), are not cognitively meaningful. It is cited as proof of the nonexistence of anything named "God", and therefore is a basis for atheism. There are two main arguments: Kai Nielsen used verifiability theory of meaning to conclude that religious language is meaningless because it is not verifiable, proving weak atheism. George H. Smith used an attribute-based approach to argue that the concept of "god" has no meaningful attributes, only negatively defined or relational attributes, making it meaningless — leading to the conclusion that "god does not exist", thus proving strong atheism.

The origin, nature, and the continued existence or immortality of the soul is widely discussed in Jewish philosophy. As to origin, Saadia believes that each individual soul is created by God -- considering, of course, creation a continuous process -- and that it is of a fine spiritual substance. As to its faculties, he accepts the Aristotelian-Platonic division of the soul into three parts, namely, the appetitive, emotional, and cognitive. Ibn Daud thinks that the soul exists prior to the body potentially, i.e., that the angels endow the body with form; he further considers it a substance but says that it undergoes a process of development. The more it thinks the more perfect it becomes, and the thoughts are called acquired reason, it is this acquired reason, or being perfected which remains immortal. Maimonides does not discuss the origin of the soul, but deals more with its parts. To the three of Saadia he adds the imaginative and the conative. Gersonides' view resembles somewhat that of Ibn Daud, except that he does not speak of its origin and limits himself to the intellect. The intellect, says he, is only a capacity residing in the lower soul, and that capacity is gradually developed by the help of the Active Intellect into an acquired and ultimately into an active reason. All thinkers insist on immortality, but with Saadia and ha-Levi it seems that the entire soul survives, while the Aristotelians assert that only the intellect is immortal. Maimonides is not explicit on the subject, yet we may surmise that even the more liberal thinkers did not subscribe to Averroes' theory of unitas intellectus, and they believed that the immortal intellect is endowed with consciousness of personality. To this trend of connecting immortality with rational reflection Crescas took exception, and asserts that it is not pure thought which leads to survival, but that the soul is immortal because it is a spiritual being, and it is perfected by its love for God and the doing of good.

There are three synonymous words in modern Persian often interchangeably used — Sufi, Aref, and Darvish — each with its own nuance. Sufi represents the most institutionalized Islamic mysticism, while Aref and Erfan (school of thought-cognition) conveys cognitive aspects of mystic teachings and are more philosophic; Dervish and Darvishi (state of being Dervish) conveys freedom from attachments to worldly possessions. Hafi (the most loved and best known of the mystic poets) often refers to Sufis as those who rigidly adhere more to religious teachings than cognitive aspects of truth. These differences occurred when the mystics, due to religious persecution, had to veil their ancient beliefs with religious teachings. This made their teachings appear ambiguous, as a result of which, some confused esoteric mysticism with esoteric religion.

Thoughts ::: Thought in itself, in its origin on the higher levels of consciousness, is a perception, a cognitive seizing of the object or of some truth of things which is a powerful but still a minor and secondary result of spiritual vision, a comparatively external and superficial regard of the self upon the self, the subject upon itself or something of itself as object.
   Ref: CWSA Vol. 21-22, Page: 979-80


thought ::: “… thought in itself, in its origin on the higher levels of consciousness, is a perception, a cognitive seizing of the object or of some truth of things which is a powerful but still a minor and secondary result of spiritual vision, a comparatively external and superficial regard of the self upon the self, the subject upon itself or something of itself as object.” The Life Divine

Three senses of "Ockhamism" may be distinguished: Logical, indicating usage of the terminology and technique of logical analysis developed by Ockham in his Summa totius logicae; in particular, use of the concept of supposition (suppositio) in the significative analysis of terms. Epistemological, indicating the thesis that universality is attributable only to terms and propositions, and not to things as existing apart from discourse. Theological, indicating the thesis that no tneological doctrines, such as those of God's existence or of the immortality of the soul, are evident or demonstrable philosophically, so that religious doctrine rests solely on faith, without metaphysical or scientific support. It is in this sense that Luther is often called an Ockhamist.   Bibliography:   B. Geyer,   Ueberwegs Grundriss d. Gesch. d. Phil., Bd. II (11th ed., Berlin 1928), pp. 571-612 and 781-786; N. Abbagnano,   Guglielmo di Ockham (Lanciano, Italy, 1931); E. A. Moody,   The Logic of William of Ockham (N. Y. & London, 1935); F. Ehrle,   Peter von Candia (Muenster, 1925); G. Ritter,   Studien zur Spaetscholastik, I-II (Heidelberg, 1921-1922).     --E.A.M. Om, aum: (Skr.) Mystic, holy syllable as a symbol for the indefinable Absolute. See Aksara, Vac, Sabda. --K.F.L. Omniscience: In philosophy and theology it means the complete and perfect knowledge of God, of Himself and of all other beings, past, present, and future, or merely possible, as well as all their activities, real or possible, including the future free actions of human beings. --J.J.R. One: Philosophically, not a number but equivalent to unit, unity, individuality, in contradistinction from multiplicity and the mani-foldness of sensory experience. In metaphysics, the Supreme Idea (Plato), the absolute first principle (Neo-platonism), the universe (Parmenides), Being as such and divine in nature (Plotinus), God (Nicolaus Cusanus), the soul (Lotze). Religious philosophy and mysticism, beginning with Indian philosophy (s.v.), has favored the designation of the One for the metaphysical world-ground, the ultimate icility, the world-soul, the principle of the world conceived as reason, nous, or more personally. The One may be conceived as an independent whole or as a sum, as analytic or synthetic, as principle or ontologically. Except by mysticism, it is rarely declared a fact of sensory experience, while its transcendent or transcendental, abstract nature is stressed, e.g., in epistemology where the "I" or self is considered the unitary background of personal experience, the identity of self-consciousness, or the unity of consciousness in the synthesis of the manifoldness of ideas (Kant). --K.F.L. One-one: A relation R is one-many if for every y in the converse domain there is a unique x such that xRy. A relation R is many-one if for every x in the domain there is a unique y such that xRy. (See the article relation.) A relation is one-one, or one-to-one, if it is at the same time one-many and many-one. A one-one relation is said to be, or to determine, a one-to-one correspondence between its domain and its converse domain. --A.C. On-handedness: (Ger. Vorhandenheit) Things exist in the mode of thereness, lying- passively in a neutral space. A "deficient" form of a more basic relationship, termed at-handedness (Zuhandenheit). (Heidegger.) --H.H. Ontological argument: Name by which later authors, especially Kant, designate the alleged proof for God's existence devised by Anselm of Canterbury. Under the name of God, so the argument runs, everyone understands that greater than which nothing can be thought. Since anything being the greatest and lacking existence is less then the greatest having also existence, the former is not really the greater. The greatest, therefore, has to exist. Anselm has been reproached, already by his contemporary Gaunilo, for unduly passing from the field of logical to the field of ontological or existential reasoning. This criticism has been repeated by many authors, among them Aquinas. The argument has, however, been used, if in a somewhat modified form, by Duns Scotus, Descartes, and Leibniz. --R.A. Ontological Object: (Gr. onta, existing things + logos, science) The real or existing object of an act of knowledge as distinguished from the epistemological object. See Epistemological Object. --L.W. Ontologism: (Gr. on, being) In contrast to psychologism, is called any speculative system which starts philosophizing by positing absolute being, or deriving the existence of entities independently of experience merely on the basis of their being thought, or assuming that we have immediate and certain knowledge of the ground of being or God. Generally speaking any rationalistic, a priori metaphysical doctrine, specifically the philosophies of Rosmini-Serbati and Vincenzo Gioberti. As a philosophic method censored by skeptics and criticists alike, as a scholastic doctrine formerly strongly supported, revived in Italy and Belgium in the 19th century, but no longer countenanced. --K.F.L. Ontology: (Gr. on, being + logos, logic) The theory of being qua being. For Aristotle, the First Philosophy, the science of the essence of things. Introduced as a term into philosophy by Wolff. The science of fundamental principles, the doctrine of the categories. Ultimate philosophy; rational cosmology. Syn. with metaphysics. See Cosmology, First Principles, Metaphysics, Theology. --J.K.F. Operation: "(Lit. operari, to work) Any act, mental or physical, constituting a phase of the reflective process, and performed with a view to acquiring1 knowledge or information about a certain subject-nntter. --A.C.B.   In logic, see Operationism.   In philosophy of science, see Pragmatism, Scientific Empiricism. Operationism: The doctrine that the meaning of a concept is given by a set of operations.   1. The operational meaning of a term (word or symbol) is given by a semantical rule relating the term to some concrete process, object or event, or to a class of such processes, objectj or events.   2. Sentences formed by combining operationally defined terms into propositions are operationally meaningful when the assertions are testable by means of performable operations. Thus, under operational rules, terms have semantical significance, propositions have empirical significance.   Operationism makes explicit the distinction between formal (q.v.) and empirical sentences. Formal propositions are signs arranged according to syntactical rules but lacking operational reference. Such propositions, common in mathematics, logic and syntax, derive their sanction from convention, whereas an empirical proposition is acceptable (1) when its structure obeys syntactical rules and (2) when there exists a concrete procedure (a set of operations) for determining its truth or falsity (cf. Verification). Propositions purporting to be empirical are sometimes amenable to no operational test because they contain terms obeying no definite semantical rules. These sentences are sometimes called pseudo-propositions and are said to be operationally meaningless. They may, however, be 'meaningful" in other ways, e.g. emotionally or aesthetically (cf. Meaning).   Unlike a formal statement, the "truth" of an empirical sentence is never absolute and its operational confirmation serves only to increase the degree of its validity. Similarly, the semantical rule comprising the operational definition of a term has never absolute precision. Ordinarily a term denotes a class of operations and the precision of its definition depends upon how definite are the rules governing inclusion in the class.   The difference between Operationism and Logical Positivism (q.v.) is one of emphasis. Operationism's stress of empirical matters derives from the fact that it was first employed to purge physics of such concepts as absolute space and absolute time, when the theory of relativity had forced upon physicists the view that space and time are most profitably defined in terms of the operations by which they are measured. Although different methods of measuring length at first give rise to different concepts of length, wherever the equivalence of certain of these measures can be established by other operations, the concepts may legitimately be combined.   In psychology the operational criterion of meaningfulness is commonly associated with a behavioristic point of view. See Behaviorism. Since only those propositions which are testable by public and repeatable operations are admissible in science, the definition of such concepti as mind and sensation must rest upon observable aspects of the organism or its behavior. Operational psychology deals with experience only as it is indicated by the operation of differential behavior, including verbal report. Discriminations, or the concrete differential reactions of organisms to internal or external environmental states, are by some authors regarded as the most basic of all operations.   For a discussion of the role of operational definition in phvsics. see P. W. Bridgman, The Logic of Modern Physics, (New York, 1928) and The Nature of Physical Theory (Princeton, 1936). "The extension of operationism to psychology is discussed by C. C. Pratt in The Logic of Modem Psychology (New York. 1939.)   For a discussion and annotated bibliography relating to Operationism and Logical Positivism, see S. S. Stevens, Psychology and the Science of Science, Psychol. Bull., 36, 1939, 221-263. --S.S.S. Ophelimity: Noun derived from the Greek, ophelimos useful, employed by Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923) in economics as the equivalent of utility, or the capacity to provide satisfaction. --J.J.R. Opinion: (Lat. opinio, from opinor, to think) An hypothesis or proposition entertained on rational grounds but concerning which doubt can reasonably exist. A belief. See Hypothesis, Certainty, Knowledge. --J.K.F- Opposition: (Lat. oppositus, pp. of oppono, to oppose) Positive actual contradiction. One of Aristotle's Post-predicaments. In logic any contrariety or contradiction, illustrated by the "Square of Opposition". Syn. with: conflict. See Logic, formal, § 4. --J.K.F. Optimism: (Lat. optimus, the best) The view inspired by wishful thinking, success, faith, or philosophic reflection, that the world as it exists is not so bad or even the best possible, life is good, and man's destiny is bright. Philosophically most persuasively propounded by Leibniz in his Theodicee, according to which God in his wisdom would have created a better world had he known or willed such a one to exist. Not even he could remove moral wrong and evil unless he destroyed the power of self-determination and hence the basis of morality. All systems of ethics that recognize a supreme good (Plato and many idealists), subscribe to the doctrines of progressivism (Turgot, Herder, Comte, and others), regard evil as a fragmentary view (Josiah Royce et al.) or illusory, or believe in indemnification (Henry David Thoreau) or melioration (Emerson), are inclined optimistically. Practically all theologies advocating a plan of creation and salvation, are optimistic though they make the good or the better dependent on moral effort, right thinking, or belief, promising it in a future existence. Metaphysical speculation is optimistic if it provides for perfection, evolution to something higher, more valuable, or makes room for harmonies or a teleology. See Pessimism. --K.F.L. Order: A class is said to be partially ordered by a dyadic relation R if it coincides with the field of R, and R is transitive and reflexive, and xRy and yRx never both hold when x and y are different. If in addition R is connected, the class is said to be ordered (or simply ordered) by R, and R is called an ordering relation.   Whitehcid and Russell apply the term serial relation to relations which are transitive, irreflexive, and connected (and, in consequence, also asymmetric). However, the use of serial relations in this sense, instead ordering relations as just defined, is awkward in connection with the notion of order for unit classes.   Examples: The relation not greater than among leal numbers is an ordering relation. The relation less than among real numbers is a serial relation. The real numbers are simply ordered by the former relation. In the algebra of classes (logic formal, § 7), the classes are partially ordered by the relation of class inclusion.   For explanation of the terminology used in making the above definitions, see the articles connexity, reflexivity, relation, symmetry, transitivity. --A.C. Order type: See relation-number. Ordinal number: A class b is well-ordered by a dyadic relation R if it is ordered by R (see order) and, for every class a such that a ⊂ b, there is a member x of a, such that xRy holds for every member y of a; and R is then called a well-ordering relation. The ordinal number of a class b well-ordered by a relation R, or of a well-ordering relation R, is defined to be the relation-number (q. v.) of R.   The ordinal numbers of finite classes (well-ordered by appropriate relations) are called finite ordinal numbers. These are 0, 1, 2, ... (to be distinguished, of course, from the finite cardinal numbers 0, 1, 2, . . .).   The first non-finite (transfinite or infinite) ordinal number is the ordinal number of the class of finite ordinal numbers, well-ordered in their natural order, 0, 1, 2, . . .; it is usually denoted by the small Greek letter omega. --A.C.   G. Cantor, Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers, translated and with an introduction by P. E. B. Jourdain, Chicago and London, 1915. (new ed. 1941); Whitehead and Russell, Princtpia Mathematica. vol. 3. Orexis: (Gr. orexis) Striving; desire; the conative aspect of mind, as distinguished from the cognitive and emotional (Aristotle). --G.R.M.. Organicism: A theory of biology that life consists in the organization or dynamic system of the organism. Opposed to mechanism and vitalism. --J.K.F. Organism: An individual animal or plant, biologically interpreted. A. N. Whitehead uses the term to include also physical bodies and to signify anything material spreading through space and enduring in time. --R.B.W. Organismic Psychology: (Lat. organum, from Gr. organon, an instrument) A system of theoretical psychology which construes the structure of the mind in organic rather than atomistic terms. See Gestalt Psychology; Psychological Atomism. --L.W. Organization: (Lat. organum, from Gr. organon, work) A structured whole. The systematic unity of parts in a purposive whole. A dynamic system. Order in something actual. --J.K.F. Organon: (Gr. organon) The title traditionally given to the body of Aristotle's logical treatises. The designation appears to have originated among the Peripatetics after Aristotle's time, and expresses their view that logic is not a part of philosophy (as the Stoics maintained) but rather the instrument (organon) of philosophical inquiry. See Aristotelianism. --G.R.M.   In Kant. A system of principles by which pure knowledge may be acquired and established.   Cf. Fr. Bacon's Novum Organum. --O.F.K. Oriental Philosophy: A general designation used loosely to cover philosophic tradition exclusive of that grown on Greek soil and including the beginnings of philosophical speculation in Egypt, Arabia, Iran, India, and China, the elaborate systems of India, Greater India, China, and Japan, and sometimes also the religion-bound thought of all these countries with that of the complex cultures of Asia Minor, extending far into antiquity. Oriental philosophy, though by no means presenting a homogeneous picture, nevertheless shares one characteristic, i.e., the practical outlook on life (ethics linked with metaphysics) and the absence of clear-cut distinctions between pure speculation and religious motivation, and on lower levels between folklore, folk-etymology, practical wisdom, pre-scientiiic speculation, even magic, and flashes of philosophic insight. Bonds with Western, particularly Greek philosophy have no doubt existed even in ancient times. Mutual influences have often been conjectured on the basis of striking similarities, but their scientific establishment is often difficult or even impossible. Comparative philosophy (see especially the work of Masson-Oursel) provides a useful method. Yet a thorough treatment of Oriental Philosophy is possible only when the many languages in which it is deposited have been more thoroughly studied, the psychological and historical elements involved in the various cultures better investigated, and translations of the relevant documents prepared not merely from a philological point of view or out of missionary zeal, but by competent philosophers who also have some linguistic training. Much has been accomplished in this direction in Indian and Chinese Philosophy (q.v.). A great deal remains to be done however before a definitive history of Oriental Philosophy may be written. See also Arabian, and Persian Philosophy. --K.F.L. Origen: (185-254) The principal founder of Christian theology who tried to enrich the ecclesiastic thought of his day by reconciling it with the treasures of Greek philosophy. Cf. Migne PL. --R.B.W. Ormazd: (New Persian) Same as Ahura Mazdah (q.v.), the good principle in Zoroastrianism, and opposed to Ahriman (q.v.). --K.F.L. Orphic Literature: The mystic writings, extant only in fragments, of a Greek religious-philosophical movement of the 6th century B.C., allegedly started by the mythical Orpheus. In their mysteries, in which mythology and rational thinking mingled, the Orphics concerned themselves with cosmogony, theogony, man's original creation and his destiny after death which they sought to influence to the better by pure living and austerity. They taught a symbolism in which, e.g., the relationship of the One to the many was clearly enunciated, and believed in the soul as involved in reincarnation. Pythagoras, Empedocles, and Plato were influenced by them. --K.F.L. Ortega y Gasset, Jose: Born in Madrid, May 9, 1883. At present in Buenos Aires, Argentine. Son of Ortega y Munillo, the famous Spanish journalist. Studied at the College of Jesuits in Miraflores and at the Central University of Madrid. In the latter he presented his Doctor's dissertation, El Milenario, in 1904, thereby obtaining his Ph.D. degree. After studies in Leipzig, Berlin, Marburg, under the special influence of Hermann Cohen, the great exponent of Kant, who taught him the love for the scientific method and awoke in him the interest in educational philosophy, Ortega came to Spain where, after the death of Nicolas Salmeron, he occupied the professorship of metaphysics at the Central University of Madrid. The following may be considered the most important works of Ortega y Gasset:     Meditaciones del Quijote, 1914;   El Espectador, I-VIII, 1916-1935;   El Tema de Nuestro Tiempo, 1921;   España Invertebrada, 1922;   Kant, 1924;   La Deshumanizacion del Arte, 1925;   Espiritu de la Letra, 1927;   La Rebelion de las Masas, 1929;   Goethe desde Adentio, 1934;   Estudios sobre el Amor, 1939;   Ensimismamiento y Alteracion, 1939;   El Libro de las Misiones, 1940;   Ideas y Creencias, 1940;     and others.   Although brought up in the Marburg school of thought, Ortega is not exactly a neo-Kantian. At the basis of his Weltanschauung one finds a denial of the fundamental presuppositions which characterized European Rationalism. It is life and not thought which is primary. Things have a sense and a value which must be affirmed independently. Things, however, are to be conceived as the totality of situations which constitute the circumstances of a man's life. Hence, Ortega's first philosophical principle: "I am myself plus my circumstances". Life as a problem, however, is but one of the poles of his formula. Reason is the other. The two together function, not by dialectical opposition, but by necessary coexistence. Life, according to Ortega, does not consist in being, but rather, in coming to be, and as such it is of the nature of direction, program building, purpose to be achieved, value to be realized. In this sense the future as a time dimension acquires new dignity, and even the present and the past become articulate and meaning-full only in relation to the future. Even History demands a new point of departure and becomes militant with new visions. --J.A.F. Orthodoxy: Beliefs which are declared by a group to be true and normative. Heresy is a departure from and relative to a given orthodoxy. --V.S. Orthos Logos: See Right Reason. Ostensible Object: (Lat. ostendere, to show) The object envisaged by cognitive act irrespective of its actual existence. See Epistemological Object. --L.W. Ostensive: (Lat. ostendere, to show) Property of a concept or predicate by virtue of which it refers to and is clarified by reference to its instances. --A.C.B. Ostwald, Wilhelm: (1853-1932) German chemist. Winner of the Nobel prize for chemistry in 1909. In Die Uberwindung des wissenschaftlichen Materialistmus and in Naturphilosophie, his two best known works in the field of philosophy, he advocates a dynamic theory in opposition to materialism and mechanism. All properties of matter, and the psychic as well, are special forms of energy. --L.E.D. Oupnekhat: Anquetil Duperron's Latin translation of the Persian translation of 50 Upanishads (q.v.), a work praised by Schopenhauer as giving him complete consolation. --K.F.L. Outness: A term employed by Berkeley to express the experience of externality, that is the ideas of space and things placed at a distance. Hume used it in the sense of distance Hamilton understood it as the state of being outside of consciousness in a really existing world of material things. --J.J.R. Overindividual: Term used by H. Münsterberg to translate the German überindividuell. The term is applied to any cognitive or value object which transcends the individual subject. --L.W. P

turing test: a test to determine how closely computers mimic human cognitive process.

understanding: the cognitive condition of someone who understands. It is is the possession of knowledge coupled with the capability of reasoning and making judgements relating to the applicability of the knowledge.

Unio mystica: (Lat.) Mystical union; the merging of the individual consciousness, cognitively or affectively, with a superior, or supreme consciousness. See Mysticism. -- V.J.B.

vision-logic ::: The cognitive stage necessary to support integral consciousness. Typically subdivided into early, middle, and late vision-logic. Early vision-logic differentiates reality into relativistic systems, while middle and late vision-logic add up and integrate those perspectives into systems of systems. Vision-logic is often referred to as the first “postformal” stage of cognitive development since it is immediately beyond or “after” formal operational cognition. However, it is not yet “transrational,” but rather the limit of rational thought. Vision-logic is, in a sense, the bridge between the mental and the transmental.

WordNet "human language" A large {lexical} database of English, developed under the direction of George A. Miller. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are grouped into sets of {cognitive synonyms} ("synsets"), each expressing a distinct concept. Synsets are interlinked by means of conceptual-{semantic} and lexical relations. The resulting network of words and concepts can be navigated with the browser. WordNet is freely available for download. WordNet's structure makes it a useful tool for {computational linguistics} and {natural language processing}. {WordNet home (http://wordnet.princeton.edu/)}. (2007-04-20)

wu'ai xing. (J. mugegyo; K. muae haeng 無礙行). In Chinese, "unhindered action" or "unconstrained conduct"; one of the types of practice of a BODHISATTVA-MAHĀSATTVA, as expounded especially in the AVATAMSAKASuTRA, referring to a conduct that is not constrained by the restrictions of customary morality or mundane societal expectations. Other related terms that are described as unhindered include "unhindered physicality" (wu'ai shen), "unhindered SAMĀDHI" (wu'ai sanmei), "unhindered wisdom" (wu'ai zhi), "unhindered dharma" (wu'ai fa), "unhindered path" (wu'ai dao), etc. The actions of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva conform to those of the buddhas themselves and any merit forthcoming from them are freely transferred (huixiang) to other sentient beings to help them with their salvation; for this reason, their actions are free from any kinds of hindrances. The MAHĀYĀNASAMGRAHA (She Dasheng lun) also explains "unhindered action" as the merit of a buddha, which is obtained through the purest of wisdom. Unhindered action sometimes refers to a particular stage or practice of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva: the BODHISATTVABHuMI (Pusa shanjie jing) presents it as the tenth of the twelve conducts of a bodhisattva-mahāsattva, along with such advanced practices as the signless practice, untainted practice, practice-less practice, and contented practice. In this context, unhindered action refers to the stage where a bodhisattva cultivates the realm of reality (DHARMADHĀTU) that transcends all discrimination and teaches the true dharma (SADDHARMA) for the sake of innumerable sentient beings. This status is said to correspond specifically to the ninth of the ten bodhisattva stages (DAsABHuMI), and the bodhisattva on this stage is described as being endowed with four types of analytical knowledges (PRATISAMVID), which in Chinese were known as the four "unhindered knowledges" (C. si wu'ai jie): i.e., unhindered knowledge of (1) phenomena (DHARMA), viz., one makes no mistakes in one's teachings; (2) meaning (ARTHA), viz., to be unhindered with regard to the content and meaning of one's teachings; (3) etymology or language (NIRUKTI), viz., the ability to comprehend all languages; and (4) eloquence (PRATIBHĀNA), viz., ease in offering explanations. CHENGGUAN (738-839) states in his massive HUAYAN JING SHU ("Commentary to the AVATAMSAKASuTRA") that the bodhisattva is able to abide in unhindered action (lit. "unhindered abiding") because he no longer has any cognitive obstructions (JNEYĀVARAnA). The practice of unconstrained conduct has been a prominent, if controversial, feature of Korean Buddhism throughout its history. Several eminent Korean monks were known as practitioners of unconstrained conduct, including WoNHYO (617-686), Chinmuk (1562-1633), and KYoNGHo SoNGU (1849-1912), and they followed ways of life that disregarded the standards of conduct typically incumbent upon ordained monks.



QUOTES [5 / 5 - 1059 / 1059]


KEYS (10k)

   2 Rosch
   1 Wikipedia
   1 Ken Wilber
   1 Sri Aurobindo

NEW FULL DB (2.4M)

   70 Daniel Kahneman
   49 Anonymous
   18 Robert M Sapolsky
   17 Matthew Syed
   16 Daniel Goleman
   15 Tom Butler Bowdon
   15 Bren Brown
   13 Joseph E LeDoux
   13 George Lakoff
   13 Cal Newport
   12 Steven Pinker
   11 John Medina
   10 Paul Tough
   10 Nir Eyal
   9 Jonathan Haidt
   8 Peter H Diamandis
   8 Michael S Gazzaniga
   7 Noam Chomsky
   7 Nick Bostrom
   7 Jeffrey M Schwartz

1:The knowledge which is not companioned by an aspiration and vivified by an uplifting is no true knowledge, for it can be only an intellectual seeing and a barren cognitive endeavour. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, Works, Devotion and Knowledge,
2:John McCarthy (September 4, 1927 - October 24, 2011) was an American computer scientist and cognitive scientist. McCarthy was one of the founders of the discipline of artificial intelligence.[1] He coined the term artificial intelligence (AI), developed the Lisp programming language family, significantly influenced the design of the ALGOL programming language, popularized timesharing, and was very influential in the early development of AI.
   ~ Wikipedia,
3:The High-Subtle Self ::: "...cognitive style- actual intuition and literal inspiration, archetypal Form, audible illumination, revelations of light and sound affective elements- rapture, bliss, ecstatic release into superconsciousness motivational/conative factors-karuna, compassion, overwhelming love and gratefulness temporal mode- transtemporal, moving into eternity mode of self- archetypal-divine, overself, overmind." ~ Ken Wilber, The Atman Project pg.80,
4:Two general and basic principles are proposed for the formation of categories: The first has to do with the function of category systems and asserts that the task of category systems is to provide maximum information with the least cognitive effort [("cognitive economy")]; the second has to do with the structure of the information so provided and asserts that the perceived world comes as structured information rather than than arbitrary or unpredictable attributes [("perceived world structure")]. Thus maximum information with least cognitive effort is achieved if categories map the perceived world structure as closely as possible. This condition can be achieved either by the mapping of categories to given attribute structures or by the definition or redefinition of attributes to render a given set of categories appropriately structured.
   ~ Rosch, 1978, p. 28,
5:meta-systemic operations ::: As the 1950's and 60s begin to roll around the last stage of first tier emerged as a cultural force. With the Green Altitude we see the emergence of Pluralistic, Multicultural, Post-Modern world-views.

Cognition is starting to move beyond formal-operations into the realm of co-ordinating systems of abstractions, in what is called Meta-systemic Cognition. While formal-operations acted upon the classes and relations between members of classes. Meta-systemic operations start at the level of relating systems to systems. The focus of these investigations is placed upon comparing, contrasting, transforming and synthesizing entire systems, rather than components of one system. This emergent faculty allows self-sense to focus around a heightened sense of individuality and an increased ability for emotional resonance. The recognition of individual differences, the ability to tolerate paradox and contradiction, and greater conceptual complexity all provide for an understanding of conflict as being both internally and externally caused. Context plays a major role in the creation of truth and individual perspective. With each being context dependent and open to subjective interpretation, meaning each perspective and truth are rendered relative and are not able to be judged as better or more true than any other. This fuels a value set that centers on softness over cold rationality. Sensitivity and preference over objectivity.

Along with a focus on community harmony and equality which drives the valuing of sensitivity to others, reconcilation, consensus, dialogue, relationship, human development, bonding, and a seeking of a peace with the inner-self. Moral decisions are based on rights, values, or principles that are agreeable to all individuals composing a society based on fair and beneficial practices. All of this leads to the Equality movements and multiculturalism. And to the extreme form of relativitism which we saw earlier as context dependant nature of all truth including objective facts.

Faith at the green altitude is called Conjunctive, and allows the self to integrate what was unrecognized by the previous stages self-certainty and cognitive and affective adaptation to reality. New features at this level of faith include the unification of symbolic power with conceptual meaning, an awareness of ones social unconscious, a reworking of ones past, and an opening to ones deeper self. ~ Essential Integral, 4.1-52, Meta-systemic Operations,

*** WISDOM TROVE ***

1:Buddhists were actually the first cognitive-behavioral therapists. ~ jack-kornfield, @wisdomtrove
2:Hope is not an emotion; it's a way of thinking or a cognitive process. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove
3:In the future, however, we may see real gaps in physical and cognitive abilities opening between an upgraded upper class and the rest of society. ~ yuval-noah-harari, @wisdomtrove
4:The cognitive scientists have now proven the reality of decision fatigue”—that every decision you make, little or big, diminishes a limited amount of your brain power. ~ david-allen, @wisdomtrove
5:Beauty adds to goodness a relation to the cognitive faculty: so that "good" means that which simply pleases the appetite; while the "beautiful" is something pleasant to apprehend. ~ denis-diderot, @wisdomtrove
6:Beauty adds to goodness a relation to the cognitive faculty: so that "good" means that which simply pleases the appetite; while the "beautiful" is something pleasant to apprehend. ~ thomas-aquinas, @wisdomtrove
7:If I meet other people and criticize their weaknesses, I rob myself of higher cognitive power. But if I try to enter deeply and lovingly into another person's good qualities, I gather in that force. ~ rudolf-steiner, @wisdomtrove
8:I'm not sure if a mental relation with a woman doesn't make it impossible to love her. To know the mind of a woman is to end in hating her. Love means the pre-cognitive flow... it is the honest state before the apple. ~ d-h-lawrence, @wisdomtrove
9:It is not quite right to describe One Taste as a "consciousness" or an "awareness," because that's a little too heady, too cognitive. It's more like the simple Feeling of Being. You already feel this simple Feeling of Being: it is the simple, present feeling of existence. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove
10:The second cognitive revolution, dreamed up by techno-humanists, might do the same to us, producing human cogs who communicate and process data far more effectively than ever before, but who can hardly pay attention, dream or doubt. For millions of years we were enhanced chimpanzees. In the future, we may become oversized ants. ~ yuval-noah-harari, @wisdomtrove
11:Just as man's physical existence was liberated when he grasped that &
12:How can we encourage other human beings to extend their moral sympathies beyond a narrow locus? How can we learn to become mere human beings, shorn of any more compelling national, ethnic, or religious identity? We can be reasonable. It is in the very nature of reason to fuse cognitive and moral horizons. Reason is nothing less than the guardian of love. ~ sam-harris, @wisdomtrove
13:Human beings have a variety of intelligences, such as cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence, musical intelligence, kinesthetic intelligence, and so on. Most people excel in one or two of those, but do poorly in the others. This is not necessarily or even usually a bad thing; part of Integral wisdom is finding where one excels and thus where one can best offer the world one's deepest gifts. ~ ken-wilber, @wisdomtrove
14:Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens have thus been living in a dual reality. On the one hand, the objective reality of rivers, trees and lions; and on the other hand, the imagined reality of gods, nations and corporations. As time went by, the imagined reality became ever more powerful, so that today the very survival of rivers, trees and lions depends on the grace of imagined entities such as the United States and Google. ~ yuval-noah-harari, @wisdomtrove
15:As long as I stared at the clock, at least the world remained in motion. Not a very consequential world, but in motion nonetheless. And as long as I knew the world was still in motion, I knew I existed. Not a very consequential existence, but an existence nonetheless. It struck me as wanting that someone should confirm his own existence only by the hands of an electric wall clock. There had to be a more cognitive means of confirmation. But try as I might, nothing less facile came to mind. ~ haruki-murakami, @wisdomtrove
16:Courage is a way of thinking Real courage is a mental skill, not an emotional one. Neurologically it means using the thinking neocortex part of your brain to override the emotional limbic impulses. In other words, you use your human intelligence, logic, and independent will to overcome the limitations you've inherited as an emotional mammal. Hope is a way of thinking     Hope is not an emotion; it's a way of thinking or a cognitive process. Brené Brown     Hopeful thinking can get you out of your fear zone and into your appreciation zone.  Martha Beck    ~ steve-pavlina, @wisdomtrove
17:When we apologize for something we’ve done, make amends, or change a behavior that doesn’t align with our values, guilt—not shame—is most often the driving force. We feel guilty when we hold up something we’ve done or failed to do against our values and find they don’t match up. It’s an uncomfortable feeling, but one that’s helpful. The psychological discomfort, something similar to cognitive dissonance, is what motivates meaningful change. Guilt is just as powerful as shame, but its influence is positive, while shame’s is destructive. In fact, in my research I found that shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we can change and do better. ~ brene-brown, @wisdomtrove

*** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***

1:cognitive dissonance is ~ Rupert Sheldrake,
2:cognitive behavioral therapy ~ Angela Duckworth,
3:slipped on a cognitive banana peel ~ Daniel H Pink,
4:Definitions of Cognitive Distortions ~ David D Burns,
5:Hope is not an emotion: It’s a cognitive process ~ Bren Brown,
6:Wisdom is tolerance of cognitive dissonance. ~ Robert Thurman,
7:A slew of cognitive traits predisposes us to faith. ~ Pascal Boyer,
8:It's a shame cars don't run on cognitive dissonance. ~ Lewis Black,
9:Did you ever hear of cognitive dissonance?” she asked. ~ Barbara A Shapiro,
10:For me, the glory of the human animal is cognitive activity. ~ Terence McKenna,
11:We make a number of reasoning errors due to cognitive biases. ~ Daniel J Levitin,
12:Buddhists were actually the first cognitive-behavioral therapists. ~ Jack Kornfield,
13:Hope is not an emotion; it's a way of thinking or a cognitive process. ~ Bren Brown,
14:hope is not an emotion; it’s a way of thinking or a cognitive process. ~ Bren Brown,
15:Hope is not an emotion; it's a way of thinking or a cognitive process. ~ Brene Brown,
16:As applied to substance abuse, the cognitive approach helps individuals ~ Aaron T Beck,
17:I've had a lot of cognitive behavioural therapy, and am having a family now. ~ Trisha Goddard,
18:The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. ~ Christopher Hitchens,
19:cognitive psychologists have found out that we start dreaming and then we fall asleep. ~ Anonymous,
20:Teaching, like any complex cognitive skill, must be practiced to be improved. ~ Daniel T Willingham,
21:In the end, leadership is not intellectual or cognitive. Leadership is emotional. ~ Judith M Bardwick,
22:one of the quirkier cognitive disorders to which software project management is prone. ~ Charles Stross,
23:frequent lying with regard to specific matters may indeed erase the cognitive costs of lying ~ Anonymous,
24:Oh! To not need cognitive justification for every single thing. Wouldn't that be a life? ~ Laura Marling,
25:I'm a biologist who has been interested in the biological roots of cognitive phenomena. ~ Francisco Varela,
26:You’ve got on a white coat. (Ephani) Awesome cognitive powers you have there. (Alexion) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon,
27:I always look at myself knowing that I will have a certain degree of cognitive distortion. ~ Sarah Silverman,
28:Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction. ~ E O Wilson,
29:But with effort and with time to think, we can display cognitive independence from language ~ Daniel L Everett,
30:It appears to be a feature of System 1 that cognitive ease is associated with good feelings. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
31:We cannot therefore say that mental acts contain a cognitive as well as a conative element. ~ Samuel Alexander,
32:You’ve got on a white coat. (Ephani)
Awesome cognitive powers you have there. (Alexion) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon,
33:Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction. ~ Edward O Wilson,
34:Not all illusions are visual. There are illusions of thought, which we call cognitive illusions. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
35:The pacification of all cognitive grasping and the pacification of conceptual proliferation are peace. ~ N g rjuna,
36:Unlike art which contains a message, wine conveys nothing, it has no intellectual or cognitive content ~ Tim Crane,
37:cognitive limitations, such as those of attention and working memory, can drive us to a similar kind of ~ Anonymous,
38:In short, their practice contradicts what they profess. They are trapped in cognitive dissonance. ~ Nancy R Pearcey,
39:Foreign experiences increase both cognitive flexibility and depth and integrativeness of thought, ~ Maggie O Farrell,
40:Your beauty flaws me, Alexis. It literally strips me of all cognitive function; I’m absolutely useless. ~ K M Golland,
41:your readings are the trees where your fallen leaves would come from. Mind mulch. Cognitive compost. ~ Douglas Wilson,
42:Cognitive evolution is marked by many peaks of specialization. The ecology of each species is key. The ~ Frans de Waal,
43:Emotional function and cognitive function aren't unrelated to each other. They're completely intertwined. ~ Amishi Jha,
44:Because of propaganda induced cognitive dissonance, most people hate themselves and don't even know it. ~ Bryant McGill,
45:TRI-Con and the techniques to be described may elicit not only cognitive load but also anxiety in examinees. ~ Anonymous,
46:In short, philosophical theories are largely the product of the hidden hand of the cognitive unconscious. ~ George Lakoff,
47:Habits reduce cognitive load and free up mental capacity, so you can allocate your attention to other tasks.10 ~ James Clear,
48:The cognitive sciences have replaced literature as the way many people attempt to understand their own minds. ~ David Brooks,
49:Cognitive biases are predicable patterns of thought and behavior that lead you to draw incorrect conclusions. ~ David McRaney,
50:Cognitive biases worked well when rapid pattern recognition and decision making was critical for survival, ~ Richard A Clarke,
51:What the Bible says is what God has disclosed and we want to approach this sacred text with cognitive reverence. ~ D A Carson,
52:Recognize the signs that you are in a cognitive minefield, slow down, and ask for reinforcement of system 2. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
53:The stupidest possible creative act is still a creative act,” writes Clay Shirky in his book Cognitive Surplus. ~ Austin Kleon,
54:generating text yourself “requires more cognitive effort than does reading, and effort increases memorability, ~ Clive Thompson,
55:As an artist, where do you conjure these concepts? They come through you instead of through cognitive thought. ~ Nick Littlemore,
56:As I’ve said before, the brain is a cognitive miser. Unless it can get value for itself, it stops paying attention. ~ Oren Klaff,
57:Cognitive schemas—thought structures—influence what we notice and how the things we notice get interpreted. ~ Michelle Alexander,
58:The cognitive sciences have replaced literature as the way many people attempt to understand their own minds. But ~ David Brooks,
59:When parents have college savings accounts for their kids, their kids show higher social and cognitive performance. ~ Dan Ariely,
60:Any pursuit—be it physical or cognitive—that supports high levels of skill can also generate a sense of sacredness. ~ Cal Newport,
61:Cognitive Bias, that is, unconscious—and irrational—brain processes that literally distort the way we see the world. ~ Chris Voss,
62:Fear is the bodily gnosis which reinforces any emotional and cognitive patterns which serve us to hold change at bay. ~ Phil Hine,
63:Our understanding of cognitive ease and associative coherence locates subjective confidence firmly in System 1. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
64:Simply put, Google reduced the amount of time and the cognitive effort required to find what the user was looking for. ~ Nir Eyal,
65:That is, rather than an a priori decision to lie or tell the truth being the determinant of consequent cognitive load, ~ Anonymous,
66:Food is a powerful drug. You can use it to help mood and cognitive ability or you can unknowingly make things worse. ~ Daniel G Amen,
67:I flip a cognitive coin while reading Dr. Briggs' take on life, theology, science, and the conception of human life. ~ Asa Don Brown,
68:we see faces in the clouds, but never clouds in faces, because we have special cognitive modules for face detection. ~ Jonathan Haidt,
69:Regression analyses show that self-efficacy contributes to achievement behavior beyond the effects of cognitive skills ~ Albert Bandura,
70:I firmly disbelieve in death. A spirit never dies. Where it wanders when it leaves the flesh, is a cognitive proposition. ~ Kellie Elmore,
71:Wilson showed that the cognitive losses from multitasking are even greater than the cognitive losses from pot smoking. ~ Daniel J Levitin,
72:Good design is a Renaissance attitude that combines tech, cognitive science, human need and beauty to produce something. ~ Paola Antonelli,
73:I believe that I have created a lot of cognitive dissonance in the minds of people who are comfortable with stereotypes. ~ Hillary Clinton,
74:Learning comes from education, while knowing comes from revelation. Learning is cognitive, while knowing is spiritual. ~ Israelmore Ayivor,
75:all variants of voluntary effort—cognitive, emotional, or physical—draw at least partly on a shared pool of mental energy. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
76:I see psychoanalysis, art and biology ultimately coming together, just like cognitive psychology and neuroscience have merged. ~ Eric Kandel,
77:Chinese students scored much higher on the cognitive aspect of wisdom compared with the reflective or affective aspects of wisdom. ~ Anonymous,
78:Woman, man, mole, maggot – they’re all the same, when all’s said and done, except for slight variations in cognitive ability. ~ Jonathan Stroud,
79:tests of cognitive ability (like IQ tests) tend to measure cultural learning and not pure innate intelligence, whatever that is. ~ Jared Diamond,
80:The experiment suggested a strong correlation “between the number of links and disorientation or cognitive overload,” wrote Zhu. ~ Nicholas Carr,
81:there is no reason to suppose Homo sapiens to have reached the apex of cognitive effectiveness attainable in a biological system. ~ Nick Bostrom,
82:The notion that the world is mostly made up of small sets is an illusion imposed on us by our perceptual and cognitive systems. ~ Stanislas Dehaene,
83:Experiments work when, and only when, they call into action cognitive capacities that might reliably deliver the conclusions drawn. ~ Philip Kitcher,
84:A lifetime of exercise can result in a sometimes astonishing elevation in cognitive performance, compared with those who are sedentary. ~ John Medina,
85:As cognitive scientists have emphasized in recent years, cognition is embodied; you think with your body, not only with your brain. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
86:For anger to be effective, it has to be real, the key for it is to be under control because anger also reduces our cognitive ability. And ~ Chris Voss,
87:God's greatness immeasurably transcends our cognitive faculties, and that we can only form a very dim and imperfect idea of it. ~ Abu Hamid al-Ghazali,
88:Interaction design isn’t merely a matter of aesthetic choice; rather, it is based on an understanding of users and cognitive principles. ~ Alan Cooper,
89:Cognitive strain, whatever its source, mobilizes System 2, which is more likely to reject the intuitive answer suggested by System 1. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
90:Since 1983, the only segment of “jobs” to show significant growth were “Non-Routine Cognitive Jobs.” In other words: creating systems. ~ Taylor Pearson,
91:Forecasters who see illusory correlations and assume that moral and cognitive weakness run together will fail when we need them most. ~ Philip E Tetlock,
92:Just as a man working with his tools should know its limitations, a man working with his cognitive apparatus must know its limitations. ~ Charlie Munger,
93:Lions mane may be our first smart mushroom. It is a safe, edible fungus that appears to confer cognitive benefits on our aging population. ~ Paul Stamets,
94:Humor is basically a cognitive process. And it's a creative process not only on the part of the cartoonist but on the part of the viewer. ~ Robert Mankoff,
95:Indeed, as neoliberalism has progressed, rather than enabling individual creativity, it has tended towards eliminating cognitive inventiveness ~ Anonymous,
96:Cognitive strain, whatever its source, mobilizes System 2, which is more likely to reject the intuitive answer suggested by System 1. The ~ Daniel Kahneman,
97:These are the lies we tell ourselves to solve the cognitive dissonance—the broken connection between the world we see and the values we preach. ~ J D Vance,
98:We really are creatures of a violent world, biologically speaking - watching violence and learning about it is one of our cognitive drives. ~ Steven Pinker,
99:Buddhist psychology did not differentiate cognitive from emotional states in the way Western thought differentiated the passions from reason. ~ Dalai Lama XIV,
100:manipulations that increase cognitive ease (priming, a clear font, pre-exposing words) all increase the tendency to see the words as linked. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
101:Moreover, pupil dilation, blinking rate, voice pitch elevation, and other reliable cues not only measure cognitive load but emotional responses as ~ Anonymous,
102:People are naturally curious, but we are not naturally good thinkers; unless the cognitive conditions are right, we will avoid thinking. ~ Daniel T Willingham,
103:Although elephants are far more distantly related to us than the great apes, they seem to have evolved similar social and cognitive capacities. ~ Frans de Waal,
104:Human cognitive ability cannot efficiently compare more than five options, so most of us will start looking at the first few options and then stop. ~ Anonymous,
105:Instinct” is a concept intended to bridge the gap between needs and goals, bypassing man’s cognitive (i.e., reasoning and learning) faculty. ~ Nathaniel Branden,
106:A good title holds magic, some cognitive dissonance, a little grit between the teeth, but above all it is the jumping-off place into wonder. ~ Barbara Kingsolver,
107:I have quite a bit of sympathy for the idea that psychology and cognitive science have much to offer philosophy, and that the reverse is true as well. ~ L A Paul,
108:The ability to ascribe thoughts to others, thoughts that might differ from our own, is a sophisticated cognitive skill, known as “theory of mind. ~ Sy Montgomery,
109:The word ‘mind’ is a way of talking about the cognitive functions of the brain that we do not fully understand physiologically at the present. ~ Daniel L Everett,
110:Chess is a unique cognitive nexus, a place where art and science come together in the human mind and are then refined and improved by experience. ~ Garry Kasparov,
111:Language is not just a system for talking and reading. Talking and reading reflect the cognitive elaborations brought into the brain by language. ~ Joseph E LeDoux,
112:A physical task becomes a visual display, and then a cognitive task. What once required strength now requires attention, patience, quick reactions. ~ David A Mindell,
113:It is a vast, and pervasive, cognitive mistake to assume that people who agree with you (or disagree) do so on the same criteria that you care about. ~ Megan McArdle,
114:New research into cognitive functioning - how the brain works - proves that bullet points are the least effective way to deliver important information. ~ Carmine Gallo,
115:The cybernetics phase of cognitive science produced an amazing array of concrete results, in addition to its long-term (often underground) influence ~ Francisco Varela,
116:the projected cognitive load of potential problem solutions should determine whether one pursues a discourse path that ends up being truthful or deceptive. ~ Anonymous,
117:That feeling you have, that sort of pulling in your brain, is cognitive dissonance. It’s when your knowledge set is suddenly challenged by new information. ~ John Ringo,
118:As self-report may be biased by response tendencies, most other studies used indirect measures to assess the cognitive complexity of lying and truth telling. ~ Anonymous,
119:Cognitive dissonance” is the term Festinger coined to describe the inner tension we feel when, among other things, our beliefs are challenged by evidence. ~ Matthew Syed,
120:Developing the cognitive control that leads to a more contemplative Christian life is the key to living as free men and women in post-Christian America. The ~ Rod Dreher,
121:Hope is not an emotion: It’s a cognitive process—a thought process made up of what researcher C. R. Snyder called the trilogy of “goals, pathways, and agency. ~ Bren Brown,
122:It is only when we have staked our ego that our mistakes of judgment become threatening. That is when we build defensive walls and deploy cognitive filters. ~ Matthew Syed,
123:We can tentatively define a superintelligence as any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest. ~ Nick Bostrom,
124:There is a concept in cognitive psychology called the channel capacity, which refers to the amount of space in our brain for certain kinds of information. ~ Malcolm Gladwell,
125:Strategy-making is an immensely complex process involving the most sophisticated, subtle, and at times subconscious of human cognitive and social processes. ~ Henry Mintzberg,
126:The foundations of the world are to be found, not in the cognitive experience of conscious thought, but in the aesthetic experience of everyday life. ~ Alfred North Whitehead,
127:The greater our cognitive dissonance, the more creative our rationalizations, and the more important we will make the goals that we are pretending to accomplish. ~ Hugh Howey,
128:Our common biases have since become known as cognitive biases, which are defined as “patterns of deviation in judgment that occur in particular situations. ~ Peter H Diamandis,
129:If we were to forgo our television addiction for just one year, the world would have over a trillion hours of cognitive surplus to commit to share projects. ~ Peter H Diamandis,
130:when the frontal cortex labors hard on some cognitive task, immediately afterward individuals are more aggressive and less empathic, charitable, and honest. ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
131:Confusing experience with the memory of it is a compelling cognitive illusion—and it is the substitution that makes us believe a past experience can be ruined. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
132:True believers are continually shown by reality that their god doesn't exist, but have developed extensive coping mechanisms to deal with this cognitive dissonance. ~ Mark Thomas,
133:for many biological traits—including cognitive ones—there is expected to be a higher proportion of sub-Saharan Africans with extreme genetically predicted abilities. ~ David Reich,
134:The guy [Donald Trump] has a lot of problems - physical, mental, emotional, cognitive. You know, he comes with a whole lot of baggage, and I think it's pretty obvious. ~ Jill Stein,
135:By showing that exercise sparks the master molecule of the learning process, Cotman nailed down a direct biological connection between movement and cognitive function. ~ John J Ratey,
136:Nonetheless, it still remains true that as a set of cognitive beliefs, religious doctrines constitute a speculative hypothesis of an extremely low order of probability. ~ Sidney Hook,
137:The cognitive scientists have now proven the reality of “decision fatigue”—that every decision you make, little or big, diminishes a limited amount of your brain power. ~ David Allen,
138:To avoid the cognitive dissonance of not liking something that others seem to take so much pleasure in, we slowly change our perception of the thing we once did not enjoy. ~ Nir Eyal,
139:The destructive effects of video games are not on boys' cognitive abilities or their reaction times, but on their motivation and their connectedness with the real world. ~ Leonard Sax,
140:The destructive effects of video games are not on boys' cognitive abilities or their reaction times, but on there motivation and their connectedness with the real world. ~ Leonard Sax,
141:I had almost no background for the work in computer science, artificial intelligence, and cognitive psychology...Interdisciplinary adventure is easiest in new fields. ~ Herbert A Simon,
142:In short, you experience greater cognitive ease in perceiving a word you have seen earlier, and it is this sense of ease that gives you the impression of familiarity. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
143:You'll be pleased to hear, Christopher, that I am no longer a Muslim liberal but an atheist [....] I find that it obviates the necessity for any cognitive dissonance. ~ Ayaan Hirsi Ali,
144:In a hyperconnected world with massive amounts of cognitive surplus, it’s critical to be open, allow the crowd to help you innovate, and build on each other’s ideas. ~ Peter H Diamandis,
145:Many of the cognitive enhancement drugs serve to increase focus and concentration. But 'letting your mind wander' is very often an important part of the creative process. ~ Jamais Cascio,
146:One of the significant discoveries of cognitive psychologists in recent decades is that switching from one task to another is effortful, especially under time pressure. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
147:Overloading attention shrinks mental control. Life immersed in digital distractions creates a near constant cognitive overload. And that overload wears out self-control. ~ Daniel Goleman,
148:The cognitive science's challenge is to link our consensus reality to our internal reality, but physics' challenge is to link our consensus reality to our external reality. ~ Max Tegmark,
149:A separate study conducted at Penn State, this one focused on the elderly, showed that playfulness in later life is associated with better cognitive and emotional functioning. ~ Anonymous,
150:Many cognitive psychologists see the brain as a computer. But every single brain is absolutely individual, both in its development and in the way it encounters the world. ~ Gerald Edelman,
151:There are a variety of techniques to help people change the kind of thinking that leads them to become depressed. These techniques are called cognitive behavioral therapy. ~ Irving Kirsch,
152:Cognitive science is a rapidly developing area, so it could be that there are some surprises around the corner. That does seem to be kind of where the trend line is leading. ~ Louis Menand,
153:Evaluate the demands in your child’s life (at home and at school)—and find at least one “cognitive unicycle” that may be sabotaging him or her. Then, if you can, get rid of it. ~ Todd Rose,
154:thanks to a plethora of cognitive biases, faulty heuristics, and common fallacies of thought, you are probably deluding yourself minute by minute just to cope with reality. ~ David McRaney,
155:Music may be the activity that prepared our pre-human ancestors for speech communication and for the very cognitive, representational flexibility necessary to become humans. ~ Daniel Levitin,
156:Cognitive and social learning cannot break through to a child whose world is intrusively loud, blindingly bright, unbearably malodorous and physically complicated to navigate. ~ Ellen Notbohm,
157:Cognitive therapy seeks to alleviate psychological stresses by correcting faulty conceptions and self-signals. By correcting erroneous beliefs we can lower excessive reactions. ~ Aaron T Beck,
158:four new factors of wisdom were identified: non-dualistic thinking in cognitive wisdom, perspective-taking and nonresentment in reflective wisdom, and empathy in affective wisdom. ~ Anonymous,
159:Music may be the activity that prepared our pre-human ancestors for speech communication and for the very cognitive, representational flexibility necessary to become humans. ~ Daniel J Levitin,
160:Not wanting to see, not wanting to be in touch with one's experience is something akin to cognitive laziness, an eclipse of the experiencer or inner witnessing in the person. ~ Claudio Naranjo,
161:To tip the cognitive hurdle fast, tipping point leaders such as Bratton zoom in on the act of disproportionate influence: making people see and experience harsh reality firsthand. ~ W Chan Kim,
162:I would like to be remembered as one of the individuals who founded, ideologically and practically, cognitive behavior therapy and who pioneered multimodal or integrated therapy. ~ Albert Ellis,
163:There is the experience of enlightenment, to be very aware of what lies beyond the boundaries of cognitive perception, reflection and self-awareness as seen by the personality. ~ Frederick Lenz,
164:We often attribute 'understanding' and other cognitive predicates by metaphor and analogy to cars, adding machines, and other artifacts, but nothing is proved by such attributions. ~ John Searle,
165:After all, the appeal to stop being yourself, even for a little while, is very great. To escape the cognitive mode of experience, to transcend the accident of one's moment of being. ~ Donna Tartt,
166:Burns collaborated with pioneering cognitive psychologist Aaron T. Beck, who believed that most depression or anxiety was simply a result of illogical and negative thinking. He ~ Tom Butler Bowdon,
167:Decades of research into a variety of cognitive biases show you tend to see the world through thick Coke-bottle lenses forged from belief and smudged with attitudes and ideologies. ~ David McRaney,
168:Research shows that for jobs of all kinds, emotional intelligence is twice as important an ingredient of outstanding performance as cognitive ability and technical skill combined. ~ Daniel Goleman,
169:The cognitive abilities of chimpanzees force us, I think, to raise searching questions about the boundaries of the community of beings to which special ethical considerations are due. ~ Carl Sagan,
170:cognitive dissonance is a deeply ingrained human trait. The more we have riding on our judgments, the more we are likely to manipulate any new evidence that calls them into question. ~ Matthew Syed,
171:the laboratory, the gold standard appears to be aerobic exercise, 30 minutes at a clip, two or three times a week. Add a strengthening regimen and you get even more cognitive benefit. ~ John Medina,
172:Burns helped to establish a new method of treatment, cognitive therapy, and Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy is his attempt to explain how it works and why it is different. The ~ Tom Butler Bowdon,
173:Decades of cognitive bias research demonstrates that both unconscious and conscious biases lead to discriminatory actions, even when an individual does not want to discriminate. ~ Michelle Alexander,
174:Given its prevalence, deceptive discourse must present cognitive efficiency advantages over truth telling within many contexts; otherwise, it would not be so widely practiced (McCornack, ~ Anonymous,
175:If we are biological organisms, not angels, then our cognitive faculties are similar to those called “physical capacities” and should be studied much as other systems of the body are. ~ Noam Chomsky,
176:many people are overconfident, prone to place too much faith in their intuitions. They apparently find cognitive effort at least mildly unpleasant and avoid it as much as possible. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
177:a human mind is a wandering mind, and a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. The ability to think about what is not happening is a cognitive achievement that comes at an emotional cost. ~ Evan Thompson,
178:Actually, chocolate has many health benefits if eaten in moderation. It has a positive influence on cognitive function, lowers bad cholesterol, and reduces the risk of irregular heartbeat. ~ I T Lucas,
179:Despite the hours spent debating different models of general education, the choices faculties make rarely lead to any significant difference in the cognitive development of undergraduates. ~ Derek Bok,
180:Specifically, cognitive exercise – that is, activity that keeps the brain active, like crosswords, reading, driving, learning new skills, and having responsibilities – was protective. ~ David Eagleman,
181:The fact that “dusk” could mean two nearly opposite things seemed indicative of something, if only that the membrane between the real and the cognitive had grown perilously thin. ~ Garth Risk Hallberg,
182:They wrote in their reports that it proved him to be “cunning” and “manipulative” and also that he was suffering from “cognitive distortion” because he didn’t believe he was mad.     Tony ~ Jon Ronson,
183:In social cognitive theory, perceived self-efficacy results from diverse sources of information conveyed vicariously and through social evaluation, as well as through direct experience ~ Albert Bandura,
184:ALS does not affect cognitive process. Stephen Hawking, one of smartest people on the planet, has ALS. It rarely affects the eyes. It doesn't affect senses like hearing, taste and touch. ~ Steve Gleason,
185:Beauty adds to goodness a relation to the cognitive faculty: so that "good" means that which simply pleases the appetite; while the "beautiful" is something pleasant to apprehend. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas,
186:capitalism owes its existence to the cognitive, cultural, and intellectual breakthrough that came about as the scientific revolution swept Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. ~ Anonymous,
187:People who care about justice are swayed more by reason than emotion, according to new brain scan research from the Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience. ~ Anonymous,
188:the challenge for physics is deriving the consensus reality from the external reality, and the challenge for cognitive science is to derive the internal reality from the consensus reality. ~ Max Tegmark,
189:The IYI subscribes to The New Yorker, a journal designed so philistines can learn to fake a conversation about evolution, neurosomething, cognitive biases, and quantum mechanics. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb,
190:To have a second language is to have a second soul," said Charlemagne around 800 AD. "Each language has its own cognitive toolkit," said psychologist/linguist Lera Boroditsky in 2010 AD. ~ Stewart Brand,
191:First, the behavioral disruption that should be observable in such circumstances is not a product of cognitive load per se; but instead, failed memory searching, interrupted speech production ~ Anonymous,
192:Doodles were fertile ground; they were the visual evidence of heavy cognitive lifting. Although this was not always true: Ricky Lepardo was a doodler and he was not a heavy cognitive lifter. ~ Reif Larsen,
193:Tania Singer, director of the social neuroscience department at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, has studied empathy and self-awareness ~ Daniel Goleman,
194:Emerging in the 1960s, cognitive psychology used the same rigorous scientific approach as behaviorism but returned to the question of how behavior is actually generated inside the head. ~ Tom Butler Bowdon,
195:levels, regulate the HPA axis, balance the immune system, and improve cognitive functioning. Over and over again the research pointed to one treatment in particular—meditation. Though ~ Nadine Burke Harris,
196:Writing about things has other salutary cognitive effects. For one, it improves your memory: write about something and you’ll remember it better, in what’s known as the “generation effect. ~ Clive Thompson,
197:Emotion only lasts in our bodies for about 90 seconds. After that, the physical reaction dissipates, UNLESS our cognitive brain kicks in and starts connecting our anger with past events. ~ Jill Bolte Taylor,
198:Even gene variants implicated in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s may have benefits, such as improved cognitive function and better episodic and working memory in young adults. ~ Jennifer A Doudna,
199:It is tempting to explain entrepreneurial optimism by wishful thinking, but emotion is only part of the story. Cognitive biases play an important role, notably the System 1 feature WYSIATI. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
200:Studying biases can in fact make you more vulnerable to overconfidence and confirmation bias, as you come to see the influence of cognitive biases all around you—in everyone but yourself. ~ Eliezer Yudkowsky,
201:We need to protect the same amount of cognitive liberty in an age where you can invade people's thoughts without physically intruding into their homes than you did at the time of the framing. ~ Jeffrey Rosen,
202:We shall simply say then that every action involves an energetic or affective aspect and a structural or cognitive aspect, which, in fact, unites the different points of view already mentioned. ~ Jean Piaget,
203:All psychedelic explorers should be aware of the concept of what is called a cognitive hallucination. The is a much more insidious phenomenon. This is, quite simply, an out-and-out delusion. ~ Terence McKenna,
204:I understand now that the only time black people don't feel guilty is when we've actually done something wrong, because that relieves us from the cognitive dissonance of being black and innocent. ~ Paul Beatty,
205:So even if we all share the same small set of cognitive modules, we can hook actions up to modules in so many ways that we can build conflicting moral matrices on the same small set of foundations. ~ Anonymous,
206:This work led cognitive therapists such as Aaron Beck, David D. Burns, and Albert Ellis to build treatment around the idea that our thoughts shape our emotions, not the other way around. By ~ Tom Butler Bowdon,
207:If I try to flirt with her, I’ll probably get shot down. That would show what a loser I am.” This thought contains nearly all ten cognitive distortions, but it’s a classic example of Self-Blame, ~ David D Burns,
208:The question is whether distinct cognitive structures can be identified, which interact in the real use of language and linguistic judgments, the grammatical system being one of these. Certainly, ~ Noam Chomsky,
209:The reason I'm not a neurobiologist but a cognitive psychologist is that I think looking at brain tissue is often the wrong level of analysis. You have to look at a higher level of organization. ~ Steven Pinker,
210:Cognitive psychology tells us that the unaided human mind is vulnerable to many fallacies and illusions because of its reliance on its memory for vivid anecdotes rather than systematic statistics. ~ Steven Pinker,
211:great detail will help people to leave it behind. That is also a basic premise of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which today is taught in graduate psychology courses around the world. ~ Bessel A van der Kolk,
212:our cognitive abilities as adults are heavily influenced by the social environment that we experienced during childhood, making it hard to discern any influence of preexisting genetic differences. ~ Jared Diamond,
213:This result is fascinating because it shows that children as young as 10 feel the need to try to avoid appearing prejudiced, even if doing so leads them to perform poorly on a basic cognitive test, ~ Jared Taylor,
214:Emerging in the 1960s, cognitive psychology used the same rigorous scientific approach as behaviorism but returned to the question of how behavior is actually generated inside the head. Between ~ Tom Butler Bowdon,
215:Cognitive bundle,” he said, as the doors opened. She smelled Lev’s cooking from the kitchen. “It constructs essentially meaningless statements out of a given jargon, around whatever chosen topic. I ~ William Gibson,
216:So, please, walk. It makes us healthier, it enhances cognitive performance, from creativity to planning and scheduling, and it helps us to reconnect with our environment, ourselves, and those around us. ~ Anonymous,
217:The term "cognitive disorder" implies there is something wrong with the way I think or the way I perceive reality. I perceive reality just fine. Sometimes I perceive more of reality than others. ~ Francisco X Stork,
218:Every single day the world seems like it is on the brink of falling apart. But then I look outside my window, and things look about the same as they did a week ago. It's almost a form of cognitive dissonance. ~ Moby,
219:If we’re talking about brain performance, the best predictor of brain speed is aerobic capacity—how well you can run up a hill is very strongly correlated with brain speed and cognitive shifting ability, ~ Hal Elrod,
220:The more effort we put into something, the more likely we are to value it; we are more likely to be consistent with our past behaviors; and finally, we change our preferences to avoid cognitive dissonance. ~ Nir Eyal,
221:After a while, if you're committed, you start to believe in the things in which you're praying. It's just cognitive dissonance. You can't live a completely religious life and not start to have it sink in. ~ A J Jacobs,
222:I'll let you in on a little secret, Garry: everything is history. By the time you notice it, it's already happened. That famous imposter, "the present," disappears in the cognitive gap. Mind the gap! ~ Edward St Aubyn,
223:[There will be movement toward] behavioral economics... [which] involves study of those aspects of men's images, or cognitive and affective structures that are more relevant to economic decisions. ~ Kenneth E Boulding,
224:So the theory behind cognitive load is that since you can only retain a small amount of information, you have to rely on long-term memory, habits and established processes to do basically everything in life. ~ S J Scott,
225:When you are in a state of cognitive ease, you are probably in a good mood, like what you see, believe what you hear, trust your intuitions, and feel that the current situation is comfortably familiar. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
226:Cognitive and character skills work together as dynamic complements; they are inseparable. Skills beget skills. More motivated children learn more. Those who are more informed usually make wiser decisions. ~ James Heckman,
227:Might it not be the case that in a world where routine cognitive tasks are commoditized by artificial intelligence, it is the human touch that will become more valuable, the source of competitive advantage? ~ Tim O Reilly,
228:A lot of evidence shows that most of our cognitive processing is unconscious - phenomenal experience is just a very small slice or partition of a much larger space in which mental processing takes place. ~ Thomas Metzinger,
229:We shall adopt an analogous formula, with the reservation that feelings and cognitive configurations do not depend solely on the existing "field," but also on the whole previous history of the acting subject. ~ Jean Piaget,
230:If the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results, then passion is a form of mental retardation- deliberately blunting our most critical cognitive functions. ~ Ryan Holiday,
231:There was a succession of roommates, never chosen with her input and all with cognitive impairments. Some were quiet. One kept her up at night. She felt incarcerated, like she was in prison for being old. The ~ Atul Gawande,
232:To Woolf, in other words, solitude is not a pleasant diversion, but instead a form of liberation from the cognitive oppression that results in its absence.
[referencing Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own] ~ Cal Newport,
233:You can't fix a chemical imbalance with positive thinking. But the entire basis of cognitive behavioral therapy is that you can help the way your brain works. It's all about making new habits and patterns. ~ Crystal Kaswell,
234:Holding or containing has cognitive and affective components and includes a basic attitude of concern for oneself and the patient and a psychological openness to the unknown in others as well as in oneself. ~ Otto F Kernberg,
235:A distinguished cognitive neuroscientist confessed to me that, because of his religious upbringing, he could not get rid of psychoneural dualism. The idea that one ceases to be after death was too painful to him. ~ Mario Bunge,
236:Cognitive dissonance occurs when mistakes are too threatening to admit to, so they are reframed or ignored. This can be thought of as the internal fear of failure: how we struggle to admit mistakes to ourselves. ~ Matthew Syed,
237:Simple and brief interactions with nature can produce marked increases in cognitive control,” they explain in a paper for Psychological Science called “The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting with Nature. ~ Christopher McDougall,
238:A team of researchers at the University of Oregon explored the link between cognitive control and intelligence in several ways, including an attempt to raise intelligence by improving the control of attention. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
239:Louise Hawkley, of the Center for Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the University of Chicago, calculates that loneliness raises blood pressure to the point where the risk of heart attack and stroke is doubled. ~ Sue Johnson,
240:What really matters for success, character, happiness and life long achievements is a definite set of emotional skills - your EQ - not just purely cognitive abilities that are measured by conventional IQ tests. ~ Daniel Goleman,
241:Coming to understand a painting or a symphony in an unfamiliar style, to recognize the work of an artist or school, to see or hear in new ways, is as cognitive an achievement as learning to read or write or add. ~ Nelson Goodman,
242:It was beyond imagining that bad font influences judgments of truth and improves cognitive performance, or that an emotional response to the cognitive ease of a triad of words mediates impressions of coherence. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
243:Real cognitive science, however, is necessarily based on experimental investigation of actual humans or animals. We will leave that for other books, as we assume the reader has only a computer for experimentation. ~ Peter Norvig,
244:cognitive illusions are difficult to overcome. That is why education of the public is doomed to fail and paternalistic strategies to maneuver people into doing the “right” things are the only viable alternative. ~ Gerd Gigerenzer,
245:The use of behavior modification and cognitive therapy techniques that were designed to replace Christ and the Scriptures with human wisdom (Prov. 16:25) cannot produce in an angry child the fruit of the Spirit. That ~ Lou Priolo,
246:11 Jerome Bruner Acts of Meaning: Four Lectures on Mind and Culture (1990) A founder of cognitive psychology argues for a model of the mind based on the creation of meaning rather than computational processing. ~ Tom Butler Bowdon,
247:As far as I can see, even now, after years of puzzling over the field of cognitive science, there is no clear line between entities to which science attributes mind and those it regards as mindless mechanisms. ~ Barbara Ehrenreich,
248:Breast-fed babies of macrobiotic mothers may be getting lower levels of vitamin B12, calcium, and magnesium, according to some research, which may result in these babies having delayed physical and cognitive growth. ~ Chris Kresser,
249:I'm not sure if a mental relation with a woman doesn't make it impossible to love her. To know the mind of a woman is to end in hating her. Love means the pre-cognitive flow...it is the honest state before the apple. ~ D H Lawrence,
250:large incentive prizes raise the visibility of a particular challenge while helping to create a mind-set that this challenge is solvable. Considering what we know about cognitive biases, that is no small detail. ~ Peter H Diamandis,
251:Beauty adds to goodness a relation to the cognitive faculty: so that "good" means that which simply pleases the appetite; while the "beautiful" is something pleasant to apprehend. ~ Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (1265–1274),
252:Clay Shirky uses the term “cognitive surplus” to describe this process. He defines it as “the ability of the world’s population to volunteer and to contribute and collaborate on large, sometimes global, projects. ~ Peter H Diamandis,
253:You'd think people would realize they're bad at multitasking and would quit. But a cognitive illusion sets in, fueled in part by a dopamine-adrenaline feedback loop, in which multitaskers think they are doing great. ~ Daniel Levitin,
254:A more recent development in the cognitive field is “positive psychology,” which has sought to reorient the discipline away from mental problems to the study of what makes people happy, optimistic, and productive. ~ Tom Butler Bowdon,
255:Sadly, our educational system, as well as many of the methods that profess to treat trauma, tend to bypass this emotional-engagement system and focus instead on recruiting the cognitive capacities of the mind. ~ Bessel A van der Kolk,
256:Books expose children to more facts and to a broader vocabulary than virtually any other activity, and persuasive data indicate that people who read for pleasure enjoy cognitive benefits throughout their lifetime ~ Daniel T Willingham,
257:ideation, large-frame pattern recognition, and the most complex forms of communication are cognitive areas where people still seem to have the advantage, and also seem likely to hold on to it for some time to come. ~ Erik Brynjolfsson,
258:You’d think people would realize they’re bad at multitasking and would quit. But a cognitive illusion sets in, fueled in part by a dopamine-adrenaline feedback loop, in which multitaskers think they are doing great. ~ Daniel J Levitin,
259:As Beck and other cognitive therapists have emphasized, much of what constitutes a depression is centered around responding to one awful thing and overgeneralizing from it—cognitively distorting how the world works. ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
260:I think that cognitive scientists would support the view that our visual system does not directly represent what is out there in the world and that our brain constructs a lot of the imagery that we believe we are seeing. ~ Galen Rowell,
261:No two human beings are alike; it’s a question of identity. And what is identity? The cognitive system arisin’ from the aggregate memories of that individual’s past experiences. The layman’s word for this is the mind. ~ Haruki Murakami,
262:Deep Work: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate. ~ Cal Newport,
263:In short, the disabled have since antiquity been portrayed by others as pitiful, inspiring, mysterious, grotesque, or evil, but exceedingly rarely as ordinary human beings with an incidental physical or cognitive difference. ~ Anonymous,
264:Love is a cognitive, willful act. Feelings have very little to do with it, particularly around three o'clock in the morning when the baby needs changing or somebody has "lost it" before getting to the bathroom to throw up. ~ Kevin Leman,
265:Our cognitive sciences are themselves suffering from an agnosia essentially similar to Dr P.’s. Dr P. may therefore serve as a warning and parable—of what happens to a science which eschews the judgmental, the particular, ~ Oliver Sacks,
266:With every passing year we discover more evidence to support Darwin's revolutionary hypothesis that the cognitive and emotional lives of animals differ only by degree, from the fishes to the birds to the monkeys to humans. ~ Roger Fouts,
267:You will soon realize you are not so smart, and thanks to a plethora of cognitive biases, faulty heuristics, and common fallacies of thought, you are probably deluding yourself minute by minute just to cope with reality. ~ David McRaney,
268:I think that consciousness has always been the most important topic in the philosophy of mind, and one of the most important topics in cognitive science as a whole, but it had been surprisingly neglected in recent years. ~ David Chalmers,
269:Unlike cognitive load, ego depletion is at least in part a loss of motivation. After exerting self-control in one task, you do not feel like making an effort in another, although you could do it if you really had to. In ~ Daniel Kahneman,
270:In this regard, a hotly disputed topic is whether the spiritual/transpersonal stages themselves can be conceived as higher levels of cognitive development. The answer, I have suggested, depends on what you mean by “cognitive. ~ Ken Wilber,
271:Ordinary voters will not get angry at a corrupt politician if they don’t know that money is being stolen in the first place. Cognitive rigidities or beliefs may also prevent social groups from mobilizing in their own interests. ~ Anonymous,
272:[Philosophers] do not want to learn that humanity has come to be, that even the faculty of cognition has also come to be, while some of them even allow themselves to spin the whole world out of this cognitive faculty. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche,
273:What is true for the emotions may also be true for the intellect. Some of our perplexities may come from a mismatch between the purposes for which our cognitive faculties evolved and the purposes to which we put them today. ~ Steven Pinker,
274:-Appointments? You can't be serious. With all due respect, they have the cognitive capacity of chimpanzees right now.-

-And if we want to change that, we will start treating them as human beings, not a mob of apes.- ~ Neal Shusterman,
275:I wondered if there was a way to teach people how to use their imaginations in prayer and worship. So I began reading books on cognitive therapy and neuroscience and started studying the devotional traditions of the church. ~ Gregory A Boyd,
276:Apparently", he (Hirnstein) wrote, "admitting ignorance in response to a question, rather than being an indication of glibness and a low level of function, is a high-level cognitive ability, one that confabulators have lost. ~ Kathryn Schulz,
277:Deep Work: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate. Deep ~ Cal Newport,
278:The quotation commonly attributed to Nietzsche, that “there is no immaculate perception,” perfectly captures how cognitive schemas—thought structures—influence what we notice and how the things we notice get interpreted. ~ Michelle Alexander,
279:Socialization is not primarily cognitive. We are not persuaded rationally not to pee in the living room; we are required not to. We then rationalize and obey this rule even when no authority figure lurks to enforce it. ~ James W Loewen,
280:There’s nothing intrinsic about the manual trades when it comes to generating this particular source of meaning. Any pursuit—be it physical or cognitive—that supports high levels of skill can also generate a sense of sacredness. ~ Cal Newport,
281:At a conference of sociologists in America in 1977, love was defined as “the cognitive-affective state characterized by intrusive and obsessive fantasizing concerning reciprocity of amorant feelings by the object of the amorance. ~ Bill Bryson,
282:I referred to the innate human need for what psychologist Arie Kruglanski was the first to label “cognitive closure,” which he defined as “the individual’s need for a firm answer to a question and aversion to ambiguity.”[ 3] ~ Harold Schechter,
283:Society needs people who...know how to be compassionate and honest...Societ y needs all kinds of skills that are not just cognitive; they're emotional, they're affectional. You can't run the society on data and computers alone. ~ Alvin Toffler,
284:The role of social media is critical because it helps to spread cognitive dissonance by connecting thought leaders and activists to ordinary citizens rapidly expanding the network of people who become willing to take action. ~ Simon Mainwaring,
285:The tasks that we studied varied considerably in their effects on the pupil. At baseline, our subjects were awake, aware, and ready to engage in a task—probably at a higher level of arousal and cognitive readiness than usual. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
286:Collective superintelligence: A system composed of a large number of smaller intellects such that the system’s overall performance across many very general domains vastly outstrips that of any current cognitive system. Collective ~ Nick Bostrom,
287:Festinger’s great achievement was to show that cognitive dissonance is a deeply ingrained human trait. The more we have riding on our judgments, the more we are likely to manipulate any new evidence that calls them into question. ~ Matthew Syed,
288:In psychology and cognitive science, confirmation bias is a tendency to search for or interpret new information in a way that confirms one’s preconceptions and avoids information and interpretations that contradict prior beliefs. ~ Jenny Offill,
289:When it comes to exploring the mind in the framework of cognitive neuroscience, the maximal yield of data comes from integrating what a person experiences - the first person - with what the measurements show - the third person. ~ Daniel Goleman,
290:Festinger was the intellectually intense discoverer of “cognitive dissonance,” the idea that when a personal belief is challenged by new information, we tend to ignore the new information in order to reduce mental conflict. ~ Michael S Gazzaniga,
291:High-tech companies like Google or Microsoft carefully measure the cognitive abilities of prospective employees out of the same belief: they are convinced that those at the very top of the IQ scale have the greatest potential. ~ Malcolm Gladwell,
292:This isn’t about replacing human thinking with machine thinking. Rather, in the era of cognitive systems, humans and machines will collaborate to produce better results, each bringing their own superior skills to the partnership ~ Walter Isaacson,
293:What I do is create a lens through my work that corrects my readers' cognitive dissonance and says: you will see all of it - not what you want or what makes you comfortable, but all of it. And you will not erase what displeases you. ~ Chris Abani,
294:When I talk about “cyborg literacy,” I mean a set of skills and social practices that optimize the ability to use physical and cognitive technologies to augment, amplify, or extend human thinking and communication capabilities. ~ Howard Rheingold,
295:you will often find that knowing little makes it easier to fit everything you know into a coherent pattern. WYSIATI facilitates the achievement of coherence and of the cognitive ease that causes us to accept a statement as true. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
296:Cognitive therapists, like Aaron Beck of the University of Pennsylvania, even consider depression to be primarily a disorder of thought, rather than emotion, in that sufferers tend to see the world in a distorted, negative way. ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
297:Exercise is the single most powerful tool you have to optimize your brain function…exercise has a profound impact on cognitive abilities and mental health. It is simply one of the best treatments we have for most psychiatric problems. ~ John Ratey,
298:Studies have shown that games outperform textbooks in helping students learn fact-based subjects such as geography, history, physics, and anatomy, while also improving visual coordination, cognitive speed, and manual dexterity. ~ Peter H Diamandis,
299:Jacob always thought of himself as a morning person, but Marissa knew well that in the first thirty minutes of the day her husband’s cognitive abilities were quite similar to the abilities of a toddler—and not a bright toddler, at that. ~ Mike Omer,
300:When I force myself to utter the awkward phrase, "I am grateful," I actually start to feel a bit more grateful...It's basic cognitive behavioral therapy: Behave in a certain way, and your mind will eventually catch up with your actions. ~ A J Jacobs,
301:Going to one school from age five to age eighteen was like being buried in amber. It wasn't even like his walls, which were covered with layers of things - you had to be the same person from start to finish, with no big cognitive jumps. ~ Emma Straub,
302:The knowledge which is not companioned by an aspiration and vivified by an uplifting is no true knowledge, for it can be only an intellectual seeing and a barren cognitive endeavour. ~ Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, Works, Devotion and Knowledge,
303:What makes some cognitive operations more demanding and effortful than others? What outcomes must we purchase in the currency of attention? What can System 2 do that System 1 cannot? We now have tentative answers to these questions. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
304:These brain regions are used every day for basic cognitive tasks, whether it’s abstract thinking, the ability to change one’s behavior in relation to changing demands in the environment, or the inhibition of inappropriate responses. ~ Frances E Jensen,
305:Given cognitive vulnerabilities, it would be convenient to have an arrangement whereby reality could tell us off; and that is precisely what science is. Scientific methodology is the arrangement that allows reality to answer us back. ~ Rebecca Goldstein,
306:Cognitive therapy’s revolutionary idea is that depression is not an emotional disorder. The bad feelings we have in depression all stem from negative thoughts, therefore treatment must be about challenging and changing those thoughts. ~ Tom Butler Bowdon,
307:Even a true story is a fiction, Paul knew. It is the comforting tool we use to organize the chaotic world around us into something comprehensible. It is the cognitive machine that separates the wheat of emotion from the chaff of sensation. ~ Graham Moore,
308:if the subject dedicates enough time to such endeavors to reach maximum cognitive intensity—the state in which real breakthroughs occur. This is why the minimum unit of time for deep work in this philosophy tends to be at least one full day. ~ Cal Newport,
309:Neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran’s work with phantom limbs seems to confirm the brain’s remarkable ability to create a sense of cognitive unity even if the reality (of many selves, and of many layers of consciousness) is more complex. ~ Tom Butler Bowdon,
310:As I had discovered from watching cadets on the obstacle field, subjective confidence of traders is a feeling, not a judgment. Our understanding of cognitive ease and associative coherence locates subjective confidence firmly in System 1. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
311:children were no longer receiving enough cognitive stimulation in the first three years of life, in part because of the increasing number of single-parent families and working mothers—and so they were arriving in kindergarten unready to learn. ~ Paul Tough,
312:Sophisticated meditative disciplines, healing practices, cognitive and emotional trainings, conflict resolution techniques—he used them all to awaken his visitors to their own qualities of integrity, equanimity, gratitude, and forgiveness. ~ Jack Kornfield,
313:I had to make it up as I went along, bringing together different findings from psychology, cognitive science, sociology, economics, political science, and performance theory in order to try to figure out exactly what makes a good game work. ~ Jane McGonigal,
314:Just about every mental test possible was tried. No matter how it was measured, the answer was consistently yes: A lifetime of exercise results in a sometimes astonishing elevation in cognitive performance, compared with those who are sedentary. ~ John Medina,
315:Reading is both a cognitive and an emotional journey. I discovered that it was my job as a teacher to equip the travelers, teach them how to read a map, and show them what to do when they get lost, but ultimately, the journey is theirs alone. ~ Donalyn Miller,
316:It was beyond imagining that bad font influences judgments of truth and improves cognitive performance, or that an emotional response to the cognitive ease of a triad of words mediates impressions of coherence. Psychology has come a long way. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
317:To find something in the brain is not to discover that a cognitive ability is innately specified to be located exclusively in that portion of the brain. The MIT-led research is by no means alone in showing how impressive brain plasticity is. ~ Daniel L Everett,
318:What is more accurate is that unconscious gating defaults act in concert with environmental and cognitive demands and the needs of the cerebral cortex and thus are continually in flux depending on circumstances and environmental inputs. ~ Stephen Harrod Buhner,
319:You could paper the globe with evidence that there are demonstrable cognitive and physical disparities between what are crudely called human "races." But you could fit all the evidence of innate equality on your pinkie fingernail with room to spare. ~ Jim Goad,
320:Good design is a renaissance attitude that combines technology, cognitive science, human need, and beauty to produce something that the world didn’t know it was missing.” —PAOLA ANTONELLI, curator of architecture and design, Museum of Modern Art ~ Daniel H Pink,
321:As adults, these kids are mostly what you’d expect. Low IQ and poor cognitive skills. Problems with forming attachments, often bordering on autistic. Anxiety and depression galore. The longer the institutionalization, the worse the prognosis. ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
322:if we could tax Americans' cognitive dissonance we could balance the budget. The American people want all kinds of incompatible things, they're human beings, and they want high services, low taxes, and an omnipresent, omniprominent welfare state. ~ George F Will,
323:Research in contemporary exposure treatment, a staple of cognitive behavioral therapy, has similarly disappointing results: The majority of patients treated with that method continue to have serious PTSD symptoms three months after the end ~ Bessel A van der Kolk,
324:Being poor, for example, reduces a person’s cognitive capacity more than going one full night without sleep. It is not that the poor have less bandwidth as individuals. Rather, it is that the experience of poverty reduces anyone’s bandwidth. ~ Sendhil Mullainathan,
325:The existential attitude is one of involvement in contrast to a merely theoretical or detached attitude. "Existential" in this sense can be defined as participating in a situation, especially a cognitive situation, with the whole of one's existence. ~ Paul Tillich,
326:As applied to substance abuse, the cognitive approach helps individuals
to come to grips with the problems leading to emotional distress
and to gain a broader perspective on their reliance on drugs for
pleasure and/or relief from discomfort. ~ Aaron T Beck,
327:Many research studies, as well as my own clinical experience, have confirmed that severely depressed patients who appear very "biologically" depressed with lots of physical symptoms often respond rapidly to cognitive therapy alone without any drugs.5 ~ David D Burns,
328:Some children naturally have more cognitive control than others, and in all kids this essential skill is being compromised by the usual suspects: smartphones, TV, etc. But there are many ways that adults can help kids learn better cognitive control. ~ Daniel Goleman,
329:To help people achieve the three basic REBT philosophies of unconditional self-acceptance, unconditional other-acceptance, and unconditional life-acceptance, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral methods, which are described in this monograph, are used. ~ Albert Ellis,
330:However, a good life consists of more than simply the totality of enjoyable experiences. It must also have a meaningful pattern, a trajectory of growth that results in the development of increasing emotional, cognitive, and social complexity. ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,
331:I understand now that the only time black people don't feel guilty is when we've actually done something wrong, because that relieves us of the cognitive dissonance of being black and innocent, and in a way the prospect of going to jail becomes a relief. ~ Paul Beatty,
332:Ideas are so much flat psychological surface unless some mirrored matter gives them cognitive lustre. This is why as a pragmatistI have so carefully posited 'reality' ab initio, and why throughout my whole discussion, I remain an epistemologist realist. ~ William James,
333:In fact, people who are extremely adept at mental tasks that demand cognitive control and a roaring working memory—like solving complex math problems—can struggle with creative insights if they have trouble switching off their fully concentrated focus.5 ~ Daniel Goleman,
334:The world doesn't usually affect us directly. It's what we do with it. It's the filters that we put on it. That's the foundation of certainly most pop-psychology, and of a lot of psychotherapy, cognitive therapy. So that, I think, is the greatest truth. ~ Jonathan Haidt,
335:though a significant number of us wish to cling to our comfortable little myths about how good things are, we sometimes cannot deal with the cognitive dissonance before us, and we’re forced to acknowledge the exploitative dynamics behind our economic order. ~ Bob Torres,
336:To every object there correspond an ideally closed system of truths that are true of it and, on the other hand, an ideal system of possible cognitive processes by virtue of which the object and the truths about it would be given to any cognitive subject. ~ Edmund Husserl,
337:Viewed as a whole, the relevant research by cognitive and social psychologists to date suggests that racial bias in the drug war was inevitable, once a public consensus was constructed by political and media elites that drug crime is black and brown. ~ Michelle Alexander,
338:Actually, I think my view is compatible with much of the work going on now in neuroscience and psychology, where people are studying the relationship of consciousness to neural and cognitive processes without really trying to reduce it to those processes. ~ David Chalmers,
339:A lifetime of exercise results in a sometimes astonishing elevation in cognitive performance, compared with those who are sedentary. Exercisers outperform couch potatoes in tests that measure long-term memory, reasoning, attention, and problem-solving skill. ~ John Medina,
340:Cognitive consonance is what writing in the Age of the idiot is all about. The key to success in the scribbling profession is to strike the right balance of mediocrity in writing and thinking, which invariably entails echoing one of two party lines, poorly. ~ Ilana Mercer,
341:America has long raised political and cultural cognitive dissonance to an art form. We are capable of living with enormous inequality and injustice while convincing ourselves that we are in fact moving toward what Churchill called the "broad, sun-lit uplands." ~ Jon Meacham,
342:sense. A good mood is a signal that things are generally going well, the environment is safe, and it is all right to let one’s guard down. A bad mood indicates that things are not going very well, there may be a threat, and vigilance is required. Cognitive ~ Daniel Kahneman,
343:Acceptance and commitment therapy, a variant on cognitive therapy, attempts to teach people to accept rather than change their emotions and make decisions within the context of what they value, as opposed to letting negative feelings control their behavior. ~ Joseph E LeDoux,
344:There's been some research in cognitive science, I'm told, that discloses that there have always been perhaps 10 to 15 percent of people who are, as Pascal puts it, so made that they cannot believe. To us, when people talk about faith, it's white noise. ~ Christopher Hitchens,
345:I agree with your remark about loving your enemy as far as actions are concerned. But for me the cognitive basis is the trust in an unrestricted causality. 'I cannot hate him, because he must do what he does.' That means for me more Spinoza than the prophets. ~ Albert Einstein,
346:The psychologist Mark Schaller has shown that disgust is part of what he calls the “behavioral immune system”—a set of cognitive modules that are triggered by signs of infection or disease in other people and that make you want to get away from those people.40 ~ Jonathan Haidt,
347:As far as anyone could tell, Portia had learned to partition its cognitive processes: almost as if it were emulating a larger brain piece by piece, saving the results of one module to feed into the next. Slices of intellect, built and demolished one after another. ~ Peter Watts,
348:Some kind of personal crisis (the loss of a job, the experience of racism, moral outrage caused by the way Muslims were being treated in international conflicts, or the death of a close family member) provided a “cognitive opening” for a turn to Salafi beliefs, ~ Peter L Bergen,
349:Ten or fifteen years later, a large gap had opened between those who had resisted temptation and those who had not. The resisters had higher measures of executive control in cognitive tasks, and especially the ability to reallocate their attention effectively. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
350:The important thing is that consciousness as the acting center precedes consciousness as the cognitive center, in the same way as ritual precedes myth, or magic ceremonial and ethical action precede the scientific view of the world and anthropological knowledge. ~ Erich Neumann,
351:The sign of a truly totalitarian culture is that important truths simply lack cognitive meaning and are interpretable only at the level of ‘Fuck You’, so they can then elicit a perfectly predictable torrent of abuse in response. We’ve long ago reached that level. ~ Noam Chomsky,
352:Neuroplasticity is now thought to include emotional/motivational as well as cognitive circuits. This would mean that a child’s habits of motivation and attitudes toward learning don’t all come with the package, but are physically formed in the brain by experience. ~ Jane M Healy,
353:And this is arguably an adaptive cognitive strategy. A creature that encodes the world using more or less veridical mental models has an enormous advantage in problem-solving flexibility over a creature that encodes purely in terms of presently foreseeable activities. ~ Anonymous,
354:Cognitive psychology has shown that the mind best understands facts when they are woven into a conceptual fabric, such as a narrative, mental map, or intuitive theory. Disconnected facts in the mind are like unlinked pages on the Web: They might as well not exist. ~ Steven Pinker,
355:Feeling is a kinesthetic rather than a cognitive experience. It is the process of shifting the focus of your awareness off of thinking and onto your affects, energetic states and sensations. It is the proverbial “getting out of your head” and “getting into your body. ~ Pete Walker,
356:The list of indications of depletion is also highly diverse: deviating from one’s diet overspending on impulsive purchases reacting aggressively to provocation persisting less time in a handgrip task performing poorly in cognitive tasks and logical decision making ~ Daniel Kahneman,
357:When we make the selection of our final six, I would like to authorize further cognitive augmentation,92 and a couple other things that the JSOC93 meat department is now using with the One Hundred Sixtieth helo drivers94 and the Persistent Operations Group,” said Best. ~ P W Singer,
358:Around two years of age, your child starts to develop a fascination with saying the word “no.” Early childhood experts call this the threshold between the sensorimotor stage and the preoperational stage of cognitive development. The rest of us call it “the terrible twos. ~ Anonymous,
359:There are lots of wonderful cognitive adaptations out there that we don’t have or need. This is why ranking cognition on a single dimension is a pointless exercise. Cognitive evolution is marked by many peaks of specialization. The ecology of each species is key. The ~ Frans de Waal,
360:New research into cognitive functioning—how the brain works—proves that bullet points are the least effective way to deliver important information. Neuroscientists are finding that what passes as a typical presentation is usually the worst way to engage your audience. ~ Carmine Gallo,
361:Our contention is not that medication alone is the answer. We really need to have it in conjunction with cognitive behavioral therapy and with peer support. And that needs to be reimbursed [by health insurers], because it shows huge reductions in overall spending. ~ Patrick J Kennedy,
362:people are first depleted by a task in which they eat virtuous foods such as radishes and celery while resisting the temptation to indulge in chocolate and rich cookies. Later, these people will give up earlier than normal when faced with a difficult cognitive task. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
363:at a seminal yet still little known moment in history, Homo sapiens developed the full battery of cognitive skills that we ourselves possess. After a surprisingly short time, perhaps a mere five thousand years, their descendants moved northward into Eurasia and Europe. ~ Brian M Fagan,
364:It is not quite right to describe One Taste as a "consciousness" or an "awareness," because that's a little too heady, too cognitive. It's more like the simple Feeling of Being. You already feel this simple Feeling of Being: it is the simple, present feeling of existence. ~ Ken Wilber,
365:People try to apply directly results from the cognitive neurosciences directly to classroom practice and I have to tell you I am very skeptical about the exercise. We don't know very much about how the brain works - we don't even know how you remember to write your name. ~ John Medina,
366:Both chronic and acute anxiety impair some of our most important cognitive functions in part by interfering with activity in the prefrontal cortex (among other areas), which plays an essential role in aligning our actions and thoughts with our internal goals and feelings.11 ~ Amy Cuddy,
367:Subjected to enough uncontrollable stress, we learn to be helpless—we lack the motivation to try to live because we assume the worst; we lack the cognitive clarity to perceive when things are actually going fine, and we feel an aching lack of pleasure in everything. ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
368:Most learning is not the result of instruction. It is rather the result of unhampered participation in a meaningful setting. Most people learn best by being "with it," yet school makes them identify their personal, cognitive growth with elaborate planning and manipulation. ~ Ivan Illich,
369:Primitive agonies exist in many of us. Originating in painful experiences that occurred before we had the cognitive capacities to know what was happening, they tend to blindside us, traumatizing us again and again as we find ourselves enacting a pain we do not understand. ~ Mark Epstein,
370:Design is not style. It’s not about giving shape to the shell and not giving a damn about the guts. Good design is a renaissance attitude that combines technology, cognitive science, human need, and beauty to produce something that the world didn’t know it was missing. ~ Virginia Postrel,
371:a mind capable of forming an argument against God’s existence constitutes evidence for his existence. That is, a conscious being with the ability to reason, weigh evidence, and argue logically must come from a source that has at least the same level of cognitive ability. ~ Nancy R Pearcey,
372:Economists who have studied the relationship between education and economic growth confirm what common sense suggests: The number of college degrees is not nearly as important as how well students develop cognitive skills, such as critical thinking and problem-solving ability. ~ Derek Bok,
373:We don’t normally think of it as such, but writing is a technology, which means that a literate person is someone whose thought processes are technologically mediated. We became cognitive cyborgs as soon as we became fluent readers, and the consequences of that were profound. ~ Ted Chiang,
374:Developing the cognitive control that leads to a more contemplative Christian life is the key to living as free men and women in post-Christian America. The man whose desires are under the control of his reason is free. The man who does whatever occurs to him is a slave. Untold ~ Rod Dreher,
375:One of the significant discoveries of cognitive psychologists in recent decades is that switching from one task to another is effortful, especially under time pressure. The need for rapid switching is one of the reasons that Add-3 and mental multiplication are so difficult. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
376:A willingness to engage in the give and take of argument displays a commitment to cognitive egalitarianism - the proposition that all people should be treated as intellectual equals, and that no individual can legitimately claim a privileged immunity from the burden of proof. ~ George H Smith,
377:If you wish to experience your System 2 working at full tilt, the following exercise will do; it should bring you to the limits of your cognitive abilities within 5 seconds. To start, make up several strings of 4 digits, all different, and write each string on an index card. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
378:technologies (reflecting new and more complex behaviors) do not tend to be associated with the appearance of new kinds of hominid. It was old kinds of hominid that started to do new things, even though those new things always seem to indicate a step up in cognitive complexity. ~ Ian Tattersall,
379:Though we have been stuffing them into classrooms and cubicles for decades, our brains actually were built to survive in jungles and grasslands. A lifetime of exercise can result in a sometimes astonishing elevation in cognitive performance, compared with those who are sedentary. ~ John Medina,
380:We are now at a point in time when the ability to receive, utilize, store, transform and transmit data - the lowest cognitive form - has expanded literally beyond comprehension. Understanding and wisdom are largely forgotten as we struggle under an avalanche of data and information. ~ Dee Hock,
381:As for cognitive empathy there is, it appears, no shortage of people in the world who can unwittingly offend, misunderstand and steamroller over the delicate signals of others, all while maintaining the self-perception that they are unsurpassedly sensitive to subtle social cues. ~ Cordelia Fine,
382:Clayton and Birren’s (1980) definition of wisdom, viewed as an integration of cognitive, reflective, and affective characteristics. Ardelt (2003) adopted Clayton and Birren’s (1980) definition of wisdom in creating the Three-Dimensional Wisdom Scale (3D-WS). The three integrated and ~ Anonymous,
383:Needless to say, that meant that the Braekbills student body was quite the psychological menagerie. Carrying that much onboard cognitive processing power had a way of distorting your personality. And to actually want to work that hard, you had to be at least a little bit screwed up. ~ Lev Grossman,
384:Children born to teens have less supportive and stimulating environments, poorer health, lower cognitive development, and worse educational outcomes. Children of teen mothers are at increased risk of being in foster care and becoming teen parents themselves, thereby repeating the cycle. ~ Jane Fonda,
385:If you have a comprehensive explanation for everything then it decreases uncertainty and anxiety and reduces your cognitive load. And if you can use that simplifying algorithm to put yourself on the side of moral virtue then you’re constantly a good person with a minimum of effort. ~ Jordan Peterson,
386:Language builds on our cognitive capacities to reason about the goals and intentions of other people, on our desire to imitate, our desire to communicate, and our twin capacities for using convention to name things and sequence to indicate differences between differing possibilities. ~ Gary F Marcus,
387:Frankly, I see a lot of little girls dressed in ways I think are not very appropriate. It's too much too soon, and it causes a lot of cognitive dissonance about who they are - are they an 8-year-old, or are they a miniature fill-in-the-blank-celebrity? Parents have to draw the line. ~ Hillary Clinton,
388:I think, in fact, that the connections between philosophy and cognitive science haven't gone far enough, metaphysicians should be working closely with cognitive scientists when they try to understand the sources of our experience of parts of the world such as its causal and temporal parts. ~ L A Paul,
389:Other firms are working on marketing applications of machine learning that increase customer engagement. Macy’s, for example, is working with both IBM’s Watson and Cognitive Scale, an Austin-based AI vendor, to improve personalization and engagement on its website and mobile app. ~ Thomas H Davenport,
390:Cognitive psychologists define habits as, “automatic behaviors triggered by situational cues:” things we do with little or no conscious thought.[5] The products and services we use habitually alter our everyday behavior, just as their designers intended.[6] Our actions have been engineered. ~ Nir Eyal,
391:If you have a comprehensive explanation for everything then it decreases uncertainty and anxiety and reduces your cognitive load. And if you can use that simplifying algorithm to put yourself on the side of moral virtue then you’re constantly a good person with a minimum of effort. ~ Jordan B Peterson,
392:If you want to write, here's a secret: the writer's struggle is overrated, a con game, a cognitive distortion, a self-fulfilling prophecy, the best excuse for not writing. "Why should I get writer's block?" asked the mischievous Roger Simon. "My father never got truck driver's block. ~ Roy Peter Clark,
393:What do we mean by "knowledge" or "understanding"? And how do billions of neurons achieve them? These are complete mysteries. Admittedly, cognitive neuroscientists are still very vague about the exact meaning of words like "understand," "think," and indeed the word "meaning" itself. ~ V S Ramachandran,
394:The goal of our interview process is to predict how candidates will perform once they join the team. We achieve that goal by doing what the science says: combining behavioral and situational structured interviews with assessments of cognitive ability, conscientiousness, and leadership.xxvi ~ Laszlo Bock,
395:Software experts are—of necessity—comfortable with high-cognitive-friction interaction. They pride themselves on their ability to work in spite of its adversity. Normal humans, who are the new users of these products, lack the expertise to judge whether this cognitive friction is avoidable. ~ Alan Cooper,
396:Emotional intelligence skills are synergistic with cognitive ones; top performers have both. The more complex the job, the more emotional intelligence matters—if only because a deficiency in these abilities can hinder the use of whatever technical expertise or intellect a person may have. ~ Daniel Goleman,
397:Empty heads, cognitive science has taught us, learn nothing. The powerful cultural and personal flexibility of our species is owed at least in part to our starting off so well-informed; we are good learners because we know what to pay attention to and what questions are the right ones to ask. ~ Paul Bloom,
398:I spent 20 years doing research on regular and irregular verbs, not because I'm an obsessive language lover but because it seemed to me that they tapped into a fundamental distinction in language processing, indeed in cognitive processing, between memory lookup and rule-driven computation. ~ Steven Pinker,
399:Oh, just some crap about the essential paradox of man: How we refuse to juxtapose the absolute to the relative, and some other some-such about paradox as an ontological definition which expresses the relation between an existing cognitive spirit and eternal truth—You know, bullshit. ~ Stephen Adly Guirgis,
400:Recent research shows that many children without enough to eat wind up with diminished capacity to understand and learn (“cognitive impairment” ). Children don't have to be starving for this to happen. Even mild undernourishment — the kind most common among poor people in America — can do it. ~ Carl Sagan,
401:In another experiment, people are first depleted by a task in which they eat virtuous foods such as radishes and celery while resisting the temptation to indulge in chocolate and rich cookies. Later, these people will give up earlier than normal when faced with a difficult cognitive task. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
402:The coming together of the Communications Internet, the Energy Internet, and the Logistics Internet in an Internet of Things provides the cognitive nervous system and physical means to integrate all of humanity in an interconnected global Commons that extends across the entirety of society. ~ Jeremy Rifkin,
403:What's popularly known as the evolution of consciousness, in other words that the expansion of cognitive repertoire that occurs in human beings, which has always been a great puzzle to evolutionary theory, I believe, occurred in the presence of a kind of catalyst for the human imagination. ~ Terence McKenna,
404:Between the stimulation received from the environment and our response, certain processes had to occur inside the brain, and cognitive researchers revealed the human mind to be a great interpreting machine that made patterns and created sense of the world outside, forming maps of reality. ~ Tom Butler Bowdon,
405:starting with the Renaissance and running through the Enlightenment, there occurred what we might call “the great reversal.” Suddenly, very suddenly, the Ascenders were out, the Descenders were in—and the transition was bloody, arguably the bloodiest cognitive transformation in European history. ~ Ken Wilber,
406:We cannot sanction the view that the Constitution, while solicitous of the cognitive content of individual speech, has little or no regard for that emotive function which, practically speaking, may often be the more important element of the overall message sought to be communicated. ~ John Marshall Harlan II,
407:This work led cognitive therapists such as Aaron Beck, David D. Burns, and Albert Ellis to build treatment around the idea that our thoughts shape our emotions, not the other way around. By changing our thinking, we can alleviate depression or simply have greater control over our behavior. ~ Tom Butler Bowdon,
408:What do we mean by "knowledge" or "understanding"? And how do billions of neurons achieve them? These are complete mysteries. Admittedly, cognitive neuroscientists are still very vague about the exact meaning of words like "understand," "think," and indeed the word "meaning" itself. ~ Vilayanur S Ramachandran,
409:The bat-and-ball problem is our first encounter with an observation that will be a recurrent theme of this book: many people are overconfident, prone to place too much faith in their intuitions. They apparently find cognitive effort at least mildly unpleasant and avoid it as much as possible. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
410:Unlike the first two Critiques, which ground the doctrinal metaphysical systems of natural science and morals, the Critique of Judgment has no specific metaphysical application. It deals with the harmony of the cognitive faculties and examines the conditions for the systematization of all knowledge. ~ Anonymous,
411:I believe that both art and the human striving for cognitive comprehension are manifest forms of the grand game in which nothing more is stipulated than the game's rules; both art and actively solicited perceptions are but special cases of the recurring creative act to which we owe our existence. ~ Konrad Lorenz,
412:It was left to San’dwil to sum up the totality of the attempt. “So you can make the bodies live but cannot bring back consciousness.” Wol’daeen gestured affirmatively. “It is most exasperating. The resurrected forms have all the appearance of life but none of the necessary cognitive functions. ~ Alan Dean Foster,
413:Organisms do not passively receive information from their environments, which they then translate into internal representations. Natural cognitive systems...participate in the generation of meaning ...engaging in transformational and not merely informational interactions: they enact a world. ~ Francisco J Varela,
414:Realistic. Dispassionate. Overall he figured there was a good chance of success. Either Karel would let it go, or he wouldn’t, multiplied by either he was close by, or he wasn’t. Two coin tosses in a row. Disaster priced at four to one, success at four to three. Numbers didn’t lie. No cognitive bias. ~ Lee Child,
415:Sperry's thinking about subjective experience, consciousness, the mind, and human values makes a powerful plea for a new scientific examination of ethics in the workings of consciousness. These ideas were crystallized in his paper "The Impact and Promise of the Cognitive Revolution" (1993). ~ Roger Wolcott Sperry,
416:it’s clear now that there are three cognitive features at the heart of prospect theory. They play an essential role in the evaluation of financial outcomes and are common to many automatic processes of perception, judgment, and emotion. They should be seen as operating characteristics of System 1. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
417:Reading develops cognitive skills. It trains our minds to think critically and to question what you are told. This is why dictators censor or ban books. It's why it was illegal to teach slaves to read. It's why girls in developing countries have acid thrown in their faces when they walk to school. ~ Karin Slaughter,
418:Social cognitive theory rejects the dichotomous conception of self as agent and self as object. Acting on the environment and acting on oneself entail shifting the perspective of the same agent rather than reifying different selves regulating each other or transforming the self from agent to object ~ Albert Bandura,
419:The theory of cognitive dissonance is the only way to get a handle on the otherwise bewildering reaction of prosecutors and police (and, indeed, the wider system) to exonerating DNA evidence. “It is almost like a state of denial,” Scheck says. “They just couldn’t see the new evidence for what it was. ~ Matthew Syed,
420:We do not compete in our careers with people who lack the requisite intelligence to enter and stay in our field—but rather against the much smaller group of those who have managed to jump the hurdles of schooling, entry exams, and other cognitive challenges to get into the field in the first place. ~ Daniel Goleman,
421:We need to be more communal in an age that’s overly individualistic; we need to be more morally minded in an age that’s overly utilitarian; we need to be more spiritually literate in an age that’s overly materialistic; and we need to be more emotionally intelligent in an age that is overly cognitive. ~ David Brooks,
422:One of the series I like is D.M. Cornish's 'Monster Blood Tattoo,' in which he creates a whole language. Kids who are reading that are building a language in their heads. There's no real cognitive difference. I think kids are excited by language, and they're not always given credit for that. ~ Matthew Tobin Anderson,
423:Researchers have applied diverse methods to examine the connection between thinking and self-control. Some have addressed it by asking the correlation question: If people were ranked by their self-control and by their cognitive aptitude, would individuals have similar positions in the two rankings? ~ Daniel Kahneman,
424:Tisn’t a burial ground for collected dead memories. An ‘elephant factory’ is more like it. There is were you sort through countless memories and bits of knowledge, arrange the sorted chips into complex lines, combine these lines into even more complex bundles, and finally make up a cognitive system ~ Haruki Murakami,
425:Why is it important to forget?
Forgetting plays a vital role in our ability to function for a deceptively simple reason. Forgetting allows us to prioritise. Anything irrelevant to our survival will take up wasteful cognitive space if we assign it the same priority as events critical to our survival. ~ John Medina,
426:Clay Shirky uses the term “cognitive surplus” to describe this process. He defines it as “the ability of the world’s population to volunteer and to contribute and collaborate on large, sometimes global, projects.” “Wikipedia took one hundred million hours of volunteer time to create,” says Shirky. ~ Peter H Diamandis,
427:Dualism is what happens when cognitive dissonance becomes unbearable, when the world as it is, is simply too unlike the world as we believed it ought to be. In the words of historian Jeffrey Russell, dualism ‘denied the unity and omnipotence of God in order to preserve his perfect goodness’.3 The God ~ Jonathan Sacks,
428:Excess consumption of sugar, starch, and cereal-based carbohydrates is easily the most destructive dietary tendency today. It is a rampant problem, leading to heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer, and many other degenerative disorders as well as numerous mental health and cognitive problems. As ~ Nora T Gedgaudas,
429:When it comes to the mental world, when we design things like health care and retirement and stock markets, we somehow forget the idea that we are limited. I think that if we understood our cognitive limitations in the same way that we understand our physical limitations … we could design a better world. ~ Dan Ariely,
430:Did you ever hear of cognitive dissonance?” she asked. “No.” “Basically, it’s a theory that people subconsciously reinterpret their motives and actions in a way that makes them feel better about themselves afterward. And then they start to believe that the basis of the reinterpretation is also true. ~ Barbara A Shapiro,
431:In the post-Fordist transition, the relation between work-time and value is jeopardized, as immaterial production and cognitive work are difficult to properly gauge. But the random effect is not limited to the sphere of the economy, as it spreads both to the sphere of social relations and to that of ethics. ~ Anonymous,
432:I think a lot of voters have certain cognitive dissidence. Donald Trump is getting social conservatives, economic conservatives, some Libertarian, some supply side conservatives, debt hawks. The conservative and Republican base is not monolithic. It has subsets that he seems to be appealing to all of them. ~ Roger Stone,
433:It’s been said that the average person’s short-term memory can only retain seven chunks of information. So the theory behind cognitive load is that since you can only retain a small amount of information, you have to rely on long-term memory, habits and established processes to do basically everything in life. ~ S J Scott,
434:People think that design is styling. Design is not style. It's not about giving shape to the shell and not giving a damn about the guts. Good design is a renaissance attitude that combines technology, cognitive science, human need and beauty to produce something that the world didn't know it was missing. ~ Paola Antonelli,
435:Memorizing and repeating digits loosens the hold of System 2 on behavior, but of course cognitive load is not the only cause of weakened self-control. A few drinks have the same effect, as does a sleepless night. The self-control of morning people is impaired at night; the reverse is true of night people. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
436:Professor Adam Galinsky, an American social psychologist who has studied the connection between creativity and international travel, says that ‘Foreign experiences increase both cognitive flexibility and depth and integrativeness of thought, the ability to make deep connections between disparate forms.’1 ~ Maggie O Farrell,
437:These systems,” said Armour, referring to human brains, “are the product of evolution, optimized by evolution for a world which no longer exists; it is not surprising then that, however capable our cognitive apparatus is, it too often fails when challenged by tasks completely alien to its biological roots. ~ Annie Jacobsen,
438:Murray in the face of growing controversy over his 1994 book, The Bell Curve, which correlated race and low IQ scores to argue that blacks were less likely than whites to join the “cognitive elite,” and was loudly and convincingly discredited. The Manhattan Institute fired Murray over the controversial project. ~ Jane Mayer,
439:Two thousand years of inherited philosophy tugs on our ankles, our cognitive inertial mass being our evolutionarily endowed perceptual systems with their attendant higher-level cognitive structure of physical objects, animals, and plants from which the philosophical system of Aristotle was originally abstracted. ~ Anonymous,
440:increasing cognitive loadfn8 should make people more conservative. This is precisely the case. The time pressure of snap judgments is a version of increased cognitive load. Likewise, people become more conservative when tired, in pain or distracted with a cognitive task, or when blood alcohol levels rise. ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
441:Burns lists ten “cognitive distortions,” such as all-or-nothing thinking, overgeneralization, disqualifying the positive, jumping to conclusions, and giving ourselves labels. By understanding these distortions, we are led to the awareness that “feelings aren’t facts,” they are only mirrors of our thoughts. ~ Tom Butler Bowdon,
442:In cognitive behavioral therapy we call this defusion. Becoming aware of this difference de-fuses—creates a distance between—the part of you that is hyperreactive to threat and the rational part of you that can notice your thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations, and learn to override them when necessary. ~ Jennifer Shannon,
443:Since the striosomes receive projections primarily from the emotional centers of the limbic system and the matrisomes receive projections from the higher cognitive centers of the prefrontal cortex, together they provide the perfect mechanism of integrating the messages of the heart with those of the mind. ~ Jeffrey M Schwartz,
444:checklists seem able to defend anyone, even the experienced, against failure in many more tasks than we realized. They provide a kind of cognitive net. They catch mental flaws inherent in all of us—flaws of memory and attention and thoroughness. And because they do, they raise wide, unexpected possibilities. But ~ Atul Gawande,
445:It's not that we start with beliefs and doctrine and then come up with worship practices that properly "express" these (cognitive) beliefs; rather, we begin with worship, and articulated beliefs bubble up from there. "Doctrines" are the cognitive, theoretical articulation of what we "understand" when we pray. ~ James K A Smith,
446:A good mood is a signal that things are generally going well, the environment is safe, and it is all right to let one’s guard down. A bad mood indicates that things are not going very well, there may be a threat, and vigilance is required. Cognitive ease is both a cause and a consequence of a pleasant feeling. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
447:Control over consciousness is not simply a cognitive skill. At least as much as intelligence, it requires the commitment of emotions and will. It is not enough to know how to do it; one must do it, consistently, in the same way as athletes or musicians who must keep practicing what they know in theory. ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,
448:Earlier I traced people’s confidence in a belief to two related impressions: cognitive ease and coherence. We are confident when the story we tell ourselves comes easily to mind, with no contradiction and no competing scenario. But ease and coherence do not guarantee that a belief held with confidence is true. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
449:Cognitive skills such as big-picture thinking and long-term vision were particularly important. But when I calculated the ratio of technical skills, IQ, and emotional intelligence as ingredients of excellent performance, emotional intelligence proved to be twice as important as the others for jobs at all levels. ~ Daniel Goleman,
450:[D]umb evolutionary processes have dramatically amplified the intelligence in the human lineage even compared with our close relatives the great apes and our own humanoid ancestors; and there is no reason to suppose Homo sapiens to have reached the apex of cognitive effectiveness attainable in a biological system. ~ Nick Bostrom,
451:Indeed, as a mechanism for finding knowledge, weak-link networks occupy a cognitive role usefully different from, say, search engines. While Google is useful at quickly answering a specific factual question, networks of people are better at fuzzy, “any-idea-how-to-deal-with-this?” dilemmas that occupy everyday life. ~ Clive Thompson,
452:Fear is the vigilance and the need to escape from something real. Anxiety is about dread and foreboding and your imagination running away with you. Much as with depression, anxiety is rooted in a cognitive distortion. In this case, people prone toward anxiety overestimate risks and the likelihood of a bad outcome. ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
453:We were told that a strong attraction to a patient with a repeated history of failed treatment is a danger sign—like the fins on the parallel lines. It is an illusion—a cognitive illusion—and I (System 2) was taught how to recognize it and advised not to believe it or act on it. The question that is most often asked ~ Daniel Kahneman,
454:I'm doing a lot of cognitive processing. I'm gathering research. I'm processing it. I'm arranging the data. I'm sorting out the narrative. I'm designing. It's almost as if I do all the cognitive work that you then don't have to do. I digest it, process it, and then offer something that's very easy for you to digest. ~ David Mccandless,
455:In general, I'm in support of promoting art and science in public schools. I think music and science are probably the most important factors for the human brain developing. Even more so than any other fields, because music covers mathematics, cognitive reasoning, motor skills, coordination, like, it's kind of everything. ~ Reggie Watts,
456:Still,[...] in all forms of comics the sequential artist relies upon the tacit cooperation of the reader. This cooperation is based upon the convention of reading and the common cognitive disciplines. Indeed, it is this very voluntary cooperation, so unique to comics, that underlies the contract between artist and audience. ~ Will Eisner,
457:If she learned anything in school she learned this, courtesy of Albert Ellis, father of the cognitive-behavioral paradigm shift in psychotherapy. Other people are not here to fulfil our needs or meet our expectations, nor will they always treat us well. Failure to accept this will general feelings of anger and resentment. ~ A S A Harrison,
458:Not only are we subject to cognitive biases, we also frequently seek out things that reinforce them. We interpret facts through the prism of our beliefs; we read the newspapers and seek the company of people who will confirm us in those beliefs; and thus we stick obstinately to these beliefs, whether or not they are correct. ~ Jean Tirole,
459:Philosophy is any culture’s pole of maximum abstraction, or intrinsically experimental intelligence, expressing the liberation of cognitive capabilities from immediate practical application, and their testing against ‘ultimate’ problems at the horizon of understanding. ~ Nick Land, "What is Philosophy? (Part 1)", in Xenosystems.com (2013),
460:Of course our genes will make some capacities very much easier to learn than others, and of course our genes themselves are not learned. But the point remains that genes themselves are not cognitive capacities, and that anything worth calling a cognitive capacity will depend to some degree on learning and so not be innate. ~ David Papineau,
461:The cognitive structure does not generate consciousness; it simply reflects it; and in the process limits and embellishes it. In a fundamental sense, consciousness is the source of our awareness. In other words, consciousness is not merely awareness as manifest in different forms but it is also what makes awareness possible. ~ Larry Dossey,
462:UPS are replacing fixed daily routes with dynamic ones adjusted in real time for weather and traffic—again with machine learning. Only cognitive technologies can handle all the necessary data. And at some point supply chains may be powered by autonomously driven trucks, which will bring enormous changes to that domain. ~ Thomas H Davenport,
463:Cognitive therapy is based on the idea that when you change the way you think, you can change the way you feel and behave. In other words, if we can learn to think about other people in a more positive and realistic way, it will be far easier to resolve conflicts and develop rewarding personal and professional relationships. ~ David D Burns,
464:Burns points out that the basic idea of cognitive therapy—that our thoughts affect our emotions and mood, not the other way around—goes back a long way: The ancient philosopher Epictetus rested his career on the idea that it is not events that determine your state of mind, but how you decide to feel about the events. This ~ Tom Butler Bowdon,
465:After all, the appeal to stop being yourself, even for a little while, is very great. To escape the cognitive mode of experience, to transcend the accident of one's moment of being. There are other advantages, more difficult to speak of, things which ancient sources only hint at and which I myself only understood after the fact. ~ Donna Tartt,
466:Confidence is a feeling, which reflects the coherence of the information and the cognitive ease of processing it. It is wise to take admissions of uncertainty seriously, but declarations of high confidence mainly tell you that an individual has constructed a coherent story in his mind, not necessarily that the story is true. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
467:Every mutation through a new combination of genetic factors that provides the organism with a new opportunity for coming to terms with the conditions of its environment signifies no more and no less than that new information about this environment has got into that organic system. Adaptation is essentially a cognitive process. ~ Konrad Lorenz,
468:We talk about the value of hard work but tell ourselves that the reason we’re not working is some perceived unfairness: Obama shut down the coal mines, or all the jobs went to the Chinese. These are the lies we tell ourselves to solve the cognitive dissonance—the broken connection between the world we see and the values we preach. ~ J D Vance,
469:Cognitive mapping and processing are aimed at self-preservation through the reduction of helplessness, terror, and pervasive anxiety. They are introduced and sustained by our first two model components, ineffective social environment and unresolved traumatic formative events, and become established in the patterned responses. ~ Robert K Ressler,
470:speed, attentional, cognitive, and social control, and a number of other faculties across domains as varied as the piloting of unmanned drones and laparoscopic surgery. The brain can actually change and learn to sustain attention in a more prolonged fashion—and all because of moments of engagement in something that actually mattered. ~ Anonymous,
471:2. Reduce the number of steps required. Cut out as many stipulations, actions, unnecessary choices, and extraneous options as you can. An action menu with twenty items is harder to use than an action menu with two, because reading, processing, and deciding among twenty options requires your brain to take many more cognitive steps. ~ Jocelyn K Glei,
472:(To be read in context!!!) People who are "cognitively busy" are also more likely to make selfish choices, use sexist language, and make superficial judgments in social situations. Memorizing and repeating digits loosens the hold of System 2 on behavior, but if course cognitive load is not the only cause of weakened self-control. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
473:Why should jokes and metaphors give such pleasure? Because we can't stand very much ambiguity. Cognitive dissonance makes us uneasy, and for good reason-survival depends on making the world as predictable as possible. So when we figure something out, when we impose order on what seems chaotic, we heave a psychological sigh of relief. ~ James Geary,
474:And concepts are crucial to cognition: cognitive scientists point out that they help us to categorize, learn, remember, infer, explain, problem-solve, generalize, analogize. Correspondingly, the lack of appropriate concepts can hinder learning, interfere with memory, block inferences, obstruct explanation, and perpetuate problems. ~ Charles W Mills,
475:Just as man's physical existence was liberated when he grasped that 'nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed', so his consciousness will be liberated when grasps that nature, to be apprehended, must be obeyed - that the rules of cognition must be derived from the nature of existence and the nature, the identity, of his cognitive faculty. ~ Ayn Rand,
476:The elegant study... is consistent with the themes of modern cognitive neuroscience . Every aspect of thought and emotion is rooted in brain structure and function, including many psychological disorders and, presumably, genius. The study confirms that the brain is a modular system comprising multiple intelligences, mostly nonverbal. ~ Steven Pinker,
477:The new way of thinking, spawned by the cognitive revolution, shows strong promise. Reversing previous doctrine in science, the new paradigm affirms that the world we live in is driven not solely by mindless physical forces but, more crucially, by subjective human values. Human values become the underlying key to world change. ~ Roger Wolcott Sperry,
478:So if whites see a black face shown at a subliminal speed, the amygdala activates.10 But if the face is shown long enough for conscious processing, the anterior cingulate and the “cognitive” dlPFC then activate and inhibit the amygdala. It’s the frontal cortex exerting executive control over the deeper, darker amygdaloid response. ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
479:Tightly focused attention gets fatigued—much like an overworked muscle—when we push to the point of cognitive exhaustion. The signs of mental fatigue, such as a drop in effectiveness and a rise in distractedness and irritability, signify that the mental effort needed to sustain focus has depleted the glucose that feeds neural energy. ~ Daniel Goleman,
480:Here are a few of the sources I used, and I heartily recommend them: Simon Baron-Cohen, The Science of Evil; Judith Beck, Cognitive Behavior Therapy; Louis Cozolino, The Making of a Therapist; Kevin Dutton, The Wisdom of Psychopaths; James Fallon, The Psychopath Inside; Peter and Ginger Ross Breggin, Talking Back to Prozac; Robert D. ~ Lisa Scottoline,
481:Stephen Anderson, author of Seductive Interaction Design, created a tool called Mental Notes to help designers build better products through heuristics.[lxviii] Each of the cards in his deck of 50 contains a brief description of a cognitive bias and is intended to spark product team conversations around how they might utilize the principle. ~ Nir Eyal,
482:When you plan a lesson, you start with the information you want students to know by its end. As a next step, consider what the key question for that lesson might be and how you can frame that question so it will have the right level of difficulty to engage your students and so you will respect your students’ cognitive limitations. ~ Daniel T Willingham,
483:After all, the appeal to stop being yourself, even for a little while, is very great,' he said. 'To escape the cognitive mode of experience, to transcend the accident to one's moment of being. There are other advantages, more difficult to speak of, things which ancient sources only hint at and which I myself only understood after the fact. ~ Donna Tartt,
484:It is also important to consider the cognitive aspect of compassion, in other words understanding the different levels of suffering and its manifest or latent causes. We will be able thus to place ourselves in the service of others by helping them effectively while still preserving our inner strength, our kindness, and our inner peace. ~ Matthieu Ricard,
485:The first surprise is that people’s guesses are much more accurate than they would be by chance. I find this astonishing. A sense of cognitive ease is apparently generated by a very faint signal from the associative machine, which “knows” that the three words are coherent (share an association) long before the association is retrieved. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
486:What's more, a lot of people who harbor an intolerance for complexity see it not as a character flaw but a cognitive virtue. That's because they've fallen into the trap of believing that complicated ideas ("complicated" now constituting anything that requires reading, watching or listening to in its entirety) are the purview of the "elite. ~ Meghan Daum,
487:Aaron Beck, founder of cognitive behavioral therapy, maintains that people find it easy to notice what their partners do wrong, but not what they do right, so he suggests keeping “marriage diaries” to track partners’ considerate behavior; one study showed that 70 percent of couples who did this tracking reported an improved relationship. ~ Gretchen Rubin,
488:Cognitive dissonance doesn’t leave a paper trail. There are no documents that can be pointed to when we reframe inconvenient truths. There is no violence perpetrated by the state or anyone else. It is a process of self-deception. And this can have devastating effects, not least on those who were the subject of chapter 4: the wrongly convicted. ~ Matthew Syed,
489:The cognitive functioning of a human brain depends on a delicate orchestration of many factors, especially during the critical stages of embryo development-and it is much more likely that this self-organizing structure, to be enhanced, needs to be carefully balanced, tuned, and cultivated rather than simply flooded with some extraneous potion. ~ Nick Bostrom,
490:The cognitive functioning of a human brain depends on a delicate orchestration of many factors, especially during the critical stages of embryo development—and it is much more likely that this self-organizing structure, to be enhanced, needs to be carefully balanced, tuned, and cultivated rather than simply flooded with some extraneous potion. ~ Nick Bostrom,
491:In 2012 a group of prominent neuroanatomists, cognitive neuroscientists, neurophysiologists, and ethologists released the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness. The declaration sought to establish, once and for all, that mammals, birds, and even some cephalopods, like octopi, are conscious creatures with the capacity to experience emotions. ~ Laurel Braitman,
492:The cognitive psychology revolution has had a dramatic impact on mental health, and two of its major names are David D. Burns and Albert Ellis. Their mantra that thoughts create feelings, not the other way around, has helped many people to get back in control of their lives because it applies logic and reason to the murky pool of emotions. ~ Tom Butler Bowdon,
493:Anxious people exhibit: (1) increased attention to threats; (2) deficient discrimination of threat and safety; (3) increased avoidance of possible threats; (4) inflated estimates of threat likelihood and consequences; (5) heightened reactivity to threat uncertainty; and (6) disrupted cognitive and behavioral control in the presence of threats. ~ Joseph E LeDoux,
494:a recent event hosted by the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists got together with film makers to discuss what both groups have learned---the scientists through painstaking experiments and analysis, and the film makers by intuition and experience---about the mechanisms of attention and perception. ~ Anonymous,
495:Memories of traumatic experiences may not be primarily retrieved as narratives. Our own and others’ research has suggested that PTSD traumatized people’s difficulties with putting memories into words are reflected in actual changes in brain activity.
(van der Kolk, Hopper & Osterman, 2001)
Trauma and Cognitive Science, Chapter 1 ~ Bessel A van der Kolk,
496:One of the things cognitive science teaches us is that when people define their very identity by a worldview, or a narrative, or a mode of thought, they are unlikely to change-for the simple reason that it is physically part of their brain, and so many other aspects of their brain structure would also have to change; that change is highly unlikely. ~ George Lakoff,
497:Rest assured, dear friend, that many noteworthy and great sciences and arts have been discovered through the understanding and subtlety of women, both in cognitive speculation, demonstrated in writing, and in the arts, manifested in manual works of labor. I will give you plenty of examples. Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies 1405 ~ Elizabeth Gilbert,
498:I was temperamentally better suited to a cognitive discipline, to an introspective field—internal medicine, or perhaps psychiatry. The sight of the operating theater made me sweat. The idea of holding a scalpel caused coils to form in my belly. (It still does.) Surgery was the most difficult thing I could imagine.

And so I became a surgeon. ~ Abraham Verghese,
499:Since the idea that modification of synaptic function can provide a basis for memory arose shortly after the first anatomical description of the synapse a number of models (Hebb 1949 . . Hayek 1952 . . Kendel 1981) have been proposed in which various cognitive activities are represented by combinations of the firing patterns of individual neurons. ~ Gerald Edelman,
500:How can we encourage other human beings to extend their moral sympathies beyond a narrow locus? How can we learn to become mere human beings, shorn of any more compelling national, ethnic, or religious identity? We can be reasonable. It is in the very nature of reason to fuse cognitive and moral horizons. Reason is nothing less than the guardian of love. ~ Sam Harris,
501:Jordan Grafman, head of the cognitive neuroscience unit at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, explains that the constant shifting of our attention when we’re online may make our brains more nimble when it comes to multitasking, but improving our ability to multitask actually hampers our ability to think deeply and creatively. ~ Nicholas Carr,
502:Like other drugs, marijuana acts on a specific part of the brain and, depending on whether you are a person who gets paranoid from a few tokes, it can, like, seriously, help you to mellow out. However, chronic marijuana users show long-term cognitive decline to the tune of 8 IQ points,10 so, in the end, they may be less stressed about reality anyway. ~ Robert H Lustig,
503:Since the 1980s, therapists have reported encountering clients or patients who had experienced extreme abuses featuring physical, sexual, emotional, spiritual, and cognitive aspects, along with a premeditated structure of torture-enforced lessons. The phenomena was first labeled "ritual abuse," and, later, as our understanding developed, "mind control. ~ Alison Miller,
504:The cognitive therapy that takes place in the film Antichrist is a form of therapy that I have used for some time, and it has to do with confronting your fears. I would say that especially the part of the film that has to do with therapy is humoristic because people who know about this form of therapy would know that the character is more than a fool. ~ Lars von Trier,
505:...an arthropod with twenty-one body segments and forty-two legs, is commonly called a centipede (one hundred feet) in English and a "mille-pattes" (thousand legs) in French! Clearly, we pay attention to the numerical regularities of nature only inasmuch as they fit in with our cognitive apparatus, which is biased toward small or round numerosities. ~ Stanislas Dehaene,
506:What I aim to do here is to deliver in plain English the inspiring science connecting exercise and the brain and to demonstrate how it plays out in the lives of real people. I want to cement the idea that exercise has a profound impact on cognitive abilities and mental health. It is simply one of the best treatments we have for most psychiatric problems. ~ John J Ratey,
507:Imagine what it must be like to be confronted with evidence that they have assisted in putting the wrong person in jail; that they have ruined the life of an innocent person; that the wounds of the victim’s family are going to be reopened. It must be stomach churning. In terms of cognitive dissonance, it is difficult to think of anything more threatening. ~ Matthew Syed,
508:In trying to make sense of this pessimism, Ridley, like Kahneman, sees a combination of cognitive biases and evolutionary psychology as the core of the problem. He fingers loss aversion—a tendency for people to regret a loss more than a similar gain—as the bias with the most impact on abundance. Loss aversion is often what keeps people stuck in ruts. ~ Peter H Diamandis,
509:Such innocent confusions are like cognitive magic-eye posters. Most of the time it's impossible to go back to the jumbled mess once you've registered the picture. Sex is the exception. So natural and universal is a child's curiosity about sex and so long are we conscious of it before we do it, that our origical impressions of it leave an indelible mark. ~ Sloane Crosley,
510:The therapy thus starts by identifying negative appraisals, memories, trigger stimuli, and cognitive and behavioral factors that preserve symptoms. Then the therapist helps the client modify the excessive negative appraisals, elaborate the memories, discriminate triggers that lead to reexperiencing them, and eliminate cognitive and behavioral avoidance. ~ Joseph E LeDoux,
511:development and neural plasticity. As mentioned earlier, the brain is not a computer. It is important to underscore this again in the present context because it is a core belief for many linguists, cognitive scientists and computer scientists. The desire to see the brain as a machine goes all the way back to Galileo’s analogy of the universe as a clock. ~ Daniel L Everett,
512:Like most people, I always thought of hope as an emotion—like a warm feeling of optimism and possibility. I was wrong. I was shocked to discover that hope is not an emotion; it’s a way of thinking or a cognitive process. Emotions play a supporting role, but hope is really a thought process made up of what Snyder calls a trilogy of goals, pathways, and agency. ~ Bren Brown,
513:Adopting a vegan diet brings your choices and actions in line with those same beliefs that underlie a commitment to resisting regressive politics: generosity, compassion, and a commitment to justice and fairness. By acting in a way that reflects your values and what you believe, you relieve the cognitive dissonance that can make stress and depression worse. ~ Carol J Adams,
514:The faster you strip cultures down, the more you find contrariness and disputation, rather than a solid core, until eventually you reach the individual, a mammal shaped by evolution, material needs, cognitive biases and historical circumstances no doubt, but still a creature with a better right to state his opinions than kings and clerics have to silence them. ~ Nick Cohen,
515:The stupidest possible creative act is still a creative act,” writes Clay Shirky in his book Cognitive Surplus. “On the spectrum of creative work, the difference between the mediocre and the good is vast. Mediocrity is, however, still on the spectrum; you can move from mediocre to good in increments. The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something. ~ Austin Kleon,
516:Many centralized, allegedly abstract cognitive activities may in fact make use of sensorimotor functions in exactly this kind of covert way. Mental structures that originally evolved for perception or action appear to be co-opted and run “off-line,” decoupled from the physical inputs and outputs that were their original purpose, to assist in thinking and knowing. ~ Anonymous,
517:Emotional agility means being aware and accepting of all your emotions, even learning from the most difficult ones. It also means getting beyond conditioned or preprogrammed cognitive and emotional responses (your hooks) to live in the moment with a clear reading of present circumstances, respond appropriately, and then act in alignment with your deepest values. ~ Susan David,
518:Various studies, predominantly by Roy Baumeister of Florida State University, show that when the frontal cortex labors hard on some cognitive task, immediately afterward individuals are more aggressive and less empathic, charitable, and honest. Metaphorically, the frontal cortex says, “Screw it. I’m tired and don’t feel like thinking about my fellow human. ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
519:Lakoff's idea is that most of our thought is guided by underlying conceptual mappings between two domains that share some content, that overlap in the sets of their attributes. ... Contrary to the assertions of Lakoff and some of the cognitive metaphor theorists, people can read through to an underlying mapping, but only when the surface metaphor is new to them. ~ Don Paterson,
520:brain scan would show us that a solution has been reached approximately three hundred milliseconds before the solver realizes it himself. Specifically, we would see a burst of activity from the right anterior temporal lobe (an area just above his right ear that is implicated in complex cognitive processing), and an increased activation in the right anterior superior ~ Anonymous,
521:Space and force pervade language. Many cognitive scientists (including me) have concluded from their research on language that a handful of concepts about places, paths, motions, agency, and causation underlie the literal or figurative meanings of tens of thousands of words and constructions, not only in English but in every other language that has been studied. ~ Steven Pinker,
522:Research from other labs had linked the neural synchrony of high-frequency brain waves to mental processes such as attention, working memory, learning, and conscious perception; the suspicion is that by firing in sync, neurons cause far-flung networks to work together, with the result that cognitive and emotional processes become more integrated and coherent. ~ Richard J Davidson,
523:In his 1986 autobiographical work, Confessions of a Theologian, Carl F. H. Henry, dean of twentieth-century American evangelical theologians, lamented that several Christian colleges and universities had started to veer away from the centrality of their work, by and large giving up the cognitive focus on Christian thought in favor of Christian piety and activism. ~ David S Dockery,
524:I don't think comics use iconic forms - or they don't have to. But that makes them even more "cool," if I understand the idea. One has to be quite involved to make comics work. Signals have to be decoded on both the verbal and visual level, simultaneously, and the reader must do a lot of cognitive work between panels as well. Comics definitely need an engaged reader. ~ Jessica Abel,
525:Robert Hare has pointed out that sociologists are more likely to focus on the environmental or socially modifiable facets of the disorder, so prefer the term sociopathy, whereas psychologists and psychiatrists prefer to include the genetic, cognitive, and emotional factors as well as the social factors when making a diagnosis, and therefore would opt for psychopathy. ~ James Fallon,
526:Robert Hare has pointed out that sociologists are more likely to focus on the environmental or socially modifiable facets of the disorder, so prefer the term sociopathy, whereas psychologists and psychiatrists prefer to include the genetic, cognitive, and emotional factors as well as the social factors when making a diagnosis, and therefore would opt for psychopathy. ~ James Fallon,
527:Anthropologists teach others to try to avoid the pitfalls of ethnocentrism by learning to understand a culture in terms of its own assumptions about reality. Western shamans can do a similar service with regard to cognicentrism. The anthropologists’ lesson is called cultural relativism. What Western shamans can try to create, to some degree, is cognitive relativism. ~ Michael Harner,
528:The poorer kids perceived more threat; the well-off perceived less. This difference in what psychologists call “cognitive framing” surprised no one. Many prior studies had shown that poverty and poor neighborhoods, understandably, tend to make people more sensitive to threats in ambiguous social situations. Chen in particular had spent years studying this sort of effect. ~ Anonymous,
529:Judgmentalism is indeed a disease of the mind: it leads to anger, torment, and conflict. But it is also the mind's normal condition - [...] always evaluating, always saying "Like it" or "Don't like it." So how can you change your automatic reactions? [...] Meditation is the Eastern way of training yourself to take things philosophically. Cognitive therapy works, too. ~ Jonathan Haidt,
530:Yet we had fingered the prefrontal cortex. This region was considered the seat of human reason, the locus of forethought and wisdom and rationality and other cognitive functions that distinguish us from “lower” animals. But we were saying it rules our emotions, too—and that the barricade that psychology had erected between reason and emotion has no basis in fact. ~ Richard J Davidson,
531:Fear and anxiety are not biologically wired. They do not erupt from a brain circuit in a prepackaged way as a fully formed conscious experience. They are a consequence of the cognitive processing of nonemotional ingredients. They come about in the brain the same way any other conscious experience comes about but have ingredients that nonemotional experiences lack.108 ~ Joseph E LeDoux,
532:The detection of a person as safe or dangerous triggers neurobiologically determined pro-social or defensive behaviors.
Even though we may not always be aware of danger on a cognitive level, on a neurophysiological level, our body has already started a sequence of neural processes that would facilitate adaptive defense behaviors such as fight, flight or freeze.  ~ Stephen W Porges,
533:It is worth noting here, if only briefly, the link between blame and cognitive dissonance. In a culture where mistakes are considered blameworthy they are also likely to be dissonant. When the external culture stigmatizes mistakes, professionals are likely to internalize these attitudes. Blame and dissonance, in effect, are driven by the same misguided attitude to error, ~ Matthew Syed,
534:A serious appreciation of cognitive science requires us to rethink philosophy from the beginning, in a way that would put it more in touch with the reality of how we think. ... Unless we know our cognitive unconscious fully and intimately, we can neither know ourselves nor truly understand the basis of our moral judgments, our conscious deliberations, and our philosophy. ~ George Lakoff,
535:Statistically it was not greatly different than it had been for previous generations, but anecdotally it had become so prominent that every problem was noticed and remarked. The cognitive error called ease of representation thrust them into a space where every problem they witnessed convinced them they were in an unprecedented colapse. They were getting depressed. ~ Kim Stanley Robinson,
536:The pre-Greek civilizations, never discovering the field of epistemology, had no explicit idea of a cognitive process which is systematic, secular, observation-based, logic-ruled; the medievals for centuries had no access to most of this knowledge. The dominant, mystical ideas of such cultures represent a nonrational approach to the world, not an antirational approach. ~ Leonard Peikoff,
537:The truth about idiocy... is that it is at once an ethical and cognitive failure... The Greek idios means 'private,' and idiotes means a private person, as opposed to a person in their public role... This still comes across in the related English words 'idiomatic' and 'idiosyncratic,' which similarly suggest self-enclosure... At the bottom, the idiot is a solipsist. ~ Matthew B Crawford,
538:So when you're talking about lyrics in the context of music, it's not just about what the words mean, and what you were thinking about when you wrote it. It's not cognitive in that same way. It's almost like music turns words into touch, which is hard to describe, like the feeling of your shirt on your back. It's a pretty delicate thing to try to put into words. You just feel it. ~ Mirah,
539:To merely blank the page and vaguely assume that 'religion' is the cause of all the world's problems is, on the contrary, an allegation brought about by nothing more than cognitive lethargy; it is when unburied, unpacked, and exposed but a stale conclusion and a misdirection for the one overwhelmed by centuries of sound theology, scholarly thought, and spiritual development. ~ Criss Jami,
540:If we take two people who have exactly the same sort of lesion or area of damage in the brain and then we do cognitive tests on them, you know, one person might have a very severe deficit in a certain area of thinking and another person might not with the same exact lesion. So there is a lot of differences and you can't just look at one brain and understand the whole picture. ~ H A Berlin,
541:on matters related to race, the Racial Contract prescribes for its signatories an inverted epistemology, an epistemology of ignorance, a particular pattern of localized and global cognitive dysfunctions (which are psychologically and socially functional), producing the ironic outcome that whites will in general be unable to understand the world they themselves have made. ~ Charles W Mills,
542:What you intend when you approach something in the world determines, to varying extents, the degree of sensory gating that occurs as you perceive that phenomenon. Intent, task demands, cognitive template, and gating defaults all affect what you sensorally perceive when a part of the exterior world and you meet. More colloquially, all of us see what we expect to see. ~ Stephen Harrod Buhner,
543:Off-line aspects of embodied cognition, in contrast, include any cognitive activities in which sensory and motor resources are brought to bear on mental tasks whose referents are distant in time and space or are altogether imaginary. These include symbolic off-loading, where external resources are used to assist in the mental representation and manipulation of things that are not ~ Anonymous,
544:Our relationship with sleep is currently in crisis, but we're also living in a golden age of sleep science - revealing all the ways in which sleep and dreams play a vital role in our decision-making, emotional intelligence, cognitive function, and creativity. Every week, new research reveals how vital sleep is to our health, happiness, job performance, and relationships. ~ Arianna Huffington,
545:As Ayaan Hirsi Ali wrote: “The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism.” Having no cognitive dissonance in my philosophy of death is a profound comfort. This might not be true for everybody: some people do seem better able to live with cognitive dissonance than others. But it’s certainly true for me. And it seems to be true for many other people. ~ Greta Christina,
546:Please don't look at our scarlet A's and write us off. Look us in the eye, talk directly to us. Don't panic or take it personally if we make mistakes, because we will. We will repeat ourselves, we will misplace things, and we will get lost. We will forget your name and what you said two minutes ago. We will also try our hardest to compensate for and overcome our cognitive losses. ~ Lisa Genova,
547:SPEAKING OF COGNITIVE EASE “Let’s not dismiss their business plan just because the font makes it hard to read.” “We must be inclined to believe it because it has been repeated so often, but let’s think it through again.” “Familiarity breeds liking. This is a mere exposure effect.” “I’m in a very good mood today, and my System 2 is weaker than usual. I should be extra careful. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
548:There's no such thing as advice to the lovelorn. If they took advice, they wouldn't be lovelorn. You see, advice and lovelorn don't go together. Because advice makes love sound like some sort of cognitive activity, but we know that it isn't. We all know that it's some sort of horrible chemical reaction over which we have absolutely no control. And that's why advice doesn't work. ~ Fran Lebowitz,
549:According to the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness—a statement issued in 2012 by an international group of prominent cognitive neuroscientists, neuropharmacologists, neuroanatomists, and computational neuroscientists—there is a convergence of evidence to show the continuity between humans and nonhuman animals, and that sentience is the common characteristic across species. ~ Michael Shermer,
550:But if subjective pietism is not the real crux of this all-important Gospel, if it is instead belief in the plan of salvation, how are we not dealing with "salvation by (cognitive) works" and Gnosticism (salvation by special knowledge)? Fundamentalists hotly deny it, but isn't it finally a matter of believers in the right religion being saved and everyone else being disqualified? ~ Robert M Price,
551:I watched salaciously as he adjusted his shorts, indicating the swelling of his erection which was fast filling the space within them.
Licking my lips at the sight of him grabbing his cock, my body yearned for his touch. He really was mouth-watering, and seeing him cup the very appendage I wanted deep in between my legs, depleted me of all cognitive thought. Focus Alexis. ~ K M Golland,
552:Comparing the three domains, I found that for jobs of all kinds, emotional competencies were twice as prevalent among distinguishing competencies as were technical skills and purely cognitive abilities combined. In general the higher a position in an organization, the more EI mattered: for individuals in leadership positions, 85 percent of their competencies were in the EI domain. ~ Daniel Goleman,
553:At one level, the only reason you can know anything is because of God. God made your mind and your cognitive faculties. At another level, we can’t possibly know who God is unless he reveals it to us, which he does in the Bible. Only through him does your reasoning capacity work, and only through his Word can you truly understand who he is and, therefore, who you are, his creation. ~ Timothy J Keller,
554:To summarize, using money to motivate people can be a double-edged sword. For tasks that require cognitive ability, low to moderate performance-based incentives can help. But when the incentive level is very high, it can command too much attention and thereby distract the person’s mind with thoughts about the reward. This can create stress and ultimately reduce the level of performance. ~ Dan Ariely,
555:cognitive load. The truth is we have a finite limit on our short-term memories. It’s been said that the average person’s short-term memory can only retain seven chunks of information. So the theory behind cognitive load is that since you can only retain a small amount of information, you have to rely on long-term memory, habits and established processes to do basically everything in life. ~ S J Scott,
556:To prevent participants from rationalizing, we employed a basic technique that psychologists have been using for decades: cognitive load. As its name implies, putting someone under cognitive load means keeping his or her mind busy. If you have ever tried to solve a problem that required a lot of thought but couldn’t manage it because you were distracted, you’ve experienced this phenomenon. ~ Anonymous,
557:A deeper understanding of natural (contrasted to engineering) systems reveals positive feedback as one of the intrinsic characteristics by which many natural systems—from atoms to galaxies, cells to organisms, social systems to whole populations, single concepts to cognitive systems and whole languages—manage to live and evolve. ~ Erich Jantsch, Evolution and Consciousness - Human Systems in Transition,
558:Let us begin by turning the skeptic’s question on its head. If you could believe in God, why wouldn’t you? There is good evidence that those who believe in a loving God have happier lives. Loneliness is bad for people in many different ways—it diminishes immune function, increases blood pressure, and depresses cognitive function—and we know that people who believe in God are less lonely. ~ T M Luhrmann,
559:As work continued, an important qualifier emerged. Low serotonin didn’t predict premeditated, instrumental violence. It predicted impulsive aggression, as well as cognitive impulsivity (e.g., steep temporal discounting or trouble inhibiting a habitual response). Other studies linked low serotonin to impulsive suicide (independent of severity of the associated psychiatric illness).107 ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
560:Sign languages also have much to teach us about our neural cognitive-cerebral platform. Native users of sign languages can communicate as quickly and effectively as speakers using the vocal apparatus. This means that our brain development cannot be exclusively connected to speech sounds, or else all other modalities or channels of speech would be unavailable or less good for language. ~ Daniel L Everett,
561:...[T]he whole undertaking of philosophical inquiry requires a prior understanding of the conceptual system in which the undertaking is set. That is an empirical job for cognitive science and cognitive semantics. ... Unless this job is done, we will not know whether the answers philosophers give to their questions are a function of the conceptualization built into the questions themselves. ~ George Lakoff,
562:System 1 has more influence on behavior when System 2 is busy, and it has a sweet tooth. People who are cognitively busy are also more likely to make selfish choices, use sexist language, and make superficial judgments in social situations. Memorizing and repeating digits loosens the hold of System 2 on behavior, but of course cognitive load is not the only cause of weakened self-control. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
563:A general “law of least effort” applies to cognitive as well as physical exertion. The law asserts that if there are several ways of achieving the same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course of action. In the economy of action, effort is a cost, and the acquisition of skill is driven by the balance of benefits and costs. Laziness is built deep into our nature. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
564:Imagine the kind of quantum leap that human culture would undertake if we were all suddenly given a direct link to the knowledge and experience of everyone else on the planet—if, when we made a decision, we were drawing from not just our own limited experience and expertise but from that of billions of other people. Big data has enabled this quantum leap for the cognitive development of robots. ~ Alec J Ross,
565:TANs could be crucial to the acquisition of new behavioral skills in cognitive-behavioral therapy. In neurological terms, we could say that cognitive-behavioral therapy teaches people purposefully to alter the response contingencies of their own TANs. This is a crucial point. Such therapy teaches people to alter, by force of will, the response habits wired into their brains through TANs. ~ Jeffrey M Schwartz,
566:From the social cognitive perspective, it is mainly perceived inefficacy to cope with potentially aversive events that makes them fearsome. To the extent that people believe they can prevent, terminate, or lessen the severity of aversive events, they have little reason to be perturbed by them. But if they believe they are unable to manage threats safely, they have much cause for apprehension. ~ Albert Bandura,
567:As an empiricist (actually a skeptical empiricist) I despise the moralizers beyond anything on this planet: I still wonder why they blindly believe in ineffectual methods. Delivering advice assumes that our cognitive apparatus rather than our emotional machinery exerts some meaningful control over our actions. We will see how modern behavioral science shows this to be completely untrue. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb,
568:Henry wrote, “The Bible depicts God’s very revelation as meaningful, objectively intelligible disclosure. We mean by propositional revelation that God supernaturally communicates his revelation to chosen spokesmen in the express form of cognitive truths, and that the inspired prophetic-apostolic proclamation reliably articulates these truths in sentences that are not internally contradictory.”44 ~ Joel R Beeke,
569:Human beings have a variety of intelligences, such as cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence, musical intelligence, kinesthetic intelligence, and so on. Most people excel in one or two of those, but do poorly in the others. This is not necessarily or even usually a bad thing; part of Integral wisdom is finding where one excels and thus where one can best offer the world one's deepest gifts. ~ Ken Wilber,
570:the average citizens, the backbone of the civilization. These were the ones Enoch felt were exploited at the expense of this class warfare for power. The society appeared to be an advancement of civilization, but Enoch believed it moved toward the inevitable centralization of power into the hands of the elite priestly caste, of which he was one. It remained a point of cognitive dissonance for him. ~ Brian Godawa,
571:One study hints that it could, though more work needs to be done. Kids with normal hearing took an American Sign Language class for nine months, in the first grade, then were administered a series of cognitive tests. Their attentional focus, spatial abilities, memory, and visual discrimination scores improved dramatically—by as much as 50 percent—compared with controls who had no formal instruction. ~ John Medina,
572:The Freudian tradition will never completely die because it has a few good points. For example, people have motives and thoughts of which they are unaware. Most of cognitive therapy has now adopted a similar idea. On the other hand, the relationship part of psychoanalysis - where you must have a deep, emotional relationship with the client - will, I think, get kicked in the teeth one of these days. ~ Albert Ellis,
573:Other research has shown that in the first few milliseconds of our perceiving something we not only unconsciously comprehend what it is, but decide whether we like it or not; the “cognitive unconscious” presents our awareness with not just the identity of what we see, but an opinion about it.7 Our emotions have a mind of their own, one which can hold views quite independently of our rational mind. ~ Daniel Goleman,
574:One theme that fascinates me is cognitive enhancement. It seems only a matter of time until we live in a world where steroids for the brain are readily available to all. And once we come to grips with that reality, I suspect the debate over the ethics will be much more heated than the debate over steroids in baseball or any other sport, where the use is limited to a select group of freakish athletes. ~ Ben Casnocha,
575:Some international relations scholars would posit that interest in zombies is an indirect attempt to get a cognitive grip on what U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously referred to as the "unknown knowns" in international security. Perhaps, however, there also exists a genuine but publicly unacknowledged fear of the dead rising from the grave and feasting upon the entrails of the living. ~ Daniel Drezner,
576:Beck’s three principles of cognitive therapy were: All our emotions are generated by our “cognitions,” or thoughts. How we feel at any given moment is due to what we are thinking about. Depression is the constant thinking of negative thoughts. The majority of negative thoughts that cause us emotional turmoil are plain wrong or at least distortions of the truth, but we accept them without question. ~ Tom Butler Bowdon,
577:I thought it would be cool to make one of the Gang a synesthete, reasoning that someone with cross-wired senses might have an advantage at deciphering the language of aliens with different sensory modalities; then, as I was putting Blindsight to bed, a paper appeared suggesting that synesthesias might be used to solve formal cognitive problems.129 This validates me, and I wish it happened more often.130 ~ Peter Watts,
578:Novels institutionalize the ruse of eros. It becomes a narrative texture of sustained incongruence, emotional and cognitive. It permits the reader to stand in triangular relation to the characters in the story and reach into the text after the objects of their desire, sharing their longing but also detached from it, seeing their view of reality but also its mistakenness. It is almost like being in love. ~ Anne Carson,
579:Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief. ~ Frantz Fanon,
580:tasks, though? In these cases there is a second option, which is to reduce the cognitive workload by making use of the environment itself in strategic ways—leaving information out there in the world to be accessed as needed, rather than taking time to fully encode it; and using epistemic actions (Kirsh & Maglio, 1994) to alter the environment in order to reduce the cognitive work remaining to be done. ~ Anonymous,
581:As the nature deficit grows, another emerging body of scientific evidence indicates that direct exposure to nature is essential for physical and emotional health. For example, new studies suggest that exposure to nature may reduce the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and that it can improve all children's cognitive abilities and resistance to negative stresses and depression. ~ Richard Louv,
582:A general “law of least effort” applies to cognitive as well as physical
exertion. The law asserts that if there are several ways of achieving the
same goal, people will eventually gravitate to the least demanding course
of action. In the economy of action, effort is a cost, and the acquisition of
skill is driven by the balance of benefits and costs. Laziness is built deep into our nature. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
583:Coming from a background as unique as mine, the first challenge is being able to identify chaos as chaos. For the first half of my life, I interpreted chaos as normal. Today, I am aware that I have triggers: a default way of thinking that is often not relative to the immediate moment. Therefore, in the midst of chaos, I have learned to relinquish all my premature cognitive commitments and become present. ~ Romany Malco,
584:Shitij Kapur, a psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and professor at King’s College London, distinguishes for us the difference between hallucinations and delusions: “Hallucinations reflect a direct experience of the aberrant salience of internal representations,” whereas delusions (false beliefs) are the result of “a cognitive effort by the patient to make sense of these aberrantly salient experiences. ~ Michael S Gazzaniga,
585:To our human minds, computers behave less like rocks and trees than they do like humans, so we unconsciously treat them like people.... In other words, humans have special instincts that tell them how to behave around other sentient beings, and as soon as any object exhibits sufficient cognitive function, those instincts kick in and we react as though we were interacting with another sentient human being. ~ Alan Cooper,
586:Without an awareness of blind spots, traditional approaches to ethics won’t be particularly useful in improving behavior. If, like most people, you routinely fail to recognize the ethical components of decisions, succumb to common cognitive biases, and think you behave more unethically than you actually do, then being taught which ethical judgment you should make is unlikely to improve your ethicality. ~ Max H Bazerman,
587:High cognitive friction polarizes people into two groups. It either makes them feel frustrated and stupid for failing, or giddy with power at overcoming the extreme difficulty. These powerful emotions force people into being either an "apologist" or a "survivor." They either adopt cognitive friction as a lifestyle, or they go underground and accept it as a necessary evil. The polarization is growing acute. ~ Alan Cooper,
588:If she learned anything in school she learned this, courtesy of Albert Ellis, father of the cognitive-behavioral paradigm shift in psychotherapy. Other people are not here to fulfill our needs or meet our expectations, nor will they always treat us well. Failure to accept this will generate feelings of anger and resentment. Peace of mind comes with taking people as they are and emphasizing the positive. ~ A S A Harrison,
589:The abbreviations (e.g. NATO, UN, USSR - E.W.) denote that and only that which is institutionalized in such a way that the transcending connotation is cut off. The meaning is fixed, doctored, loaded. Once it has become an official vocable, constantly repeated in general usage, "sanctioned" by the intellectuals, it has lost all cognitive value and serves merely for recognition of an unquestionable fact. ~ Herbert Marcuse,
590:We are already behaving differently from that bacterial colony in a petri dish, deviating from the fatal S-curve, using our limited but growing global cognitive capacities to anticipate and soften or avoid the crash. We are waking up, and we can see the trends starting to turn. We are slowly rounding the corner on the related problems of poverty and overpopulation. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, ~ David Grinspoon,
591:- modern painting and the psychedelic sacraments -- offered humanity a new way of seeing, an enlarged and deepened definition of reality, a freshened and intensely sensual awareness of what it means to be a cognitive mammal on a tiny planet spinning precariously in the backwash of an infinite universe, a perpetually endangered species kept alive -- and occasionally driven quite mad -- by its capacity to love. ~ Tom Robbins,
592:This linking together in turn lets us tap our cognitive surplus, the trillion hours a year of free time the educated population of the planet has to spend doing things they care about. In the 20th century, the bulk of that time was spent watching television, but our cognitive surplus is so enormous that diverting even a tiny fraction of time from consumption to participation can create enormous positive effects. ~ Clay Shirky,
593:The present presses automatically on you. The future does not. To attend to the future requires bandwidth, which scarcity taxes. When scarcity taxes our bandwidth, we become even more focused on the here and now. We need cognitive resources to gauge future needs, and we need executive control to resist present temptations. As it taxes our bandwidth, scarcity focuses on the present, and leads us to borrow. ~ Sendhil Mullainathan,
594:At a conference of sociologists in America in 1977, love was defined as "the cognitive-affective state characterized by intrusive and obsessive fantasizing concerning reciprocity of amorant feelings by the object of the amorance." That is jargon - the practice of never calling a spade a spade when you might instead call it a manual earth-restructuring implement - and it is one of the great curses of modern English. ~ Bill Bryson,
595:Human beings are not nearly as coolly rational as we like to think we are. Having set up comfortable planets of belief, we become resistant to altering them, and develop cognitive biases that prevent us from seeing the world with perfect clarity. We aspire to be perfect Bayesian abductors, impartially reasoning to the best explanation - but most often we take new data and squeeze it to fit with our preconceptions. ~ Sean Carroll,
596:psychological constructs fall under five broad functional domains or systems: negative valence systems (e.g., threat processing), positive valence systems (reward processing), cognitive systems (e.g., attention, perception, memory, working memory, executive function), arousal and regulatory systems (e.g., brain arousal, circadian rhythm, motivation), and social processing systems (e.g., attachment, separation). ~ Joseph E LeDoux,
597:A feeling of dissociation from his senses, an inability to think straight or interpret what he sees and hears. Things begin to look and sound different, slower, artificial, unreal. The first time it happened he thought he was losing his mind, that the whole cognitive framework by which he made sense of the world had disintegrated for good, and everything from then on would just be undifferentiated sound and colour. ~ Sally Rooney,
598:Remarkably, the size of neurons’ dendritic trees in the hippocampus expands and contracts like an accordion throughout a female rat’s ovulatory cycle, with the size (and her cognitive skills) peaking when estrogen peaks.fn6 Thus, neurons can form new dendritic branches and spines, increasing the size of their dendritic tree or, in other circumstances, do the opposite; hormones frequently mediate these effects. ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
599:The nervous system consumes more glucose than most other parts of the body, and effortful mental activity appears to be especially expensive in the currency of glucose. When you are actively involved in difficult cognitive reasoning or engaged in a task that requires self-control, your blood glucose level drops. The effect is analogous to a runner who draws down glucose stored in her muscles during a sprint. The ~ Daniel Kahneman,
600:The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more. ~ Ayaan Hirsi Ali,
601:Attaching epistemic significance to metaphysical intuitions is anti-naturalist for two reasons. First, it requires ignoring the fact that science, especially physics, has shown us that the universe is very strange to our inherited conception of what it is like. Second, it requires ignoring central implications of evolutionary theory, and of the cognitive and behavioural sciences, concerning the nature of our minds. ~ James Ladyman,
602:The main problem with disregarding animal cognition is that, in doing so, we are essentially disregarding what cognition might have been like among our ancestors before they got language. Their prelinguistic state was the cognitive foundation that language emerged from. If there is no cognition before language, à la Descartes and many others, the problem of understanding how language evolved becomes intractable. ~ Daniel L Everett,
603:as we age, (1) we take on more responsibilities, so we have a greater cognitive burden, (2) we become more vigilant about threats (especially as parents) and more sensitive to errors in youth (‘kids these days!’), (3) while at the same time we lose the capacity to process information as quickly as we did when we were younger, and (4) we tend to attribute these changes in ourselves to changes in the external world. ~ Michael Shermer,
604:Cognitive behavioral therapy, counseling, psychotherapy—none of it really worked in the way that the pills did. Lissie says she finds the notion of chemically rebalancing your mood scary, she says it’s the idea of taking something that could alter how she really is. But I don’t see it that way; for me it’s like wearing makeup—not a disguise, but a way of making myself more how I really am, less raw. The best me I can be. ~ Ruth Ware,
605:She could always walk somewhere without him. Of course this somewhere had to be somewhere "safe." She could walk to her office. But she didn't want to go to her office. She felt bored, ignored, and alienated in her office. She felt ridiculous there. She didn't belong there anymore. In all the expansive grandeur that was Harvard, there wasn't room there for a cognitive psychology professor with a broken cognitive psyche. ~ Lisa Genova,
606:Once the United States was famed as a land of opportunity, where a family could leap from ‘rags to riches’ in a generation. But today, if you are born to parents in the bottom income quintile, you have just a 5 per cent chance of getting into the top quintile without a college degree. What Charles Murray has called the ‘cognitive elite’, educated at exclusive private universities, intermarried and congregated in a few ~ Niall Ferguson,
607:The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more. ~ Christopher Hitchens,
608:The part of the brain most affected by early stress is the prefrontal cortex, which is critical in self-regulatory activities of all kinds, both emotional and cognitive. As a result, children who grow up in stressful environments generally find it harder to concentrate, harder to sit still, harder to rebound from disappointments, and harder to follow directions. And that has a direct effect on their performance in school. ~ Paul Tough,
609:Yet few leaders exploit the power of this rapid wake-up call. Rather, they do the opposite. They try to garner support based on a numbers case that lacks urgency and emotional impetus. Or they try to put forth the most exemplary case of their operational excellence to garner support. Although these alternatives may work, neither leads to tipping superiors’ cognitive hurdle as fast and stunningly as showing the worst. When ~ W Chan Kim,
610:Cognition attempts to make sense of the world: emotion assigns value. It is the emotional system that determines whether a situation is safe or threatening, whether something that is happening is good or bad, desirable or not. Cognition provides understanding: emotion provides value judgments. A human without a working emotional system has difficulty making choices. A human without a cognitive system is dysfunctional. ~ Donald A Norman,
611:companies trying to misrepresent the product they sell by playing with our cognitive biases, our unconscious associations, and that’s sneaky. The latter is done by, say, showing a poetic picture of a sunset with a cowboy smoking and forcing an association between great romantic moments and some given product that, logically, has no possible connection to it. You seek a romantic moment and what you get is cancer. ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb,
612:Words that you have seen before become easier to see again—you can identify them better than other words when they are shown very briefly or masked by noise, and you will be quicker (by a few hundredths of a second) to read them than to read other words. In short, you experience greater cognitive ease in perceiving a word you have seen earlier, and it is this sense of ease that gives you the impression of familiarity. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
613:I think it started to feel like home when I stopped maintaining any pretense that I was ever going to be in the movie business. I went there like many writers - I had a screenplay deal and I would go to these meetings and it was the typical thing. And I hated it. I was not interested in writing screenplays, actually. But I kept feeling like that was what I was supposed to do. It was just this horrible cognitive dissonance. ~ Meghan Daum,
614:Of all the systems of the body - neurological, cognitive, special, sensory - the cardiological system is the most sensitive and easily disturbed. The role of society must be to shelter these systems from infection and decay, or else the future of the human race is at stake. Like a summer fruit that is protected from insect invasion, bruising, and rot by the whole mechanism of modern farming; so must we protect the heart. ~ Lauren Oliver,
615:Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are
presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new
evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is
extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it
is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize,
ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief. ~ Frantz Fanon,
616:Through the topic of motivation, we begin to see the mental trilogy in action. A mind is not, as cognitive science has traditionally suggested, just a thinking device. It's an integrated system that includes, in the broadest possible terms, synaptic networks devoted to cognitive, emotional, and motivational functions. More important, it involves interactions between networks involved in different aspects of mental life. ~ Joseph E LeDoux,
617:What Warcollier demonstrated is compatible with what modern cognitive neuroscience has learned about how visual images are constructed by the brain. It implies that telepathic perceptions bubble up into awareness from the unconscious and are probably processed in the brain in the same way that we generate images in dreams. And thus telepathic “images” are far less certain than sensory-driven images and subject to distortion. ~ Dean Radin,
618:The Western conception of the person as a bounded, unique, more or less integrated motivational and cognitive universe, a dynamic center of awareness, emotion, judgment, and action organized into a distinctive whole and set contrastively both against other such wholes and against its social and natural background, is, however incorrigible it may seem to us, a rather peculiar idea within the context of the world’s cultures. ~ Jonathan Haidt,
619:Myths, whether in written or visual form, serve a vital role of asking unanswerable questions and providing unquestionable answers. Most of us, most of the time, have a low tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty. We want to reduce the cognitive dissonance of not knowing by filling the gaps with answers. Traditionally, religious myths have served that role, but today — the age of science — science fiction is our mythology. ~ Michael Shermer,
620:Words can enhance experience, but they can also take so much away. We see an insect and at once we abstract certain characteristics and classify it - a fly. And in that very cognitive exercise, part of the wonder is gone. Once we have labeled the things around us we do not bother to look at them so carefully. Words are part of our rational selves, and to abandon them for a while is to give freer reign to our intuitive selves. ~ Jane Goodall,
621:Metacognitive disorders can be interpreted in terms of early, historical views in which the frontal cortex is considered responsible for abstract reasoning, planning, and problem solving (see Goldstein, 1936; Halstead, 1947). Such complex, high-level characterizations of metacognition do not lend themselves easily to contributions of specific cognitive (or brain) components that mediate performance on metacognitive tasks. As such ~ Anonymous,
622:our social needs for intimacy, belonging, and acceptance. Mate preferences for status can explain our esteem needs for recognition, fame, and glory. Mate preferences for intelligence, knowledge, skills, and moral virtues can explain our cognitive needs to learn, discover, and create, and our self-actualization needs to fulfill our potential (for example, to display the highest possible mate value given our genetic quality). ~ Geoffrey Miller,
623:To the minds of many, maintaining inerrancy requires that perennially nagging counterevidence from inside and outside of the Bible must be adjusted to support that premise rather than allowing that evidence to call the premise into question. In my opinion, the distance between what the Bible is and the theological hedge placed around the Bible by the CSBI has been and continues to be a source of considerable cognitive dissonance. ~ Anonymous,
624:Why matrix organizational structures became so popular I’m not really sure. There is certainly an element of flexibility and collaboration suggested by them, but in reality they are forums for confusion and conflict. They have certainly not contributed to the breakdown of silos; they’ve merely added an element of schizophrenia and cognitive dissonance for employees who are unlucky enough to report into two different silos. ~ Patrick Lencioni,
625:It is most unfortunate that, in the long history of the church, “faith” has been almost everywhere transubstantiated into “belief,” which transposes the concrete practicality of trust into a cognitive enterprise. How ludicrous that in the long, oppressive history of orthodoxy—which guards cognitive formulations—that those who enforce right belief seem most often to be themselves unable or unwilling to engage in deep trust. ~ Walter Brueggemann,
626:large-frame pattern recognition, and the most complex forms of communication are cognitive areas where people still seem to have the advantage, and also seem likely to hold on to it for some time to come. Unfortunately, though, these skills are not emphasized in most educational environments today. Instead, primary education often focuses on rote memorization of facts, and on the skills of reading, writing, and arithmetic—the ~ Erik Brynjolfsson,
627:Cognitive flexibility is an important executive function that reflects our ability to shift thinking and to produce a steady flow of creative thoughts and answers as opposed to a regurgitation of the usual responses. The trait correlates with high-performance levels in intellectually demanding jobs. So if you have an important afternoon brainstorming session scheduled, going for a short, intense run during lunchtime is a smart idea. ~ John J Ratey,
628:It’s a tiresome proposition, having to take up the work of the Enlightenment all over again, but it’s happened on your watch. You ought to have sent up a balloon now and then to get a read on the prevailing cognitive conditions, the Thinks watching out for the Think-Nots. Now you’ve gone and let the stockpiling of fallacies reach dangerous levels, and the massed weapons of illogic are threatening the survivability of the globe. ~ Rebecca Goldstein,
629:In fact, without a specification of a creature's goals, the very idea of intelligence is meaningless. A toadstool could be given a genius award for accomplishing with pinpoint precision and unerring reliability, the feat of sitting exactly where it is sitting. Nothing would prevent us from agreeing with the cognitive scientist Zenon Pylyshyn that rocks are smarter than cats because rocks have the sense to go away when you kick them. ~ Steven Pinker,
630:A Critique of pure Reason, i.e. of our faculty of judging a priori according to principles, would be incomplete, if the Judgement, which as a cognitive faculty also makes claim to such principles, were not treated as a particular part of it; although its principles in a system of pure Philosophy need form no particular part between the theoretical and the practical, but can be annexed when needful to one or both as occasion requires. ~ Immanuel Kant,
631:As always, there are exceptions. Adults with training can still learn to distinguish speech sounds in other languages. But in general, the brain appears to have a limited window of opportunity in an astonishingly early time frame. The cognitive door begins swinging shut at 6 months old, and then, unless something pushes against it, the door closes. By 12 months, your baby’s brain has made decisions that affect her the rest of her life. ~ John Medina,
632:when you decide to suspend all cognitive processes inside your head and follow these shallow creatures like sheep, bleating happily all the way to the slaughter of rational thought. Some socialite uses Pink Shadow lipstick; now millions of girls rush to buy it, as if that lipstick could change one’s destiny, could shift an unseen railroad switch and take a life destined for mediocrity into much coveted stardom, all for $5.98 plus tax. ~ Leslie Wolfe,
633:Cognitive dissonance” is the term Festinger coined to describe the inner tension we feel when, among other things, our beliefs are challenged by evidence. Most of us like to think of ourselves as rational and smart. We reckon we are pretty good at reaching sound judgments. We don’t like to think of ourselves as dupes. That is why when we mess up, particularly on big issues, our self-esteem is threatened. We feel uncomfortable, twitchy. ~ Matthew Syed,
634:Sexuality is not just sex; sexuality is at the essence of who we are as human beings. In the words of theologian James B. Nelson, “sexuality always involves much more than what we do with our genitals. More fundamentally, it is who we are as body-selves who experience the emotional, cognitive, physical and spiritual need for intimate communion, both creaturely and divine.”8 To hate an essential part of a person is to hate the person. ~ Jay Michaelson,
635:As a consequence, it should be true that if you just get the facts out to people, they will reason to the right conclusion. And so year after year, decade after decade, liberals keep telling facts to conservative audiences without changing many minds. This behavior by liberals is itself a form of science denial—the denial of the cognitive and brain sciences. It is simply irrational behavior by many people proud of their rationality. It ~ George Lakoff,
636:Ever since the Cognitive Revolution, Sapiens have thus been living in a dual reality. On the one hand, the objective reality of rivers, trees and lions; and on the other hand, the imagined reality of gods, nations and corporations. As time went by, the imagined reality became ever more powerful, so that today the very survival of rivers, trees and lions depends on the grace of imagined entities such as the United States and Google. ~ Yuval Noah Harari,
637:The scientific method is designed to help investigators overcome the most entrenched human cognitive habit: the confirmation bias, the tendency to notice and remember evidence that confirms our beliefs or decisions, and to ignore, dismiss, or forget evidence that is discrepant. That's why we are all inclined to stick to a hypothesis we believe in. Science is one way of forcing us, kicking and screaming if necessary, to modify our views. ~ Carol Tavris,
638:There is nothing spooky about mindfulness. It is simply a state of clear, nonjudgmental, and undistracted attention to the contents of consciousness, whether pleasant or unpleasant. Cultivating this quality of mind has been shown to reduce pain, anxiety, and depression; improve cognitive function; and even produce changes in gray matter density in regions of the brain related to learning and memory, emotional regulation, and self-awareness. ~ Sam Harris,
639:John McCarthy (September 4, 1927 - October 24, 2011) was an American computer scientist and cognitive scientist. McCarthy was one of the founders of the discipline of artificial intelligence.[1] He coined the term artificial intelligence (AI), developed the Lisp programming language family, significantly influenced the design of the ALGOL programming language, popularized timesharing, and was very influential in the early development of AI.
   ~ Wikipedia,
640:Subjective confidence in a judgment is not a reasoned evaluation of the probability that this judgment is correct. Confidence is a feeling, which reflects the coherence of the information and the cognitive ease of processing it. It is wise to take admissions of uncertainty seriously, but declarations of high confidence mainly tell you that an individual has constructed a coherent story in his mind, not necessarily that the story is true. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
641:The lesson of figure 5 is that predictable illusions inevitably occur if a judgment is based on an impression of cognitive ease or strain. Anything that makes it easier for the associative machine to run smoothly will also bias beliefs. A reliable way to make people believe in falsehoods is frequent repetition, because familiarity is not easily distinguished from truth. Authoritarian institutions and marketers have always known this fact. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
642:There are some things that you don’t want to do and you pledge to yourself that you won’t do, you forbid yourself, and then suddenly they happen all by themselves. You don’t even have time to think about them, and they don’t make it to the cognitive centres of the brain: they just happen and that’s it, and you’re left just watching yourself with surprise, and convincing yourself that it wasn’t your fault, it just happened all by itself. ~ Dmitry Glukhovsky,
643:When speaking of a "body of knowledge" or of "the results of research," e.g., we tacitly assign the same cognitive status to inherited knowledge and to independently acquired knowledge. To counteract this tendency a special effort is required to transform inherited knowledge into genuine knowledge by revitalizing its original discovery, and to discriminate between the genuine and the spurious elements of what claims to be inherited knowledge. ~ Leo Strauss,
644:People cling to their intuitions, I think, not so much because they believe their cognitive algorithms are perfectly reliable, but because they can't see their intuitions as the way their cognitive algorithms happen to look from the inside. And so everything you try to say about how the native cognitive algorithm goes astray, ends up being contrasted to their direct perception of the Way Things Really Are—and discarded as obviously wrong. ~ Eliezer Yudkowsky,
645:People cling to their intuitions, I think, not so much because they believe their cognitive algorithms are perfectly reliable, but because they can’t see their intuitions as the way their cognitive algorithms happen to look from the inside. And so everything you try to say about how the native cognitive algorithm goes astray, ends up being contrasted to their direct perception of the Way Things Really Are—and discarded as obviously wrong. ~ Eliezer Yudkowsky,
646:In the scientific world, the syndrome known as 'great man's disease' happens when a famous researcher in one field develops strong opinions about another field that he or she does not understand, such as a chemist who decides that he is an expert in medicine or a physicist who decides that he is an expert in cognitive science.

They have trouble accepting that they must go back to school before they can make pronouncements in a new field. ~ Paul Krugman,
647:The High-Subtle Self ::: "...cognitive style- actual intuition and literal inspiration, archetypal Form, audible illumination, revelations of light and sound affective elements- rapture, bliss, ecstatic release into superconsciousness motivational/conative factors-karuna, compassion, overwhelming love and gratefulness temporal mode- transtemporal, moving into eternity mode of self- archetypal-divine, overself, overmind." ~ Ken Wilber, The Atman Project pg.80,
648:These points of continuity and discontinuity should have an important role in our interpretation of the Bible, and knowledge of them should guard against a facile or uninformed imposition of our own cognitive environment on the texts of ancient Israel, which is all too typical in confessional circles. This recognition should also create a more level playing ground as critical scholarship continues to evaluate the literature of the ancient world. ~ John H Walton,
649:I believe in goal-setting. I don't care what it is. If you want to drop 10 pounds, increase your bench press, jump higher, or win a Super Bowl, you have to set that goal for yourself before you go out and achieve it. I think you have to regulate it, and see how you're building toward it every single day. Am I getting closer to that ultimate goal? Am I doing everything I possibly can today to be successful? I'm always very cognitive of my goals. ~ Larry Fitzgerald,
650:The idea that scientific method is the only method of discovering the truth has a lot to be said for it, if you mean by truth how the world ultimately is as a system of organised matter, but I defend cognitive dualism: that world can be understood completely in another way which also has its truths which are not translatable into the truths of science. So we have to look at the different ways we organise this material that science explains for us. ~ Roger Scruton,
651:And for those valuing their brainpower, low cholesterol turned out to be a startling bummer: a 2005 analysis found that folks with the lowest total cholesterol—even in “desirable” ranges up to 200 mg/dL—scored the worst on measures of verbal fluency, attention, concentration, abstract reasoning, and a composite score for multiple cognitive domains.14 Those with higher cholesterol, on the other hand, exhibited strikingly better cognitive performance. ~ Denise Minger,
652:puzzles were legible, but the font induced cognitive strain. The results tell a clear story: 90% of the students who saw the CRT in normal font made at least one mistake in the test, but the proportion dropped to 35% when the font was barely legible. You read this correctly: performance was better with the bad font. Cognitive strain, whatever its source, mobilizes System 2, which is more likely to reject the intuitive answer suggested by System 1. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
653:Simply saying, “I saw a spirit and I know what I saw,” isn’t enough and does nothing to advance the field of paranormal research. Empirical, observable evidence has to be gathered. Skeptics frequently use the “cognitive function” defense to explain away paranormal activity, so multiple electronic recording devices (video and audio) are a must when conducting paranormal research to limit the margin of error. We’ll look more at this later in the chapter. ~ Zak Bagans,
654:The researchers consistently found that all kinds of mental abilities began to come back online—after as little as four months of aerobic exercise. A different study looked at school-age children. Children jogged for 30 minutes two or three times a week. After 12 weeks, their cognitive performance had improved significantly compared with prejogging levels. When the exercise program was withdrawn, the scores plummeted back to their preexperiment levels. ~ John Medina,
655:It may have been due to the effect of the gordo blanco on my cognitive functions, but I was suddenly overwhelmed by an extraordinary feeling—not of satisfaction but of absolute joy. It was the feeling I had in the Museum of Natural History and when I was making cocktails. We started dancing again, and this time I allowed myself to focus on the sensations of my body moving to the beat of the song from my childhood and of Rosie moving to the same rhythm. ~ Graeme Simsion,
656:Piaget may 'be about' stages or cognitive development only in the way that Newton 'is about' gravity, or Columbus the West Indies, or Jefferson reconciling the claims of the individual with claims of the state, or Joyce a literary approach to consciousness. These were the 'problems' that consumed these men and they resolved them brilliantly - but so brilliantly that the resolutions become Trojan horses lying in wait to reveal what they were really about. ~ Robert Kegan,
657:Rationalization is a cover-up, a process of providing one's emotions with a false identity, of giving them spurious explanations and justifications - in order to hide one's motives, not just from others, but primarily from oneself. The price of rationalizing is the hampering, the distortion, and, ultimately, the destruction of one's cognitive faculty. Rationalization is a process not of perceiving reality, but of attempting to make reality fit one's emotions. ~ Ayn Rand,
658:The more effort we put into something, the more likely we are to value it. We are more likely to be consistent with our past behaviors. And finally, we change our preferences to avoid cognitive dissonance. In sum, our tendencies lead to a mental process known as rationalization whereby we change our attitudes and beliefs to psychologically adapt. Rationalization helps us give reasons for our behaviors, even when those reasons might have been designed by others. ~ Nir Eyal,
659:Schools themselves aren't creating the opportunity gap: the gap is already large by the time children enter kindergarten and does not grow as children progress through school. The gaps in cognitive achievement by level of maternal education that we observe at age 18-powerful predictors of who goes to college and who does not - are mostly present at age 6when children enter school. Schooling plays only a minor role in alleviating or creating test score gaps. ~ Robert D Putnam,
660:To tip the cognitive hurdle fast, tipping point leaders such as Bratton zoom in on the act of disproportionate influence: making people see and experience harsh reality firsthand. Research in neuroscience and cognitive science shows that people remember and respond most effectively to what they see and experience: “Seeing is believing.” In the realm of experience, positive stimuli reinforce behavior, whereas negative stimuli change attitudes and behavior. Simply ~ W Chan Kim,
661:The great cognitive shift is an expansion of consciousness from the perspectival form contained in the lives of particular creatures to an objective, world-encompassing form that exists both individually and intersubjectively. It was originally a biological evolutionary process, and in our species it has become a collective cultural process as well. Each of our lives is a part of the lengthy process of the universe gradually waking up and becoming aware of itself. ~ Thomas Nagel,
662:No two human beings are alike; it's a question of identity. And what is identity? The cognitive system arisin' from the aggregate memories of that individual's past experiences. The layman's word for this is the mind. Not two human beings have the same mind. At the same time, human beings have almost no grasp of their own cognitive systems. I don't, you don't, nobody does. All we know—or think we know—is but a fraction of the whole cake. A mere tip of the icing. ~ Haruki Murakami,
663:How long will it take until machines can out-compete us at all cognitive tasks? We clearly don’t know, and need to be open to the possibility that the answer may be “never.” However, a basic message of this chapter is that we also need to consider the possibility that it will happen, perhaps even in our lifetime. After all, matter can be arranged so that when it obeys the laws of physics, it remembers, computes and learns—and the matter doesn’t need to be biological. ~ Max Tegmark,
664:It should be noted, too, that symbolic off-loading need not be deliberate and formalized, but can be seen in such universal and automatic behaviors as gesturing while speaking. It has been found that gesturing is not epiphenomenal, nor even strictly communicative, but seems to serve a cognitive function for the speaker, helping to grease the wheels of the thought process that the speaker is trying to express (see, e.g., Iverson & Goldin-Meadow, 1998; Krauss, 1998). ~ Anonymous,
665:For the early scientists, the image of God was not a dry doctrine to which they gave merely cognitive assent. Nor was it a purely private “faith.” They treated it as a public truth, the epistemological foundation for the entire scientific enterprise. Their goal, they said, was to think God’s thoughts after him. 27 At the time of the scientific revolution, biblical epistemology was the guarantee that the human mind is equipped to gain genuine knowledge of the world. ~ Nancy R Pearcey,
666:In studying language we can discover many basic properties of this cognitive structure, its organization, and also the genetic predispositions that provide the foundation for its development. So in this respect, linguistics, first of all, tries to characterize a major feature of human cognitive organization. And second, I think it may provide a suggestive model for the study of other cognitive systems. And the collection of these systems is one aspect of human nature. ~ Noam Chomsky,
667:There is a strong current in contemporary culture advocating ' holistic ' views as some sort of cure-all... Reductionism implies attention to a lower level while holistic implies attention to higher level. These are intertwined in any satisfactory description: and each entails some loss relative to our cognitive preferences, as well as some gain... there is no whole system without an interconnection of its parts and there is no whole system without an environment. ~ Francisco Varela,
668:I think that in order to achieve progress in the study of language and human cognitive faculties in general it is necessary first to establish 'psychic distance' from the 'mental facts' to which Köhler referred, and then to explore the possibilities for developing explanatory theories... We must recognize that even the most familiar phenomena require explanation and that we have no privileged access to the underlying mechanisms, no more so than in physiology or physics. ~ Noam Chomsky,
669:But the idea that we can rid ourselves of animal illusion is the greatest illusion of all. Meditation may give us a fresher view of things, but it cannot uncover them as they are in themselves. The lesson of evolutionary psychology and cognitive science is that we are descendants of a long lineage, only a fraction of which is human. We are far more than the traces that other humans have left in us. Our brains and spinal cords are encrypted with traces of far older worlds. ~ John N Gray,
670:Maybe philosophical problems are hard not because they are divine or irreducible or meaningless or workaday science, but because the mind of Homo sapiens lacks the cognitive equipment to solve them. We are organisms, not angels, and our minds are organs, not pipelines to the truth. Our minds evolved by natural selection to solve problems that were life-and-death matters to our ancestors, not to commune with correctness ot to answer any question we are capable of asking. ~ Steven Pinker,
671:just begged the question: If it took so long for one of the best hospitals in the world to get to this step, how many other people were going untreated, diagnosed with a mental illness or condemned to a life in a nursing home or a psychiatric ward? CHAPTER 30 RHUBARB By my twenty-fifth day in the hospital, two days after the biopsy, with a preliminary diagnosis in sight, my doctors thought it was a good time to officially assess my cognitive skills to record a baseline. ~ Susannah Cahalan,
672:...the naive forms of Christian moral motivation - bare threats of hell and the bribery of heaven - stunt moral growth by ensuring believers remain emotional children, never achieving the cognitive moral development of adults. Psychologists have established that mature adults are moral not because of bare threats and bribes (that stage of moral development typifies children, not adults), but because they care about the effects their behavior has on themselves and others. ~ Richard C Carrier,
673:Suicide rates have not slumped under the onslaught of antidepressants, mood-stabilizers, anxiolytic and anti-psychotic drugs; the jump in suicide rates suggests that the opposite is true. In some cases, suicide risk skyrockets once treatment begins (the patient may feel not only penalized for a justifiable reaction, but permanently stigmatized as malfunctioning). Studies show that self-loathing sharply decreases only in the course of cognitive-behavioral treatment. ~ Antonella Gambotto Burke,
674:An advocate for a mutation for language would have to explain why there are no well-established cortical specialisations for language or speech, aside from reusing parts of the brain for a variety of tasks, as many have claimed.6 The growth of the prefrontal cortex, itself associated with toolmaking and sequential actions, helped to prepare the brain for language, by providing the cognitive firepower necessary for actions where procedures or improvised sequences are required. ~ Daniel L Everett,
675:Even a little bit of fame can mess with your head. It’s a cognitive disease, you know? Fame. It used to only be for royalty and we know what they’re like. I’m not much of a Freudian, but something about fame makes the ID and the Superego devour the Ego like an anacondas in a cage, right before they cannibalize each other. Fame warps your identity, metastasizes your anxieties and hollows you out like a jack-o-lantern. It’s sparkly pixy dust that burns whatever it touches like acid. ~ Elan Mastai,
676:See, it’s the sudden cognitive whiplash that does it. One moment you’re cruising along effortlessly at thirty thousand feet while the cabin crew slosh the whisky around in business class, the next you’re in a screaming death-spiral with flames pouring from the hole where the starboard engine was meant to be before some toe-cheese puked a missile up its exhaust. It takes a little time to switch mode from business-as-usual to six-alarms-emergency if you’re not primed to expect it, ~ Charles Stross,
677:there is a growing body of work coming out of psychology and cognitive science that says you have no clue why you act the way you do, choose the things you choose, or think the thoughts you think. Instead, you create narratives, little stories to explain away why you gave up on that diet, why you prefer Apple over Microsoft, why you clearly remember it was Beth who told you the story about the clown with the peg leg made of soup cans when it was really Adam, and it wasn’t a clown. ~ David McRaney,
678:I suppose it’s no surprise that we feel the need to dehumanize the people we hurt—before, during, or after the hurting occurs. But it always comes as a surprise. In psychology it’s known as cognitive dissonance. It’s the idea that it feels stressful and painful for us to hold two contradictory ideas at the same time (like the idea that we’re kind people and the idea that we’ve just destroyed someone). And so to ease the pain we create illusory ways to justify our contradictory behavior. ~ Jon Ronson,
679:So why haven’t more Google users switched to Bing? Habits keep users loyal. If a user is familiar with the Google interface, switching to Bing requires cognitive effort. Although many aspects of Bing are similar to Google, even a slight change in pixel placement forces the would-be user to learn a new way of interacting with the site. Adapting to the differences in the Bing interface is what actually slows down regular Google users and makes Bing feel inferior, not the technology itself.  ~ Nir Eyal,
680:Beginning with Santa Claus as a cognitive exercise, a child is encouraged to share the same idea of reality as his peers. Even if that reality is patently invented and ludicrous, belief is encouraged with gifts that support and promote the common cultural lies. The greatest consensus in modern society is our traffic systems. The way a flood of strangers can interact, sharing a path, almost all of them traveling without incident. It only takes one dissenting driver to create anarchy. ~ Chuck Palahniuk,
681:Heritability of various aspects of cognitive development is very high (e.g., around 70 percent for IQ) in kids from high–socioeconomic status (SES) families but is only around 10 percent in low-SES kids. Thus, higher SES allows the full range of genetic influences on cognition to flourish, whereas lower-SES settings restrict them. In other words, genes are nearly irrelevant to cognitive development if you’re growing up in awful poverty—poverty’s adverse effects trump the genetics. ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
682:As far as anyone could tell, Portia had learned to partition its cognitive processes: almost as if it were emulating a larger brain piece by piece, saving the results of one module to feed into the next. Slices of intellect, built and demolished one after another. No one would ever know for sure—a rogue synthophage had taken out the world’s Salticids before anyone had gotten around to taking a closer look—but the Icarus slime mold seemed to have taken the same basic idea and run with it. ~ Peter Watts,
683:Cognitive theorists have a term for what Eve just experienced. They call it her Hypersensitive Agency Detection Device, or HADD. This is a biological process that arose deep in our evolutionary past, all the way back in the days when hominids were still stooped and hairy. In its simplest terms, HADD leads us to detect human agency, and hence a human cause, behind any unexplained event: a distant sound in the woods, a flash of light in the sky, a tendril of fog slithering along the ground. ~ Reza Aslan,
684:Over the last three centuries, psychologists have been able to define three distinct parts of the human mind: thoughts, emotions, and motivations. Thoughts, also known as cognition, include regular functions such as memory, judgment, and reasoning. This is where intelligence comes in because it is used to measure your cognitive functions. Emotions, on the other hand, include things like moods, feelings, and evaluations. Motivations refer to behaviors that you learn or biological urges. ~ Benjamin Smith,
685:Bruce Miller, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco, studies elderly patients with a relatively common form of brain disease called frontotemporal dementia, or FTD. He’s found that in some cases where the FTD is localized on the left side of the brain, people who had never picked up a paintbrush or an instrument can develop extraordinary artistic and musical abilities at the very end of their lives. As their other cognitive skills fade away, they become narrow savants. ~ Joshua Foer,
686:It must come from your father's side of the family," Allison informed her with severe disapproval. "You never got that sort of dreary, plebeian logic from my genes, dear! Beowulfans' cognitive processes rely far more on the creative and intuitive manipulation of concepts without the drudgery of applying reason to them. Don't you realize how badly you can damage a perfectly good preconception or assumption if you insist on thinking about it that way? That's why I never indulge in such a vice. ~ David Weber,
687:As long as I stared at the clock, at least the world remained in motion. Not a very consequential world, but in motion nonetheless. And as long as I knew the world was still in motion, I knew I existed. Not a very consequential existence, but an existence nonetheless. It struck me as wanting that someone should confirm his own existence only by the hands of an electric wall clock. There had to be a more cognitive means of confirmation. But try as I might, nothing less facile came to mind. ~ Haruki Murakami,
688:Self-knowledge is certainly a significant aspect of human motivation, but even animals that are not self-aware, or at least not robustly aware of who they are the way a human is, are motivated to do things-they seek food and shelter and avoid predators and injury. Much of what we humans do is also influenced by processes that percolate along outside of awareness. Consciousness is important, but so are the underlying cognitive, emotional, and motivational processes that work unconsciously. ~ Joseph E LeDoux,
689:longitudinal study of people over age 75, conducted over a period of 21 years by the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, looked at whether activities from playing cards to swimming to doing housework affected cognitive ability. Almost none of the physical activities had any effect on dementia rates except for one: partner dancing, which lowered the risk by 76 percent. No other activity came anywhere near being as effective at protecting people from cognitive decline!3 ~ Christiane Northrup,
690:Beginning with Santa Claus as a cognitive exercise, a child is encouraged to share the same idea of reality as his peers. Even if that reality is patently invented and ludicrous, belief is encouraged with gifts that support and promote the common cultural lies.

The greatest consensus in modern society is our traffic systems. The way a flood of strangers can interact, sharing a path, almost all of them traveling without incident. It only takes one dissenting driver to create anarchy. ~ Chuck Palahniuk,
691:Deep Work: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate. Deep work is necessary to wring every last drop of value out of your current intellectual capacity. We now know from decades of research in both psychology and neuroscience that the state of mental strain that accompanies deep work is also necessary to improve your abilities. ~ Cal Newport,
692:It’s cognitive dissonance.”
I open my eyes and look at him. His expression is nonchalant. He shrugs again, equally nonchalant.
“I have no idea what that means.”
“It’s what happens when your mind is struggling to hold two contradictory beliefs at the same time. On the one hand, you still kinda want to kill me for, well, you know. And on the other, you’re totally blown away by how manly, wonderful, and devastatingly sexy I am. And by my mad cooking skills. How’s the pasta, by the way? ~ J T Geissinger,
693:Epistemology now flourishes with various complementary approaches. This includes formal epistemology, experimental philosophy, cognitive science and psychology, including relevant brain science, and other philosophical subfields, such as metaphysics, action theory, language, and mind. It is not as though all questions of armchair, traditional epistemology are already settled conclusively, with unanimity or even consensus. We still need to reason our way together to a better view of those issues. ~ Ernest Sosa,
694:By virtue of individual and collective human reflection, evolution— overflowing the physico-chemical organisation of bodies—turns back upon itself and thereby reinforces itself with a new organising power vastly concentric to the first—the cognitive organisation of the universe. To think ‘the world’ (as physics is beginning to realise) is not merely to register it but to cofer upon it a form of unity it would otherwise (i.e. without being thought) be without. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man,
695:Some paranormal activity can be justifiably explained as a cognitive action. “It’s all in your mind,” as some would say. And sometimes it is, as I will explain soon. The human brain is one of the frontiers that we still do not fully understand, and there are certainly phenomena that can be explained as tricks of the mind. Apparitions moving out of the corner of the eye are especially open to skepticism because it’s been proven that objects on a person’s periphery can seem to move when they’re not. ~ Zak Bagans,
696:in some situations we are forced to function on line. In those situations, what do we do about our cognitive limitations? One response, as we have seen, is to fall apart. However, humans are not entirely helpless when confronting the representational bottleneck, and two types of strategies appear to be available when one is confronting on-line task demands. The first is to rely on preloaded representations acquired through prior learning (discussed further in Section 6). What about novel stimuli and ~ Anonymous,
697:This is a classic response predicted by cognitive dissonance: we tend to become more entrenched in our beliefs (like those in the capital punishment experiment, whose views became more extreme after reading evidence that challenged their views and the members of the cult who became more convinced of the truth of their beliefs after the apocalyptic prophecy failed). “I have no doubt that they will find the clearest possible evidence of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction [my italics],” Blair said. ~ Matthew Syed,
698:So remember three crucial steps when you are upset: Zero in on those automatic negative thoughts and write them down. Don't let them buzz around in your head; snare them on paper! Read over the list of ten cognitive distortions. Learn precisely how you are twisting things and blowing them out of proportion. Substitute a more objective thought that puts the lie to the one which made you look down on yourself. As you do this, you'll begin to feel better. You'll be boosting your self-esteem, and your ~ David D Burns,
699:Nature is a hanging judge," goes an old saying. Many tragedies come from our physical and cognitive makeup. Our bodies are extraordinarily improbable arrangements of matter, with many ways for things to go wrong and only a few ways for things to go right. We are certain to die, and smart enough to know it. Our minds are adapted to a world that no longer exists, prone to misunderstandings correctable only by arduous education, and condemned to perplexity about the deepest questions we can ascertain. ~ Steven Pinker,
700:Psychologist Robert Zajonc takes this claim one step further: “For most decisions, it is extremely difficult to demonstrate that there has actually been any prior cognitive process whatsoever.”28 It isn’t that the decisions people make are irrational; it’s that the process by which decisions are made are utterly unlike the step-by-step rational process that might be used to solve, say, a math problem. Decisions are typically made in the unconscious mind, by means of some unknown process. Indeed, ~ William B Irvine,
701:There are really only two standards of appellate review: plenary and deferential. Conventionally there are four basic standards (with many variants), which in ascending order of deference to the trial court or administrative agency are de novo, clearly erroneous, substantial evidence, and abuse of discretion. But the last three are, in practice, the same, because finer distinctions are beyond judges’ cognitive capacity. The multiplication of unusual distinctions is a familiar judicial pathology. ~ Richard A Posner,
702:And Kade understood why. They were a tribal species. They’d evolved in a world where a few dozen men and women made up a tribe, and virtually all others were enemies, threats. They lacked the cognitive capabilities necessary to collaborate on this scale. They’d done their best with democracy, with capitalism, but those had reached their limit long ago. They’d been corrupted, twisted to the interests of a few individuals, when the greatest problems the world faced were problems of collective interest. He ~ Ramez Naam,
703:When you are in a state of cognitive ease, you are probably in a good mood, like what you see, believe what you hear, trust your intuitions, and feel that the current situation is comfortably familiar. You are also likely to be relatively casual and superficial in your thinking. When you feel strained, you are more likely to be vigilant and suspicious, invest more effort in what you are doing, feel less comfortable, and make fewer errors, but you also are less intuitive and less creative than usual. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
704:Decision-making is difficult because, by its nature, it involves uncertainty. If there was no uncertainty, decisions would be easy! The uncertainty exists because we don't know the future, we don't know if the decision we make will lead to the best possible outcome. Cognitive science has taught us that relying on our gut or intuition often leads to bad decisions, particularly in cases where statistical information is available. Our guts and our brains didn't evolve to deal with probabilistic thinking. ~ Daniel Levitin,
705:This attachment has endured through the years and withstood a steady helmet-slapping of cognitive dissonance over whether I should know better than to keep following this sport as closely as I do. Scary research on posthumous football brains has been as impossible to miss as the testimonials from still-living retirees about the sad state of their bodies. (To wit: “My life sucks,” Jim Plunkett, then sixty-nine, told the San Jose Mercury News in 2017. “Everything hurts.”) If you love football, you get good ~ Mark Leibovich,
706:And research seems to be pointing in a pretty clear direction. One study found screen time somehow interferes with children’s ability to read emotion in others. Another, a correlation between multitasking and less gray matter in the area of the brain associated with cognitive and emotional functioning. Heavy multitasking has been correlated with an inability to focus, stress, depression, and anxiety. Studies even suggest multitaskers are, ironically, worse at multitasking than their single-tasking counterparts. ~ Anonymous,
707:Two people, Chinese civilians, were heading toward me. Shit. I averted my eyes and changed my posture, dropping my shoulders, adopting a more rolling gait, giving them a persona to remember, a persona that wasn’t mine. I felt them looking at me closely as I passed. They might have seen what had happened; if they had, they would be in mild denial about it and trying to come up with some other explanation for the evidence of their senses, what the psychologists call “cognitive dissonance” and “reality testing. ~ Barry Eisler,
708:You got a little bit famous. Even a little bit of fame can mess with your head. It’s a cognitive disease, you know, fame? It used to only be for royalty and we know what they’re like. I’m not much of a Freudian, but something about fame makes the id and the superego devour the ego like anacondas in a cage, right before they cannibalize each other. Fame warps your identity, metastasizes your anxieties, and hollows you out like a jack-o’-lantern. It’s sparkly pixie dust that burns whatever it touches like acid. ~ Elan Mastai,
709:We have a very hard time “seeing” our cognitive activity because it is the medium in which we swim. The attempt to put our finger on what counts in any given situation leads us at times to making connections between situations that are enormously different on their surface and at other times to distinguishing between situations that on first glance seem nearly identical. Our constant jockeying back and forth among our categories runs the gamut from the most routine behaviors to the most creative ones. ~ Douglas R Hofstadter,
710:What we're left with ... is the distinctly uncomfortable sense that much of what we call culture jamming achieves the same effect as traditional marketing. Both rely on the bedrock principle that branding works. Yet marketing has moved on from branding toward a more direct emotional connection to our reptilian brains, which makes it immune to the cognitive dissonance culture jamming creates. In the meantime, the brans being promoted by some activists retain the full integrity of their original message, ~ Anne Elizabeth Moore,
711:Deep attention, the cognitive style traditionally associated with the humanities, is characterized by concentrating on a single object for long periods (say, a novel by Dickens), ignoring outside stimuli while so engaged, preferring a single information stream, and having a high tolerance for long focus times. Hyper attention is characterized by switching focus rapidly among different tasks, preferring multiple information streams, seeking a high level of stimulation, and having a low tolerance for boredom. ~ N Katherine Hayles,
712:The challenges of sticking to a plan, the inability to resist a new leather jacket or a new project, the forgetfulness (the car registration, making a phone call, paying a bill) and the cognitive slips (the misestimated bank account balance, the mishandled invitation) all happen because of a shortage of bandwidth. There is one particularly important consequence: it further perpetuates scarcity. It was not a coincidence that Sendhil and Shawn fell into a trap and stayed there. Scarcity creates its own trap. ~ Sendhil Mullainathan,
713:The word evokes memories, which evoke emotions, which in turn evoke facial expressions and other reactions, such as a general tensing up and an avoidance tendency. The facial expression and the avoidance motion intensify the feelings to which they are linked, and the feelings in turn reinforce compatible ideas. All this happens quickly and all at once, yielding a self-reinforcing pattern of cognitive, emotional, and physical responses that is both diverse and integrated—it has been called associatively coherent. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
714:I’m going to recommend a simple framework for evaluating and changing your behavior based on a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy and ancient Stoic practices. It consists of the following steps: 1. Evaluate the consequences of your habits or desires in order to select which ones to change. 2. Spot early warning signs so that you can nip problematic desires in the bud. 3. Gain cognitive distance by separating your impressions from external reality. 4. Do something else instead of engaging in the habit. ~ Donald J Robertson,
715:Regarding social order, [Francis] Fukuyama writes, "The systematic study of how order, and thus social capital, can emerge in spontaneous and decentralized fashion is one of the most important intellectual developments of the late twentieth century." He correctly attributes the modern origins of this argument to F. A. Hayek, whose pioneering contributions to cognitive science, the study of cultural evolution, and the dynamics of social change put him in the forefront of the most creative scholars of the 20th century. ~ Douglass North,
716:The biological imperative to live—indeed, live forever—was burned into our brains, into our emotional self-model,
over the course of millennia. But our brand-new cognitive self-models
tell us that all attempts to realize this imperative will ultimately be futile.
Mortality, for us, is not only an objective fact but a subjective chasm, an open wound in our phenomenal self-model. We have a deep, inbuilt existential conflict, and we seem to be the first creatures on this planet to
experience it consciously. ~ Thomas Metzinger,
717:The drive to tune out opposing ideas can be explained by psychology's principles of selective exposure theory and confirmation bias, both being impulses people use to avoid cognitive dissonance, or the stress that occurs when an individual is confronted with evidence that contradicts their beliefs. This is why a conservative turns on Fox News and a liberal prefers MSNBC. What they're turning in for has less to do with receiving the news of the day than reinforcing their preconceived notions of how the world operates. ~ Jared Yates Sexton,
718:neuropharmacologist Franz Vollenweider observes . . . A fundamental feature of information processing dysfunction in psychosis is the inability of these patients to screen out, inhibit, filter, or gate extraneous stimuli and to attend selectively to salient features of the environment. Gating deficits may cause these subjects to become overloaded with excessive exteroceptive and interoceptive stimuli, which in turn could lead to a breakdown in cognitive integrity and difficulty in distinguishing self from nonself.4 ~ Stephen Harrod Buhner,
719:Of course, my pops put chili oil in it immediately, but I wanted to taste the broth: intense, deep, and mind-numbing. It was one of those bites that make you think maybe, just maybe, your taste buds carry a cognitive key that can open something in your mind. Like the first time I heard Lauryn Hill’s voice scratch over “Killing Me Softly,” I felt that I just had a mental breakthrough via sound; there has to be something like that with taste. It was then and there that I realized, you can tell a story without words, just soup. ~ Eddie Huang,
720:Confusing experience with the memory of it is a compelling cognitive illusion—and it is the substitution that makes us believe a past experience can be ruined. The experiencing self does not have a voice. The remembering self is sometimes wrong, but it is the one that keeps score and governs what we learn from living, and it is the one that makes decisions. What we learn from the past is to maximize the qualities of our future memories, not necessarily of our future experience. This is the tyranny of the remembering self. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
721:Prometheus, by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, 2005 Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House, Inc.; Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life, by Annette Lareau, copyright 2003 Regents of the University of California. Published by the University of California Press; “Intercultural Communication in Cognitive Values: Americans and Koreans, by Ho-min Sohn, University of Hawaii Press, 1983; The Happiest Man: The Life of Louis Borgenicht (New York: G. P. Putnam’s ~ Malcolm Gladwell,
722:The Way of Bayes is also an imprecise art, at least the way I'm holding forth upon it. These blog posts are still fumbling attempts to put into words lessons that would be better taught by experience. But at least there's underlying math, plus experimental evidence from cognitive psychology on how humans actually think. Maybe that will be enough to cross the stratospherically high threshold required for a discipline that lets you actually get it right, instead of just constraining you into interesting new mistakes. ~ Eliezer Yudkowsky,
723:Chapter 3 discusses some unsettling research—stick your average person in a brain scanner, and show him a picture of someone of another race for only a tenth of a second. This is too fast for him to be aware of what he saw. But thanks to that anatomical shortcut, the amygdala knows . . . and activates. In contrast, show the picture for a longer time. Again the amygdala activates, but then the cognitive dlPFC does as well, inhibiting the amygdala—the effort to control what is for most people an unpalatable initial response. ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
724:Cognitive rigidities may also prevent social groups from mobilizing in their own self-interest. In the United States, many working-class voters support candidates promising to lower taxes on the wealthy, despite the fact that this hurts their own economic situations. They do so in the belief that such policies will spur economic growth that will eventually trickle down to them, or else make government deficits self-financing. The theory has proved remarkably tenacious in the face of considerable evidence that it is not true. ~ Francis Fukuyama,
725:The megalomania of the genes does not mean that benevolence and cooperation cannot evolve, any more than the law of gravity proves that flight cannot evolve. It means only that benevolence, like flight, is a special state of affairs in need of an explanation, not something that just happens. It can evolve only in particular circumstances and has to be supported by a suite of cognitive and emotional faculties. Thus benevolence (and other social motives) must be dragged into the spotlight rather than treated as part of the furniture. ~ Anonymous,
726:These sites are especially harmful after the workday is over, where the freedom in your schedule enables them to become central to your leisure time. If you’re waiting in line, or waiting for the plot to pick up in a TV show, or waiting to finish eating a meal, they provide a cognitive crutch to ensure you eliminate any chance of boredom. As I argued in Rule #2, however, such behavior is dangerous, as it weakens your mind’s general ability to resist distraction, making deep work difficult later when you really want to concentrate. ~ Cal Newport,
727:My feeling is that a human being or any complex organism has a system of cognitive structures that develop much in the way the physical organs of the body develop. That is, in their fundamental character they are innate; their basic form is determined by the genetic structure of the organism. Of course, they grow under particular environmental conditions, assuming a specific form that admits of some variation. Much of what is distinctive among human beings is a specific manner in which a variety of shared cognitive structures develop. ~ Noam Chomsky,
728:When players contemplate making a purchase, they acknowledge it is unwise to spend money on something that is not good. And yet, just like the fox that perceives the grapes as sour to reduce his frustration at not being able to reach them, players justify their purchases to help convince themselves of something they want to be true — namely, that they are not foolish. The only solution is to keep paying to keep playing. The cognitive changes that lead to behavior change help power the shift in how we view the products and services we use. ~ Nir Eyal,
729:This biblical view has two crucial implications. First, the intelligible order of the universe reflects the mind of the Creator. Second, because God created humans in his image, our minds correspond with that order as well. There is a congruence between the structure of the world and the structure of human cognition—a correlation between subject and object in the act of knowing. As Plantinga writes, “God created both us and our world in such a way that there is a certain fit or match between the world and our cognitive faculties.” 12 ~ Nancy R Pearcey,
730:Cognitive states of mind are seldom addictive, since they depend upon exploration of the world, and the individual encounter with the individual object, whose appeal is outside the subject's control. Addiction arises when the subject has full control over a pleasure and can ponder it at will. It is primarily a matter of sensory pleasure, and involves a kind of short-circuiting of the pleasure network. Addiction is characterized by a loss of the emotional dynamic that would otherwise govern an outward-directed, cognitively creative life. ~ Roger Scruton,
731:Many families amass more objects than their houses can hold. The result is garages given over to old furniture and unused sports equipment, home offices cluttered with boxes of stuff that haven’t yet been taken to the garage. Three out of four Americans report their garages are too full to put a car into them. Women’s cortisol levels (the stress hormone) spike when confronted with such clutter (men’s, not so much). Elevated cortisol levels can lead to chronic cognitive impairment, fatigue, and suppression of the body’s immune system. ~ Daniel J Levitin,
732:One of the most difficult problems of our age is that leaders, and perhaps academics as well, cannot readily admit that things are out of control and that we do not know what to do. We have too much information, limited cognitive abilities to think in systemic terms and an unwillingness to appear to be in control and to have solutions for our problems. We are afraid that if we admit to our confusion, we will make our followers and students anxious and disillusioned. We know we must learn how to learn, but we are afraid to admit it. ~ Donald Michael Kraig,
733:Without the instruments and accumulated knowledge of the natural sciences... humans are trapped in a cognitive prison. They are like intelligent fish born in a deep shallowed pool. Wondering and restless, longing to reach out, they think about the world outside. They invent ingenious speculations and myths about the origin of the confining waters, of the sun and the sky and the stars above , and the meaning of their own existence. But they are wrong, always wrong because the world is too remote from ordinary experience to be merely imagined. ~ E O Wilson,
734:A moral system based on continuous rather than categorical thinking gives us a biological and evolutionary foundation for the expansion of the moral sphere to include nonhuman animals, based on objective criteria of genetic relatedness, cognitive abilities, emotional capacities, moral development, and especially the capacity to feel pain and suffer. This is, in fact, what it means to be a sentient being, and for this reason I worded the first principle of this science-based moral system as the survival and flourishing of sentient beings. ~ Michael Shermer,
735:Bottom line, although lots of effort and money have been thrown at various methods of obesity prevention at the individual education level, the results are downright disappointing.18 When it comes right down to it, you can’t change behavior with information alone, especially when you’re talking about addictive substances. Necessary, but not sufficient. Because the biochemical drive will eventually overcome any cognitive attempt to control it. Nope, it’s going to be all about changing the environment, and that means changing availability. ~ Robert H Lustig,
736:Seemingly innocuous language like 'Oh, I'm flexible' or 'What do you want to do tonight?' has a dark computational underbelly that should make you think twice. It has the veneer of kindness about it, but it does two deeply alarming things. First, it passes the cognitive buck: 'Here's a problem, you handle it.' Second, by not stating your preferences, it invites the others to simulate or imagine them. And as we have seen, the simulation of the minds of others is one of the biggest computational challenges a mind (or machine) can ever face. ~ Brian Christian,
737:Most of us view the world as more benign than it really is, our own attributes as more favorable than they truly are, and the goals we adopt as more achievable than they are likely to be. We also tend to exaggerate our ability to forecast the future, which fosters optimistic overconfidence. In terms of its consequences for decisions, the optimistic bias may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases. Because optimistic bias can be both a blessing and a risk, you should be both happy and wary if you are temperamentally optimistic. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
738:We’ll get fired for tardiness, or for stealing merchandise and selling it on eBay, or for having a customer complain about the smell of alcohol on our breath, or for taking five thirty-minute restroom breaks per shift. We talk about the value of hard work but tell ourselves that the reason we’re not working is some perceived unfairness: Obama shut down the coal mines, or all the jobs went to the Chinese. These are the lies we tell ourselves to solve the cognitive dissonance—the broken connection between the world we see and the values we preach. We ~ J D Vance,
739:Little Platoons' are the places where traditions form. Social traditions, Burke pointed out, are forms of knowledge. They contain the residues of many trials and errors, and the inherited solutions to problems that we all encounter. Like those cognitive abilities that pre-date civilisation they are adaptations, but adaptations of the community rather than of the individual organism. Social traditions exist because they enable a society to reproduce itself. Destroy them heedlessly and you remove the guarantee offered by one generation to the next. ~ Roger Scruton,
740:How are things going? Is there a threat or a major opportunity? Is everything normal? Should I approach or avoid? The questions are perhaps less urgent for a human in a city environment than for a gazelle on the savannah, but we have inherited the neural mechanisms that evolved to provide ongoing assessments of threat level, and they have not been turned off. Situations are constantly evaluated as good or bad, requiring escape or permitting approach. Good mood and cognitive ease are the human equivalents of assessments of safety and familiarity. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
741:In my practice I use neurofeedback primarily to help with the hyperarousal, confusion, and concentration problems of people who suffer from developmental trauma. However, it has also shown good results for numerous issues and conditions that go beyond the scope of this book, including relieving tension headaches, improving cognitive functioning following a traumatic brain injury, reducing anxiety and panic attacks, learning to deepen meditation states, treating autism, improving seizure control, self-regulation in mood disorders, and more. ~ Bessel A van der Kolk,
742:Toxic stress response can occur when a child experiences strong, frequent, and/or prolonged adversity—such as physical or emotional abuse, neglect, caregiver substance abuse or mental illness, exposure to violence, and/or the accumulated burdens of family economic hardship—without adequate adult support. This kind of prolonged activation of the stress-response systems can disrupt the development of brain architecture and other organ systems, and increase the risk for stress-related disease and cognitive impairment, well into the adult years. ~ Nadine Burke Harris,
743:An immune system of enormous complexity is present in all vertebrate animals. When we place a population of lymphocytes from such an animal in appropriate tissue culture fluid, and when we add an antigen, the lymphocytes will produce specific antibody molecules, in the absense of any nerve cells. I find it astonishing that the immune system embodies a degree of complexity which suggests some more or less superficial though striking analogies with human language, and that this cognitive system has evolved and functions without assistance of the brain. ~ Niels Kaj Jerne,
744:The early researchers described em-tracking as a hardware upgrade for the nervous system, maybe the result of a genetic shift, possibly a fast adaptation, Studies revealed an assortment of cognitive improvements: acute perceptual sensitivity, rapid data acquisition, high speed pattern recognition. The biggest change was in future prediction. Normally, the human brain is a selfish prognosticator, built to trace an individual’s path into the future. The em-tracker’s brain offers a wider oracle, capable of following a whole culture’s path into the future. ~ Steven Kotler,
745:When you evolve a thinking creature, you evolve a creature that will think about all sorts of things, including its place in the universe (too low), its path (too hard), its accomplishments (too few), its hopes (too dashed), and its day (both too busy and too empty at the same time). It will think all sorts of things—including a bevy of unreasonable, reasonable thoughts. A thinking creature that is not provided with an off switch or with a simple cognitive regulator will just think on, turning itself into more of a brooding machine than a thinking machine ~ Eric Maisel,
746:It is possible to be a fan of reality TV, talent shows and bubblegum pop and still have a brain. You will also see that a great many people know perfectly well how silly and camp and trivial their fandom is. They do not check in their minds when they enter a fan site. Judgement is not necessarily fled to brutish beasts, and men have not quite lost their reason. Which is all a way of questioning whether pop-culture hero worship is really so psychically damaging, so erosive of cognitive faculties, so corrupting of the soul of mankind as we are so often told. ~ Stephen Fry,
747:This isn't the first time I've used this, and the test subject showed no signs of impaired cognitive ability."
"Who was the test subject?" asked Aurora.
"I test everything out on myself before taking it into the field."
She stared at him. "You zapped your own brain?"
"And it didn't do me any harm apart from the dizziness and the vomiting spells and the weirdly persistent ringing in my ears. Also the blackouts and the mood swings and the creeping paranoia. Apart from that, zero side effects, if you don't count the numb fingertips. Which I don't. ~ Derek Landy,
748:The emergence of a unified cognitive moment relies on the coordination of scattered mosaics of functionally specialized brain regions. Here we review the mechanisms of large-scale integration that counterbalance the distributed anatomical and functional organization of brain activity to enable the emergence of coherent behaviour and cognition. Although the mechanisms involved in large-scale integration are still largely unknown, we argue that the most plausible candidate is the formation of dynamic links mediated by synchrony over multiple frequency bands. ~ Francisco Varela,
749:Such terms as 'diagnosis' and 'pathology' are of course used analogically here, but I am using the word 'science' deliberate and unequivocally in its original and broad sense of discovery and knowing, rather than its conventional sense of isolating the secondary causes of natural phenomena. For if I believe anything, it is that the primary business of literature and art is cognitive, a kind of finding out and knowing and telling, both in good times and bad; a celebration of the way things are when they are right, and a diagnostic enterprise when they are wrong. ~ Walker Percy,
750:Flashbulb memories are as flawed as regular recollections. They are the product of reconstruction. Ulrich Neisser, one of the pioneers in the field of cognitive science, investigated them. In 1986, the day after the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle, he asked students to write essays detailing their reactions. Three years later, he interviewed them again. Less than seven per cent of the new data correlated with the initial submissions. In fact, 50% of the recollections were incorrect in two-thirds of the points, and 25% failed to match even a single detail. ~ Rolf Dobelli,
751:In my research, I have discovered practical, effective ways to do so. I’ll explain more in chapter 11, but for now let it suffice to say that you can modify your Emotional Style to improve your resilience, social intuition, sensitivity to your own internal emotional and physiological states, coping mechanisms, attention, and sense of well-being. The amazing fact is that through mental activity alone we can intentionally change our own brains. Mental activity, ranging from meditation to cognitive-behavior therapy, can alter brain function in specific circuits, ~ Richard J Davidson,
752:The various causes of ease or strain have interchangeable effects. When you are in a state of cognitive ease, you are probably in a good mood, like what you see, believe what you hear, trust your intuition, and feel that the current situation is comfortably familiar. You are also likely to be relatively casual and superficial in your thinking. When you feel strained, you are more likely to be vigilant and suspicious, invest more effort in what you are doing, feel less comfortable, and make fewer errors, but you also are less intuitive and less creative as usual. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
753:manic-depressive illness can confer advantages on both the individual and society. The disease, in both its severe and less severe forms, appears to convey its advantages not only through its relationship to the artistic temperament and imagination, but through its influence on many eminent scientists, as well as business, religious, military, and political leaders. Subtler effects—such as those on personality, thinking style, and energy—are also involved because it is a common illness with a wide range of temperamental, behavioral, and cognitive expression. ~ Kay Redfield Jamison,
754:The various causes of ease or strain have interchangeable effects. When you are in a state of cognitive ease, you are probably in a good mood, like what you see, believe what you hear, trust your intuitions, and feel that the current situation is comfortably familiar. You are also likely to be relatively casual and superficial in your thinking. When you feel strained, you are more likely to be vigilant and suspicious, invest more effort in what you are doing, feel less comfortable, and make fewer errors, but you also are less intuitive and less creative than usual. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
755:When we understand all that constitutes the cognitive unconscious, our understanding of the nature of consciousness is vastly enlarged. Consciousness goes way beyond mere awareness of something, beyond the mere experience of qualia, beyond the awareness that you are aware, and beyond the multiple takes on immediate experience provided by various centers of the brain. Consciousness certainly involves all of the above plus the immeasurably vaster constitutive framework provided by the cognitive unconscious, which must be operating for us to be aware of anything at all. ~ George Lakoff,
756:The cognitive capacities of near-term fetuses are even more remarkable. For example, fetuses can distinguish between two pairs of nonsense syllables (“biba” versus “babi”). How do you know? Get this—Mom says “Biba, biba, biba” repeatedly while fetal heart rate is monitored. “Boring (or perhaps lulling),” thinks the fetus, and heart rate slows. Then Mom switches to “babi.” If the fetus doesn’t distinguish between the two, heart rate deceleration continues. But if the difference is noted—“Whoa, what happened?”—heart rate increases. Which is what DeCasper reported.61 ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
757:Does the actual experience count for nothing? Confusing experience with the memory of it is a compelling cognitive illusion—and it is the substitution that makes us believe a past experience can be ruined. The experiencing self does not have a voice. The remembering self is sometimes wrong, but it is the one that keeps score and governs what we learn from living, and it is the one that makes decisions. What we learn from the past is to maximize the qualities of our future memories, not necessarily of our future experience. This is the tyranny of the remembering self. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
758:hope is not an emotion; it’s a way of thinking or a cognitive process. Emotions play a supporting role, but hope is really a thought process made up of what Snyder calls a trilogy of goals, pathways, and agency.4 In very simple terms, hope happens when We have the ability to set realistic goals (I know where I want to go). We are able to figure out how to achieve those goals, including the ability to stay flexible and develop alternative routes (I know how to get there, I’m persistent, and I can tolerate disappointment and try again). We believe in ourselves (I can do this!). ~ Bren Brown,
759:Not all love is comprehended in such a description, but the sickening
obsession which thrills the nervous frames of the heroines of
great love-affairs whether in cheap ‘romance’ comic-papers or in
hard-back novels of passionate wooing is just that. Women must
recognize in the cheap ideology of being in love the essential persuasion
to take an irrational and self-destructive step. Such obsession
has nothing to do with love, for love is not swoon, possession or
mania, but ‘a cognitive act, indeed the only way to grasp the innermost
core of personality. ~ Germaine Greer,
760:The defense of the Western Canon is in no way a defense of the West or a nationalist enterprise. . . . The greatest enemies of aesthetic and cognitive standards are purported defenders who blather to us about moral and political values in literature. We do not live by the ethics of the Iliad, or by the politics of Plato. Those who teach interpretation have more in common with the Sophists than with Socrates. What can we expect Shakespeare to do for our semiruined society, since the function of Shakespearean drama has so little to do with civic virtue or social justice? ~ Harold Bloom,
761:The Number of Hours You Sleep Each Night—One of the fastest ways to hurt your brain is to get fewer than seven or eight hours of sleep at night. People who typically get six hours or fewer of sleep have lower overall blood flow to the brain, which hurts its function. Researchers from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and the University of Pennsylvania found that chronically getting fewer than eight hours of sleep was associated with cognitive decline. Strive to get at least seven or eight hours of sleep a night. There are hypnosis audios on the Amen Solution @ Home. ~ Daniel G Amen,
762:And it works. There have now been many studies of elite performers—international violinists, chess grand masters, professional ice-skaters, mathematicians, and so forth—and the biggest difference researchers find between them and lesser performers is the cumulative amount of deliberate practice they’ve had. Indeed, the most important talent may be the talent for practice itself. K. Anders Ericsson, a cognitive psychologist and expert on performance, notes that the most important way in which innate factors play a role may be in one’s willingness to engage in sustained training. ~ Atul Gawande,
763:Of course, the brain is a machine and a computer—everything in classical neurology is correct. But our mental processes, which constitute our being and life, are not just abstract and mechanical, but personal, as well—and, as such, involve not just classifying and categorising, but continual judging and feeling also. If this is missing, we become computer-like, as Dr P. was. And, by the same token, if we delete feeling and judging, the personal, from the cognitive sciences, we reduce them to something as defective as Dr P.—and we reduce our apprehension of the concrete and real. ~ Oliver Sacks,
764:The difficulty in judging what type of behavior works well arises not only because a given course of action does not always produce the outcomes. Similar outcomes can occur for reasons other than the person's actions, which further complicates inferential judgment. Effects that arise independently of one's actions distort the influence of similar effects produced by the actions, but only on some occasions. Given a strong cognitive set to perceive regularities, even chance joint occurrences of events can be easily misjudged as genuine relationships of low contingent probability ~ Albert Bandura,
765:The idea behind the meta-induction is that all of our theories are fundamentally provisional and quite possibly wrong, if we can add that idea to our cognitive toolkit, we will be better able to listen with curiosity and empathy to those whose theories contradict our own. We will be better able to pay attention to counterevidence - those anomalous bits of data that make our picture of the world a little weirder, more mysterious, less clean, less done. And we will be able to hold our own beliefs a bit more humbly, in the knowledge that better ideas are almost certainly on the way. ~ Kathryn Schulz,
766:In short, Strict Father morality requires perfect, precise, literal communication, together with a form of behaviorism. Thus, Strict Father morality requires that four conditions on the human mind and human behavior must be met: 1. Absolute categorization: Everything is either in or out of a category. 2. Literality: All moral rules must be literal. 3. Perfect communication: The hearer receives exactly the same meaning as the speaker intends to communicate. 4. Folk behaviorism: According to human nature, people normally act effectively to get rewards and avoid punishments. Cognitive ~ George Lakoff,
767:According to Casiglia, if such effects were better understood they could have a range of potential medical applications. We might use hypnosis to boost blood flow to the brain (protecting against cognitive impairment as we age); to the extremities (to help people with poor circulation in their hands and feet); or even to direct a toxic drug to a particular part of the body. At the moment, this last one “is science fiction,” Casiglia admits, but not completely inconceivable—he says he has recently found that hypnotized volunteers can increase blood supply to their intestines on demand. ~ Jo Marchant,
768:The mental cognitive processes that we're targeting are ones that narrow human beings' repertoire and make it harder for them to learn to be more flexible, to take advantage of the opportunities in front of them. We can have something to help with in areas like child development or organizations and schools, or maybe even how peoples interact with each other, one to the other. We've taken the work into things like prejudice and stigma, because if we can't solve that we have planes flying into buildings. So it applies broadly because anywhere that a human mind goes these processes go. ~ Steven C Hayes,
769:Ultimately, of course, you must decide for yourself whether the subjective psychological effects created by your evolved cognitive biases reflect an objective reality, perhaps as evidence that God designed your mind to be so receptive to Him. Or, just maybe, you will come to acknowledge that, like the rest of us, you are a hopeless pawn in one of natural selection's most successful hoaxes ever-and smile at the sheer ingenuity involved in pulling it off, at the very thought of such mindless cleverness. One can still enjoy the illusion of God, after all, without believing Him to be real. ~ Jesse Bering,
770:Consider your reaction the first time you sipped a beer or tried spicy food. Was it tasty? Unlikely. Our bodies are designed to reject alcohol and capsaicin, the compound that creates the sensation of heat in spicy food. Our innate reaction to these acquired tastes is to reject them, and yet, we learn to like them through repeated exposure. We see others enjoying them, try a little more, and over time condition ourselves. To avoid the cognitive dissonance of not liking something in which others seem to take so much pleasure, we slowly change our perception of the thing we once did not enjoy. ~ Nir Eyal,
771:Joseph Schumpeter emphasized that all analysis in economics is preceded by a pre-analytical cognitive act, called vision, in which the analyst ‘visualise[s] a distinct set of coherent phenomena as a worth-while object of [his] analytic efforts’. He pointed out that ‘this vision is ideological almost by definition’, as ‘the way in which we see things can hardly be distinguished from the way in which we wish to see them’. The quote is from J. Schumpeter, History of Economic Analysis (New York: Oxford University Press, 1954), pp. 41–2. I thank William Milberg for pointing me to this quote. ~ Ha Joon Chang,
772:[Patricia Greenfield] concluded that “every medium develops some cognitive skills at the expense of others.” Our growing use of the Net and other screen-based technologies has led to the “widespread and sophisticated development of visual-spatial skills.” We can, for example, rotate objects in our minds better than we used to be able to. But our “new strengths in visual-spatial intelligence” go hand in hand with a weakening of our capacities for the kind of “deep processing” that underpins “mindful knowledge acquisition, inductive analysis, critical thinking, imagination, and reflection. ~ Nicholas Carr,
773:Communication does not include any transfer of products or knowledge from one system to another, but is based on the reorientation of the indigenous processes—in other words, the cognitive domain, or the mind—of a system by the self-presentation of another system and the processes which are indigenous to it. The verbal description of a colorful sunset transmits nothing of the real experience, if not by way of remembering a comparable experience of one’s own. In other words, cognition falls here together with re-cognition, presentation becomes re-presentation. ~ Erich Jantsch, The Self-Organizing Universe,
774:The experimenters recruited 40 Princeton students to take the CRT. Half of them saw the puzzles in a small font in washed-out gray print. The puzzles were legible, but the font induced cognitive strain. The results tell a clear story: 90% of the students who saw the CRT in normal font made at least one mistake in the test, but the proportion dropped to 35% when the font was barely legible. You read this correctly: performance was better with the bad font. Cognitive strain, whatever its source, mobilizes System 2, which is more likely to reject the intuitive answer suggested by System 1. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
775:If an epileptic seizure is focused in a particular sweet spot in the temporal lobe, a person won´t have motor seizures, but instead something more subtle. The effect is something like a cognitive seizure, marked by changes of personality, hyperreligiosity (an obsession with religion and feelings of religious certainity), hypergraphia (extensive writing on a subject, usually about religion), the false sense of an external presence, and, often, the hearing voices that are attributed to a god. Some fraction of history´s prophets, martyrs, and leaders appear to have had temporal lobe epilepsy. ~ David Eagleman,
776:It is an undeniable fact of biology that our brains are strictly limited, like the brains of all other creatures. Every brain must suffer from cognitive closure with regard to a host of issues that are simply beyond it, unimaginable and unfathomable. We don't have a miraculous res cognitans between our ears, but just lots of brain tissue subjects to the laws of physics and biology.

It would be profoundly unbiological-wouldn't it?-to suppose that our human brains were somewhat exempt from these natural limits. Such delusions of grandeur are obsolete relics from our prescientific past. ~ Noam Chomsky,
777:Robotics, however, is much more difficult. It requires a delicate interplay of mechanical engineering, perception AI, and fine-motor manipulation. These are all solvable problems, but not at nearly the speed at which pure software is being built to handle white-collar cognitive tasks. Once that robot is built, it must also be tested, sold, shipped, installed, and maintained on-site. Adjustments to the robot’s underlying algorithms can sometimes be made remotely, but any mechanical hiccups require hands-on work with the machine. All these frictions will slow down the pace of robotic automation. ~ Kai Fu Lee,
778:The government ought to help out, because the average citizen can't go out and be doing reviews of the scientific literature. And focus on the processes that have low side effects and good long-term outcomes. Right now you're going to find those in the psychosocial area, in the therapy area, in the empirically supported treatments such as ACT or cognitive behavior therapy, behavior therapy. And go there first rather than going to the pill bottle as if it's going to be the end of your journey. Very often it's only going to help, and even only to a minor degree, and more is going to be needed. ~ Steven C Hayes,
779:Treatment Plans and Interventions for Depression and Anxiety Disorders provides clinicians with essential guidelines to treat patients in the era of managed care. Seven psychiatric disorders are described and conceptualized in cognitive-behavioral terms. The authors then provided an unusually clear, reader-friendly description of how to assess and treat each disorder with illustrative case examples, and patient forms and handouts. It should prove very useful for clinicians or clinicians-in-training who want to learn how to conduct short-term treatment through an empirically validated approach. ~ Judith S Beck,
780:Sadly, our educational system, as well as many of the methods that profess to treat trauma, tend to bypass this emotional-engagement system and focus instead on recruiting the cognitive capacities of the mind. Despite the well-documented effects of anger, fear, and anxiety on the ability to reason, many programs continue to ignore the need to engage the safety system of the brain before trying to promote new ways of thinking. The last things that should be cut from school schedules are chorus, physical education, recess, and anything else involving movement, play, and joyful engagement. ~ Bessel A van der Kolk,
781:Teaching has to deal not so much with lack of knowledge as with resistances to knowledge. Ignorance, suggests Jacques Lacan, is a “passion.” Inasmuch as traditional pedagogy postulated a desire for knowledge, an analytically informed pedagogy has to reckon with the passion for ignorance.22 Felman elaborates further on the productive nature of ignorance, arguing: “Ignorance is nothing other than a desire to ignore: its nature is less cognitive than performative … it is not a simple lack of information but the incapacity — or the refusal — to acknowledge one’s own implication in the information. ~ Henry A Giroux,
782:The quality of mind cultivated in vipassana is almost always referred to as “mindfulness,” and the literature on its psychological benefits is now substantial. There is nothing spooky about mindfulness. It is simply a state of clear, nonjudgmental, and undistracted attention to the contents of consciousness, whether pleasant or unpleasant. Cultivating this quality of mind has been shown to reduce pain, anxiety, and depression; improve cognitive function; and even produce changes in gray matter density in regions of the brain related to learning and memory, emotional regulation, and self-awareness.12 ~ Sam Harris,
783:this regard, a hotly disputed topic is whether the spiritual/transpersonal stages themselves can be conceived as higher levels of cognitive development. The answer, I have suggested, depends on what you mean by “cognitive.” If you mean what most Western psychologists mean—which is a mental conceptual knowledge of exterior objects—then no, higher or spiritual stages are not mental cognition, because they are often supramental, transconceptual, and nonexterior. If by “cognitive” you mean “consciousness in general,” including superconscious states, then much of higher spiritual experience is indeed cognitive. ~ Ken Wilber,
784:After thirty years of intensive research, we can now answer many of the questions posed earlier. The recycle rate of a human being is around sixteen hours. After sixteen hours of being awake, the brain begins to fail. Humans need more than seven hours of sleep each night to maintain cognitive performance. After ten days of just seven hours of sleep, the brain is as dysfunctional as it would be after going without sleep for twenty-four hours. Three full nights of recovery sleep (i.e., more nights than a weekend) are insufficient to restore performance back to normal levels after a week of short sleeping. ~ Matthew Walker,
785:Clever deceivers rarely tell outright falsehoods. It’s too risky. The art of deception is closely related to the magician’s craft: it involves knowing how to draw attention to a harmless place, to deflect it away from the action. Deeply entrenched patterns of perceptual, emotional, and cognitive dispositions serve as instruments of deception. A skilled deceiver is an illusionist who knows how to manipulate the normal patterns of what is salient to their audience. He places salient markers—something red, something anomalous, something desirable—in the visual field, to draw attention just where he wants it. ~ Clancy Martin,
786:Hence there is no free admission to the process of enlightenment - it is always paid at a psycho-traumatic cost. Only such individuals as always already bring along much more injury than could be caused by mere cognitive attacks on their narcissistic system have an apparently free backstage pass to it. Such candidates, like the highly talented of a special type, obtain their degree in wound studies free of charge. For them psychical sacrifices that only affect the cognitive immunity-shield appear to be forms of relief - for which reason they move about in the region of obscure theory like fish in water. ~ Peter Sloterdijk,
787:I was shocked to discover that hope is not an emotion; it’s a way of thinking or a cognitive process. Emotions play a supporting role, but hope is really a thought process made up of what Snyder calls a trilogy of goals, pathways, and agency.4 In very simple terms, hope happens when We have the ability to set realistic goals (I know where I want to go). We are able to figure out how to achieve those goals, including the ability to stay flexible and develop alternative routes (I know how to get there, I’m persistent, and I can tolerate disappointment and try again). We believe in ourselves (I can do this!). So, ~ Bren Brown,
788:When an entire cohort unintentionally eliminated time alone with their thoughts from their lives, their mental health suffered dramatically. On reflection, this makes sense. These teenagers have lost the ability to process and make sense of their emotions, or to reflect on who they are and what really matters, or to build strong relationships, or even to just allow their brains time to power down their critical social circuits, which are not meant to be used constantly, and to redirect that energy to other important cognitive housekeeping tasks. We shouldn’t be surprised that these absences lead to malfunctions. ~ Cal Newport,
789:What separates experts from the rest of us is that they tend to engage in a very directed, highly focused routine, which Ericsson has labeled “deliberate practice.” Having studied the best of the best in many different fields, he has found that top achievers tend to follow the same general pattern of development. They develop strategies for consciously keeping out of the autonomous stage while they practice by doing three things: focusing on their technique, staying goal-oriented, and getting constant and immediate feedback on their performance. In other words, they force themselves to stay in the “cognitive phase. ~ Joshua Foer,
790:Time after time, video games have proven able to bring out the attentional resources in people that they never suspected they had. And what’s more, the kind of sustained attention and newfound appreciation of detail that emerges from the process of engagement can then transfer to other domains, beyond the screen. Cognitive neuroscientists Daphné Bavelier and C. Shawn Green, for instance, have found repeatedly that socalled “action” video games—games characterized by high speed, high perceptual and motor load, upredictability, and the need for peripheral processing—enhance visual attention, low-level vision, processing ~ Anonymous,
791:The social psychologist Tom Gilovich studies the cognitive mechanisms of strange beliefs. His simple formulation is that when we want to believe something, we ask ourselves, “Can I believe it?”28 Then (as Kuhn and Perkins found), we search for supporting evidence, and if we find even a single piece of pseudo-evidence, we can stop thinking. We now have permission to believe. We have a justification, in case anyone asks. In contrast, when we don’t want to believe something, we ask ourselves, “Must I believe it?” Then we search for contrary evidence, and if we find a single reason to doubt the claim, we can dismiss it. ~ Jonathan Haidt,
792:Who could possibly miss these questions? As it turns out, most people do. This includes the leading scholars in many top departments of psychology and linguistics around the world. Your high school English teachers would have done no better. How about you? The answers are: 1. a; 2. c; 3. b; 4. c; 5. a; 6. a. Women use first-person singular, cognitive, and social words more; men use articles more; and there are no meaningful differences between men and women for first-person plural or positive emotion words. If you are like most people, you probably got the social words question right and missed most of the others. ~ James W Pennebaker,
793:(1) people have considerable trouble learning to use computers (e.g., Mack, Lewis and Carroll, 1983; Mantei and Haskell, 1983), and (2) their skill tends to asymptote at relative mediocrity (Nielsen, Mack, Bergendorff, and Grischkowsky, 1986; Pope, 1985; Rosson, 1983). These phenomena could be viewed as being due merely to “bad” design in current systems. We argue that they are in part more fundamental than this, deriving from conflicting motivational and cognitive strategies. Accordingly, (1) and (2) are best viewed not as design problems to be solved, but as true paradoxes that necessitate programmatic tradeoff solutions. ~ Anonymous,
794:researchers have identified a number of objective measures of fluency, such as speech rate (e.g. syllables per minute), number and length of pauses, length of runs, and so on, and, while there is still disagreement as to which of these are the most reliable indicators of fluency, we are now much better equipped to test it. To test it, but not necessarily to teach it. These objective measures are, after all, only the surface features of fluency, and do not tell us a lot about the cognitive and social processes that underpin it. You can’t teach learners how not to pause, unless you know why they are pausing in the first place. ~ Scott Thornbury,
795:1. The clear and quantitative physical differences among people in size,
strength, speed, agility, coordination, and other physical attributes that
translates into some being more successful than others, and that at least
half of these differences are inherited.
2. The clear and quantitative intellectual differences among people in
memory, problem solving ability, cognitive speed, mathematical talent,
spatial reasoning, verbal skills, emotional intelligence, and other mental
attributes that translates into some being more successful than others,
and that at least half of these differences are inherited. ~ Michael Shermer,
796:Anyone who values truth should stop worshipping reason. We all need to take a cold hard look at the evidence and see reasoning for what it is. The French cognitive scientists Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber recently reviewed the vast research literature on motivated reasoning (in social psychology) and on the biases and errors of reasoning (in cognitive psychology). They concluded that most of the bizarre and depressing research findings make perfect sense once you see reasoning as having evolved not to help us find truth but to help us engage in arguments, persuasion, and manipulation in the context of discussions with other people. As ~ Jonathan Haidt,
797:There is no consensus amongst philosophers about what the word "rationality" even means. According to one tradition, for instance, rationality is the application of logic, of pure thought untempered by emotions; this pure, objective thought is then seen as the basis of scientific inquiry. This has attained a great deal of popular purchase, but there's a fundamental problem: scientific inquiry itself has proved it cannot possibly be true. Cognitive psychologists have demonstrated again and again that there is no such thing as pure thought divorced from emotions; a human being without emotions would not be able to think at all. (p. 165) ~ David Graeber,
798:In describing how we think and decide, modern psychologists often deploy a dual-system model that partitions our mental universe into two domains. System 2 is the familiar realm of conscious thought. It consists of everything we choose to focus on. By contrast, System 1 is largely a stranger to us. It is the realm of automatic perceptual and cognitive operations—like those you are running right now to transform the print on this page into a meaningful sentence or to hold the book while reaching for a glass and taking a sip. We have no awareness of these rapid-fire processes but we could not function without them. We would shut down. ~ Philip E Tetlock,
799:The cognitive sophistication of a mammalian species, in fact, is nicely predicted by the extent of the convergence that occurs in its cortex-more is present in humans than in monkeys, and more in monkeys than in rats. When plasticity occurs simultaneously in two regions that fed into a convergence zone, plasticity is also likely to occur in the convergence zone since it will be the recipient of the high level of activity that occurs when plasticity is being established in the individual regions. Obviously, synchrony and modulation also influence convergence zones, further increasing their potential to integrate information across systems. ~ Joseph E LeDoux,
800:The first event occurred somewhere between seventy and forty-five thousand years ago. Somewhere on Earth, a human developed a new ability. A cognitive breakthrough. They possessed a mind that thought differently. That human had the ability to imagine something that didn’t already exist. Our predecessors created tools, but those were mostly reactive, incremental steps that were almost obvious. This event signified the birth of fiction—a mind that could literally simulate a reality that didn’t exist. A reality radically different from the human’s own. This human could render possible futures, imagine what life would be like if something existed. ~ A G Riddle,
801:In asking philosophical questions, we use a reason shaped by the body, a cognitive unconscious to which we have no direct access, and metaphorical thought of which we are largely unaware. The fact that abstract thought is mostly metaphorical means that answers to philosophical questions have always been, and always will be, mostly metaphorical. In itself, that is neither good nor bad. It is simply a fact about the capacities of the human mind. But it has major consequences for every aspect of philosophy. Metaphorical thought is the principal tool that makes philosophical insight possible and that constrains the forms that philosophy can take. ~ George Lakoff,
802:Then there’s the issue of cognitive capacity. Deep work is exhausting because it pushes you toward the limit of your abilities. Performance psychologists have extensively studied how much such efforts can be sustained by an individual in a given day.* In their seminal paper on deliberate practice, Anders Ericsson and his collaborators survey these studies. They note that for someone new to such practice (citing, in particular, a child in the early stages of developing an expert-level skill), an hour a day is a reasonable limit. For those familiar with the rigors of such activities, the limit expands to something like four hours, but rarely more. ~ Cal Newport,
803:When we apologize for something we’ve done, make amends, or change a behavior that doesn’t align with our values, guilt—not shame—is most often the driving force. We feel guilty when we hold up something we’ve done or failed to do against our values and find they don’t match up. It’s an uncomfortable feeling, but one that’s helpful. The psychological discomfort, something similar to cognitive dissonance, is what motivates meaningful change. Guilt is just as powerful as shame, but its influence is positive, while shame’s is destructive. In fact, in my research I found that shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we can change and do better. ~ Bren Brown,
804:We choose not to work when we should be looking for jobs. Sometimes we’ll get a job, but it won’t last. We’ll get fired for tardiness, or for stealing merchandise and selling it on eBay, or for having a customer complain about the smell of alcohol on our breath, or for taking five thirty-minute restroom breaks per shift. We talk about the value of hard work but tell ourselves that the reason we’re not working is some perceived unfairness: Obama shut down the coal mines, or all the jobs went to the Chinese. These are the lies we tell ourselves to solve the cognitive dissonance—the broken connection between the world we see and the values we preach. We ~ J D Vance,
805:WITH the acquisition of upright, free locomotion and with the closely following attainment of that stage of cognitive development that Piaget (1936) regards as the beginning of representational intelligence (which will culminate in symbolic play and in speech), the human being has emerged as a separate and autonomous person. These two powerful “organizers” (Spitz, 1965) constitute the midwives of psychological birth. In this final stage of the “hatching” process, the toddler reaches the first level of identity—that of being a separate individual entity (Mahler, 19586). By the middle of the second year of life, the infant has become a toddler. ~ Margaret S Mahler,
806:Many researchers, who have been conditioned to using cognitive models, might not initially see the difference between “levels” and “layers.” With levels, processes are sequential (or, as electrical engineers would say, “in series”), while with a layered architecture, processing goes on simultaneously (“in parallel”). When processing through levels, all the steps are performed one after another, like a baton relay. You need one level to finish before the next one up can start. Processing in layers, on the other hand, can have all the runners leave at the same time and go different places. This change in architecture makes for big differences. ~ Michael S Gazzaniga,
807:A quick summary of Sāṁkhya might go like this: the mysterious pure consciousness, puruṣa, somehow interfaces with the buddhi, which generates an ego-making function. This manifests the dividing-constructing and symbol-making mind, which takes in and organizes data from the senses and sends actions and reactions back out into the world through organs of action like the hands. The world is composed of the five gross elements and other puruṣa-prakṛti cognitive systems called other sentient beings. All of this is an interweaving of the energetic strands of the three guṇas, strands that stretch as a unified whole, a tapestry or network of time itself. ~ Richard Freeman,
808:The person’s cognitive distortions get triggered, and all kinds of extreme thoughts may get generated, including allegations of abuse by you. People with BP tendencies seem to desire the elimination of the other parent as much as possible, stating that you’re a “threat” to the child for some reason, and you need supervised visitation or no contact. Since these types of orders are used only when there are serious abuse allegations, people with BP or NP traits often make very serious abuse allegations. This entire process may be totally unconscious, although some blamers are willing to make knowingly false statements to accomplish their desperate goals. ~ Randi Kreger,
809:Time no longer belongs to the individual, and the capitalist no longer buys the personal life of individuals; instead, people are erased from the space of work, and time is turned into a vortex of depersonalized, fragmentary substance that can be acquired by the capitalist and recombined by the network-machine. Cognitive labour in particular – the work of information and imagination – is particularly susceptible to the precariousness rule. Being immaterial and purely informational, this kind of work does not need to be localized in a physical space. It can be transferred, fragmented, fractured and finally recombined in the abstract space of the internet. ~ Anonymous,
810:Racetams are some of the best studied and the oldest cognitive-enhancing pharmaceuticals on the planet, and they have very few side effects. The first of this class of very safe drugs is called piracetam, and I took it for a few years before switching to more recently evolved versions. Four different well-constructed studies show that piracetam improves mitochondrial function.19 In fact, I believe this may be one of its important mechanisms of action, one that is overlooked in most of its descriptions. This is one of the safest pharmaceuticals on the market, and it makes your brain and your mitochondria work better. I recommend two forms of this drug that ~ Dave Asprey,
811:Consider a cognitive scientist concerned with the empirical study of the mind, especially the cognitive unconscious, and ultimately committed to understanding the mind in terms of the brain and its neural structure. To such a scientist of the mind, Anglo-American approaches to the philosophy of mind and language of the sort discussed above seem odd indeed. The brain uses neurons, not languagelike symbols. Neural computation works by real-time spreading activation, which is neither akin to prooflike deductions in a mathematical
logic, nor like disembodied algorithms in classical artificial intelligence, nor like derivations in a transformational grammar. ~ George Lakoff,
812:It’s difficult to get our heads around the idea that each bubble has its own capacity to evoke that feeling of being conscious; it rubs up against our own intuitions about the holistic nature of our personal consciousness. What are we and our intuitions missing? We are missing the illusion part, the part we humans (with our powerful left hemisphere inference mechanism) are so good at missing. We aren’t actually missing the illusion; rather, we are missing the fact that our smoothly flowing consciousness is itself an illusion. In reality it is made up of cognitive bubbles linked with subcortical “feeling” bubbles, stitched together by our brain in time. ~ Michael S Gazzaniga,
813:People who are told that they have performed poorly on a test of social intelligence think extra hard to find reasons to discount the test; people who are asked to read a study showing that one of their habits—such as drinking coffee—is unhealthy think extra hard to find flaws in the study, flaws that people who don’t drink coffee don’t notice. Over and over again, studies show that people set out on a cognitive mission to bring back reasons to support their preferred belief or action. And because we are usually successful in this mission, we end up with the illusion of objectivity. We really believe that our position is rationally and objectively justified. ~ Jonathan Haidt,
814:Another prominent machine-learning skeptic is the linguist Noam Chomsky. Chomsky believes that language must be innate, because the examples of grammatical sentences children hear are not enough to learn a grammar. This only puts the burden of learning language on evolution, however; it does not argue against the Master Algorithm but only against it being something like the brain. Moreover, if a universal grammar exists (as Chomsky believes), elucidating it is a step toward elucidating the Master Algorithm. The only way this is not the case is if language has nothing in common with other cognitive abilities, which is implausible given its evolutionary recency. ~ Pedro Domingos,
815:Imagination is not fragile. It feeds off flaws, difficulties, and problems. Insulating ourselves from failures—whether via brainstorming guidelines, the familiar cultural taboo on criticism, or the influence of cognitive dissonance*—is to rob one of our most valuable mental faculties of fuel. “It always starts with a problem,” Dyson says. “I hated vacuum cleaners for twenty years, but I hated hand dryers for even longer. If they had worked perfectly, I would have had no motivation to come up with a new solution. But more important, I would not have had the context to offer a creative solution. Failures feed the imagination. You cannot have the one without the other. ~ Matthew Syed,
816:In a fascinating study, Barrett (1999) demonstrated that children as young as three
years of age have a sophisticated cognitive understanding of predator-prey encounters. Children from both an industrialized culture and a traditional hunter-horticulturalist culture were
able to spontaneously describe the flow of events in a predator-prey encounter in an ecologically accurate way. Moreover, they understood that after a lion kills a prey, the prey is no longer alive, can no longer eat, and can no longer run and that the dead state is permanent.
This sophisticated understanding of death from encounters with predators appears to be developed by age three to four. ~ David M Buss,
817:Don’t startle her,” Dr. Inglis said.
“Don’t startle--?” he squeaked. “That--that’s a mountain lion.”
“She has the birthmark. It’s Maya.”
“I don’t care. It’s a goddamned mountain lion.”
“I know. Isn’t she beautiful? A young cougar in perfect physical condition. Did you see that leap? She must have been riding on the roof earlier. She climbed the tree to get on it. Do you know what that means?”
“Do I care what that--?”
“She planned this. There’s no loss of cognitive function. She’s an intelligent young woman in the body of one of the world’s finest predators. This is what we’ve been working toward. This is everything we’ve dreamed--”
I pounced. ~ Kelley Armstrong,
818:As for employees working at organizations who treat all people the same way, it will be up to you to push for the things you value: the balance of vacation time versus pay, a flexible schedule, the way your role within the company works. If you’re a manager, make a list of the cognitive strengths of your team. Some of your employees may be great at memorizing things. Others may be better at quantitative tasks. Some have good people skills. Some don’t. Assigning work projects based on an employee’s strengths may be critical to your group’s productivity. You may discover you had a Michael Jordan on your team but couldn’t see it because you were only asking him to play baseball. ~ John Medina,
819:More and more frequently, we will find ourselves in the position of the lower animals—with a mental apparatus that is unequipped to deal thoroughly with the intricacy and richness of the outside environment. Unlike the animals, whose cognitive powers have always been relatively deficient, we have created our own deficiency by constructing a radically more complex world. But the consequence of our new deficiency is the same as that of the animals’ long-standing one. When making a decision, we will less frequently enjoy the luxury of a fully considered analysis of the total situation but will revert increasingly to a focus on a single, usually reliable feature of it. When ~ Robert B Cialdini,
820:This means that under competition, the race will naturally run to the bottom; attention will almost invariably gravitate to the more garish, lurid, outrageous alternative, whatever stimulus may more likely engage what cognitive scientists call our “automatic” attention as opposed to our “controlled” attention, the kind we direct with intent.5 The race to a bottomless bottom, appealing to what one might call the audience’s baser instincts, poses a fundamental, continual dilemma for the attention merchant—just how far will he go to get his harvest? If the history of attention capture teaches us anything, it is that the limits are often theoretical, and when real, rarely self-imposed. ~ Tim Wu,
821:Simon Baron-Cohen, The Science of Evil; Judith Beck, Cognitive Behavior Therapy; Louis Cozolino, The Making of a Therapist; Kevin Dutton, The Wisdom of Psychopaths; James Fallon, The Psychopath Inside; Peter and Ginger Ross Breggin, Talking Back to Prozac; Robert D. Hare, Without Conscience; Kent Kiehl, The Psychopath Whisperer; Jane McGregor and Tim McGregor, The Sociopath at the Breakfast Table; J. Reid Meloy, The Psychopathic Mind; Dinah Miller, Annette Hanson, and Steven Roy Daviss, Shrink Rap; Daniel Smith, Monkey Mind; Scott Stossel, My Age of Anxiety; Martha Stout, The Sociopath Next Door; M. E. Thomas, Confessions of a Sociopath; and Robert Whitaker, Mad in America. ~ Lisa Scottoline,
822:The success of cognitive behavioral therapy is well known; many people consider it the most effective therapy for depression. What is not widely known, at least in the United States, is that you don’t need a therapist to do it. Scores of studies have found that online C.B.T. works as well as conventional face-to-face cognitive behavioral therapy – as long a there is occasional human support or coaching. “For common mental disorders like anxiety and depression, there is no evidence Internet-based treatment is less effective than face-to-face therapy,” said Pim Cuijpers, professor of clinical psychology at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and a leading researcher on computer C.B.T. ~ Anonymous,
823:In 2004, researchers Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson published Character Strengths and Virtues, a manual with twenty-four such categories, divided into six groups: wisdom and knowledge—cognitive strengths that entail the acquisition and use of knowledge; courage—emotional strengths that involve the exercise of will to accomplish goals in the face of opposition, external or internal; humanity—interpersonal strengths that involve tending to and befriending others; justice—civic strengths that underlie healthy community life; temperance—strengths that protect against excess; and transcendence—strengths that forge connections to the larger universe and provide meaning. 9 ~ Jane McGonigal,
824:If the process fails at any point, the idea in question lacks cognitive content. When carried through successfully, however, it yields a ‘just definition’ – a precise account of the troublesome idea or term. Hume uses his account of definition in his project’s critical phase to show that the central concepts of traditional metaphysics lack any intelligible content. He also uses it in its constructive phase to determine the precise meaning of our terms and ideas. Our ideas are also regularly connected, and a science of human nature should account for this ‘secret tie or union’ among them. Hume explained this ‘union’ in terms of the mind’s natural ability to associate certain ideas. ~ David Hume,
825:With the industrial proliferation of visual and audiovisual prostheses and unrestrained use of instantaneous-transmission equipment from earliest childhood onwards, we now routinely see the encoding of increasingly elaborate mental images together with a steady decline in retention rates and recall. In other words we are looking at the rapid collapse of mnemonic consolidation. This collapse seems only natural, if one remembers a contrario that seeing, and its spatio-temporal organization, precede gesture and speech and their coordination in knowing, recognizing, making known (as images of our thoughts), our thoughts themselves and cognitive functions, which are never ever passive. ~ Paul Virilio,
826:So why are we unable to acknowledge the truth? Dr. Fung’s answer is simple: we doctors lie to ourselves. If type 2 diabetes is a curable disease but all our patients are getting worse on the treatments we prescribe, then we must be bad doctors. And since we did not study for so long at such great cost to become bad doctors, this failure cannot be our fault. Instead, we must believe we are doing the best for our patients, who must unfortunately be suffering from a chronically progressive and incurable disease. It is not a deliberate lie, Dr. Fung concludes, but one of cognitive dissonance—the inability to accept a blatant truth because accepting it would be too emotionally devastating. ~ Jason Fung,
827:It appears to be a feature of System 1 that cognitive ease is associated with good feelings. As expected, easily pronounced words evoke a favorable attitude. Companies with pronounceable names do better than others for the first week after the stock is issued, though the effect disappears over time. Stocks with pronounceable trading symbols (like KAR or LUNMOO) outperform those with tongue-twisting tickers like PXG or RDO—and they appear to retain a small advantage over some time. A study conducted in Switzerland found that investors believe that stocks with fluent names like Emmi, Swissfirst, and Comet will earn higher returns than those with clunky labels like Geberit and Ypsomed. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
828:Conservatives are correct in pointing out that the anything-goes relativism of the campuses wasn’t sequestered there, but when it flowed out across America, it helped enable extreme Christianities and consequential lunacies on the right—gun rights hysteria, black helicopter conspiracism, climate change denial, and more. The term useful idiot was originally used to accuse liberals of serving the interests of true believers further left. In this instance, however, postmodern intellectuals—postpositivists, poststructuralists, social constructivists, postempiricists, epistemic relativists, cognitive relativists, descriptive relativists—turned out to be useful idiots for the American right. ~ Kurt Andersen,
829:In the end, as Dörnyei (2009: 236) points out, ‘comprehensive discussion of the age issue is never purely about age but also concerns a number of other important areas – quite frankly, we would be hard pressed to find a potentially more complex theme in SLA than the issue of age effects’. Among these other ‘important areas’ that Dörnyei alludes to are: the amount and type of exposure; affective factors, including motivation and attitudes; children’s cognitive development; first language support versus multilingualism; socioeconomic inequalities; teaching methodology and teacher education; and the role and purpose of foreign language learning within the broader remit of education in general. ~ Scott Thornbury,
830:One of the things I have always most admired about Alasdair MacIntyre's work is the particular kind of intellectual courage it exhibits. This virtue manifests itself in a number of ways, including a willingness to adress large philosophical questions head-on and to give straightforward answers to them. This is a form of courage, rather than merely of some other more etiolated cognitive excellence, because giving relatively bald and unvarnished answers to big questions makes it difficult to avoid facing up to the implications of what one says for action, and the action involved might be of a kind that requires exhausting, deeply disruptive, and potentially radical changes in the way one lives. ~ Raymond Geuss,
831:Many autism experts believe daily living skills, such as managing finances, need to be explicitly taught to people on the autism spectrum. Everything most nonautistic people pick up as they go along—how to shop, catch a bus, cook, clean, or manage money—are skills that are difficult for me to acquire simply by assimilation. I need a book, a video, or someone to explain and show me how to do it. There’s a perception that anyone with average or above-average intelligence will naturally pick up these skills. Strangely, intelligence seems to have little to do with it, and one study even found that problems of this kind are especially prominent in those autistic people with greater cognitive abilities. ~ Laura James,
832:After thirty years of intensive research, we can now answer many of the questions posed earlier. The recycle rate of a human being is around sixteen hours. After sixteen hours of being awake, the brain begins to fail. Humans need more than seven hours of sleep each night to maintain cognitive performance. After ten days of just seven hours of sleep, the brain is as dysfunctional as it would be after going without sleep for twenty-four hours. Three full nights of recovery sleep (i.e., more nights than a weekend) are insufficient to restore performance back to normal levels after a week of short sleeping. Finally, the human mind cannot accurately sense how sleep-deprived it is when sleep-deprived. ~ Matthew Walker,
833:The epistemic authority of any cognitive claim is always – in principle – open to challenge, modification, revision, and even abandonment. One of the deepest and most pervasive confusions that gives rise to the Myth of the Given is the confusion of brute constraint and epistemic authority. This is the confusion of Secondness and Thirdness. There is an enormous temptation to confuse the fact that we are constrained (Secondness) with the claim that what constrains us has epistemic authority (Thirdness). This temptation gives rise to one of the most tenacious forms of the Myth of the Given – a Given that is supposed to serve as the epistemically authoritative foundation for empirical knowledge. ~ Richard J Bernstein,
834:We have trouble estimating dramatic, exponential change. We cannot conceive that a piece of paper folded over 50 times could reach the sun. There are abrupt limits to the number of cognitive categories we can make and the number of people we can truly love and the number of acquaintances we can truly know. We throw up our hands at a problem phrased in an abstract way, but have no difficulty at all solving the same problem rephrased as a social dilemma. All of these things are expressions of the peculiarities of the human mind and heart, a refutation of the notion that the way we function and communicate and process information is straightforward and transparent. It is not. It is messy and opaque. ~ Malcolm Gladwell,
835:There is probably no more abused a term in the history of philosophy than “representation,” and my use of this term differs both from its use in traditional philosophy and from its use in contemporary cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence.... The sense of “representation” in question is meant to be entirely exhausted by the analogy with speech acts: the sense of “represent” in which a belief represents its conditions of satisfaction is the same sense in which a statement represents its conditions of satisfaction. To say that a belief is a representation is simply to say that it has a propositional content and a psychological mode. ~ John Searle (1983) Intentionality: An Essay in the Philosophy of Mind. p. 12,
836:have been associated with obesity, depression, cognitive impairment, heart disease, reduced immunity, cancer, psychosis, and all causes of mortality. Check your 25-hydroxy vitamin D level, and if it is low, try to get more sunshine in a safe way and/or take a vitamin D3 supplement. A healthy vitamin D level is between 75 and 250 nmol/L (nanograms per liter). Optimal is between 125 and 250 nmol/L. Personally, I never wanted to be in the bottom of any class I was ever in. Two-thirds of the population are low in vitamin D; this is the same percentage of U.S. residents who are overweight or obese. According to one study, when vitamin D is low the hormone leptin that tells us to stop eating is not effective. One ~ Daniel G Amen,
837:The worst period I ever went through at work,” a friend confides, “was when the company was restructuring and people were being ‘disappeared’ daily, followed by lying memos that they were leaving ‘for personal reasons.’ No one could focus while that fear was in the air. No real work got done.” Small wonder. The greater the anxiety we feel, the more impaired is the brain’s cognitive efficiency. In this zone of mental misery, distracting thoughts hijack our attention and squeeze our cognitive resources. Because high anxiety shrinks the space available to our attention, it undermines our very capacity to take in new information, let alone generate fresh ideas. Near-panic is the enemy of learning and creativity. ~ Daniel Goleman,
838:Cognitive Bias, that is, unconscious—and irrational—brain processes that literally distort the way we see the world. Kahneman and Tversky discovered more than 150 of them. There’s the Framing Effect, which demonstrates that people respond differently to the same choice depending on how it is framed (people place greater value on moving from 90 percent to 100 percent—high probability to certainty—than from 45 percent to 55 percent, even though they’re both ten percentage points). Prospect Theory explains why we take unwarranted risks in the face of uncertain losses. And the most famous is Loss Aversion, which shows how people are statistically more likely to act to avert a loss than to achieve an equal gain. Kahneman ~ Chris Voss,
839:But my cognitive brain fought back hard, telling me that I knew these scenarios were unlikely, that whatever rationalizations she might have for the staging of the four deaths we knew of, to say nothing of her manipulations of other people, including me, would prove inadequate. I even tried the habit that Mike and I consistently warned our students against, listening to my gut; but all my gut told me was that I had fallen in love with a girl who had brought me out of years of torment, however briefly, yet who was still involved in something beyond shady. Had it not been me, had it been just another actor in a different case, I would have called the behavior common enough. But it didn’t feel common; not from the inside… ~ Caleb Carr,
840:Then they presented these subjects with a series of triads, half of them linked (such as dive, light, rocket) and half unlinked (such as dream, ball, book), and instructed them to press one of two keys very quickly to indicate their guess about whether the triad was linked. The time allowed for this guess, 2 seconds, was much too short for the actual solution to come to anyone’s mind. The first surprise is that people’s guesses are much more accurate than they would be by chance. I find this astonishing. A sense of cognitive ease is apparently generated by a very faint signal from the associative machine, which “knows” that the three words are coherent (share an association) long before the association is retrieved ~ Daniel Kahneman,
841:If Marzulli's anatomical observation of the elongated skulls of the Paracas were right in that they are completely devoid of a sagittal suture (i.e., Scaphocephaly), then such a desired physically induced mutation could be perceived as a medical procedure aimed at increasing the transfer of perceptual, sensory, motor and cognitive information between the two hemispheres; this was possibly done to prevent each hemisphere from processing information outside the awareness of the other. In essence, this meant that the operation was intended to prevent the brain from producing and developing any margin of a double consciousness as normal humans are equipped with; culminating thereby in some form of a unified consciousness. ~ Ibrahim Ibrahim,
842:By using repetition, images, and other strategies - all of which communicate truths in ways that are not cognitively or propositional - marketing forms us into the kind of persons who want to buy beer to have meaningful relationships, or to buy a car to be respected, or buy the latest thing to come along simply to satisfy the desire that has been formed and implanted in us. It is important to appreciate that these disciplinary mechanisms transmit values and truth claims, but not via propositions or cognitive means; rather, the values are transmitted more covertly...This covertness of the operation is also what makes it so powerful: the truths are inscribed in us through the powerful instruments of imagination and ritual. ~ James K A Smith,
843:Fascinating research results point to the realization that our hearts interconnect and exchange information with others. In studies, subjects are trained to enact specific heart coherence techniques such as focusing awareness in the area surrounding the heart and generating a feeling of appreciation. Coherence reflects a higher state of balance and synchronization in the body’s cognitive, emotional, and physiological processes, leading to lowering of stress reactions and more efficient function. Positive emotions are correlated with higher degrees of coherence, thus generating appreciation in the heart alone can beneficially affect the person’s physiological functions, including the autonomic and parasympathetic nervous systems. ~ Eben Alexander,
844:Over the years, McGuane had learned that it was best to strike before you interrogate. Most people, when presented with the threat of pain, will try to talk their way out of it. That goes double for men who are accustomed to using their mouths. They’ll search for angles, for half-truths, for credible lies. They are rational, the assumption goes, and thus their opponents must be the same. Words can be used to defuse. You need to strip them of that delusion. The pain and fear that accompany a sudden physical assault are devastating to the psyche. Your cognitive reasoning—your intelligentsia, if you will, your evolved man—fades away, caves in. You are left with the Neanderthal, the primitive true-you who knows only to escape pain. The ~ Harlan Coben,
845:expanded to a second location in Portland—this one had 142 units and capacity for impoverished elderly people on government support—the state required Wilson and her husband to track the health, cognitive capabilities, physical function, and life satisfaction of the tenants. In 1988, the findings were made public. They revealed that the residents had not in fact traded their health for freedom. Their satisfaction with their lives increased, and at the same time their health was maintained. Their physical and cognitive functioning actually improved. Incidence of major depression fell. And the cost for those on government support was 20 percent lower than it would have been in a nursing home. The program proved an unmitigated success. ~ Atul Gawande,
846:There has been significant debate in the scientific community about whether desire is a symptom of a system infected with amor deliria nervosa, or a pre-condition of the disease itself.
It is unanimously agreed, however, that love and desire enjoy a symbiotic relationship, meaning that one cannnot exist without the other. Desire is enemy to ncontentment; desire is illness, a feverish brain. Who can be considereed healthy who wants? The very word want suggests a lack, an impoverishment, and that is what desire is: an impoverishment of the brain, a flaw, a mistake. Fortunately, that can now be corrected.

- From The Roots and Repercussions of Amor Deliria Nervosa on Cognitive Functioning, 4th edition, by Dr. Phillip Berryman ~ Lauren Oliver,
847:Amanda Feilding, who was born in 1943, is an eccentric as only the English aristocracy can breed them. (She’s descended from the house of Habsburg and two of Charles II’s illegitimate children.) A student of comparative religion and mysticism, Feilding has had a long-standing interest in altered states of consciousness and, specifically, the role of blood flow to the brain, which in Homo sapiens, she believes, has been compromised ever since our species began standing upright. LSD, Feilding believes, enhances cognitive function and facilitates higher states of consciousness by increasing cerebral circulation. A second way to achieve a similar result is by means of the ancient practice of trepanation. This deserves a brief digression. ~ Michael Pollan,
848:The body knows everything that has happened to it, but it has no language to express that knowledge. It is like the children we once were, the children who see all but, without the aid of the adults, remain helpless and alone. Accordingly, whenever the emotions from the past rise to the surface they are invariably accompanied by the fears of the helpless child dependent on the understanding, or at least the reassurances, of the parents. Even parents at a loss to understand their children because they are unaware of their own histories can provide such reassurance. They can assuage the children’s fears (and their own) by giving them protection, safety, and continuity. And our cognitive system, in dialogue with the body, can do the same. ~ Alice Miller,
849:Yet where this idea really hits home is with the breath, the one response over which we have control and which, in turn, exerts control through the alarm system that is the autonomic nervous system. Porges says he realized a long time ago—because he is a musician, specifically a horn player—that the act of controlling the breath to control the rhythm of music and at the same time engaging the brain to execute the mechanics of music works like a mental therapy. To his mind, it has all the elements of pranayama yoga, a form of yoga that stresses breath control. Breath control is common in most of yoga but also in meditation, and even in modern-day “evidence-based practices” like cognitive behavioral therapy. Relax. Take a deep breath. This ~ John J Ratey,
850:are only five mahabhutas – earth, water, fire (which includes heat and light), air and space. The tanmatras of these are smell, taste, colour, form, touch, and sound. The five cognitive sense organs are the ears, the skin, the eyes, the tongue and the nose. The five active senses are the mouth, the hands, the feet, the generative organs, and the anus. The inner organ is comprised of four aspects – manas, buddhi, ahamkara and chitta. Manas doubts, buddhi concludes, ahamkara creates pride, chitta remembers. These twenty-four are aspects of Prakriti, and the twenty-fifth is the Atman, the Soul, which is identical with the Purusha, God. Some of the wise say that Kaala, Time, is God, Ishvara’s, supernatural power that brings fear, samsara, birth and ~ Ramesh Menon,
851:This brings up some lessons to be learned from cognitive linguistics. • Words are defined relative to conceptual frames. Words evoke frames, and if you want to evoke the right frames, you need the right words. • To use the other side’s words is to accept their framing of the issues. • Higher-level moral frames limit the scope of the frames defining particular issues. • To negate a frame is to accept that frame. Example: To carry out the instruction “Don’t think of an elephant” you have to think of an elephant. • Rebuttal is not reframing. You have to impose your own framing before you can successfully rebut. • The facts themselves won’t set you free. You have to frame facts properly before they can have the meaning you want them to convey. These ~ George Lakoff,
852:I practiced law for five years and that gives you insight into a certain mind-set that maybe a lot of writers haven’t had firsthand access to. There’s an almost casual cruelty, a very low level of overall awareness, but sometimes there’s also knowledge that real damage is being done—this attitude of “Oh, what the hell,” this kind of moral cognitive dissonance. These are people who have never missed a meal. It’s an unknowingness, an unawareness . . . Many people were operating from a very narrow range of experience, and yet they had complete faith in it. Their way was the correct way, the only way. They had virtually no awareness of any other way of life except in terms of demonizing things . . . It’s an extremely blindered experience of the world. ~ Ben Fountain,
853:Three years ago, researchers at Purdue University began monitoring every hit sustained by two high school teams. The goal was to study the effect of concussions. But when researchers administered cognitive tests to players who had never been concussed, hoping to set up a control group, they discovered that these teens showed diminished brain function as well. As the season wore on, their cognitive abilities plummeted. In some cases, brain activity in the frontal lobes—the region responsible for reasoning—nearly disappeared by season’s end. "You have the classic stereotype of the dumb jock and I think the real issue is that’s not how they start out," explained Thomas Talavage, one of the professors of the study. "We actually create that individual. ~ Steve Almond,
854:Human beings," said the Ship's Confessor, "cannot designate a 'current best candidate' without psychological consequences. Human rationalists learn to discuss an issue as thoroughly as possible before suggesting any solutions. For humans, solutions are sticky in a way that would require detailed cognitive science to explain. We would not be able to search freely through the solution space, but would be helplessly attracted toward the 'current best' point, once we named it. Also, any endorsement whatever of a solution that has negative moral features, will cause a human to feel shame - and 'best candidate' would feel like an endorsement. To avoid feeling that shame, humans must avoid saying which of two bad alternatives is better than the other. ~ Eliezer Yudkowsky,
855:We asked 54 people, recruited from the Bulletproof Executive Facebook page, to conduct two batteries of cognitive function tests per day for 4 weeks while using different combinations of butter and coffee: Lab-tested Upgraded Coffee (black) Coffee made with beans from a local shop (black) Lab-tested Upgraded Coffee with butter Coffee made with beans from a local shop with butter We did not test MCTs, short-chain C8 MCTs, or coconut oil because the test was already too long and dropout (people not completing the test) was a problem. Nonetheless, the results were conclusive. With or without butter, the coffee from a local coffee shop produced statistically significant lower scores on tests of cognitive function compared to lab-tested Upgraded Coffee beans. ~ Dave Asprey,
856:The Big Book’s chapter We Agnostics draws a line in the sand: God either is or He isn’t. What was our choice to be (Alcoholics Anonymous, 53)? Nature abhors a vacuum and a state of nothing can’t exist in either the material or spiritual world. This kind of binary thinking made sense in the autocratic world of 1939. But in a democratic, pluralist society, all-or-nothing thinking is a cognitive distortion—a philosophical assumption that everything is right or wrong, good or evil, superior or inferior. In this millennium, people can hold opposing views and be equals in the same community. Our Traditions, lovingly and tolerantly, make room for more than one truth. That’s a good thing, because the only problem with the truth is that there are so many versions of it. ~ Joe C,
857:An intuition involves a coming together of loosely linked facts, concepts, experiences, thoughts, and feelings, and we can encourage intuition by tearing down the psychological barriers that are keeping them apart. If intuition involves stepping back from our person, so does wisdom, insight, imagination, and even reason. What usually gets in the way of both reason and non-rational forms of cognition is not stupidity as such, or feeble-mindedness, but fear and the thing that fear protects, that is, our self-esteem, our sense of self, our ego. If we are to unleash our full cognitive and human potential, we need to love life more than we fear it, we need to suppress or destroy our ego, to commit metaphorical suicide—which will be the work of a life well spent. ~ Neel Burton,
858:According to a large study from Kaiser Permanente, for every 0.05 increase above 4.72, patients had an additional 6 percent increased risk of developing diabetes in the next ten years (4.82 = 12 percent increased risk, etc.) Above 5 indicates that vascular damage has already occurred and a patient is at risk for having damage to the kidneys and eyes. Why is high fasting blood sugar a problem? High blood sugar causes vascular problems throughout your whole body, including your brain. Over time, it causes blood vessels to become brittle and vulnerable to breakage. It leads not only to diabetes but also to heart disease, strokes, visual impairment, impaired wound healing, wrinkled skin, and cognitive problems. Diabetes doubles the risk for Alzheimer’s disease. ~ Daniel G Amen,
859:It is widely assumed that protracted exposure to highly violent video games may produce an effect of desensitization in the minds of young people like Eric and Dylan, but this superficial observation, in focusing on the content of video games, fails to take into account the cognitive and psychological mutation produced by prolonged immersion in a digital environment. It is not the content of the game, but the stimulation itself, that produces the effect of desensitization to the bodily experience of suffering and of pleasure. Clearly, not everybody becomes a mass murderer merely because they play video games or engage in digital stimulation. But the mass murderer is only an exceptional manifestation of a general trend in this general mutation of the human mind. ~ Anonymous,
860:But epistemology also played a dominant role in determining several other aspects of life. As with all of Quigley’s concepts, however, “epistemology” must be clearly defined before its role in shaping history can be understood. The operational definition Quigley gives “epistemology” is “cognitive system” that is, the ways in which “the language of a society classifies human experience in order to think or to communicate and the values which a particular society puts upon these categories, determining the most fundamental engines of human motivation.” 17 The generic morphology of a cognitive system consists of those five levels on the continuum of the fifth dimension of abstraction, that is, feelings, emotions, self-awareness, rationality, and spirituality. ~ Carroll Quigley,
861:You may note the irony. In the context of the cab problem, the neglect of base-rate information is a cognitive flaw, a failure of Bayesian reasoning, and the reliance on causal base rates is desirable. Stereotyping the Green drivers improves the accuracy of judgment. In other contexts, however, such as hiring or profiling, there is a strong social norm against stereotyping, which is also embedded in the law. This is as it should be. In sensitive social contexts, we do not want to draw possibly erroneous conclusions about the individual from the statistics of the group. We consider it morally desirable for base rates to be treated as statistical facts about the group rather than as presumptive facts about individuals. In other words, we reject causal base rates. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
862:The textbooks also fail to show how the continuous Indian wars have reverberated through our culture. Carleton Beals has written that "our acquiescence in Indian dispossession has molded the American character." As soon as Natives were no longer conflict partners, their image deteriorated in the minds of many whites. Kupperman has shown how this process unfolded in Virginia after the Indian defeat in the 1640s: "It was the ultimate powerlessness of the Indians, not their racial inferiority, which made it possible to see them as people without rights." Natives who had been "ingenious," "industrious," and "quick of apprehension" in 1610 now became "sloathfull and idle, vitious, melancholy, [and] slovenly." This is another example of the process of cognitive dissonance. ~ James W Loewen,
863:Often the things we attend to and remember are the things that are important to us. In such situations, cognitive processing will be accompanied by emotional arousal. And emotional arousal does not stop with a simple reaction, for we often use it to guide our behavior toward or away from the situation that the emotionally arousing stimulus signifies. In the process of doing so, we sometimes have to make decisions about what to do in order to keep working toward our goal. The goal has to be kept in mind, even when detours have to be taken. But the system also needs to be reset if a more important goal emerges along the way. This requires reallocation of cognitive, emotional, and motivational resources, and adjustments within and between the component processing systems. ~ Joseph E LeDoux,
864:Prejudices emerge from the disposition of the human mind to perceive and process information in categories. “Categories” is a nicer, more neutral word than “stereotypes,” but it’s the same thing. Cognitive psychologists consider stereotypes to be energy-saving devices that allow us to make efficient decisions on the basis of past experience; help us quickly process new information and retrieve memories; make sense of real differences between groups; and predict, often with considerable accuracy, how others will behave or how they think.24 We wisely rely on stereotypes and the quick information they give us to avoid danger, approach possible new friends, choose one school or job over another, or decide that that person across this crowded room will be the love of our lives. ~ Carol Tavris,
865:Reclamation is hard work. Finding the value in your group’s characteristics means always having to confront the darkness in those characteristics. For example, it is acceptable, and productive, to think of America as a great nation. It has many great characteristics, from the freedom it grants its citizens to the cultural contributions it has fostered and rewarded. But by unearthing America’s good qualities, you will also find its destructive qualities. The way it has interfered internationally and created death and misery for countless citizens of other nations, its history of genocide and slavery, and so on. It is possible to know America’s destructive power and still think it is a great nation. But some prefer not to look at all, so as to avoid the cognitive dissonance. It ~ Jessa Crispin,
866:How’s this for fascinating: Heritability of various aspects of cognitive development is very high (e.g., around 70 percent for IQ) in kids from high–socioeconomic status (SES) families but is only around 10 percent in low-SES kids. Thus, higher SES allows the full range of genetic influences on cognition to flourish, whereas lower-SES settings restrict them. In other words, genes are nearly irrelevant to cognitive development if you’re growing up in awful poverty—poverty’s adverse effects trump the genetics.fn24 Similarly, heritability of alcohol use is lower among religious than nonreligious subjects—i.e., your genes don’t matter much if you’re in a religious environment that condemns drinking. Domains like these showcase the potential power of classical behavior genetics. ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
867:The bodies state of red alert brings about a series of psychological changes, driven by gathering tides of adrenaline or cortisol. These are the fight or flight hormones, which act to help and organism respond to external stresses. But when a stress is chronic not acute, when it persists for years and is caused by something that cannot be outrun, then these biochemical alterations wreak havoc on the body. Lonely people are restless sleepers and experience a reduction in the restorative function of sleep. Loneliness drives up blood pressure, accelerates ageing, weakens the immune system and acts as a precursor to cognitive decline. According to a 2010 study, "Loneliness predicts increased morbidity and mortality". Which is an elegant way of saying that loneliness can prove fatal. ~ Olivia Laing,
868:The children were watched through a one-way mirror, and the film that shows their behavior during the waiting time always has the audience roaring in laughter. About half the children managed the feat of waiting for 15 minutes, mainly by keeping their attention away from the tempting reward. Ten or fifteen years later, a large gap had opened between those who had resisted temptation and those who had not. The resisters had higher measures of executive control in cognitive tasks, and especially the ability to reallocate their attention effectively. As young adults, they were less likely to take drugs. A significant difference in intellectual aptitude emerged: the children who had shown more self-control as four-year-olds had substantially higher scores on tests of intelligence. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
869:Reproductive hormones aren’t the only hormones that affect how you look and feel and think. Among the most influential are the hormones produced by your thyroid gland. Too little thyroid, and you feel like a slug. Hypothyroidism makes you feel like you just want to lie on the couch all day with a bag of chips. Everything works slower, including your heart, your bowels, and your brain. When we perform SPECT scans of people with hypothyroidism, we see decreased brain activity. Many other studies confirm that overall low brain function in hypothyroidism leads to depression, cognitive impairment, anxiety, and feelings of being in a mental fog. The thyroid gland drives the production of many neurotransmitters that run the brain, such as serotonin, dopamine, adrenaline, and noradrenaline. A ~ Daniel G Amen,
870:People who are cognitively busy are also more likely to make selfish choices, use sexist language, and make superficial judgments in social situations. Memorizing and repeating digits loosens the hold of System 2 on behavior, but of course cognitive load is not the only cause of weakened self-control. A few drinks have the same effect, as does a sleepless night. The self-control of morning people is impaired at night; the reverse is true of night people. Too much concern about how well one is doing in a task sometimes disrupts performance by loading short-term memory with pointless anxious thoughts. The conclusion is straightforward: self-control requires attention and effort. Another way of saying this is that controlling thoughts and behaviors is one of the tasks that System 2 performs. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
871:In philosophy, metaphorical pluralism is the norm. Our most important abstract philosophical concepts, including time, causation, morality, and the mind, are all conceptualized by multiple metaphors, sometimes as many as two dozen. What each philosophical theory typically does is to choose one of those metaphors as "right," as the true literal meaning of the concept. One reason there is so much argumentation across philosophical theories is that different philosophers have chosen different metaphors as the "right" one, ignoring or taking as misleading all other commonplace metaphorical structurings of the concept. Philosophers have done this because they assume that a concept must have one and only one logic. But the cognitive reality is that our concepts have multiple metaphorical structurings. ~ George Lakoff,
872:Evolution can even explain how our behaviors interact. Remember how the amygdala can suppress higher brain functions—for example, in the expression “His mind was clouded by fear.” This is manifestly irrational behavior, but it makes perfect sense from an evolutionary standpoint. Strong emotions like fear are an immediate call-to-arms to survive, selected by evolution over millions of generations of life in hostile environments. Our more recently evolved cognitive functions, such as language and logical reasoning, are suppressed until the perceived threat to our survival is over, that is, until our emotional reaction subsides. The universality of this fear response means that fear has been so useful in past environments that it has evolved to override all other neural components under sufficient threat. ~ Andrew W Lo,
873:Cognitive science has something of enormous importance to contribute to human freedom: the ability to learn what our unconscious conceptual systems are like and how our cognitive unconscious functions. If we do not realize that most of our thought is unconscious and that we think metaphorically, we will indeed be slaves to the cognitive unconscious. Paradoxically, the assumption that we have a radically autonomous rationality as traditionally conceived actually limits our rational autonomy. It condemns us to cognitive slavery - to an unaware and uncritical dependence on our unconscious metaphors. To maximize what conceptual freedom we can have, we must be able to see through and move beyond philosophies that deny the existence of an embodied cognitive unconscious that governs most of our mental lives. ~ George Lakoff,
874:Thought and cognition are not the same. Thought, the source of art works, is manifest without transformation or transfiguration in all great philosophy, whereas the chief manifestation of the cognitive processes, by which we acquire and store up knowledge, is the sciences. Cognition always pursues a definite aim, which can be set by practical considerations as well as by “idle curiosity”; but once this aim is reached, the cognitive process has come to an end. Thought, on the contrary, has neither an end nor an aim outside itself, and it does not even produce results; not only the utilitarian philosophy of homo faber but also the men of action and the lovers of results in the sciences have never tired of pointing out how entirely “useless” thought is—as useless, indeed, as the works of art it inspires. ~ Hannah Arendt,
875:I believe that the methods needed to understand ourselves do not yet exist. So this book contains a great deal of speculation about the world and how we fit into it. Some of it will seem wild, but the world is a strange place, and nothing but radical speculation gives us a hope of coming up with any candidates for the truth. That, of course, is not the same as coming up with the truth: if truth is our aim, we must be resigned to achieving it to a very limited extent, and without certainty. To redefine the aim so that its achievement is largely guaranteed, through various forms of reductionism, relativism, or historicisim, is a form of cognitive wish-fulfillment. Philosophy cannot take refuge in reduced ambitions. It is after eternal and nonlocal truth, even though we know that it is not what we are going to get. ~ Thomas Nagel,
876:We teach children to think and decide for themselves, not just pass exams,’ she says first off. ‘Education here is about developing the social and cognitive competencies of a child and experience-based learning. We encourage them to be critical towards the system.’ She tells me that education and democracy have been tied together in Denmark since the Second World War: ‘Children started to be encouraged to think and go against authority if they didn’t agree with what they were being told – this became a priority after the German occupation of Denmark and was something Danes were very conscious of. We wanted citizens who were democratic and could have their own ideas, so self-development is a big part of learning in Denmark.’ ‘So Hitler drove the Danes to teach their schoolkids to question authority?’ ‘Pretty much. ~ Helen Russell,
877:Living systems create and live among their artifacts. Beginning presumably with the hut and the arrowhead, the pot and the vase, the plow and the wheel, mankind has constructed tools and devised machines. The Industrial Revolution of the Nineteenth Century, capped by the recent harnessing of atomic energy, represents the extension of man’s matter-energy processing ability, his muscles. A new Industrial Revolution, of even greater potential, is just beginning in the Twentieth Century, with the development of information and logic-processing machines, adjuncts to man’s brain. These artifacts are increasingly becoming prostheses, relied on to carry out critical subsystem processes. A chimpanzee may extend his reach with a stick; a man may extend his cognitive skills with a computer. ~ James Grier Miller, The Nature of Living Systems,
878:Think about it in terms of cognitive dissonance. If I have put up with a lot to become a member of a group, if I have voluntarily subjected myself to acute embarrassment, I would have to be pretty stupid if the group turned out to be anything less than wonderful. To protect my self-esteem I will want to convince myself that the group is pretty damn good. Hence the necessity to talk it up, to reframe my perceptions in a positive direction. None of this applies, of course, if the initiation is simple. If the group turns out to be a waste of time, one can say to oneself honestly, and without any threat to one’s self-esteem, “This place is not worth bothering with.” It is only when we have staked our ego that our mistakes of judgment become threatening. That is when we build defensive walls and deploy cognitive filters. ~ Matthew Syed,
879:If an epileptic seizure is focused in a particular sweet spot in the temporal lobe, a person won´t have motor seizures, but instead something more subtle. The effect is something like a cognitive seizure, marked by changes of personality, hyperreligiosity (an obsession with religion and feelings of religious certainity), hypergraphia (extensive writing on a subject, usually about religion), the false sense of an external presence, and, often, the hearing voices that are attributed to a god. Some fraction of history´s prophets, martyrs, and leaders appear to have had temporal lobe epilepsy.

When the brain activity is kindled in the right spot, people hear voices. If a physician prescribes an anti-epileptic medication, the seizures go away and the voices disappear. Our reality depends on what our biology is up to. ~ David Eagleman,
880:The liturgy is a "hearts and minds" strategy, a pedagogy that trains us as disciples precisely by putting our bodies through a regimen of repeated practices that get a hold of our heart and "aim" or love towards the kingdom of God. Before we articulate a worldview, we worship. Before we put into words the lineaments of an ontology or an epistemology, we pray for God's healing and illumination. Before we theorize the nature of God, we sing his praises. Before we express moral principles, we receive forgiveness. Before we codify the doctrine of Christ's two natures, we receive the body of Christ in the Eucharist. Before we think, we pray. That’s the kind of animals we are, first and foremost: loving, desiring, affective, liturgical animals who, for the most part, don’t inhabit the world as thinkers or cognitive machines. ~ James K A Smith,
881:Working-class parents, who have less spare capacity, are more likely to demand that their kids simply obey them. In the short run this saves time; in the long run it prevents the kids from learning to organise their own lives or think for themselves. Poor parenting is thus a barrier to social mobility, and is becoming more so as the world grows more complex and the rewards for superior cognitive skills increase. Mr Putnam’s research team interviewed dozens of families to illustrate his thesis. Some of their stories are heart-rending. Stephanie, a mother whose husband left her, is asked if her own parents were warm. She is “astonished at our naïveté”. “No, we don’t do all that kissing and hugging,” she says. “You can’t be mushy in Detroit...You gotta be hard, really hard, because if you soft, people will bully you.” Just as her ~ Anonymous,
882:Estriol—Estriol is the weakest of the three estrogens and has a protective role in breast tissue. It is believed to protect vaginal tissue too. Estriol helps to reduce hot flashes in women, protects the urinary tract, and plays a role in retention of bone density. It can help increase “good” HDL and decrease “bad” LDL cholesterol. One compelling study showed that taking estriol can reverse brain lesions in women with multiple sclerosis. Estrogen is particularly needed in women to make serotonin function at its best in the brain. Serotonin is one of the brain’s feel-good hormones. With no estrogen, your mood can change to anxious and depressed. Cognitive functions, such as critical thinking and short-term memory, are also eroded with the loss of estrogen production. Below is a list of symptoms related to low and high estrogen levels: ~ Daniel G Amen,
883:In our collective imagination, error is associated not just with shame and stupidity but also with ignorance, indolence, psychopathology, and moral degeneracy. This set of associations was nicely summed up by the Italian cognitive scientist Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, who noted that we err because of (among other things) “inattention, distraction, lack of interest, poor preparation, genuine stupidity, timidity, braggadocio, emotional imbalance,…ideological, racial, social or chauvinistic prejudices, as well as aggressive or prevaricatory instincts.” In this rather despairing view—and it is the common one—our errors are evidence of our gravest social, intellectual, and moral failings. Of all the things we are wrong about, this idea of error might well top the list. It is our meta-mistake: we are wrong about what it means to be wrong. ~ Kathryn Schulz,
884:happened to them. And the more confident they became, the more sensory details they added to their false memories (“the place smelled horrible”).22 Researchers have created imagination inflation indirectly, too, merely by asking people to explain how an unlikely event might have happened. Cognitive psychologist Maryanne Garry finds that as people tell you how an event might have happened, it starts to feel real to them. Children are especially vulnerable to this suggestion.23 Writing turns a fleeting thought into a fact of history, and for Wilkomirski, writing down his memories confirmed his memories. “My illness showed me that it was time for me to write it all down for myself,” said Wilkomirski, “just as it was held in my memory, to trace every hint all the way back.”24 Just as he rejected the historians at Majdanek who challenged his ~ Carol Tavris,
885:Ellington would be growing up in a culture saturated with an idea you might call the cognitive hypothesis: the belief... that success today primarily depends on cognitive skills - the kind of intelligence that gets measured on IQ tests... and that the best way to develop these skills is to practice them as much as possible, beginning as early as possible.

...But in the past decade, a disparate group of scientists have begun to produce evidence that calls into question the cognitive hypothesis. What matters most in a child's development... is whether we are able to help her develop a very different set of qualities: self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit, and self-confidence. Economists refer to these as noncognitive skills, psychologists call them personality traits, and the rest of us sometimes think of them as character. ~ Paul Tough,
886:The white delusion of racial superiority insulates itself against refutation. Correspondingly, on the positive epistemic side, the route to black knowledge is the self-conscious recognition of white ignorance (including its blackfaced manifestation in black consciousness itself). Du Bois prescribes a critical cognitive distancing from “a world which yields [the Negro] no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world,” a “sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others.”27 The attainment of “second sight” requires an understanding of what it is about whites and the white situation that motivates them to view blacks erroneously. One learns in part to see through identifying white blindness and avoiding the pitfalls of putting on these spectacles for one’s own vision.28 So ~ Charles W Mills,
887:That we have separate and distinct mechanisms for appreciating the structural and the emotional aspects of music is brought home by the wide variety of responses (and even “dissociations”) that people have to music.146 There are many of us who lack some of the perceptual or cognitive abilities to appreciate music but nonetheless enjoy it hugely, and enthusiastically bawl out tunes, sometimes shockingly off-key, in a way that gives us great happiness (though it may make others squirm). There are others with an opposite balance: they may have a good ear, be finely sensitive to the formal nuances of music, but nevertheless do not care for it greatly or consider it a significant part of their lives. That one may be quite “musical” and yet almost indifferent to music, or almost tone-deaf yet passionately sensitive to music, is quite striking. While ~ Oliver Sacks,
888:To deny the truth of our own experience in the scientific study of ourselves is not only unsatisfactory; it is to render the scientific study of ourselves without a subject matter. But to suppose that science cannot contribute to an understanding of our experience may be to abandon, within the modern context, the task of self-understanding. Experience and scientific understanding are like two legs without which we cannot walk.

We can phrase this very same idea in positive terms: it is only by having a sense of common ground between cognitive science and human experience that our understanding of cognition can be more complete and reach a satisfying level. We thus propose a constructive task: to enlarge the horizon of cognitive science to include the broader panorama of human, lived experience in a disciplined, transformative analysis. ~ Evan Thompson,
889:Sadly, our educational system, as well as many of the methods that profess to treat trauma, tend to bypass this emotional-engagement system and focus instead on recruiting the cognitive capacities of the mind. Despite the well-documented effects of anger, fear, and anxiety on the ability to reason, many programs continue to ignore the need to engage the safety system of the brain before trying to promote new ways of thinking. The last things that should be cut from school schedules are chorus, physical education, recess, and anything else involving movement, play, and joyful engagement. When children are oppositional, defensive, numbed out, or enraged, it’s also important to recognize that such “bad behavior” may repeat action patterns that were established to survive serious threats, even if they are intensely upsetting or off-putting. ~ Bessel A van der Kolk,
890:Two general and basic principles are proposed for the formation of categories: The first has to do with the function of category systems and asserts that the task of category systems is to provide maximum information with the least cognitive effort [("cognitive economy")]; the second has to do with the structure of the information so provided and asserts that the perceived world comes as structured information rather than than arbitrary or unpredictable attributes [("perceived world structure")]. Thus maximum information with least cognitive effort is achieved if categories map the perceived world structure as closely as possible. This condition can be achieved either by the mapping of categories to given attribute structures or by the definition or redefinition of attributes to render a given set of categories appropriately structured.
   ~ Rosch, 1978, p. 28,
891:circuitry. Studies of neurological patients with damaged prefrontal–limbic circuitry confirm that their cognitive capacities may remain intact, while their emotional intelligence abilities are impaired. 11 This neurological fact clearly separates these competencies from purely cognitive abilities like intelligence, technical knowledge, or business expertise, which reside in the neocortex alone. Biologically speaking, then, the art of resonant leadership interweaves our intellect and our emotions. Of course, leaders need the prerequisite business acumen and thinking skills to be decisive. But if they try to lead solely from intellect, they’ll miss a crucial piece of the equation. Take, for example, the new CEO of a global company who tried to change strategic directions. He failed, and was fired after just one year on the job. “He thought he could ~ Daniel Goleman,
892:Multi-modular brains have at their beck and call a tremendous number of paths to conscious experience. If one route gets destroyed, another may provide an alternate course. To stamp out consciousness, all modules leading to a conscious state must be shut down. Until this happens, intact modules will continue to pass information from one layer to another and induce a subjective feeling of experience. The contents of that conscious experience may be very different from normal, but consciousness remains. Visiting the neuropsychology clinic, we will see how various assaults on our brain affect consciousness and provide insights into how our brains are organized. It turns out that the endless fluctuations of our cognitive life, which are managed by our cortex, ride on a sea of emotional states, which are constantly being adjusted by our subcortical brain. ~ Michael S Gazzaniga,
893:The will, it was becoming clear, has the power to change the brain—in OCD, in stroke, in Tourette’s, and now in depression—by activating adaptive circuitry. That a mental process alters circuits involved in these disorders offers dramatic examples of how the ways someone thinks about thoughts can effect plastic changes in the brain. Jordan Grafman, chief of cognitive neuroscience at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, calls this top-down plasticity, because it originates in the brain’s higher-order functions. “Bottom-up” plasticity, in contrast, is induced by changes in sensory stimuli such as the loss of input after amputation. Merzenich’s and Tallal’s work shows the power of this bottom-up plasticity to resculpt the brain. The OCD work hints at the power of top-down plasticity, the power of the mind to alter brain circuitry. ~ Jeffrey M Schwartz,
894:Emotional events often attain a privileged status in memory. Cognitive neuroscientists have begun to elucidate the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying emotional retention advantages in the human brain. The amygdala is a brain structure that directly mediates aspects of emotional learning and facilitates memory operations in other regions, including the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Emotion–memory interactions occur at various stages of information processing, from the initial encoding and consolidation of memory traces to their long-term retrieval. Recent advances are revealing new insights into the reactivation of latent emotional associations and the recollection of personal episodes from the remote past. ~ LaBar K.S.; Cabeza R. (2006). "Cognitive neuroscience of emotional memory". Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 7 (1): 54–64. doi:10.1038/nrn1825. PMID 16371950.,
895:This time, she came back to Longwood House in a wheelchair and needed help with virtually all of her everyday activities—using the toilet, bathing, dressing. Alice was left with no choice but to move into the skilled nursing unit. The hope, they told her, was that, with physical therapy, she’d learn to walk again and return to her apartment. But she never did. From then on, she was confined to a wheelchair and the rigidity of nursing home life. All privacy and control were gone. She was put in hospital clothes most of the time. She woke when they told her, bathed and dressed when they told her, ate when they told her. She lived with whomever they said she had to. There was a succession of roommates, never chosen with her input and all with cognitive impairments. Some were quiet. One kept her up at night. She felt incarcerated, like she was in prison for being old. ~ Atul Gawande,
896:Unless a theologian has the inner fortitude of a desert saint, he has only one effective remedy against the threat of cognitive collapse in the face of these pressures: he must huddle together with like-minded fellow deviants⁠—and huddle very closely indeed. Only in a countercommunity of considerable strength does cognitive deviance have a chance to maintain itself. The countercommunity provides continuing therapy against the creeping doubt as to whether, after all, one may not be wrong and the majority right. To fulfill its functions of providing social support for the deviant body of "knowledge," the countercommunity must provide a strong sense of solidarity among its members (a "fellowship of the saints" in a world rampant with devils) and it must be quite closed vis-à-vis the outside ("Be not yoked together with unbelievers"); in sum, it must be a kind of ghetto. ~ Peter L Berger,
897:Estradiol—Estradiol is the strongest estrogen; it helps you think clearly. It is produced in the ovaries and has many protective effects, including maintaining bone density, improving growth hormone production and cardiovascular function, keeping your blood from getting “sticky,” supporting cognitive function and mood, assisting in growth hormone release, and improving your lipids profile. Too much estradiol can be associated with estrogen-related cancers, but deficiencies can lead to osteoporosis, heart disease, dementia, and other diseases of aging. Estradiol keeps you looking and feeling young and vibrant. It also provides antiaging protection for the skin. And it even helps prevent weight gain. Researchers at Yale University have found that estradiol suppresses appetite using the same pathways in the brain as leptin, which is one of the hormones that regulate appetite. ~ Daniel G Amen,
898:One of the most bizarre and intriguing findings is that people with brain damage may be particularly good investors. Why? Because damage to certain parts of the brain can impair the emotional responses that cause the rest of us to do foolish things. A team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, and the University of Iowa conducted an experiment that compared the investment decisions made by fifteen patients with damage to the areas of the brain that control emotions (but with intact logic and cognitive functions) to the investment decisions made by a control group. The brain-damaged investors finished the game with 13 percent more money than the control group, largely, the authors believe, because they do not experience fear and anxiety. The impaired investors took more risks when there were high potential payoffs and got less emotional when they made losses.7 This ~ Charles Wheelan,
899:Demonstrations of limitations in the way humans process and store information have generated much controversy among researchers in the cognitive sciences. A major theme concerns the capacity of working memory. Separate verbal, spatial, and visual object working memory systems can be distinguished (1-3), but similar estimates of their capacities have been established. These estimates have sometimes been made in terms of “magical numbers,” which have ranged from seven to about four words, numbers, or locations (4). In line with these results, recent studies suggest that it is possible to retain information of up to four objects in visual working memory (5-9). ~ Olsson Henrik, Poom Leo, Treisman Anne (2005). "Visual memory needs categories". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 102(24): 8776–8780. doi:10.1073/pnas.0500810102. PMC 1150822. PMID 15937119.,
900:System 1 has more influence on behavior when System 2 is busy, and it has a sweet tooth. People who are cognitively busy are also more likely to make selfish choices, use sexist language, and make superficial judgments in social situations. Memorizing and repeating digits loosens the hold of System 2 on behavior, but of course cognitive load is not the only cause of weakened self-control. A few drinks have the same effect, as does a sleepless night. The self-control of morning people is impaired at night; the reverse is true of night people. Too much concern about how well one is doing in a task sometimes disrupts performance by loading short-term memory with pointless anxious thoughts. The conclusion is straightforward: self-control requires attention and effort. Another way of saying this is that controlling thoughts and behaviors is one of the tasks that System 2 performs. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
901:We've already seen the attention merchant's basic modus operandi: draw attention with apparently free stuff and then resell it. but a consequence of that model is a total dependence on gaining and holding attention. This means that under competition, the race will naturally run to the bottom; attention will almost invariably gravitate to the more garish, lurid, outrageous alternative, whatever stimulus may more likely engage what cognitive scientists call our ''automatic'' attention as opposed to our ''controlled'' attention, the kind we direct with intent. The race to a bottomless bottom, appealing to what one might call the audience's baser instincts, poses a fundamental, continual dilemma for the attention merchant-just how far will he go to get his harvest? If the history of attention capture teaches us anything, it is that the limits are often theoretical, and when real, rarely self-imposed. ~ Tim Wu,
902:Stress physiologists have found a biological explanation for this phenomenon as well. The part of the brain most affected by early stress is the prefrontal cortex, which is critical in self-regulatory activities of all kinds, both emotional and cognitive. As a result, children who grow up in stressful environments generally find it harder to concentrate, harder to sit still, harder to rebound from disappointments, and harder to follow directions. And that has a direct effect on their performance in school. When you’re overwhelmed by uncontrollable impulses and distracted by negative feelings, it’s hard to learn the alphabet. And in fact, when kindergarten teachers are surveyed about their students, they say that the biggest problem they face is not children who don’t know their letters and numbers; it is kids who don’t know how to manage their tempers or calm themselves down after a provocation. ~ Paul Tough,
903:As we have seen, the modern mind has a distorted image of itself that leads it to neglect some of its own most valuable learning capacities. We now know that the brain is built to linger as well as to rush, and that slow knowing sometimes leads to better answers. We know that knowledge makes itself known through sensations, images, feelings and inklings, as well as through clear, conscious thoughts. Experiments tell us that just interacting with complex situations without trying to figure them out can deliver a quality of understanding that defies reason and articulation. Other studies have shown that confusion may be a vital precursor to the discovery of a good idea. To be able to meet the uncertain challenges of the contemporary world, we need to heed the message of this research, and to expand our repertoire of ways of learning and knowing to reclaim the full gamut of cognitive possibilities. ~ Guy Claxton,
904:...It would hardly be a waste of time if sometimes even the most advanced students in the cognitive sciences were to pay a visit to their ancestors. It is frequently claimed in American philosophy departments that, in order to be a philosopher, it is not necessary to revisit the history of philosophy. It is like the claim that one can become a painter without having ever seen a single work by Raphael, or a writer without having ever read the classics. Such things are theoretically possible; but the 'primitive' artist, condemned to an ignorance of the past, is always recognizable as such and rightly labeled as naïf. It is only when we consider past projects revealed as utopian or as failures that we are apprised of the dangers and possibilities for failure for our allegedly new projects. The study of the deeds of our ancestors is thus more than an atiquarian pastime, it is an immunological precaution. ~ Umberto Eco,
905:Some cognitive scientists believe human response to music provides evidence that we are more than just flesh and blood—that we also have souls. Their thinking is as follows: All reactions to external stimuli can be traced back to an evolutionary rationale. You pull your hand away from fire to avoid physical harm. You get butterflies before an important speech because the adrenaline running through your veins has caused a physiological fight-or-flight response. But there is no evolutionary context within which people’s response to music makes sense—the tapping of a foot, the urge to sing along or get up and dance, there’s just no survival benefit to these activities. For this reason, some believe that our response to music is proof that there’s more to us than just biological and physiological mechanics—that the only way to be moved by the spirit, so to speak, is to have one in the first place. There ~ Jodi Picoult,
906:And this takes us back to perhaps the most paradoxical aspect of cognitive dissonance. It is precisely those thinkers who are most renowned, who are famous for their brilliant minds, who have the most to lose from mistakes. And that is why it is often the most influential people, those who ought to be in the best position to help the world learn from new evidence, who have the greatest incentive to reframe it. And these are also the kinds of people (or institutions) who often have the capacity to employ expensive PR firms to bolster their post hoc justifications. They have the financial means, in addition to a powerful subconscious urge, to bridge the gap between beliefs and evidence, not by learning, but by spinning. It is the equivalent of a golfer hitting the ball out of bounds and then hiring a slick PR company to convince the world that it had nothing to do with him, it was a sudden gust of wind! ~ Matthew Syed,
907:Thus, while it may be fairly easy to like yourself when feelings of love or happiness or serenity are present, deeper psychological health is seen only when you can maintain a posture of self-love and self-respect in the times of emotional hurt that accompany life’s inevitable contingencies of loss, loneliness, confusion, uncontrollable unfairness, and accidental mistake. The human feeling experience, much like the weather, is often unpredictably changeable. No “positive” feeling can be induced to persist as a permanent experience, no matter what Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy tells us. As disappointing as this may be, as much as we might like to deny it, as much as it causes each of us ongoing life frustration, and as much as we were raised and continue to be reinforced for trying to control and pick our feelings, they are still by definition of the human condition, largely outside the province of our wills. ~ Pete Walker,
908:Some people are better than others in these tasks of brain power—they are the individuals who excel in intelligence tests and are able to switch from one task to another quickly and efficiently. However, Stanovich argues that high intelligence does not make people immune to biases. Another ability is involved, which he labels rationality. Stanovich’s concept of a rational person is similar to what I earlier labeled “engaged.” The core of his argument is that rationality should be distinguished from intelligence. In his view, superficial or “lazy” thinking is a flaw in the reflective mind, a failure of rationality. This is an attractive and thought-provoking idea. In support of it, Stanovich and his colleagues have found that the bat-and-ball question and others like it are somewhat better indicators of our susceptibility to cognitive errors than are conventional measures of intelligence, such as IQ tests. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
909:Isolation, anchoring, distraction, and sublimation are among the wiles we use to keep ourselves from dispelling every illusion that keeps us up and running. Without this cognitive double-dealing, we would be exposed for what we are. It would be like looking into a mirror and for a moment seeing the skull inside our skin looking back at us with its sardonic smile. And beneath the skull—only blackness, nothing. Someone is there, so we feel, and yet no one is there—the uncanny paradox, all the horror in a glimpse. A little piece of our world has been peeled back, and underneath is creaking desolation—a carnival where all the rides are moving but no patrons occupy the seats. We are missing from the world we have made for ourselves. Maybe if we could resolutely gaze wide-eyed at our lives we would come to know what we really are. But that would stop the showy attraction we are inclined to think will run forever.8 ~ Thomas Ligotti,
910:The breakthrough study was done by Dr. Peter Elwood and a team from the Cochrane Institute of Primary Care and Public Health, Cardiff University, United Kingdom, and released in December 2013. For thirty years, these researchers followed 2,235 men living in Caerphilly, Wales, aged 45 to 59, and observed the impact of five activities on their health and on whether they developed dementia or cognitive decline, heart disease, cancer, or early death. The Cardiff study was meticulous, examining the men at intervals over the thirty years, and if they showed signs of cognitive decline or dementia, they were sent for detailed clinical assessments of high quality. It overcame study design problems from eleven previous studies (discussed in the endnotes). Results showed that if the men did four or five of the following behaviors, their risk for cognitive (mental) decline and dementia (including Alzheimer’s) fell by 60 percent: ~ Norman Doidge,
911:Consider the following: “Will Mindik be a good leader? She is intelligent and strong…” An answer quickly came to your mind, and it was yes. You picked the best answer based on the very limited information available, but you jumped the gun. What if the next two adjectives were corrupt and cruel? Take note of what you did not do as you briefly thought of Mindik as a leader. You did not start by asking, “What would I need to know before I formed an opinion about the quality of someone’s leadership?” System 1 got to work on its own from the first adjective: intelligent is good, intelligent and strong is very good. This is the best story that can be constructed from two adjectives, and System 1 delivered it with great cognitive ease. The story will be revised if new information comes in (such as Mindik is corrupt), but there is no waiting and no subjective discomfort. And there also remains a bias favoring the first impression. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
912:Gerontologists studying the aging process find increasing evidence that most of us will age with a fair degree of success. There’s far less institutionalization and disability than one might have guessed. While the size of social networks shrink with age, the quality of the relationships improves. There are types of cognitive skills that improve in old age (these are related to social intelligence and to making good strategic use of facts, rather than merely remembering them easily). The average elderly individual thinks his or her health is above average, and takes pleasure from that. And most important, the average level of happiness increases in old age; fewer negative emotions occur and, when they do, they don’t persist as long. Connected to this, brain-imaging studies show that negative images have less of an impact, and positive images have more of an impact on brain metabolism in older people, as compared to young. ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
913:also severely degenerated the tissue of his rostral anterior cingulate cortex, an area in the front of the brain that acts as a kind of recruiter engaging the other more rational brain areas to aid during conflicts (think of a very impulsive and distraught person calling more level-headed friends to get some perspective and objective advice) and is necessary for proper cognitive and impulse control, except in Pwnage this area had begun to shut down completely, like a house that took down all its Christmas lights, just deactivating, which was what happened in the brains of heroin-dependent individuals when presented with heroin: their anterior cingulate cortexes shut down and they got no decision-making input from the quote-unquote smart parts of their brains and their brains offered them literally no help with overcoming their most basic, primal, self-destructive impulses, impulses with which they needed the most help to overcome, ~ Nathan Hill,
914:How come the left brain doesn’t complain about the fact that it is no longer conscious of things on the left side of space? Imagine having your brain disconnected. Imagine waking up in your hospital room the next morning and, as your surgeon walks in to see how you are faring, you only see the left half of her face. Don’t you think you would notice that the right half is not there? The thing is, you would not. In fact, your left hemisphere wouldn’t even be conscious of the fact that there is a left half of space. But this is the weird part: I spoke as if the new, split version of you were just your left hemisphere, and that is not true. You are also your right hemisphere. The new “yous” have two minds with two completely separate pools of perceptual and cognitive information. It is just that only one of the minds can readily speak. The other initially cannot. Perhaps, after many years, it will be able to produce a few words. ~ Michael S Gazzaniga,
915:It [writing] has enormous meta-cognitive implications. The power is this: That you cannot only think in ways that you could not possibly think if you did not have the written word, but you can now think about the thinking that you do with the written word. There is danger in this, and the danger is that the enormous expressive and self-referential capacities of the written word, that is, the capacities to keep referring to referring to referring, will reach a point where you lose contact with the real world. And this, believe me, is very common in universities. There's a technical name for it, I don't know if we can use it on television, it's called "bullshit." But this is very common in academic life, where people just get a form of self-referentiality of the language, where the language is talking about the language, which is talking about the language, and in the end, it's hot air. That's another name for the same phenomenon. ~ John Rogers Searle,
916:Q. Positive means not negative? A. Yes, and much more besides. An emotion that cannot become negative gives enormous understanding, has an enormous cognitive value. It connects things that cannot be connected in an ordinary state. To have positive emotions is advised and recommended in religions, but they do not say how to get them. They say, ‘Have faith, have love’. How? Christ says, ‘Love your enemies’. It is not for us; we cannot even love our friends. It is the same as saying to a blind man, ‘You must see!’ A blind man cannot see, otherwise he would not be a blind man. That is what positive emotion means. Q. How can we learn to love our enemies? A. Learn to love yourself first—you do not love yourself enough; you love your false personality, not yourself. It is difficult to understand the New Testament or Buddhist writings, for they are notes taken in school. One line of these writings refers to one level and another to another level. ~ P D Ouspensky,
917:The developmental diaschisis hypothesis has important consequences for the treatment of autism. Developmental diaschisis opens the possibility that in early life, autism treatments may end op focusing on brain regions that were previously unsuspected to contribute to cognitive or social function, such as the cerebellum. For instance, failure of the cerebellum to predict the near future could make it hard for babies at risk for autism to learn properly from the world. Consistent with this, the most effective known treatment for autism is applied behavioral analysis, in which rewards and everyday events are paired with one another slowly and deliberately - as if compensating for a defect in some prediction process within the brain. Applied behavioral analysis works only on only about half of kids with autism. It might be possible to manipulate brain activity in the cerebellum to help applied behavioral analysis work better or for more kids. ~ David J Linden,
918:When the time is taken to build proper relationships and when leaders choose to put their people before their numbers, when we can actually feel a sense of trust for each other, the oxytocin released in our bodies can reverse many of the negative effects of operating in a high-stress, cortisol-soaked environment. In other words, it’s not the nature of the work we do or the number of hours we work that will help us reduce stress and achieve work-life balance; it’s increased amounts of oxytocin and serotonin. Serotonin boosts our self-confidence and inspires us to help those who work for us and make proud those for whom we work. Oxytocin relieves stress, increases our interest in our work and improves our cognitive abilities, making us better able to solve complex problems. It boosts our immune systems, lowers blood pressure, increases our libido and actually lessens our cravings and addictions. And best of all, it inspires us to work together. ~ Simon Sinek,
919:The greatest difficulty that many people face, as we have seen, is in admitting to their personal failures, and thus learning from them. We have looked at cognitive dissonance, which becomes so severe that we often reframe, spin, and sometimes even edit out our mistakes. Now think of the Unilever biologists. They didn’t regard the rejected nozzles as failures because they were part and parcel of how they learned. All those rejected designs were regarded as central to their strategy of cumulative selection, not as an indictment of their judgment. They knew they would have dozens of failures and were therefore not fazed by them. But when we are misled into regarding the world as simpler than it really is, we not only resist testing our top-down strategies and assumptions, we also become more defensive when they are challenged by our peers or by the data. After all, if the world is simple, you would have to be pretty stupid not to understand it. ~ Matthew Syed,
920:But...freedom has come into the spotlight again. We find ourselves surveilled and managed to an extraordinary degree, farmed for our personal data, fed consumer goods but discouraged from speaking our minds or doing anything too disruptive in the world, and regularly reminded that racial, sexual, religious, and ideological conflict are not closed cases at all. Perhaps we are ready to talk about freedom again - and talking about it politically also means talking about it in our personal lives.
This is why, when reading Sartre on freedom, Beauvoir on the subtle mechanisms of oppression, Kierkegaard on anxiety, Camus on rebellion, Heidegger on technology, or Merleau-Ponty on cognitive science, one sometimes feels one is reading the latest news. Their philosophies remain of interest, not because they are right or wrong, but because they concern life, and because they take on the two biggest human questionsL what are we? and what should we do? ~ Sarah Bakewell,
921:I have seen mood stabilization, reduced or eliminated depression, reduced or eliminated anxiety, improved cognitive functioning, greatly enhanced and evened-out energy levels, cessation of seizures, improved overall neurological stability, cessation of migraines, improved sleep, improvement in autistic symptoms, improvements with PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), improved gastrointestinal functioning, healthy weight loss, cancer remissions and tumor shrinkage, much better management of underlying previous health issues, improved symptoms and quality of life in those struggling with various forms of autoimmunity (including many with type 1 and 1.5 diabetes), fewer colds and flus, total reversal of chronic fatigue, improved memory, sharpened cognitive functioning, and significantly stabilized temperament. And there is quality evidence to support the beneficial impact of a fat-based ketogenic approach in all these types of issues. – Nora Gedgaudas ~ Jimmy Moore,
922:The ten instincts and cognitive psychology. Our thinking on the ten instincts was influenced by the work of a number of brilliant cognitive scientists. Some of the books that completely changed our thinking about the mind and about how we should teach facts about the world are: Dan Ariely, Predictably Irrational (2008), The Upside of Irrationality (2010), and The Honest Truth About Dishonesty (2012); Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works (1997), The Stuff of Thought (2007), The Blank Slate (2002), and The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011); Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson, Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me) (2007); Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011); Walter Mischel, The Marshmallow Test (2014); Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner, Superforecasting (2015); Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling Animal (2012); Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis (2006) and The Righteous Mind (2012); and Thomas Gilovich, How We Know What Isn’t So (1991). ~ Hans Rosling,
923:The idea is to help patients more clearly assess the contents of their thought stream, teaching them to note and correct the conceptual errors termed "cognitive distortions" that characterize psychopathological thinking. Somone in the grips of such thinking would, for instance, regard a half-full glass not merely as half-empty but also fatally flawed, forever useless, constitutionally incapable of ever being full, and fit only to be discarded. By the mid-1980s, cognitive therapy was being used more and more in combination with behavioral therapy for OCD, and it seemed naturally compatible with a mindfulness-based perspective. If I could show that a cognitive-behavioral approach, infused with mindful awareness, could be marshaled against the disease, and if successful therapy were accompanied by changes in brain activity, then it would represent a significant step toward demonstrating the causal efficacy of mental activity on neural circuits. ~ Jeffrey M Schwartz,
924:There is an undeniably daffy aspect to Sherman. Calling him a motormouth understates the case: he was a veritable volcano of verbiage, as borne out by a mountain of letters, memoranda, and other official papers, not to mention the uniformly gabby impression he left among contemporaries. If there were a contest for who spoke the most words in a lifetime, Sherman would have been a finalist—he lived a long time and slept very little; otherwise he was talking. He said exactly what was on his mind at that instant, until his quicksilver brain turned to an entirely different matter, then to a third, and perhaps to a fourth, then back to the first—unceasing—spewing orders, analysis, advice, and anecdotes in a random pattern that often left listeners stunned and amazed. One prominent Civil War historian, Gary Gallagher, described Sherman as lacking cognitive filters. It all came out. And this is a real problem in trying to resurrect the man’s nature. ~ Robert L O Connell,
925:Rewards encourage repeat behavior, but did you know that they also restore our willpower? Cognitive scientist Art Markman says, “When you stand in front of that buffet table filled with desserts, seek out a friend and have a fun conversation.” 39 It may seem like a puzzling suggestion, but rewards of all kinds may be a viable way to restore your willpower. Based on Baumeister's “ego depletion” concept, multiple studies have concluded that people can overcome ego depletion by restoring glucose.40 Some scientists, however, wanted to put another willpower restoration theory to the test: rewards. Their theory was that perhaps it is the reward from eating sugar that restores willpower.41 Sugar is known to activate the reward centers in the brain. They started with typical exercises to deplete willpower. Then, one group swished a solution sweetened with artificial sweetener and spit it out (artificial sweeteners do not activate the brain’s reward centers). The ~ Stephen Guise,
926:Cognition and emotion cannot be separated. Cognitive thoughts lead to emotions: emotions drive cognitive thoughts. The brain is structured to act upon the world, and every action carries with it expectations, and these expectations drive emotions. That is why much of language is based on physical metaphors, why the body and its interaction with the environment are essential components of human thought. Emotion is highly underrated. In fact, the emotional system is a powerful information processing system that works in tandem with cognition. Cognition attempts to make sense of the world: emotion assigns value. It is the emotional system that determines whether a situation is safe or threatening, whether something that is happening is good or bad, desirable or not. Cognition provides understanding: emotion provides value judgments. A human without a working emotional system has difficulty making choices. A human without a cognitive system is dysfunctional. ~ Donald A Norman,
927:This was the first study ever to show that cognitive-behavior therapy—or, indeed, any psychiatric treatment that did not rely on drugs—has the power to change faulty brain chemistry in a well-identified brain circuit. What’s more, the therapy had been self-directed, something that was and to a great extent remains anathema to psychology and psychiatry. The changes we detected on PET scans were the kind that neuropsychiatrists might see in patients being treated with powerful mind-altering drugs. We had demonstrated such changes in patients who had, not to put too fine a point on it, changed the way they thought about their thoughts. Self-directed therapy had dramatically and significantly altered brain function. There are now a wealth of brain imaging data supporting the notion that the sort of willful cognitive shift achieved during Refocusing through mindful awareness brings about important changes in brain circuitry as we will see in later chapters. ~ Jeffrey M Schwartz,
928:Feeblemindedness,” in 1924, came in three distinct flavors: idiot, moron, and imbecile. Of these, an idiot was the easiest to classify—the US Bureau of the Census defined the term as a “mentally defective person with a mental age of not more than 35 months”—but imbecile and moron were more porous categories. On paper, the terms referred to less severe forms of cognitive disability, but in practice, the words were revolving semantic doors that swung inward all too easily to admit a diverse group of men and women, some with no mental illness at all—prostitutes, orphans, depressives, vagrants, petty criminals, schizophrenics, dyslexics, feminists, rebellious adolescents—anyone, in short, whose behavior, desires, choices, or appearance fell outside the accepted norm. Feebleminded women were sent to the Virginia State Colony for confinement to ensure that they would not continue breeding and thereby contaminate the population with further morons or idiots. ~ Siddhartha Mukherjee,
929:In the 1980s, psychologists Susan Fiske and Shelly Taylor were looking for a way to describe what research was showing to be a ubiquitous tendency among humans: to think only as much as they feel they need to, and no more. And so the metaphor of the cognitive miser was born, with each of us an Ebenezer Scrooge—except instead of sitting on piles of money and refusing to pay for an extra lump of coal to keep the house warm, we sit on reserves of mental energy and processing capacity, unwilling to spend much of it unless we really have to. We rely on simple, efficient thought processes to get the job done—not so much out of laziness (though there is some of that, too), but out of necessity. There is just too much going on, too much to notice, understand, and act on, for us to give every individual and every occurrence our undivided, unbiased attention. So not only are you innately hard to understand, but the people observing you are hoarding their attention. ~ Heidi Grant Halvorson,
930:'The method of loci', an imaginal technique known to the ancient Greeks and Romans and described by Yates (1966) in her book The Art of Memory as well as by Luria (1969). In this technique the subject memorizes the layout of some building, or the arrangement of shops on a street, or any geographical entity which is composed of a number of discrete loci. When desiring to remember a set of items the subject 'walks' through these loci in their imagination and commits an item to each one by forming an image between the item and any feature of that locus. Retrieval of items is achieved by 'walking' through the loci, allowing the latter to activate the desired items. The efficacy of this technique has been well established (Ross and Lawrence 1968, Crovitz 1969, 1971, Briggs, Hawkins and Crovitz 1970, Lea 1975), as is the minimal interference seen with its use. ~ O'Keefe, John; Nadel, Lynn (December 7, 1978). The Hippocampus as a Cognitive Map. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198572060.,
931:It wasn't that Harry had gone down the wrong path, it wasn't that the road to sanity lay somewhere outside of science. But reading science papers hadn't been enough. All the cognitive psychology papers about known bugs in the human brain and so on had helped, but they hadn't been sufficient. He'd failed to reach what Harry was starting to realise was a shockingly high standard of being so incredibly, unbelievably rational that you actually started to get things right,as opposed to having a handy language in which to describe afterwards everything you'd just done wrong. Harry could look back now and apply ideas like 'motivated cognition' to see where he'd gone astray over the last year. That counted for something, when it came to being saner in the future. That was better than having no idea what he'd done wrong. But that wasn't yet being the person who could pass through Time's narrow keyhole, the adult form whose possibility Dumbledore had been instructed by seers to create. ~ Eliezer Yudkowsky,
932:Then there are the metabolic costs of switching itself that I wrote about earlier. Asking the brain to shift attention from one activity to another causes the prefrontal cortex and striatum to burn up oxygenated glucose, the same fuel they need to stay on task. And the kind of rapid, continual shifting we do with multitasking causes the brain to burn through fuel so quickly that we feel exhausted and disoriented after even a short time. We’ve literally depleted the nutrients in our brain. This leads to compromises in both cognitive and physical performance. Among other things, repeated task switching leads to anxiety, which raises levels of the stress hormone cortisol in the brain, which in turn can lead to aggressive and impulsive behaviors. By contrast, staying on task is controlled by the anterior cingulate and the striatum, and once we engage the central executive mode, staying in that state uses less energy than multitasking and actually reduces the brain’s need for glucose. ~ Daniel J Levitin,
933:Recall from Chapter 5 that six processes characterize people who suffer from anxiety, regardless of their particular disorder:74 (1) increased attention to threats; (2) failure to discriminate threat and safety; (3) increased avoidance; (4) heightened reactivity to unpredictable threats; (5) overestimation of threat significance and likelihood; and (6) maladaptive behavioral and cognitive control. Circuits involving the amygdala, nucleus accumbens, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, lateral prefrontal cortex, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus, insula cortex, and arousal systems contribute to these processes. Of great interest would be comparisons of the involvement of the processes and the specific circuits and molecular mechanisms underlying each of them across anxiety disorders, and also between anxiety disorders and other mental disorders in which increased anxiety is a factor (e.g., depression, schizophrenia, autism). ~ Joseph E LeDoux,
934:We judge ourselves by our internal motives and everyone else by their external actions. And thus, in considering our own misdeeds, we have more access to mitigating situational information. This is straight out of Us Them. When Thems do something wrong, it's because they're simply rotten. When Us-es do it, it's because of an extenuating circumstance and Me is the most focal Us there is, coming with the most insight into internal state. Thus on this cognitive level, there is no inconsistency or hypocrisy and we might readily perceive a wrong to be mitigated by internal motives in the case of anyone's misdeeds. It's just easier to know those motives when we are the perpetrator. The adverse consequences of this are wide and deep. Moreover, the pull towards judging yourself less harshly than others easily resists the rationality of deterrence. As Ariely writes in his book, 'Overall, cheating is not limited by risk; it is limited by our ability to rationalize the cheating to ourselves. ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
935:In sum, reliance on cognitive characteristics beyond sentience to justify the use of nonhumans in experiments requires either that we assume that these characteristics are morally relevant or that we ignore the fact that we do not regard the lack of such characteristics as morally relevant where humans are concerned. We are left with one and only one reason to explain our differential treatment of animals: We are human and they are not, and species difference alone justifies differential treatment. But this criterion is entirely arbitrary and no different from maintaining that, although there is no special characteristic possessed only by whites, or no defect possessed by blacks that is not also possessed by whites, we may treat blacks as inferior to whites merely on the basis of race. It is also no different from saying that, although there is no special characteristic possessed only by men or no defect possessed only by women, we may treat women as inferior to men based merely on sex. ~ Gary L Francione,
936:The danger of abusing the discovery of the truth value of imagination for retrogressive tendencies is exemplified by the work of Carl Jung. More empathically than Freud, he has insisted on the cognitive force of imagination. According to Jung, phantasy is ‘undistinguishably’ united with all other mental functions, it appears ‘now as primeval, now as the ultimate and most audacious synthesis of all capabilities.’ Phantasy is above all the ‘creative activity out of which flow the answers to all answerable questions’; it is ‘the mother of all possibilities, in which all mental opposites as well as the conflict between internal and external world are united.’ Phantasy has always built the bridge between the irreconcilable demands of object and subject, extroversion and introversion. The simultaneously retrospective and expectant character of imagination is thus clearly stated: it looks not only back to an aboriginal golden past, but also forward to still unrealized but realizable possibilities. ~ Herbert Marcuse,
937:doctors are sometimes oblivious to their mistakes because they have already reframed them. They are not dishonest people; they are often unaware of the reframing exercise because it is largely subconscious. If there were independent investigations into adverse events, these mistakes would be picked up during the “black box” analysis and doctors would be challenged on them, and learn from them. But proper independent investigation is almost nonexistent. Moreover, such investigations generally rely on the information provided by professionals, which is often withheld in a culture that stigmatizes error. This means that doctors make the same mistakes again and again, while growing in the mistaken conviction that they are infallible. This, in turn, increases the cognitive dissonance associated with mistakes, tightening the noose still further. Admitting to error becomes so threatening that in some cases surgeons (decent, honorable people) would rather risk killing a patient than admit they might be wrong. ~ Matthew Syed,
938:Creative and manic thinking are both distinguished by fluidity and by the capacity to combine ideas in ways that form new and original connections. Thinking in both tends to be divergent in nature, less goal-bound, and more likely to wander about or leap off in a variety of directions. Diffuse, diverse, and leapfrogging ideas were first noted thousands of years ago as one of the hallmarks of manic thought. More recently, the Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler observed: "The thinking of the manic is flighty. He jumps by by-pahts from one subject to another....With this the ideas run along very easily....Because of the more rapid flow of ideas, and especially because of the falling off of inhibitions, artistic activities are facilitated even though something worthwhile is produced only in very mild cases and when the patient is otherwise talented in this direction." The expansiveness of thought so characteristic of mania can open up a wider range of cognitive options and broaden the field of observation. ~ Kay Redfield Jamison,
939:It is no coincidence then that doctors and patients and the entire Lyme community report—anecdotally, of course, as there is still a frustrating scarcity of good data on anything Lyme-related—that women suffer the most from Lyme. They tend to advance into chronic and late-stage forms of the illness most because often it's checked for last, as doctors often treat them as psychiatric cases first. The nebulous symptoms plus the fracturing of articulacy and cognitive fog can cause any Lyme patient to simply appear mentally ill and mentally ill only. This is why we hear that young women—again, anecdotally—are dying of Lyme the fastest. This is also why we hear that chronic illness is a women's burden. Women simply aren't allowed to be physically sick until they are mentally sick, too, and then it is by some miracle or accident that the two can be separated for proper diagnosis. In the end, every Lyme patient has some psychiatric diagnosis, too, if anything because of the hell it takes getting to a diagnosis. ~ Porochista Khakpour,
940:Most people reflect on their own thoughts: Is this true? Am I overreacting? I should check this out. But people with PDs don’t seem to have the ability to reflect on their own thoughts or behavior. Like someone who is drunk, their thinking is continually “under the influence” of their cognitive distortions. They can send, but not receive, new information. Because they are unaware of their cognitive distortions, these distortions can underlie serious misbehavior, including physical abuse, emotional abuse, and even legal abuse (using the legal system to attack a target and to promote false or unnecessary litigation). Information that does not fit the distortion is rigidly unconsciously blocked as too threatening and confusing. Instead, people with PDs defend their distortions in an effort to protect themselves. Blamers repeatedly react to “false alarms” caused by all-or-nothing thinking, jumping to conclusions, and so forth. They truly believe that they are in danger, and they feel powerless and out of control inside. ~ Randi Kreger,
941:felt apprehensive. As we drove along the highway the gumtrees that populated the un-kerbed median strip did not look like the mighty elms and oaks of England. They looked like beggars, their bark hanging from their limbs like tattered rags. They held no promise of adventure. Robin Hood and his Merry Men could never have camouflaged their green hats and tights in dull grey leaves like these. Like the early settlers, I found my five-year-old eyes straining to transform the Aussie bush into a familiar form. It refused to comply with my chocolate-box vision, remaining stubbornly scrappy and scabby. I had no myths or legends with which to populate this landscape. Sounds, sights, smells: everything was different. My shocked senses groped through the cognitive fog, straining to find patterns, fragments they could piece together. Over the months and years, a bank of sensory experiences accumulated. Repetition created a comforting palimpsest of familiarity and a harsh beauty revealed itself. A new life began to emerge. But ~ Magda Szubanski,
942:Humanity's "progress of knowledge" and the "evolution of consciousness" have too often been characterized as if our task were simply to ascend a very tall cognitive ladder with graded hierarchical steps that represent successive developmental stages in which we solve increasingly challenging mental riddles, like advanced problems in a graduate exam in biochemistry or logic. But to understand life and the cosmos better, perhaps we are required to transform not only our minds but our hearts. For the whole being, body and soul, mind and spirit, is implicated. Perhaps we must go not only high and far but down and deep. Our world view and cosmology, which defines the context for everything else, is profoundly affected by the degree to which all out faculties–intellectual, imaginative, aesthetic, moral, emotional, somatic, spiritual, relational–enter the process of knowing. How we approach "the other," and how we approach each other, will shape everything, including out own evolving self and the cosmos in which we participate. ~ Richard Tarnas,
943:The biopolitical effect of semiocapitalism (better said: the thanatological effect of semiocapitalism) is essentially the capture of cognitive activity, and the subjection of the faculty of expression of the linguistic animal to the sleepless, aggressive dynamics of the labour market. Language is captured by the networked machine and turned into an essentially productive activity. Herein lies the trap: people are encouraged to consider their linguistic competence as factors of economic competition, and to manage and invest in them as such. Creativity, expressiveness, affection, emotion – the human soul, in other words – are considered to be productive factors, and consequently, they are evaluated according to standards of productivity. Exploitation, competition, precariousness, redundancy are not perceived as the effects of a conflictual social relationship, but are internalized as deficiencies of the self, as personal inadequacies. The unceasing restructuring of the organization of work is perceived as humiliation and brutality. ~ Anonymous,
944:Remember and Share - Action is the second step in The Hook. - The action is the simplest behavior in anticipation of reward. - As described by the Dr. BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model: - For any behavior to occur, a trigger must be present at the same time as the user has sufficient ability and motivation to take action. - To increase the desired behavior, ensure a clear trigger is present, then increase ability by making the action easier to do, and finally align with the right motivator. - Every behavior is driven by one of three Core Motivators: seeking pleasure or avoiding pain, seeking hope and avoiding fear, seeking social acceptance while avoiding social rejection. - Ability is influenced by the six factors of time, money, physical effort, brain cycles, social deviance, and non-routineness. Ability is dependent on users and their context at that moment. - Heuristics are cognitive shortcuts we take to make quick decisions. Product designers can utilize many of the hundreds of heuristics to increase the likelihood of their desired action. ~ Nir Eyal,
945:When our internal voice starts criticizing us, lashing out, it can feel like we’re under attack. Because our brain doesn’t distinguish between imagination and reality, these internal attacks are perceived by our mind just as a real, physical attack would be, and they can generate an automatic physical reaction known as the threat response or fight-or-flight response. The effects of this activation are well-known. Just as a zebra reacts to the stress of being chased by a lion, the human body shoots adrenaline and cortisol (stress hormones) through its veins, and directs all its resources toward crucial functions: elevated heart and breathing rates, muscle reaction, vision acuity, and so forth. The body is no longer concerned with living ten more years, but with surviving ten more minutes. It shuts down nonurgent functions such as muscle repair, digestion, and the immune system,6 as well as “superfluous” functions such as cognitive reasoning. In other words, because it’s not critical to survival, intelligent thinking gets shut down. ~ Olivia Fox Cabane,
946:This complex constellation of responses occurred quickly, automatically, and effortlessly. You did not will it and you could not stop it. It was an operation of System 1. The events that took place as a result of your seeing the words happened by a process called associative activation: ideas that have been evoked trigger many other ideas, in a spreading cascade of activity in your brain. The essential feature of this complex set of mental events is its coherence. Each element is connected, and each supports and strengthens the others. The word evokes memories, which evoke emotions, which in turn evoke facial expressions and other reactions, such as a general tensing up and an avoidance tendency. The facial expression and the avoidance motion intensify the feelings to which they are linked, and the feelings in turn reinforce compatible ideas. All this happens quickly and all at once, yielding a self-reinforcing pattern of cognitive, emotional, and physical responses that is both diverse and integrated—it has been called associatively coherent. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
947:A fox crept up to a vine. He gazed longingly at the fat, purple, overripe grapes. He placed his front paws against the trunk of the vine, stretched his neck and tried to get at the fruit, but it was too high. Irritated, he tried his luck again. He launched himself upward, but his jaw snapped only at fresh air. A third time he leapt with all his might – so powerfully that he landed back down on the ground with a thud. Still not a single leaf had stirred. The fox turned up his nose: ‘These aren’t even ripe yet. Why would I want sour grapes?’ Holding his head high, he strode back into the forest. The Greek poet, Aesop, created this fable to illustrate one of the most common errors in reasoning. An inconsistency arose when the fox set out to do something and failed to accomplish it. He can resolve this conflict in one of three ways: A) by somehow getting at the grapes, B) by admitting that his skills are insufficient, or C) by retrospectively reinterpreting what happened. The last option is an example of cognitive dissonance, or rather, its resolution. ~ Rolf Dobelli,
948:I propose that what we call “consciousness” is a feeling forming a backdrop to, or attached to, a current mental event or instinct. It is best grasped by considering a common engineering architecture called layering, which allows complex systems to function efficiently and in an integrated fashion, from atoms to molecules, to cells, to circuits, to cognitive and perceptual capacities. If the brain indeed consists of different layers (in the engineering sense), then information from a micro level may be integrated at higher and higher layers until each modular unit itself produces consciousness. A layer architecture allows for new levels of functioning to arise from lower-level functioning parts that could not create the “higher level” experience alone. It is time to learn more about layering and the wonders it brings to understanding brain architecture. We are on the road to realizing that consciousness is not a “thing.” It is the result of a process embedded in an architecture, just as a democracy is not a thing but the result of a process. ~ Michael S Gazzaniga,
949:Surprisingly, there is a representation of the human hand in Broca’s area, a section of the human brain involved in language processing, speech or sign production, and comprehension. A number of studies have shown that hand/arm gestures and movements of the mouth are linked through a common neural substrate. For example, grasping movements influence pronunciation—and not only when they are executed but also when they are observed. It has also been demonstrated that hand gestures and mouth gestures are directly linked in humans, and the oro-laryngeal movement patterns we create in order to produce speech are a part of this link. Broca’s area is also a marker for the development of language in human evolution, so it is intriguing to see that it also contains a motor representation of hand movements; here may be a part of the bridge that led from the “body semantics” of gestures and the bodily self-model to linguistic semantics, associated with sounds, speech production, and abstract meaning expressed in our cognitive self-model, the thinking self. ~ Thomas Metzinger,
950:The subject matter is perhaps best characterized as “the subjective quality of experience.” When we perceive, think, and act, there is a whir of causation and information processing, but this processing does not usually go on in the dark. There is also an internal aspect; there is something it feels like to be a cognitive agent. This internal aspect is conscious experience. Conscious experiences range from vivid color sensations to experiences of the faintest background aromas; from hard-edged pains to the elusive experience of thoughts on the tip of one’s tongue; from mundane sounds and smells to the encompassing grandeur of musical experience; from the triviality of a nagging itch to the weight of a deep existential angst; from the specificity of the taste of peppermint to the generality of one’s experience of selfhood. All these have a distinct experienced quality. All are prominent parts of the inner life of the mind. We can say that a being is conscious if there is something it is like to be that being, to use a phrase made famous by Thomas Nagel.1 ~ David J Chalmers,
951:What was going on? The only way to make sense of this exchange is through the prism of cognitive dissonance. Many prosecutors see their work as more than a job; it is more like a vocation. They have spent years training to reach high standards of performance. It is a tough initiation. Their self-esteem is bound up with their competence. They are highly motivated to believe in the probity of the system they have joined. In the course of their investigations, they get to know the bereaved families well and quite naturally come to empathize with their trauma. And they want to believe that in all those long hours spent away from their own families pursuing justice, they have helped to make the world a safer place. Imagine what it must be like to be confronted with evidence that they have assisted in putting the wrong person in jail; that they have ruined the life of an innocent person; that the wounds of the victim’s family are going to be reopened. It must be stomach churning. In terms of cognitive dissonance, it is difficult to think of anything more threatening. ~ Matthew Syed,
952:We don’t normally think of it as such, but writing is a technology, which means that a literate person is someone whose thought processes are technologically mediated. We became cognitive cyborgs as soon as we became fluent readers, and the consequences of that were profound.



Before a culture adopts the use of writing, when its knowledge is transmitted exclusively through oral means, it can very easily revise its history. It’s not intentional, but it is inevitable; throughout the world, bards and griots have adapted their material to their audiences, and thus gradually adjusted the past to suit the needs of the present. The idea that accounts of the past shouldn’t change is a product of literate cultures’ reverence for the written word. Anthropologists will tell you that oral cultures understand the past differently; for them, their histories don’t need to be accurate so much as they need to validate the community’s understanding of itself. So it wouldn’t be correct to say that their histories are unreliable; their histories do what they need to do. ~ Ted Chiang,
953:Because remembered experience is a distortion of actual experience, and because it's difficult to elicit real emotional experience in laboratory studies, some contemporary researchers emphasize the importance of obtaining immediate or on-line evaluations during real emotional episodes (measures of instant utility), especially in natural settings. Though such studies circumvent the errors of remembered utility and the artificiality of laboratory research, they are extremely hard to implement, as well as being time-consuming, and in the end are still subject to the biases and measurement problems inherent in any method that relies on one's introspective evaluation of his or her own mental states. The fallibility and subjectivity of introspection are, after all, what triggered the behaviorist revolution in psychology in the early twentieth century. And recall that the cognitive revolution only succeeded in bringing the mind back to psychology because it figured out how to study the mind without relying on introspection-by focusing on mental processes rather than mental content. ~ Joseph E LeDoux,
954:Philosophers and many proponents of cognitive psychology hold that moral judgments are within our control, and thus people who choose to commit crimes, barring delusions, know what they are doing and that it is wrong. The legal system depends on this notion. However, recent research suggests that damage to an area of the brain just behind the eyes can transform the way people make moral decisions. The results indicate that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, implicated in the feeling of compassion, may be the foundation for moral regulations, assisting us in inhibiting (or not) harmful treatment of others. Failure in its development, or damage to it, might alter the way a person perceives the moral landscape, which will thus affect his or her actions. If juries include information of this kind in their deliberations, it could mitigate the harshness of the sentences they impose on convicted criminals. While more research must be done, other types of brain scans are being entered as evidence in the trials of some heinous crimes to show that the perpetrator could not help what he did. ~ Katherine Ramsland,
955:Again as during fetal development, synapses that underlie cognitive and other abilities stick around if they’re used but wither if they’re not. The systematic elimination of unused synapses, and thus unused circuits, presumably results in greater efficiency for the neural networks that are stimulated—the networks that support, in other words, behaviors in which the adolescent is actively engaged. Just as early childhood seems to be a time of exquisite sensitivity to the environment (remember the babies who dedicate auditory circuits only to the sounds of their native language, eliminating those for phonemes that they do not hear), so may adolescence. The teen years are, then, a second chance to consolidate circuits that are used and prune back those that are not—to hard-wire an ability to hit a curve ball, juggle numbers mentally, or turn musical notation into finger movements almost unconsciously. Says Giedd, “Teens have the power to determine their own brain development, to determine which connections survive and which don’t, [by] whether they do art, or music, or sports, or videogames. ~ Jeffrey M Schwartz,
956:Benjamin Libet, a scientist in the physiology department of the University of California, San Francisco, was a pioneering researcher into the nature of human consciousness. In one famous experiment he asked a study group to move their hands at a moment of their choosing while their brain activity was being monitored. Libet was seeking to identify what came first — the brain’s electrical activity to make the hand move or the person’s conscious intention to make their hand move. It had to be the second one, surely? But no. Brain activity to move the hand was triggered a full half a second before any conscious intention to move it…. John-Dylan Haynes, a neuroscientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Studies in Leipzig, Germany, led a later study that was able to predict an action ten seconds before people had a conscious intention to do it. What was all the stuff about free will? Frank Tong, a neuroscientist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, said: “Ten seconds is a lifetime in terms of brain activity.” So where is it coming from if not ‘us,’ the conscious mind? ~ David Icke,
957:There are two answers. One is that all technologies are in a sense simultaneously mechanistic and organic. if you examine a technology from the top down, you see it as an arrangement of connected parts interacting and intermeshing with each other to some purpose. In this sense it becomes a clockwork device-it becomes mechanistic. If you examine it mentally from the bottom up, however, from how these parts are put together, you see these as integral parts-integral organs-forming a higher, functioning, purposed whole. it becomes a functioning body-it becomes organic. Whether a technology is mechanistic or organic therefore depends on your point of view. The other answer is purely biological: technologies are acquiring properties we associate with living organisms. As they sense and react to their environment, as they become self-assembling, self-configuring, self-healing, and "cognitive," they more and more resemble living organisms. The more sophisticated and "high-tech" technologies become, the more they become biological. We are beginning to appreciate that technology is as much metabolism as mechanism. ~ W Brian Arthur,
958:In our paradigmatic example, A and B, the original creators of the social world, can always reconstruct the circumstances under which their world and any part of it was established. That is, they can arrive at the meaning of an institution by exercising their powers of recollection. A’s and B’s children are in an altogether different situation. Their knowledge of the institutional history is by way of “hearsay.” The original meaning of the institutions is inaccessible to them in terms of memory. It, therefore, becomes necessary to interpret this meaning to them in various legitimating formulas. These will have to be consistent and comprehensive in terms of the institutional order, if they are to carry conviction to the new generation. The same story, so to speak, must be told to all the children. It follows that the expanding institutional order develops a corresponding canopy of legitimations, stretching over it a protective cover of both cognitive and normative interpretation. These legitimations are learned by the new generation during the same process that socializes them into the institutional order. ~ Peter L Berger,
959:The conundrum of the twenty-first (century) is that with the best intentions of color blindness, and laws passed in this spirit, we still carry instincts and reactions inherited from our environments and embedded in our being below the level of conscious decision. There is a color line in our heads, and while we could see its effects we couldn’t name it until now. But john powell is also steeped in a new science of “implicit bias,” which gives us a way, finally, even to address this head on. It reveals a challenge that is human in nature, though it can be supported and hastened by policies to create new experiences, which over time create new instincts and lay chemical and physical pathways. This is a helpfully unromantic way to think about what we mean when we aspire, longingly, to a lasting change of heart. And john powell and others are bringing training methodologies based on the new science to city governments and police forces and schools. What we’re finding now in the last 30 years is that much of the work, in terms of our cognitive and emotional response to the world, happens at the unconscious level. ~ Krista Tippett,
960:We are among the first peoples in human history who do not broadly inherit religious identity as a given, a matter of kin and tribe, like hair color and hometown. But the very fluidity of this—the possibility of choice that arises, the ability to craft and discern one’s own spiritual bearings—is not leading to the decline of spiritual life but its revival. It is changing us, collectively. It is even renewing religion, and our cultural encounter with religion, in counterintuitive ways. I meet scientists who speak of a religiosity without spirituality—a reverence for the place of ritual in human life, and the value of human community, without a need for something supernaturally transcendent. There is something called the New Humanism, which is in dialogue about moral imagination and ethical passions across boundaries of belief and nonbelief.
But I apprehend— with a knowledge that is as much visceral as cognitive— that God is love. That somehow the possibility of care that can transform us— love muscular and resilient— is an echo of a reality behind reality, embedded in the creative force that gives us life. ~ Krista Tippett,
961:The last thing I wish to do, of course, is relativize these rapists' crimes by drawing attention to this aspect of their past. The criminal acting-out of repressed injuries can never be thought of as a compulsive necessity. Had these men been prepared to give up their repression, such acts would never have occurred. Sadly, they are not prepared to do so; and as soon as they themselves become fathers they are in a position to take revenge on their mothers with impunity—under their own roofs, on their wives and children, beyond the reach of the law. Their deeds must be shown in their true light, just as those of their parents and grandparents and the millions of other child abusers in previous generations, who have produced the rapists of today. Their perverted mothers were also the products of this disastrous chain of events. The crime of child mistreatment is probably as old as the world. So that it can no longer continue to be committed under the guise of misleading terms such as "tradition", "normality", or acting "for the child's own good," we have to, at least at the cognitive level, make available the whole truth. ~ Alice Miller,
962:most students reported a state of total involvement in what was being taught, he would rate the moment “inspired.” The inspired moments of learning shared the same active ingredients: a potent combination of full attention, enthusiastic interest, and positive emotional intensity. The joy in learning comes during these moments. Such joyous moments, says University of Southern California neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, signify “optimal physiological coordination and smooth running of the operations of life.” Damasio, one of the world’s leading neuroscientists, has long been a pioneer in linking findings in brain science to human experience. Damasio argues that more than merely letting us survive the daily grind, joyous states allow us to flourish, to live well, and to feel well-being. Such upbeat states, he notes, allow a “greater ease in the capacity to act,” a greater harmony in our functioning that enhances our power and freedom in whatever we do. The field of cognitive science, Damasio notes, in studying the neural networks that run mental operations, finds similar conditions and dubs them “maximal harmonious states. ~ Daniel Goleman,
963:Revaluing is a deep form of Relabeling. Anyone whose grasp of reality is reasonably intact can learn to blame OCD symptoms on a medical condition. But such Relabeling is superficial, leading to no diminution of symptoms or improved ability to cope. This is why classical cognitive therapy (which aims primarily to correct cognitive distortions) seldom helps OCD patients. Revaluing went deeper. Like Relabeling, Reattributing, and Refocusing, Revaluing was intended to enhance patients’ use of mindful awareness, the foundation of Theravada Buddhist philosophy. I therefore began teaching Revaluing by reference to what Buddhist philosophy calls wise (as opposed to unwise) attention. Wise attention means seeing matters as they really are or, literally, “in accordance with the truth.” In the case of OCD, wise attention means quickly recognizing the disturbing thoughts as senseless, as false, as errant brain signals not even worth the gray matter they rode in on, let alone worth acting on. By refusing to take the symptoms at face value, patients come to view them “as toxic waste from my brain,” as the man with chapped hands put it. ~ Jeffrey M Schwartz,
964:When they find out what I do for a living, many people tell me they love music listening, but their music lessons 'didn't take.' I think they're being too hard on themselves. The chasm between musical experts and everyday musicians that has grown so wide in our culture makes people feel discouraged, and for some reason this is uniquely so with music. Even though most of us can't play basketball like Shaquille O'Neal, or cook like Julia Child, we can still enjoy playing a friendly backyard game of hoops, or cooking a holiday meal for our friends and family. This performance chasm does seem to be cultural, specific to contemporary Western society. And although many people say that music lessons didn't take, cognitive neuroscientists have found otherwise in their laboratories. Even just a small exposure to music lessons as a child creates neural circuits for music processing that are enhanced and more efficient than for those who lack training. Music lessons teach us to listen better, and they accelerate our ability to discern structure and form in music, making it easier for us to tell what music we like and what we don't like. ~ Daniel J Levitin,
965:Regarding the social cognitive mechanisms of cultivation theory, probably the most important work that has been done has focused on the influence of TV depictions on the accessibility of related constructs and attitudes from memory (Busselle, 2001; Busselle and Shrum, 2003; Shrum, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2003; Shrum and O’Guinn, 1993; Tapper, 1995). Numerous studies have demonstrated that heavy viewing of particular genres of TV increases the accessibility of related constructs from memory. Constructs that are accessible from memory bias our judgments about and perceptions of our social environment (Higgins, 1996; Sherman and Corty, 1984). In particular, the accessibility of these constructs at least partially mediates the influence of TV on perceptions of social reality (Shrum, 2002). Thus, the cultivation effect of the media appears to operate, at least in part, by increasing the accessibility of constructs that are related to what heavy viewers are watching. For example, if a person watches a lot of crime dramas, then crime and related constructs (e. g., guns, police, etc.) would be more accessible from memory than unrelated constructs. ~ Anonymous,
966:In cognitive science, the tendency to give different responses to problems that have surface dissimilarities but that are really formally identical is termed a framing effect. Framing effects are very basic violations of the strictures of rational choice. In the technical literature of decision theory, the stricture that is being violated is called descriptive invariance-the stricture that choices should not change as the result of trivial rewordings of a problem.2 Subjects in framing experiments, when shown differing versions of the same choice situation, overwhelmingly agree that the differences in the problem representations should not affect their choice. If choices flip-flop based on problem characteristics that the subjects themselves view as irrelevant-then the subjects can be said to have no stable, well-ordered preferences at all. If a person's preference reverses based on inconsequential aspects of how the problem is phrased, the person cannot be described as maximizing expected
utility. Thus, such failures of descriptive invariance have quite serious implications for our view of whether or not people are rational. ~ Keith E Stanovich,
967:Anyone who values truth should stop worshipping reason. We all need to take a cold hard look at the evidence and see reasoning for what it is. The French cognitive scientists Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber recently reviewed the vast research literature on motivated reasoning (in social psychology) and on the biases and errors of reasoning (in cognitive psychology). They concluded that most of the bizarre and depressing research findings make perfect sense once you see reasoning as having evolved not to help us find truth but to help us engage in arguments, persuasion, and manipulation in the context of discussions with other people. As they put it, “skilled arguers … are not after the truth but after arguments supporting their views.”50 This explains why the confirmation bias is so powerful, and so ineradicable. How hard could it be to teach students to look on the other side, to look for evidence against their favored view? Yet, in fact, it’s very hard, and nobody has yet found a way to do it.51 It’s hard because the confirmation bias is a built-in feature (of an argumentative mind), not a bug that can be removed (from a platonic mind). ~ Jonathan Haidt,
968:Woman, man, mole, maggot – they’re all the same, when all’s said and done, except for slight variations in cognitive ability. many weighty books on magic that looked as if they had been bound in human skin at the beginning of time but had probably been mass-produced last week by a factory in Catford. She fought to get away, only to find herself in the chill nursery with its tiny crib, the one her husband had carved so carefully from supple ash, the first and last thing that he ever made with his own hands. The crib rocked back and forth, and though she did not want to look inside, the dream always made her. Afterward, she woke crying, deep racking sobs that cramped her belly till she gasped with pain, surging, pulsing, wrenching stabs of agony deep as childbirth. The sleepwalking began on the second night. She woke in the kitchens rubbing her hands as if washing them, and though she could remember nothing of the dream that led her there, she skulked back to her chamber oppressed with guilt and horror. From that night on, she insisted that a lantern burn beside her bed at all hours, a talisman against darkness of all kinds. It didn’t help. ~ A J Hartley,
969:pg.90 of Philosophy in the Flesh: We are basing our argument on the existence of at least three stable scientific findings--the embodied mind, the cognitive unconscious, and metaphorical thought. Just as the ideas of cells and DNA in biology are stable and not likely to be found to be mistakes, so we believe that there is more than enough converging evidence to establish at least these three results.
Ironically, these scientific results challenge the classical philosophical view of scientific realism, a disembodied objective scientific realism that can be characterized by the following three claims:
1. There is a world independent of our understanding of it.
2. We can have stable knowledge of it.
3. Our very concepts and forms of reason are characterized not by our bodies and brains, but by the external world in itself. It follows that scientific truths are not merely truths as we understand them, but absolute truths.
Obiviously, we accept (1) and (2) and we believe that (2) applies to the three findings of cognitive science we are discussing on the basis of converging evidence. But those findings themselves contradict (3). ~ George Lakoff,
970:The ability to recall information about the past is thought to emerge in the 2nd half of the 1st year of life. Although there is evidence from both cognitive neuroscience and behavioral psychology to support this hypothesis, there is little longitudinal evidence with which the question can be addressed. Infants' memory abilities were tested between the ages of 9 and 16 months using elicited and deferred imitation. Infants' memory for events was tested after delays ranging from 1 to 6 months. The results suggest that at 9 months of age, infants are able to store and retrieve representations over delays of as many as 4 weeks but not over long delays. In contrast, 10-month-olds have at their disposal a system that allows encoding and retrieval of event representations over delays of up to 6 months. These results support the idea that the system that underlies long-term ordered recall emerges near the end of the 1st year of life. ~ Carver, L.J.; Bauer, P.J. (December 2001). "The dawning of a past: the emergence of long-term explicit memory in infancy". J Exp Psychol Gen. 130 (4): 726–45. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.130.4890. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.130.4.726. PMID 11757877.,
971:Michael Eysenck’s attention control theory of anxiety conceptualizes the cognitive basis of worry.87 He distinguishes two attention systems: one that is goal directed and one that is stimulus driven. His theory proposes that anxiety and worry disrupt the goal-directed system, allowing the stimulus-driven system to dominate. Worry produces thoughts that use the executive attention resources of working memory, making it less available for dealing with one’s professional, personal, and social obligations. Executive functions are also engaged by the consequent efforts to avoid thinking about threats and their consequences. One becomes more distractible because attention is being competed for by worry, and it is harder to stay on task. With working memory focused on threats, the stimulus-driven form of attention allows threatening stimuli to more easily seize attention. In addition, as noted earlier, anxious people treat nonthreatening stimuli as dangerous because their ability to discriminate between threat and safety is weakened, and they overvalue the danger of weak threats. Threats come to play a larger role in their lives than would otherwise be the case. ~ Joseph E LeDoux,
972:Adding to our understanding of why the brain seems undisturbed by disconnections was not only the notion that it was, in a sense, sending half its decisions into the realm of the unconscious; it was also the discovery of the “interpreter.” This special left brain system kept note of all the behaviors that resulted from the many mental systems. It appeared to be the surveillance camera on our behavior, which, of course, was the evidence that a mental or cognitive act had occurred. The interpreter not only took note; it tried to make “sense” out of the behavior by keeping a running narrative going on about why a string of behaviors was occurring. It is a precious device and most likely uniquely human. It is working in us all the time as we try to explain why we like something or have a particular opinion, or rationalize something we have done. It is the interpreter device that takes the inputs from the massively modularized and automatic brain of ours and creates order from chaos. It comes up with the “makes sense” explanation that leads us to believe in a certain form of essentialism, that is, that we are a unified conscious agent. Nice try, interpreter! ~ Michael S Gazzaniga,
973:it is a sensible suggestion that there might be individual differences in how widely activation spreads in networks of meaning. Moreover, the breadth of spread might plausibly be the cognitive mechanism underlying Openness. There is no direct evidence on this question, but there is an interesting study by Christine Mohr on Unusual Experiences-type schizotypy, and as I have said, I see ‘real’ Openness as quite close to this construct. In Mohr’s experiment, participants saw pairs or triads of words, such as ‘HONEY-BREAD’ or ‘LADDER-BOTTLE-CAT’, and had to rate how close in meaning they felt the different words to be. Scores on the schizotypy measure were a good predictor of how close on average the words were judged to be. The higher the schizotypy score, the closer the meanings seemed. The best explanation for these results is that, for the high-Unusual Experiences scorer, each word activates a broad raft of related associations, and since the second word is either in that raft or related to a word which is, the words seem close in meaning. For the low scorer, the raft of associations is narrower, and so the distance to the second word seems greater on average. ~ Daniel Nettle,
974:There is now good dietary information for the two chief conditions referring to mental decline. On the modest side, there is a condition called "cognitive impairment" or "cognitive dysfunction." This condition
describes the declining ability to remember and think as well as one once did. It represents a continuum of disease ranging from cases that
only hint at declining abilities to those that are much more obvious and easily diagnosed.
Then there are mental dysfunctions that become serious, even life threatening. These are called dementia, of which there are two main types: vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Vascular dementia is primarily caused by multiple little strokes resulting from broken blood vessels in the brain. It is common for elderly people to have "silent" strokes in their later years. A stroke is considered silent if it goes undetected and undiagnosed. Each little stroke incapacitates part of the brain. The other type of dementia, Alzheimer's, occurs when a protein substance called beta-amyloid accumulates in critical areas of the brain
as a plaque, rather like the cholesterol-laden plaque that builds up in cardiovascular diseases. ~ T Colin Campbell,
975:There’s no reason, on paper at least, why I need these pills to get through life. I had a great childhood, loving parents, the whole package. I wasn’t beaten, abused, or expected to get nothing but As. I had nothing but love and support, but that wasn’t enough somehow. My friend Erin says we all have demons inside us, voices that whisper we’re no good, that if we don’t make this promotion or ace that exam we’ll reveal to the world exactly what kind of worthless sacks of skin and sinew we really are. Maybe that’s true. Maybe mine just have louder voices. But I don’t think it’s as simple as that. The depression I fell into after university wasn’t about exams and self-worth, it was something stranger, more chemical, something that no talking cure was going to fix. Cognitive behavioral therapy, counseling, psychotherapy—none of it really worked in the way that the pills did. Lissie says she finds the notion of chemically rebalancing your mood scary, she says it’s the idea of taking something that could alter how she really is. But I don’t see it that way; for me it’s like wearing makeup—not a disguise, but a way of making myself more how I really am, less raw. The best me I can be. ~ Ruth Ware,
976:Each holiday tradition acts as an exercise in cognitive development, a greater challenge for the child. Despite the fact most parents don't recognize this function, they still practice the exercise.

Rant also saw how resolving the illusions is crucial to how the child uses any new skills.

A child who is never coached with Santa Claus may never develop an ability to imagine. To him, nothing exists except the literal and tangible.

A child who is disillusioned abruptly, by his peers or siblings, being ridiculed for his faith and imagination, may choose never to believe in anything- tangible or intangible- again. To never trust or wonder.

But a child who relinquishes the illusions of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy, that child may come away with the most important skill set. That child may recognize the strength of his own imagination and faith. He will embrace the ability to create his own reality. That child becomes his own authority. He determines the nature of his world. His own vision. And by doing so, by the power of his example, he determines the reality of the other two types: those who can't imagine, and those who can't trust. ~ Chuck Palahniuk,
977:In fact, even if distraction does alleviate your pain or help to cope with it some of the time, bringing mindfulness to it can lead to new levels of insight and understanding about yourself and your body, which distraction and escape can never do. Understanding and insight, of course, are an extremely important part of the process of coming to terms with your condition and really learning how to live with it, not just endure it. One of the ways we speak about it is that the sensory, the emotional, and the cognitive/conceptual dimensions of the pain experience can be uncoupled from one another, meaning that they can be held in awareness as independent aspects of experience. Once you see that your thoughts about the sensations, for instance, are not the sensations themselves, both the experience of the sensory and the cognitive dimensions of the pain experience may change independently. This is also true for our emotional reactions to unpleasant sensory experience. This phenomenon of uncoupling can give us new degrees of freedom in resting in awareness and holding whatever arises in any or all of these three domains in an entirely different way, and dramatically reduce the suffering experience. ~ Jon Kabat Zinn,
978:There are probably two key aspects of culture that stand out as being uniquely human. One is religion and the other is story-telling. There is no other living species, whether ape or crow, that do either of these. They are entirely and genuinely unique to humans. We know they must be unique to humans because both require language for their performance and transmission, and only humans have language of sufficient quality to allow that. What is important about both is that they require us to live in a virtual world, the virtual world of our minds. In both cases, we have to be able to imagine that another world exists that is different to, and separate from, the world we experience on an everyday basis. We have to be able to detach ourselves from the physical world, and mentally step back from it. Only when we can do this are we able to wonder whether the world has to be the way it is and why, or imagine other parallel worlds that might exist, whether these are the fictional worlds of story-telling or para-fictional6 spirit worlds. These peculiar forms of cognitive activity are not trivial evolutionary by-products, but capacities that play – and have played – a fundamental role in human evolution. ~ Robin I M Dunbar,
979:Chang opened the door and checked the hallway. She said, “Let’s go.” She opened the door wider. There was a guy standing there. Eyewitness testimony was suspect because of preconditions, and cognitive bias, and suggestibility. It was suspect because people see what they expect to see. Reacher was no different. He was human. The front part of his brain wasted the first precious split second working on the image of the guy at the door, trying to rearrange it into a plausible version of a theoretical McCann. Which was not an easy mental task, because McCann was supposed to be sixty years old and thin and gaunt, whereas the guy at the door was clearly twenty years younger than that, and twice as solid. But still Reacher tried, instinctively, because who else could it be, but McCann? Who else could be at McCann’s door, in McCann’s building, in McCann’s city? Then half a second later the back part of Reacher’s brain took over, and the image resolved itself, crisp and clear, not a potential McCann at all, not even remotely a contender, but the familiar twice-glimpsed face, now three times seen, first in the diner, next in the Town Car, and finally in the there and then, in a dim upstairs hallway in a three-floor walk-up. ~ Lee Child,
980:It is the punisher’s mind-set where everything must be changed. The difficulty of this is explored in the superb book The Punisher’s Brain: The Evolution of Judge and Jury (2014) by Morris Hoffman, a practicing judge and legal scholar.31 He reviews the reasons for punishment: As we see from game theory studies, because punishment fosters cooperation. Because it is in the fabric of the evolution of sociality. And most important, because it can feel good to punish, to be part of a righteous and self-righteous crowd at a public hanging, knowing that justice is being served. This is a deep, atavistic pleasure. Put people in brain scanners, give them scenarios of norm violations. Decision making about culpability for the violation correlates with activity in the cognitive dlPFC. But decision making about appropriate punishment activates the emotional vmPFC, along with the amygdala and insula; the more activation, the more punishment.32 The decision to punish, the passionate motivation to do so, is a frothy limbic state. As are the consequences of punishing—when subjects punish someone for making a lousy offer in an economic game, there’s activation of dopaminergic reward systems. Punishment that feels just feels good. ~ Robert M Sapolsky,
981:Psychologist J.P. Guilford, who carried out a long series of systematic psychological studies into the nature of creativity, found that several factors were involved in creative thinking; many of these, as we shall see, relate directly to the cognitive changes that take place during mild manias as well. Fluency of thinking, as defined by Guilford, is made up of several related and empirically derived concepts, measured by specific tasks: word fluency, the ability to produce words each, for example, containing a specific letter or combination of letters; associational fluency, the production of as many synonyms as possible for a given word in a limited amount of time; expressional fluency, the production and rapid juxtaposition of phrases or sentences; and ideational fluency, the ability to produce ideas to fulfill certain requirements in a limited amount of time. In addition to fluency of thinking, Guilford developed two other important concepts for the study of creative thought: spontaneous flexibility, the ability and disposition to produce a great variety of ideas, with freedom to switch from category to category; and adaptive flexibility, the ability to come up with unusual types of solutions to set problems. ~ Kay Redfield Jamison,
982:Every addiction story wants a villain. But America has never been able to decide whether addicts are victims or criminals, whether addiction is an illness or a crime. So we relieve the pressure of cognitive dissonance with various provisions of psychic labor - some addicts got pitied, others get blamed - that keep overlapping and evolving to suit our purposes: Alcoholics are tortured geniuses. Drug addicts are deviant zombies. Male drunks are thrilling. Female drunks are bad moms. White addicts get their suffering witnessed. Addicts of color get punished. Celebrity addicts get posh rehab with equine therapy. Poor addicts get hard time. Someone carrying crack gets five years in prison, while someone driving drunk gets a night in jail, even though drunk driving kills more people every year than cocaine. In her seminal account of mass incarceration, The New Jim Crow, legal scholar Michelle Alexander points out that many of these biases tell a much larger story about 'who is viewed as disposable - someone to be purged from the body politic - and who is not.' They aren't incidental discrepancies - between black and white addicts, drinkers and drug users - but casualties of our need to vilify some people under the guise of protecting others. ~ Leslie Jamison,
983:There is a marvelous ambiguity to the ego: on the one hand it is an ordinary part of the world, one of many things that inhabit it. It occupies space, endures through time, has physical and psychic features, and interacts causally with other things in the world: if it falls, it falls like any other body; if it is pushed, it topples over like any other thing; if treated with chemicals, it reacts like any living organism; if light rays hit its visual organs, it reacts electronically, chemically, and psychologically. 'I' am a material, organic, and psychological thing. If we were to take the self simply as one of the things in the world, we would be treating it as what can be called the empirical ego.

On the other hand, this very same self can also be played off against the world: it is the center of disclosure to whom the world and everything in it manifest themselves. It is the agent of truth, the one responsible for judgments and verifications, the perceptual and cognitive 'owner' of the world. When considered in this manner, it is no longer simply a part of the world; it is what is called the transcendental ego.

The empirical and transcendental egos are not two entities; they are one and the same being, but considered in two ways. ~ Robert Sokolowski,
984:Since well-educated people are better voters, another tempting way to improve democracy is to give voters more education. Maybe it would work. But it would be expensive, and as mentioned in the previous chapter, education may be a proxy for intelligence or curiosity. A cheaper strategy, and one where a causal effect is more credible, is changing the curriculum. Steven Pinker argues that schools should try to “provide students with the cognitive skills that are most important for grasping the modern world and that are most unlike the cognitive tools they are born with,” by emphasizing “economics, evolutionary biology, and probability and statistics.”60 Pinker essentially wants to give schools a new mission: rooting out the biased beliefs that students arrive with, especially beliefs that impinge on government policy.61 What should be cut to make room for the new material? There are only twenty-four hours in a day, and a decision to teach one subject is also a decision not to teach another one. The question is not whether trigonometry is important, but whether it is more important than statistics; not whether an educated person should know the classics, but whether it is more important for an educated person to know the classics than elementary economics.62 ~ Bryan Caplan,
985:What’s more, researchers have found that there is something uniquely out of balance about the adolescent brain that makes it especially susceptible to bad and impulsive decisions. Laurence Steinberg, a psychologist at Temple University, has analyzed two separate neurological systems that develop in childhood and early adulthood that together have a profound effect on the lives of adolescents. The problem is, these two systems are not well aligned. The first, called the incentive processing system, makes you more sensation seeking, more emotionally reactive, more attentive to social information. (If you’ve ever been a teenager, this may sound familiar.) The second, called the cognitive control system, allows you to regulate all those urges. The reason the teenage years have always been such a perilous time, Steinberg says, is that the incentive processing system reaches its full power in early adolescence while the cognitive control system doesn’t finish maturing until you’re in your twenties. So for a few wild years, we are all madly processing incentives without a corresponding control system to keep our behavior in check. And if you combine that standard-issue whacked-out adolescent neurochemistry with an overloaded HPA axis, you’ve got a particularly toxic brew. ~ Paul Tough,
986:As I watched Emily, I thought, Of course. This is what we all need—a manual for how things work when our own cognitive abilities leave us bewildered and our coping skills have reached their limit. All of us are like Max at times. We can’t figure out what’s happening to our world, why we’re feeling tense and frustrated. So we throw our own kind of tantrum: We gossip or assert our superiority; we get drunk or have an affair; we go on a credit-card shopping spree; we irritate the boss until he’s obliged to fire us. We thrash around in the face of a world that we can’t understand and can’t manage. The many ways people “act out” prove what a challenge life is. Our difficulty in understanding how the world works and how we fit into it has been aggravated, I believe, by the false expectations our culture breeds. We are like people trying to go up the down escalator. We huff and puff and go nowhere. The problem is, the culture is pushing one way, and we haven’t figured out it’s the wrong direction. When we ask the basic questions about our purpose and meaning, we receive false answers. Our attempts to live by these misleading answers inevitably leave us angry and terrified. What we need is to seek the true picture of how the world really works and what we need to live well. ~ Charles W Colson,
987:When ideologies that defend racism and heterosexism become taken-for-granted and appear to be natural and inevitable, they become hegemonic. Few question them and the social hierarchies they defend. Racism and heterosexism both share a common cognitive framework that uses binary thinking to produce hegemonic ideologies. Such thinking relies on oppositional categories. It views race through two oppositional categories of Whites and Blacks, gender through two categories of men and women, and sexuality through two oppositional categories of heterosexuals and homosexuals. A master binary of normal and deviant overlays and bundles together these and other lesser binaries. In this context, ideas about "normal" race (whiteness, which ironically, masquerades as racelessness), "normal" gender (using male experiences as the norm), and "normal" sexuality (heterosexuality, which operates in a similar hegemonic fashion) are tightly bundled together. In essence, to be completely "normal," one must be White, masculine, and heterosexual, the core hegemonic White masculinity. This mythical norm is hard to see because it is so taken-for-granted. Its antithesis, its Other, would be Black, female, and lesbian, a fact that Black lesbian feminist Audre Lorde pointed out some time ago. ~ Patricia Hill Collins,
988:The appearance of reason and language in the course of biological history seems, from the point of view of available forms of explanation, something radically emergent—if, as I assume, it cannot be understood behavioristically. Like consciousness, it presents problems of both constitutive and historical explanation. It appeared long after the emergence of conscious creatures, yet it also seems to be essentially a development of consciousness and ought to be understandable as part of that history. Like consciousness, reason is inseparable from the physical life of organisms that have it, since it acts on the material provided by perception and natural desire and controls action, both directly and indirectly. Any understanding of it will transform our understanding of physical organisms and their development as well. The great cognitive shift is an expansion of consciousness from the perspectival form contained in the lives of particular creatures to an objective, world-encompassing form that exists both individually and intersubjectively. It was originally a biological evolutionary process, and in our species it has become a collective cultural process as well. Each of our lives is a part of the lengthy process of the universe gradually waking up and becoming aware of itself. ~ Thomas Nagel,
989:Abhed, my father had called heredity-"indivisible." There is an old trope in popular culture of the "crazy genius," a mind split between madness and brilliance, oscillating between the two states at the throw of a single switch. But Rajesh had no switch. There was no split or oscillation, no pendulum. The magic and the mania were perfectly contiguous-bordering kingdoms with no passports. They were part of the same whole, indivisible.

"We of the craft are all crazy," Lord Byron, the high priest of crazies, wrote. "Some are affected by gaiety, others by melancholy, but all are more or less touched." Versions of this story have been tool, over and over, with bipolar disease, with some variants of schizophrenia, and with rare cases of autism; all are "more or less touched." It is tempting to romanticize psychotic illness, so let me emphasize that the men and women with these mental disorders experience paralyzing cognitive, social, and psychological disturbances that send gashes of devastation through their lives. But also indubitably, some patients with these syndromes possess exceptional and unusual abilities. The effervescence of bipolar disease has long been linked to extraordinary creativity; at times, the heightened creative impulse is manifest during the throes of mania. ~ Siddhartha Mukherjee,
990:According to the research of C. R. Snyder, hope isn’t a warm and fuzzy feeling; he actually defines it as a cognitive emotional process that has three parts. This is a process that most of us, if we’re lucky, are taught growing up, though it can be learned at any time: The three parts are goal, pathway, and agency. We can identify a realistic goal (I know where I want to go), and then we can figure out the pathway to get there, even if it’s not a straight line and involves a Plan B and scrappiness (I know I can get there because I’m persistent and I will keep trying in the face of setbacks and disappointment). Agency is belief in our ability to stay on that path until we’ve arrived (I know I can do this). Again, while a cynic might argue that someone who clings to hope is a sucker, or ridiculously earnest, this type of armor typically comes from pain. Often, people’s cynicism is related to despair. As the theologian Rob Bell explains, “Despair is the belief that tomorrow will be just like today.” That is a devastating line. The problem with cynicism and sarcasm is that they are typically system- and culturewide—it’s just so easy to take shots at other people. As brave leaders, it is essential not to reward or allow it. Reward clarity and kindness and real conversation, and teach hope instead. ~ Bren Brown,
991:In the brain, the amount of the neurotransmitter dopamine affects the process of salience acquisition and expression. During an acute psychotic state, schizophrenia is associated with an increase in dopamine synthesis, dopamine release, and resting-state synaptic dopamine concentrations.10 Kapur suggests that in psychosis, there is a malfunction in the regulation of dopamine, causing abnormal firing of the dopamine system, leading to the aberrant levels of the neurotransmitter and, thus, aberrant assignment of motivational salience to objects, people, and actions.11 Research supports this claim.12 The altered salience of sensory stimuli results in a conscious experience with very different contents than would normally be there, yet those contents are what constitute Mr. B’s reality and provide the experiences that his cognition must make sense of. When considering the contents of Mr. B’s conscious experience, his hallucinations, his efforts to make sense of his delusions are no longer so wacky, but are possible, though not probable, explanations of what he is experiencing. With this in mind, the behavior that results from his cognitive conclusion seems somewhat more rational. And despite suffering this altered brain function, Mr. B continues to be conscious and aware of his existence. ~ Michael S Gazzaniga,
992:The evidence for the cognitive interpretation of the above-average effect is that when people are asked about a task they find difficult (for many of us this could be “Are you better than average in starting conversations with strangers?”), they readily rate themselves as below average. The upshot is that people tend to be overly optimistic about their relative standing on any activity in which they do moderately well. I have had several occasions to ask founders and participants in innovative start-ups a question: To what extent will the outcome of your effort depend on what you do in your firm? This is evidently an easy question; the answer comes quickly and in my small sample it has never been less than 80%. Even when they are not sure they will succeed, these bold people think their fate is almost entirely in their own hands. They are surely wrong: the outcome of a start-up depends as much on the achievements of its competitors and on changes in the market as on its own efforts. However, WYSIATI plays its part, and entrepreneurs naturally focus on what they know best—their plans and actions and the most immediate threats and opportunities, such as the availability of funding. They know less about their competitors and therefore find it natural to imagine a future in which the competition plays little part. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
993:Only non-involvement and the ability to remain extraneous, to refuse any identification with one’s job and with one’s working condition, only a radical rejection of the ethics of responsibility, might offer workers the possibility of navigating a way out from this productivity blackmail. Unfortunately, the ethics of responsibility, the phoney discourse on participation and collaboration, are prevailing in today’s political and cultural life. We invest our psychic energies and our expectations into work because our intellectual and affective life is poor, because we are depressed, anxious and insecure. So we are trapped. The industrial worker who was obliged to repeat the same gesture a thousand times every day had no reason to identify with her work – so she invested her psychological energies into solidarity with colleagues, and her mind was free to hate the assembly line, and to entertain thoughts that had nothing to do with her daily slavery. Conversely, cognitive workers have been lured into the trap of creativity: their expectations are submitted to the productivity blackmail because they are obliged to identify their soul (the linguistic and emotional core of their activity) with their work. Social conflicts and dissatisfaction are perceived as psychological failures whose effect is the destruction of self-esteem. ~ Anonymous,
994:Remember and Share - The Investment Phase is the fourth step in the Hook Model. - Unlike the Action Phase, which delivers immediate gratification, the Investment Phase is about the anticipation of rewards in the future. - Investments in a product create preference because of our tendency to overvalue our work, be consistent with past behaviors, and avoid cognitive dissonance. - Investment comes after the variable reward phase when users are primed to reciprocate. - Investments increase the likelihood of users returning by improving the service the more it is used. They enable the accrual of stored value in the form of content, data, followers, reputation or skill. - Investments increase the likelihood of users passing through the Hook again by loading the next trigger to start the cycle all over again.   *** Do This Now Refer to the answers you came up with in the last “Do This Now”  section to complete the following exercises: - Review your flow. What “bit of work” are your users doing to increase their likelihood of returning? - Brainstorm three ways to add small investments into your product to: - Load the next trigger - Store value as data, content, followers, reputation and skill - Identify how long it takes for a “loaded trigger” to re-engage your users. How can you reduce the delay to shorten cycle-time through the Hook? ~ Nir Eyal,
995:Humans are cognitive misers because their basic tendency is to default to Type I processing mechanisms of low computational expense. Using less computational capacity for one task means that there is more left over for another task if they both must be completed simultaneously. This would seem to be adaptive. Nevertheless, this strong bias to default to the simplest cognitive mechanism-to be a cognitive miser-means that humans are often less than rational. Increasingly, in the modern world we are presented with decisions and problems that require more accurate responses than those generated by heuristic processing. Type i processes often provide a quick solution that is a first approximation to an optimal response. But modern life often requires more precise thought than this. Modern technological societies are in fact hostile environments for people reliant on only the most easily computed automatic response. Think of the multi-million-dollar advertising industry that has been designed to exploit just this tendency. Modern society keeps proliferating situations where shallow processing is not sufficient for maximizing personal happiness-precisely because many structures of market-based societies have been designed explicitly to exploit such tendencies. Being cognitive misers will seriously impede people from achieving their goals. ~ Keith E Stanovich,
996:If Enlightenment in a technical sense is the programmatic word for progress in the awareness of explicitness, one can say without fear of grand formulas that rendering the implicit explicit is the cognitive form of fate. Were this not the case, one would never have had cause to believe that later knowledge would necessarily be better knowledge - for, as we know, everything that has been termed 'research' in the last centuries has rested on this assumption. Only when the inward-folded 'things' or facts are by their nature subject to a tendency to unfold themselves and become more comprehensible for us can one - provided the unfolding succeeds - speak of a true increase in knowledge. Only if the 'matters' are spontaneously prepared (or can be forced by imposed examination) to come to light in magnified and better-illuminated areas can one seriously - which here means with ontological emphasis - state that there is science in progress, there are real knowledge gains, there are expeditions in which we, the epistemically committed collective, advance to hidden continents of knowledge by making thematic what was previously unthematic, bringing to light what is yet unknown, and transforming vague cognizance into definite knowledge. In this manner we increase the cognitive capital of our society - the latter word without quotation marks in this case. ~ Peter Sloterdijk,
997:SUMMARY OF THE BUDDHIST DEFINITION OF MIND In summary, mind in Buddhism refers to experience, namely the mere arising and cognitive engaging with the contents of experience. The continuity of experience is known as the mind-stream, or “mental continuum.” It is always individual, with each moment of experience following from previous moments of experience according to the karmic laws of behavioral cause and effect. There is order in the universe, and “my” experience is never “your” experience. If I experience eating a meal, I and not you will next experience the physical sensation of being full. Buddhism does not posit a universal or collective mind. The never-ceasing, moment-to-moment event of arising and engaging that constitutes experience, then, refers to the arising of a sight and merely seeing it, the arising of a sound and merely hearing it, the arising of a thought and merely thinking it, the arising of an emotion and merely feeling it, and so on. This is the conventional nature of mind — it gives rise to things and apprehends them. Its deepest nature is its voidness, namely that it is devoid of existing in any impossible manner, from being a physical entity itself up to involving a solid, concrete subject, content or experience. Such a mind, then, with these two levels of true nature — or “two levels of truth” — is the topic of mahamudra meditation. ~ Dalai Lama XIV,
998:In the absence of effort the OCD pathology drives the brain’s circuitry, and compulsive behaviors result. But mental effort, I believe, generates a directed mental force that produces real physical effects: the brain changes that follow cognitive-behavioral therapy for OCD. The heroic mental effort required underlines the power of active mental processes like attention and will to redirect thoughts and actions in a way that is detectable on brain scans. Let me be clear about where mental effort enters the picture. The OCD patient is faced with two competing systems of brain circuitry. One underlies the passively experienced, pathological intrusions into consciousness. The other encodes information like the fact that the intrusions originate in faulty basal ganglia circuits. At first the pathological circuitry dominates, so the OCD patient succumbs to the insistent obsessions and carries out the compulsions. With practice, however, the conscious choice to exert effort to resist the pathological messages, and attend instead to the healthy ones, activates functional circuitry. Over the course of several weeks, that regular activation produces systematic changes in the very neural systems that generate those pathological messages—namely, a quieting of the OCD circuit. Again quoting James, “Volitional effort is effort of attention…. Effort of attention is thus the essential phenomenon of will. ~ Jeffrey M Schwartz,
999:As the following pages deal with the practising life, they lead - in accordance with their topic - to an expedition into the little-explored universe of human vertical tensions. The Platonic Socrates had opened up the phenomenon for occidental culture when he stated expressis verbis that man is a being potentially 'superior to himself'. I translate this remark into the observation that all 'cultures', 'subcultures' or 'scenes' are based on central distinctions by which the field of human behavioural possibilities is subdivided into polarized classes. Thus the ascetic 'cultures' know the central distinction of complete versus incomplete, the religious 'cultures' that of sacred versus profane, the aristocratic 'cultures' that of noble versus common, the military 'cultures' that of brave versus cowardly, the political 'cultures' that of powerful versus powerless, the administrative 'cultures' that of superior versus subordinate, the athletic 'cultures' that of excellence versus mediocrity, the economic 'cultures' that of wealth versus lack, the cognitive 'cultures' that of knowledge versus ignorance, and the sapiental 'cultures' that of illumination versus blindness. What all these differentiations have in common is the espousal of the first value, which is considered the attractor in the respective field, while the second pole consistently functions as a factor of repulsion or object of avoidance. ~ Peter Sloterdijk,
1000:Gotama's awakening involved a radical shift of perspective rather than the gaining of privileged knowledge into some higher truth. He did not use the words "know" and "truth" to describe it. He spoke only of waking up to a contingent ground--"this-conditionality, conditioned arising"--that until then had been obscured by his attachment to a fixed position. While such an awakening is bound to lead to a reconsideration of what one "knows," the awakening itself is not primarily a cognitive act. It is an existential readjustment, a seismic shift in the core of oneself and one's relation to others and the world. Rather than providing Gotama with a set of ready-made answers to life's big questions, it allowed him to respond to those questions from an entirely new perspective.

To live on this shifting ground, one first needs to stop obsessing about what has happened before and what might happen later. One needs to be more vitally conscious of what is happening now. This is not to deny the reality of past and future. It is about embarking on a new relationship with the impermanence and temporality of life. Instead of hankering after the past and speculating about the future, one sees the present as the fruit of what has been and the germ of what will be. Gotama did not encourage withdrawal to a timeless, mystical now, but an unflinching encounter with the contingent world as it unravels moment to moment. ~ Stephen Batchelor,
1001:But they were all in, 100%, for much the same reason that many of the world’s top physicists joined the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons: they were convinced that if they didn’t do it first, someone less idealistic would. The AI they had built, nicknamed Prometheus, kept getting more capable. Although its cognitive abilities still lagged far behind those of humans in many areas, for example, social skills, the Omegas had pushed hard to make it extraordinary at one particular task: programming AI systems. They’d deliberately chosen this strategy because they had bought the intelligence explosion argument made by the British mathematician Irving Good back in 1965: “Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an ‘intelligence explosion,’ and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control.” They figured that if they could get this recursive self-improvement going, the machine would soon get smart enough that it could also teach itself all other human skills that would be useful. ~ Max Tegmark,
1002:CHARACTERISTICS OF SYSTEM 1 generates impressions, feelings, and inclinations; when endorsed by System 2 these become beliefs, attitudes, and intentions operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort, and no sense of voluntary control can be programmed by System 2 to mobilize attention when a particular pattern is detected (search) executes skilled responses and generates skilled intuitions, after adequate training creates a coherent pattern of activated ideas in associative memory links a sense of cognitive ease to illusions of truth, pleasant feelings, and reduced vigilance distinguishes the surprising from the normal infers and invents causes and intentions neglects ambiguity and suppresses doubt is biased to believe and confirm exaggerates emotional consistency (halo effect) focuses on existing evidence and ignores absent evidence (WYSIATI) generates a limited set of basic assessments represents sets by norms and prototypes, does not integrate matches intensities across scales (e.g., size to loudness) computes more than intended (mental shotgun) sometimes substitutes an easier question for a difficult one (heuristics) is more sensitive to changes than to states (prospect theory)* overweights low probabilities* shows diminishing sensitivity to quantity (psychophysics)* responds more strongly to losses than to gains (loss aversion)* frames decision problems narrowly, in isolation from one another* ~ Daniel Kahneman,
1003:In a nutshell, serotonin gives your neurons a thick skin, so they can withstand the pace of the bristling, bustling, neural metropolis. And then along comes a tiny army of LSD molecules, marching out of their Trojan Horse—a small purple tablet—and they look just like serotonin molecules. If you were a receptor site, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. Through this insidious trickery, LSD molecules fool the receptors that normally suck up serotonin. They elbow serotonin out of the way and lodge themselves in these receptors instead. They do this in perceptual regions of the cortex, such as the occipital and temporal lobes, in charge of seeing and hearing, and in more cognitive zones, such as the prefrontal cortex, where conscious judgments take place. They do it in brain-stem nuclei that send their messages throughout the brain and body, felt as arousal and alertness. And once they’ve taken up their positions, Troy begins to fall. Not through force, as with the devastating blows of alcohol and dextromethorphan, but through passivity. Once encamped in their serotonin receptors, LSD molecules simply remain passive. They don’t inhibit, they don’t soothe, they don’t regulate, or filter, or modulate. They sit back with evil little grins and say, “It’s showtime! You just go ahead and fire as much as you like. You’re going to pick up a lot of channels you never got before. So have fun. And call me in about eight hours when my shift is over. ~ Marc Lewis,
1004:Olympianism is the characteristic belief system of today’s secularist, and it has itself many of the features of a religion. For one thing, the fusion of political conviction and moral superiority into a single package resembles the way in which religions (outside liberal states) constitute comprehensive ways of life supplying all that is necessary (in the eyes of believers) for salvation. Again, the religions with which we are familiar are monotheistic and refer everything to a single center. In traditional religions, this is usually God; with Olympianism, it is society, understood ultimately as including the whole of humanity. And Olympianism, like many religions, is keen to proselytize. Its characteristic mode of missionary activity is journalism and the media.

If Olympianism has the character of a religion, as I am suggesting, there would be no mystery about its hostility to Christianity. Real religions (by contrast with test-tube religions such as ecumenism) don’t much like each other; they are, after all, competitors. Olympianism, however, is in the interesting position of being a kind of religion which does not recognize itself as such, and indeed claims a cognitive superiority to religion in general. But there is a deeper reason why the spread of Olympianism may be measured by the degree of Christophobia. It is that Olympianism is an imperial project which can only be hindered by the association between Christianity and the West. ~ Kenneth Minogue,
1005:For example, Nancy Cantor and Hazel Markus, leading contemporary cognitive motivational theorists, view motivation as a product of self-knowledge. Self-knowledge obviously includes knowledge about one's emotions and their motivational consequences, but for Cantor and Markus motives are products of the self as much as contributors to it. Key to their theory is the notion of a working self, an on-the-fly construction about who we are that reflects who we've been (past selves), and who we want don't want to be (future selves). In contrast to earlier self theorists, such as Alfred Adler, who viewed the self as a static and enduring entity, Cantor and Markus view the self as a dynamic and mutable construction that changes in different situations-we have different goals when at home than when on the job, for example, and the working self in each situation reflects such differences. One's working self is thus a subset of the universe of possible self-concepts that can occur at any one time-it is the subset that is available to the thinking conscious person at a particular moment, and is determined in part by memory and expectation, and in part by the immediate situation. These features of the working self explain how one can have both stable and mutable motives, and how motives can be conflicting or dissonant. The working self is a central part of one's mental apparatus. It influences perception, attention, thinking, memory, retrieval, and storage, and guides action. ~ Joseph E LeDoux,
1006:During one of these lectures, our teacher imparted a morsel of clinical wisdom. This is what he told us: “You will from time to time meet a patient who shares a disturbing tale of multiple mistakes in his previous treatment. He has been seen by several clinicians, and all failed him. The patient can lucidly describe how his therapists misunderstood him, but he has quickly perceived that you are different. You share the same feeling, are convinced that you understand him, and will be able to help.” At this point my teacher raised his voice as he said, “Do not even think of taking on this patient! Throw him out of the office! He is most likely a psychopath and you will not be able to help him.” Many years later I learned that the teacher had warned us against psychopathic charm, and the leading authority in the study of psychopathy confirmed that the teacher’s advice was sound. The analogy to the Müller-Lyer illusion is close. What we were being taught was not how to feel about that patient. Our teacher took it for granted that the sympathy we would feel for the patient would not be under our control; it would arise from System 1. Furthermore, we were not being taught to be generally suspicious of our feelings about patients. We were told that a strong attraction to a patient with a repeated history of failed treatment is a danger sign—like the fins on the parallel lines. It is an illusion—a cognitive illusion—and I (System 2) was taught how to recognize it and advised not to believe it or act on it. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
1007:Characteristics of System 1:
• generates impressions, feelings, and inclinations; when endorsed by System 2 these become beliefs, attitudes, and intentions
• operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort, and no sense of voluntary control
• can be programmed by System 2 to mobilize attention when a particular pattern is detected (search)
• executes skilled responses and generates skilled intuitions, after adequate training
• creates a coherent pattern of activated ideas in associative memory
• links a sense of cognitive ease to illusions of truth, pleasant feelings, and reduced vigilance
• distinguishes the surprising from the normal
• infers and invents causes and intentions
• neglects ambiguity and suppresses doubt
• is biased to believe and confirm
• exaggerates emotional consistency (halo effect)
• focuses on existing evidence and ignores absent evidence (WYSIATI)
• generates a limited set of basic assessments
• represents sets by norms and prototypes, does not integrate
• matches intensities across scales (e.g., size to loudness)
• computes more than intended (mental shotgun)
• sometimes substitutes an easier question for a difficult one (heuristics)
• is more sensitive to changes than to states (prospect theory)*
• overweights low probabilities*
• shows diminishing sensitivity to quantity (psychophysics)*
• responds more strongly to losses than to gains (loss aversion)*
• frames decision problems narrowly, in isolation from one another* ~ Daniel Kahneman,
1008:Most people don’t “choose” fiery tempers or alcoholic binges or torturing prisoners of war or exploiting Third-World workers or dumping toxic chemicals into their community’s water supply. Most people don’t first conclude that adultery is right and then start fantasizing about their neighbor swinging from a stripper pole. Most people don’t first learn to praise gluttony and then start drizzling bacon grease over their second helping of chicken-fried steak. It happens in reverse. First, you do what you want to do, even though you “know God’s decree that those who practice such things deserve to die,” and only then do you “give approval to those who practice them” (Rom. 1:32). You start to see yourself as either special or as hopeless, and thus the normal boundaries don’t seem to apply. It might be that you are involved in certain patterns right now and that you would, if asked, be able to tell me exactly why they are morally and ethically wrong. It’s not that you are deficient in the cognitive ability to diagnose the situation. It’s instead that you slowly grow to believe that your situation is exceptional (“I am a god”), and then you find all kinds of reasons why this technically isn’t theft or envy or hatred or fornication or abuse of power or whatever (“I am able to discern good and evil”). Or you believe you are powerless before what you want (“I am an animal”) and can therefore escape accountability (“I will not surely die”). You’ve forgotten who you are. You are a creature. You are also a king or a queen. You are not a beast, and you are not a god. That issue is where temptation begins. ~ Russell D Moore,
1009:The results of the most recent such study were published in Psychological Science at the end of 2008. A team of University of Michigan researchers, led by psychologist Marc Berman, recruited some three dozen people and subjected them to a rigorous, and mentally fatiguing, series of tests designed to measure the capacity of their working memory and their ability to exert top-down control over their attention. The subjects were then divided into two groups. Half of them spent about an hour walking through a secluded woodland park, and the other half spent an equal amount of time walking along busy down town streets. Both groups then took the tests a second time. Spending time in the park, the researchers found, “significantly improved” people’s performance on the cognitive tests, indicating a substantial increase in attentiveness. Walking in the city, by contrast, led to no improvement in test results.
The researchers then conducted a similar experiment with another set of people. Rather than taking walks between the rounds of testing, these subjects simply looked at photographs of either calm rural scenes or busy urban ones. The results were the same. The people who looked at pictures of nature scenes were able to exert substantially stronger control over their attention, while those who looked at city scenes showed no improvement in their attentiveness. “In sum,” concluded the researchers, “simple and brief interactions with nature can produce marked increases in cognitive control.” Spending time in the natural world seems to be of “vital importance” to “effective cognitive functioning. ~ Nicholas Carr,
1010:Cognitive scientists recognize two types of rationality: instrumental and epistemic. The simplest definition of instrumental rationality-the one that emphasizes most that it is grounded in the practical world-is: Behaving in the world so that you get exactly what you most want, given the resources (physical and mental) available to you. Somewhat more technically, we could characterize instrumental rationality as the optimization of the individual's goal fulfillment. Economists and cognitive scientists have refined the notion of optimization of goal fulfillment into the technical notion of expected utility. The model of rational judgment used by decision scientists is one in which a person chooses options based on which option has the largest expected utility.' One discovery of modern decision science is that if people's preferences follow certain patterns (the so-called axioms of choice) then they are behaving as if they are maximizing utility-they are acting to get what they most want. This is what makes people's degrees of rationality measurable by the experimental methods of cognitive science. The deviation from the optimal choice pattern is an (inverse) measure of the degree of rationality.
The other aspect of rationality studied by cognitive scientists is termed epistemic rationality. This aspect of rationality concerns how well beliefs map onto the actual structure of the world.' The two types of rationality are related. Importantly, a critical aspect of beliefs that enter into instrumental calculations (that is, tacit calculations) is the probabilities of states of affairs in the world. ~ Keith E Stanovich,
1011:Within what we might call “classical cognitive science” (Piattelli-Palmarini, 2001) it has always been understood that the mind/brain is to be considered a computational-representational system. Yet, not all cognitive scientists have ever (fully) agreed with this assessment (e.g., Rumelhart et al., 1986). Actually, as of today, large parts of the field have concluded, primarily drawing on work in neuroscience, that neither symbolism nor computationalism are tenable and, as a consequence, have turned elsewhere. In contrast, classical cognitive scientists have always been critical of connectionist or network approaches to cognitive architecture (e.g., Fodor and Pylyshyn, 1988), and recent work on memory (e.g., Gallistel and King, 2009; Gallistel and Matzel, 2013; Gallistel and Balsam, 2014) has been adding fuel to the fire. Recent work in neuroscience (Chen et al., 2014; Johansson et al., 2014; Ryan et al., 2015) has now provided first tentative neurobiological evidence for the cognitive scientists' doubts about the synapse as the locus of memory in the brain.  If we believe that memories are made of patterns of synaptic connections sculpted by experience, and if we know, behaviorally, that motor memories last a lifetime, then how can we explain the fact that individual synaptic spines are constantly turning over and that aggregate synaptic strengths are constantly fluctuating? (Bizzi and Ajemian, 2015, p. 91) ~ Trettenbrein, P. C. (2016-01-01). "The Demise of the Synapse As the Locus of Memory: A Looming Paradigm Shift?",. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience. 10 (88): 88. doi:10.3389/fnsys.2016.00088. PMC 5112247. PMID 27909400.,
1012:On a scale of one to ten, how strong is the emotion attached to the memories we’ve been working on?” Curtis Rouanzoin asks one day. The procedure I’ve been going through with him is called EMDR, or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, which looks at the way trauma is stored in the brain and attempts to properly process it. “If it used to be a ten, now it’s an eight,” I tell him. Lindsay Joy Greene is trained in a therapy called SE, or somatic experiencing, and she’s been locating trauma trapped not in my brain, but in my body, and releasing the stored energy. One day she asks, “On a scale of one to ten, how much anger do you feel when you recall the memories we’ve been discussing?” “If it used to be an eight, now it’s a seven,” I tell her. Olga Stevko practices her own variant of NLP, or neuro-linguistic programming. Where the experientials with Lorraine were about debugging my operating system, her process is about rewriting the original code. For example, she tells me that inside my mother’s words, “Never grow up to make anyone as miserable as your father makes me,” was a hidden command: Never grow up. As she helps me grow up, it brings my trauma down to a six. Greg Cason specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy, which takes it to a five. And I don’t know what to call Barbara McNally’s method and her bottomless quiver of techniques, but they work, they’re original, and they bring the emotion associated with those memories to a four. And I do so much more: I beat pillows with baseball bats. I tap on energy meridians. I make shadow maps of my dark side. I try psychodrama. Not all of it works, but none of it hurts. ~ Neil Strauss,
1013:Many researchers have sought the secret of successful education by identifying the most successful schools in the hope of discovering what distinguishes them from others. One of the conclusions of this research is that the most successful schools, on average, are small. In a survey of 1,662 schools in Pennsylvania, for instance, 6 of the top 50 were small, which is an overrepresentation by a factor of 4. These data encouraged the Gates Foundation to make a substantial investment in the creation of small schools, sometimes by splitting large schools into smaller units. At least half a dozen other prominent institutions, such as the Annenberg Foundation and the Pew Charitable Trust, joined the effort, as did the U.S. Department of Education’s Smaller Learning Communities Program. This probably makes intuitive sense to you. It is easy to construct a causal story that explains how small schools are able to provide superior education and thus produce high-achieving scholars by giving them more personal attention and encouragement than they could get in larger schools. Unfortunately, the causal analysis is pointless because the facts are wrong. If the statisticians who reported to the Gates Foundation had asked about the characteristics of the worst schools, they would have found that bad schools also tend to be smaller than average. The truth is that small schools are not better on average; they are simply more variable. If anything, say Wainer and Zwerling, large schools tend to produce better results, especially in higher grades where a variety of curricular options is valuable. Thanks to recent advances in cognitive psychology, ~ Daniel Kahneman,
1014:For what people of color quickly come to see—in a sense the primary epistemic principle of the racialized social epistemology of which they are the object—is that they are not seen at all. Correspondingly, the “central metaphor” of W. E. B. Du Bois’s The Souls of Black Folk is the image of the “veil,”20 and the black American cognitive equivalent of the shocking moment of Cartesian realization of the uncertainty of everything one had taken to be knowledge is the moment when for Du Bois, as a child in New England, “it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their [white] world by a vast veil.”21 Similarly, Ralph Ellison’s classic Invisible Man, generally regarded as the most important twentieth-century novel of the black experience, is arguably in key respects—while a multi-dimensional and multi-layered work of great depth and complexity, not to be reduced to a single theme—an epistemological novel.22 For what it recounts is the protagonist’s quest to determine what norms of belief are the right ones in a crazy looking-glass world where he is an invisible man “simply because [white] people refuse to see me… . When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination—indeed, everything and anything except me.” And this systematic misperception is not, of course, due to biology, the intrinsic properties of his epidermis, or physical deficiencies in the white eye, but rather to “the construction of their inner eyes, those eyes with which they look through their physical eyes upon reality.”23 ~ Charles W Mills,
1015:Brain imaging studies suggest that a couple brain areas in particular are involved in cognitive control: the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the lateral prefrontal cortex (lateral PFC). We’ll be referring to these together as the “cognitive control regions” of the brain. There is still some debate about the precise role played by each of these regions, but one plausible characterization is that the ACC is a kind of smoke detector, and the lateral PFC is the fire response team. Like a smoke detector, the ACC is in constant monitoring mode, waiting to detect a whiff of danger, such as an instance of cognitive conflict. In the case of the Stroop task, we’ve got two automatic processes that are in conflict: the identification of a typeface or color versus the automatic processing of a simple word (assuming you’re literate and it’s your native language). This conflict alerts the ACC, which then sends out an alarm to the lateral PFC to come deal with the situation. The lateral PFC is responsible for many higher cognitive functions, such as the integration of conscious and unconscious knowledge, working memory (the small spotlight of consciousness that allows us to focus on explicit information), and conscious planning. Most relevantly, when it comes to the case of the Stroop task, the lateral PFC also exerts control over other areas of the brain by strengthening the activation of task-relevant networks at the expense of other networks. By weakening certain neural pathways, the lateral PFC essentially tells them to stop doing what they are doing, which is the neural equivalent of fire-retarding foam. In the Stroop task presented above, ~ Edward Slingerland,
1016:In order to override Type i processing, Type 2 processing must display at least two related capabilities. One is the capability of interrupting Type 1 processing and suppressing its response tendencies. Type 2 processing thus involves inhibitory mechanisms of the type that have been the focus of recent work on executive functioning=
But the ability to suppress Type 1 processing gets the job only half done. Suppressing one response is not helpful unless there is a better response available to substitute for it. Where do these better responses come from? One answer is that they come from processes of hypothetical reasoning and cognitive simulation that are a unique aspect of Type 2processing.6 When we reason hypothetically, we create temporary models of the world and test out actions (or alternative causes) in that simulated world.
In order to reason hypothetically we must, however, have one critical cognitive capability-we must be able to prevent our representations of the real world from becoming confused with representations of imaginary situations.
For example, when considering an alternative goal state different from the one we currently have, we must be able to represent our current goal and the alternative goal and to keep straight which is which. Likewise, we need to be able to differentiate the representation of an action about to be taken from representations of potential alternative actions we are trying out in cognitive simulations. But the latter must not infect the former while the mental simulation is being carried out. Otherwise, we would confuse the action about to be taken with alternatives that we were just simulating. ~ Keith E Stanovich,
1017:At time of writing, the National Education Standards and Improvement Council, set up by the Clinton Administration,61 is due to prescribe what students in grades five through twelve are supposed to know about American history. Not a single one of the thirty-one standards set up mentions the Constitution. Paul Revere is unmentioned; the Gettysburg address is briefly mentioned once. On the other hand, the early feminist Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments receives nine notices. Joseph McCarthy is mentioned nineteen times; there is no mention of the Wright brothers, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Robert E. Lee; Harriet Tubman receives six notices. The Ku Klux Klan is mentioned seventeen times; the American Federation of Labor comes up with nine appearances. The role of religion, especially Christianity, in the founding and building of the nation is totally ignored; the grandeur of the court of Mansa Musa (King of Mali in fifteenth-century Africa) is praised, and recommended as a topic for further study.62 Such standards are linked in the minds of many with “outcome-based-education” (OBE). If the “outcomes” were well balanced and not less than thoroughly cognitive (though hopefully more than cognitive), there would be few objections. But OBE has become a lightening-rod issue precisely because in the hands of many it explicitly minimizes cognitive tests and competency skills, while focusing much more attention on attitudes, group conformity, and the like. In other words, granred the postmodernism that grips many educational theorists and the political correctness that shapes their values, this begins to look like one more experiment in social engineering. ~ D A Carson,
1018:Working memory is a fundamental aspect of executive cognition that is thought to encompass three primary mental processes: 1) the access of information, 2) “on-line” operation(s) on this information, and 3) the production of a motor output response based on these operations (Goldman-Rakic, 1987). At present, several distinct theoretical conceptualizations of working memory exist within the cognitive science literature (reviewed in Kimberg, D’Esposito, & Farah, 1998). This lack of consensus may be due, in part, to the functional complexity of working memory, which includes aspects of rehearsal, maintenance, short term storage, attention, and executive control (Kimberg, et al., 1998). Working memory is widely accepted as being dependent on the lateral frontal cortex (Fuster, 1997; Goldman-Rakic, 1987; Owen, et al., 1998; 1999; Owen, 2000), and plays an important role in the temporal coordination of guided behavior via the perception-action cycle (Fuster, 2000).  Immediate serial recall and memory span tasks are two common tools used to assess working memory in humans (Baddeley, 1996). In such tasks, the participant is presented with a series of stimuli, and required to recall this stimulus string in sequential order (Baddeley, 1996). In these tasks, the likelihood of correct recall is directly related to the length of the stimulus string, and by manipulating the length of this string, the participant’s working memory capacity (memory span) can be assessed (Baddeley, 1996). ~ Mathew H. Gendle, Michael R. Ransom, “Use of the Electronic Game Simon as a Measure of Working Memory in College Age Adults”, Journal of Behavioral and Neuroscience Research, Vol. 4, (2006), p. 1.,
1019:I have grown accustomed to the disrespect expressed by some of the participants for their colleagues in the other disciplines. "Why, Dan," ask the people in artificial intelligence, "do you waste your time conferring with those neuroscientists? They wave their hands about 'information processing' and worry about where it happens, and which neurotransmitters are involved, but they haven't a clue about the computational requirements of higher cognitive functions." "Why," ask the neuroscientists, "do you waste your time on the fantasies of artificial intelligence? They just invent whatever machinery they want, and say unpardonably ignorant things about the brain." The cognitive psychologists, meanwhile, are accused of concocting models with neither biological plausibility nor proven computational powers; the anthropologists wouldn't know a model if they saw one, and the philosophers, as we all know, just take in each other's laundry, warning about confusions they themselves have created, in an arena bereft of both data and empirically testable theories. With so many idiots working on the problem, no wonder consciousness is still a mystery. All these charges are true, and more besides, but I have yet to encounter any idiots. Mostly the theorists I have drawn from strike me as very smart people – even brilliant people, with the arrogance and impatience that often comes with brilliance – but with limited perspectives and agendas, trying to make progress on the hard problems by taking whatever shortcuts they can see, while deploring other people's shortcuts. No one can keep all the problems and details clear, including me, and everyone has to mumble, guess and handwave about large parts of the problem. ~ Daniel Dennett (1991) Consciousness Explained,
1020:Why are we as helpless, or more so, than our ancestors were in facing the chaos that interferes with happiness? There are at least two good explanations for this failure. In the first place, the kind of knowledge—or wisdom—one needs for emancipating consciousness is not cumulative. It cannot be condensed into a formula; it cannot be memorized and then routinely applied. Like other complex forms of expertise, such as a mature political judgment or a refined aesthetic sense, it must be earned through trial-and-error experience by each individual, generation after generation. Control over consciousness is not simply a cognitive skill. At least as much as intelligence, it requires the commitment of emotions and will. It is not enough to know how to do it; one must do it, consistently, in the same way as athletes or musicians who must keep practicing what they know in theory. And this is never easy. Progress is relatively fast in fields that apply knowledge to the material world, such as physics or genetics. But it is painfully slow when knowledge is to be applied to modify our own habits and desires. Second, the knowledge of how to control consciousness must be reformulated every time the cultural context changes. The wisdom of the mystics, of the Sufi, of the great yogis, or of the Zen masters might have been excellent in their own time—and might still be the best, if we lived in those times and in those cultures. But when transplanted to contemporary California those systems lose quite a bit of their original power. They contain elements that are specific to their original contexts, and when these accidental components are not distinguished from what is essential, the path to freedom gets overgrown by brambles of meaningless mumbo jumbo. Ritual form wins over substance, and ~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,
1021:Stanford University’s John Koza, who pioneered genetic programming in 1986, has used genetic algorithms to invent an antenna for NASA, create computer programs for identifying proteins, and invent general purpose electrical controllers. Twenty-three times Koza’s genetic algorithms have independently invented electronic components already patented by humans, simply by targeting the engineering specifications of the finished devices—the “fitness” criteria. For example, Koza’s algorithms invented a voltage-current conversion circuit (a device used for testing electronic equipment) that worked more accurately than the human-invented circuit designed to meet the same specs. Mysteriously, however, no one can describe how it works better—it appears to have redundant and even superfluous parts. But that’s the curious thing about genetic programming (and “evolutionary programming,” the programming family it belongs to). The code is inscrutable. The program “evolves” solutions that computer scientists cannot readily reproduce. What’s more, they can’t understand the process genetic programming followed to achieve a finished solution. A computational tool in which you understand the input and the output but not the underlying procedure is called a “black box” system. And their unknowability is a big downside for any system that uses evolutionary components. Every step toward inscrutability is a step away from accountability, or fond hopes like programming in friendliness toward humans. That doesn’t mean scientists routinely lose control of black box systems. But if cognitive architectures use them in achieving AGI, as they almost certainly will, then layers of unknowability will be at the heart of the system. Unknowability might be an unavoidable consequence of self-aware, self-improving software. ~ James Barrat,
1022:What I gleaned from all this research is that empathy is the result of numerous cognitive and affective processes, all firing away behind the scenes somewhere in our brains. Cognitive processes allow us to understand the mental state of another person—his or her emotions, desires, beliefs, intentions, et cetera—which in turn helps us to understand and even predict the person’s actions or behaviors. They allow us to step outside of our own experience in order to take on and understand other people’s perspectives—something that every wife on the planet wishes her husband would do. The affective component of empathy is more related to our emotional responses to the mental states that we observe in other people. This component allows us to feel some appropriate and non-egocentric emotional response to another person’s emotions—something else that every wife on the planet wishes her husband would do. Empathy involves both processes, and while they operate independently of one another, there is some overlap. A graphical representation of empathy might involve a Venn diagram—two circles, one for the affective component and one for the cognitive, slightly overlapping, with me standing well outside of both circles talking incessantly about the weather during a funeral. In people with Asperger syndrome and other autism spectrum conditions, these mechanisms of understanding are much less reliable and productive than in neurotypicals. Those of us living within the parameters of an autism spectrum condition simply can’t engage the empathic processes that allow for social reasoning and emotional awareness. Furthermore, we have difficulty separating ourselves from our own perspectives (the word autism comes from the Greek word autos, meaning “self”), so we can’t easily understand or even access the perspectives and feelings of others. ~ David Finch,
1023:golden opportunity to learn to cope with criticism and anger effectively. This came as a complete surprise to me; I hadn't realized what good fortune I had. In addition to urging me to use cognitive techniques to reduce and eliminate my own sense of irritation. Dr. Beck proposed I try out an unusual strategy for interacting with Hank when he was in an angry mood. The essence of this method was: (1) Don't turn Hank off by defending yourself. Instead, do the opposite—urge him to say all the worst things he can say about you. (2) Try to find a grain of truth in all his criticisms and then agree with him. (3) After this, point out any areas of disagreement in a straightforward, tactful, nonargumentative manner. (4) Emphasize the importance of sticking together, in spite of these occasional disagreements. I could remind Hank that frustration and fighting might slow down our therapy at times, but this need not destroy the relationship or prevent our work from ultimately becoming fruitful. I applied this strategy the next time Hank started storming around the office screaming at me. Just as I had planned, I urged Hank to keep it up and say all the worst things he could think of about me. The result was immediate and dramatic. Within a few moments, all the wind went out of his sails—all his vengeance seemed to melt away. He began communicating sensibly and calmly, and sat down. In fact, when I agreed with some of his criticisms, he suddenly began to defend me and say some nice things about me! I was so impressed with this result that I began using the same approach with other angry, explosive individuals, and I actually did begin to enjoy his hostile outbursts because I had an effective way to handle them. I also used the double-column technique for recording and talking back to my automatic thoughts after one of Hank's midnight calls (see Figure 16–1, page 415). ~ David D Burns,
1024:If you’re going to make an error in life, err on the side of overestimating your capabilities (obviously, as long as it doesn’t jeopardize your life). By the way, this is something that’s hard to do, since the human capacity is so much greater than most of us would ever dream. In fact, many studies have focused on the differences between people who are depressed and people who are extremely optimistic. After attempting to learn a new skill, the pessimists are always more accurate about how they did, while the optimists see their behavior as being more effective than it actually was. Yet this unrealistic evaluation of their own performance is the secret of their future success. Invariably the optimists eventually end up mastering the skill while the pessimists fail. Why? Optimists are those who, despite having no references for success, or even references of failure, manage to ignore those references, leaving unassembled such cognitive tabletops as “I failed” or “I can’t succeed.” Instead, optimists produce faith references, summoning forth their imagination to picture themselves doing something different next time and succeeding. It is this special ability, this unique focus, which allows them to persist until eventually they gain the distinctions that put them over the top. The reason success eludes most people is that they have insufficient references of succeeding in the past. But an optimist operates with beliefs such as, “The past doesn’t equal the future.” All great leaders, all people who have achieved success in any area of life, know the power of continuously pursuing their vision, even if all the details of how to achieve it aren’t yet available. If you develop the absolute sense of certainty that powerful beliefs provide, then you can get yourself to accomplish virtually anything, including those things that other people are certain are impossible. ~ Anthony Robbins,
1025:Remember and Share - Action is the second step in The Hook. - The action is the simplest behavior in anticipation of reward. - As described by the Dr. BJ Fogg’s Behavior Model: - For any behavior to occur, a trigger must be present at the same time as the user has sufficient ability and motivation to take action. - To increase the desired behavior, ensure a clear trigger is present, then increase ability by making the action easier to do, and finally align with the right motivator. - Every behavior is driven by one of three Core Motivators: seeking pleasure or avoiding pain, seeking hope and avoiding fear, seeking social acceptance while avoiding social rejection. - Ability is influenced by the six factors of time, money, physical effort, brain cycles, social deviance, and non-routineness. Ability is dependent on users and their context at that moment. - Heuristics are cognitive shortcuts we take to make quick decisions. Product designers can utilize many of the hundreds of heuristics to increase the likelihood of their desired action.   *** Do This Now Refer to the answers you came up with in the last “Do This Now” section to complete the following exercises: - Walk through the path your users would take to use your product or service, beginning from the time they feel their internal trigger to the point where they receive their expected outcome. How many steps does it take before users obtain the reward they came for? How does this process compare with the simplicity of some of the examples described in this chapter? How does it compare with competing products and services? - Which resources are limiting your users’ ability to accomplish the tasks that will become habits? - Time - Money - Physical effort - Brain cycles (too confusing) - Social deviance (outside the norm) - Non-routine (too new) - Brainstorm three testable ways to make the intended tasks easier to complete. -  Consider how you might apply heuristics to make habit-forming actions more likely. ~ Nir Eyal,
1026:The most surprising discovery made by Baumeister’s group shows, as he puts it, that the idea of mental energy is more than a mere metaphor. The nervous system consumes more glucose than most other parts of the body, and effortful mental activity appears to be especially expensive in the currency of glucose. When you are actively involved in difficult cognitive reasoning or engaged in a task that requires self-control, your blood glucose level drops. The effect is analogous to a runner who draws down glucose stored in her muscles during a sprint. The bold implication of this idea is that the effects of ego depletion could be undone by ingesting glucose, and Baumeister and his colleagues have confirmed this hypothesis in several experiments. Volunteers in one of their studies watched a short silent film of a woman being interviewed and were asked to interpret her body language. While they were performing the task, a series of words crossed the screen in slow succession. The participants were specifically instructed to ignore the words, and if they found their attention drawn away they had to refocus their concentration on the woman’s behavior. This act of self-control was known to cause ego depletion. All the volunteers drank some lemonade before participating in a second task. The lemonade was sweetened with glucose for half of them and with Splenda for the others. Then all participants were given a task in which they needed to overcome an intuitive response to get the correct answer. Intuitive errors are normally much more frequent among ego-depleted people, and the drinkers of Splenda showed the expected depletion effect. On the other hand, the glucose drinkers were not depleted. Restoring the level of available sugar in the brain had prevented the deterioration of performance. It will take some time and much further research to establish whether the tasks that cause glucose-depletion also cause the momentary arousal that is reflected in increases of pupil size and heart rate. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
1027:But when the conditions are more subtle, things like office politics, opportunism, occasional rounds of layoffs and a general lack of trust among colleagues, we adapt. Like being at base camp on Everest, we believe that we are fine and can cope. However, the fact remains that the human animal is not built for these conditions. Even though we may think we’re comfortable, the effects of the environment still take their toll. Just because we become accustomed, just because it becomes normal, doesn’t mean it’s acceptable. On Everest, even after we’ve adapted, if we spend too long on the mountain, our internal organs start to break down. In an unhealthy culture, it’s the same. Even though we can get used to living with stress and low, regular levels of cortisol in our bodies, that doesn’t mean we should. A constant flow of cortisol isn’t just bad for organizations. It can also do serious damage to our health. Like the other selfish chemicals, cortisol can help us survive, but it isn’t supposed to be in our system all the time. It wreaks havoc with our glucose metabolism. It also increases blood pressure and inflammatory responses and impairs cognitive ability. (It’s harder to concentrate on things outside the organization if we are stressed about what’s going on inside.) Cortisol increases aggression, suppresses our sex drive and generally leaves us feeling stressed out. And here’s the killer—literally. Cortisol prepares our bodies to react suddenly—to fight or run as circumstances demand. Because this takes a lot of energy, when we feel threatened, our bodies turn off nonessential functions, such as digestion and growth. Once the stress has passed, these systems are turned on again. Unfortunately, the immune system is one of the functions that the body deems nonessential, so it shuts down during cortisol bursts. In other words, if we work in environments in which trust is low, relationships are weak or transactional and stress and anxiety are normal, we become much more vulnerable to illness. ~ Simon Sinek,
1028:Nicotine patches are somewhere in between gum and cigarettes. They contain more nicotine than the gum, but since you absorb it slowly through your skin throughout the day, you get sustained focus and energy. When I tried nicotine patches, I’d take the smallest-dose patch I could find and cut it in half (even though it says not to on the label). I’d leave it on for one to two hours, so I would get 1–4 mg of nicotine during that time. Nicotine inhalers are relatively hard to find, but Nicorette makes them, and they have no chemicals at all. It’s just a sponge with nicotine and a little plastic straw that you suck through to get nicotine-scented air. I like these because they’re free of nasty chemicals, but the downside is that the act of sucking on something appears to be addictive. I found myself wanting to take a puff from one when I was sitting at my desk, even when I didn’t need or want the energy from it—so I quit! Nicotine lozenges, like nicotine gum, are full of crappy chemicals and sweeteners such as aspartame, acesulfame potassium (ace-K), and sucralose. The safest one I’ve found is the Nicorette mini lozenge, which is very small and contains no aspartame. You do get a small dose of unsafe sweetener, but it’s so tiny that it’s unlikely to matter much. When I take half of the smallest, 2 mg lozenge, I feel a cognitive shift in about fifteen minutes. These lozenges are easy to find in the United States. And make sure to get the mini lozenges, as the large Nicorette lozenges are full of chemicals you don’t want to put in your body. Nicotine spray is a more recent invention. Each spray of 1 mg of nicotine contains vanishingly small amounts of sucralose. You spray it under your tongue and feel it quickly, making it an excellent option when you want a burst of sustained energy. I’ve done more than one interview while on this, and I find it’s great for jet lag or when you have a heavy day ahead of you and want to maintain focus. If you do decide to try nicotine, treat it carefully. A safe ~ Dave Asprey,
1029:Certain shapes and patterns hover over different moments in time, haunting and inspiring the individuals living through those periods. The epic clash and subsequent resolution of the dialectic animated the first half of the nineteenth century; the Darwinian and social reform movements scattered web imagery through the second half of the century. The first few decades of the twentieth century found their ultimate expression in the exuberant anarchy of the explosion, while later decades lost themselves in the faceless regimen of the grid. You can see the last ten years or so as a return to those Victorian webs, though I suspect the image that has been burned into our retinas over the past decade is more prosaic: windows piled atop one another on a screen, or perhaps a mouse clicking on an icon. These shapes are shorthand for a moment in time, a way of evoking an era and its peculiar obsessions. For individuals living within these periods, the shapes are cognitive building blocks, tools for thought: Charles Darwin and George Eliot used the web as a way of understanding biological evolution and social struggles; a half century later, the futurists embraced the explosions of machine-gun fire, while Picasso used them to re-create the horrors of war in Guernica. The shapes are a way of interpreting the world, and while no shape completely represents its epoch, they are an undeniable component of the history of thinking. When I imagine the shape that will hover above the first half of the twenty-first century, what comes to mind is not the coiled embrace of the genome, or the etched latticework of the silicon chip. It is instead the pulsing red and green pixels of Mitch Resnick’s slime mold simulation, moving erratically across the screen at first, then slowly coalescing into larger forms. The shape of those clusters—with their lifelike irregularity, and their absent pacemakers—is the shape that will define the coming decades. I see them on the screen, growing and dividing, and I think: That way lies the future. ~ Steven Johnson,
1030:Language both required additional cognitive capacities and made new ones possible, and these changes took space and connections to achieve. The space problem was solved, as we saw earlier, by moving some things around in existing cortical space, and also by adding more space. But the connection problem was only partially solved. The part that was solved, connectivity within cortical processing networks, made the enhanced cognitive capacities of the hominid brain possible. But the part that hasn't been fully solved is connectivity between cognitive systems and other parts of the mental trilogy-emotional and motivational systems. This is why a brilliant mathematician or artist, or a successful entrepreneur, can like anyone else fall victim to sexual seduction, road rage, or jealousy, or be a child abuser or rapist, or can have a crippling depression or anxiety. Our brain has not evolved to the point where the new systems that make complex thinking possible can easily control the old systems that give rise to our base needs and motives, and emotional reactions. This doesn't mean that we're simply victims of our brains and should just give in to our urges. It means that downward causation is sometimes hard work. Doing the right thing doesn't always flow naturally from knowing what the right thing to do is.

In the end, then, the self is maintained by systems that function both explicitly and implicitly. Through explicit systems, we try to willfully dictate who we are, and how we will behave. But we are only partially effective in doing so, since we have imperfect conscious access to emotional systems, which play such a crucial role in coordinating learning by other systems. In spite of their importance, though, emotion systems are not always active and have only episodic influence on what other brain systems learn and store. Furthermore, because there are multiple independent emotion systems, the episodic influence of any one system is itself but a component of the total impact of emotions on self-development. ~ Joseph E LeDoux,
1031:The realist, then, would seek in behalf of philosophy the same renunciation the same rigour of procedure, that has been achieved in science. This does not mean that he would reduce philosophy to natural or physical science. He recognizes that the philosopher has undertaken certain peculiar problems, and that he must apply himself to these, with whatever method he may find it necessary to employ. It remains the business of the philosopher to attempt a wide synoptic survey of the world, to raise underlying and ulterior questions, and in particular to examine the cognitive and moral processes. And it is quite true that for the present no technique at all comparable with that of the exact sciences is to be expected. But where such technique is attainable, as for example in symbolic logic, the realist welcomes it. And for the rest he limits himself to a more modest aspiration. He hopes that philosophers may come like scientists to speak a common language, to formulate common problems and to appeal to a common realm of fact for their resolution. Above all he desires to get rid of the philosophical monologue, and of the lyric and impressionistic mode of philosophizing. And in all this he is prompted not by the will to destroy but by the hope that philosophy is a kind of knowledge, and neither a song nor a prayer nor a dream. He proposes, therefore, to rely less on inspiration and more on observation and analysis. He conceives his function to be in the last analysis the same as that of the scientist. There is a world out yonder more or less shrouded in darkness, and it is important, if possible, to light it up. But instead of, like the scientist, focussing the mind's rays and throwing this or that portion of the world into brilliant relief, he attempts to bring to light the outlines and contour of the whole, realizing too well that in diffusing so widely what little light he has, he will provide only a very dim illumination. ~ Ralph Barton Perry, The Present Conflict of Ideals: A Study of the Philosophical Background of the World War (1918),
1032:The challenge is that the demand in our lives increasingly exceeds our capacity. Think of capacity as the fuel that makes it possible to bring your skill and talent fully to life. Most of us take our capacity for granted, because for most of our lives we’ve had enough. What’s changed is that between digital technology and rising complexity, there’s more information and more requests coming at us, faster and more relentlessly than ever. Unlike computers, however, human beings aren’t meant to operate continuously, at high speeds, for long periods of time. Rather, we’re designed to move rhythmically between spending and renewing our energy. Our brains wave between high and low electrical frequencies. Our hearts beat at varying intervals. Our lungs expand and contract depending on demand. It’s not sufficient to be good at inhaling. Indeed, the more deeply you exhale, the calmer and more capable you become. Instead, we live linear lives, progressively burning down our energy reservoirs throughout the day. It’s the equivalent of withdrawing funds from a bank account without ever making a deposit. At some point, you go bankrupt. The good news is that we can influence the way we manage our energy. By doing so skillfully, you can get more done in less time, at a higher level of quality, in a more sustainable way. A couple of key scientific findings point the way. The first is that sleep is more important than food. You can go a week without eating and the only thing you’ll lose is weight. Give up sleep for even a couple of days and you’ll become completely dysfunctional. Even so, we’re all too willing to trade away an hour of sleep in the false belief that it will give us one more hour of productivity. In fact, even very small amounts of sleep deprivation take a significant toll on our cognitive capacity. The notion that some of us can perform adequately with very little sleep is largely a myth. Less than 2.5 percent of the population—that’s one in forty people—feels fully rested with less than seven to eight hours of sleep a night. The second key finding is that our bodies follow what are known as ultradian ~ Jocelyn K Glei,
1033:Confirmation bias is another of the psychological quirks associated with cognitive dissonance. The best way to see its effects is to consider the following sequence of numbers: 2, 4, 6. Suppose that you have to discover the underlying pattern in this sequence. Suppose, further, that you are given an opportunity to propose alternative sets of three numbers to explore the possibilities. Most people playing this game come up with a hypothesis pretty quickly. They guess, for example, that the underlying pattern is “even numbers ascending sequentially.” There are other possibilities, of course. The pattern might just be “even numbers.” Or “the third number is the sum of the first two.” And so on. The key question is, How do you establish whether your initial hunch is right? Most people simply try to confirm their hypothesis. So, if they think the pattern is “even numbers ascending sequentially,” they will propose “10, 12, 14” and when this is confirmed, they will propose “100, 102, 104.” After three such tests most people are pretty certain that they have found the answer. And yet they may be wrong. If the pattern is actually “any ascending numbers,” their guesses will not help them. Had they used a different strategy, on the other hand, attempting to falsify their hypothesis rather than confirm it, they would have discovered this far quicker. If they had, say, proposed 4, 6, 11 (fits the pattern), they would have found that their initial hunch was wrong. If they had followed up with, say, 5, 2, 1, (which doesn’t fit), they would now be getting pretty warm. As Paul Schoemaker, research director of the Mack Institute for Innovation Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, puts it: The pattern is rarely uncovered unless subjects are willing to make mistakes—that is, to test numbers that violate their belief. Instead most people get stuck in a narrow and wrong hypothesis, as often happens in real life, such that their only way out is to make a mistake that turns out not to be a mistake after all. Sometimes, committing errors is not just the fastest way to the correct answer; it’s the only way. ~ Matthew Syed,
1034:For Dawkins, atheism is a necessary consequence of evolution. He has argued that the religious impulse is simply an evolutionary mistake, a ‘misfiring of something useful’, it is a kind if virus, parasitic on cognitive systems naturally selected because they had enabled a species to survive.

Dawkins is an extreme exponent of the scientific naturalism, originally formulated by d’Holbach, that has now become a major worldview among intellectuals. More moderate versions of this “scientism” have been articulated by Carl Sagan, Steven Weinberg, and Daniel Dennett, who have all claimed that one has to choose between science and faith. For Dennett, theology has been rendered superfluous, because biology can provide a better explanation of why people are religious. But for Dawkins, like the other “new atheists” – Sam Harris, the young American philosopher and student of neuroscience, and Christopher Hitchens, critic and journalist – religion is the cause of the problems of our world; it is the source of absolute evil and “poisons everything.” They see themselves in the vanguard of a scientific/rational movement that will eventually expunge the idea of God from human consciousness.

But other atheists and scientists are wary of this approach. The American zoologist Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) followed Monod in his discussion of the implications of evolution. Everything in the natural world could indeed be explained by natural selection, but Gould insisted that science was not competent to decide whether God did or did not exist, because it could only work with natural explanations. Gould had no religious axe to grind; he described himself as an atheistically inclined agnostic, but pointed out that Darwin himself had denied he was an atheist and that other eminent Darwinians - Asa Gray, Charles D. Walcott, G. G. Simpson, and Theodosius Dobzhansky - had been either practicing Christians or agnostics. Atheism did not, therefore, seem to be a necessary consequence of accepting evolutionary theory, and Darwinians who held forth dogmatically on the subject were stepping beyond the limitations that were proper to science. ~ Karen Armstrong,
1035:[There is] a widespread approach to ideas which Objectivism repudiates altogether: agnosticism. I mean this term in a sense which applies to the question of God, but to many other issues also, such as extra-sensory perception or the claim that the stars influence man’s destiny. In regard to all such claims, the agnostic is the type who says, “I can’t prove these claims are true, but you can’t prove they are false, so the only proper conclusion is: I don’t know; no one knows; no one can know one way or the other.”

The agnostic viewpoint poses as fair, impartial, and balanced. See how many fallacies you can find in it. Here are a few obvious ones: First, the agnostic allows the arbitrary into the realm of human cognition. He treats arbitrary claims as ideas proper to consider, discuss, evaluate—and then he regretfully says, “I don’t know,” instead of dismissing the arbitrary out of hand. Second, the onus-of-proof issue: the agnostic demands proof of a negative in a context where there is no evidence for the positive. “It’s up to you,” he says, “to prove that the fourth moon of Jupiter did not cause your sex life and that it was not a result of your previous incarnation as the Pharaoh of Egypt.” Third, the agnostic says, “Maybe these things will one day be proved.” In other words, he asserts possibilities or hypotheses with no jot of evidential basis.

The agnostic miscalculates. He thinks he is avoiding any position that will antagonize anybody. In fact, he is taking a position which is much more irrational than that of a man who takes a definite but mistaken stand on a given issue, because the agnostic treats arbitrary claims as meriting cognitive consideration and epistemological respect. He treats the arbitrary as on a par with the rational and evidentially supported. So he is the ultimate epistemological egalitarian: he equates the groundless and the proved. As such, he is an epistemological destroyer. The agnostic thinks that he is not taking any stand at all and therefore that he is safe, secure, invulnerable to attack. The fact is that his view is one of the falsest—and most cowardly—stands there can be. ~ Leonard Peikoff,
1036:Paul was an attorney. And this was what his as yet brief career in the law had done to his brain. He was comforted by minutiae. His mortal fears could be assuaged only by an encyclopedic command of detail. Paul was a professional builder of narratives. He was a teller of concise tales. His work was to take a series of isolated events and, shearing from them their dross, craft from them a progression. The morning’s discrete images—a routine labor, a clumsy error, a grasping arm, a crowded street, a spark of fire, a blood-speckled child, a dripping corpse—could be assembled into a story. There would be a beginning, a middle, and an end. Stories reach conclusions, and then they go away. Such is their desperately needed magic. That day’s story, once told in his mind, could be wrapped up, put aside, and recalled only when necessary. The properly assembled narrative would guard his mind from the terror of raw memory. Even a true story is a fiction, Paul knew. It is the comforting tool we use to organize the chaotic world around us into something comprehensible. It is the cognitive machine that separates the wheat of emotion from the chaff of sensation. The real world is overfull with incidents, brimming over with occurrences. In our stories, we disregard most of them until clear reason and motivation emerge. Every story is an invention, a technological device not unlike the very one that on that morning had seared a man’s skin from his bones. A good story could be put to no less dangerous a purpose. As an attorney, the tales that Paul told were moral ones. There existed, in his narratives, only the injured and their abusers. The slandered and the liars. The swindled and the thieves. Paul constructed these characters painstakingly until the righteousness of his plaintiff—or his defendant—became overwhelming. It was not the job of a litigator to determine facts; it was his job to construct a story from those facts by which a clear moral conclusion would be unavoidable. That was the business of Paul’s stories: to present an undeniable view of the world. And then to vanish, once the world had been so organized and a profit fairly earned. ~ Graham Moore,
1037:As all this suggests our relationship with evidence is seldom purely a cognitive one. Vilifying menstruating women bolstering anti-Muslim stereotypes murdering innocent citizens of Salem plainly evidence is almost always invariably a political social and moral issue as well. To take a particularly stark example consider the case of Albert Speer minister of armaments and war production during the Third Reich close friend to Adolf Hitler and highest-ranking Nazi official to ever express remorse for his actions. In his memoir Inside the Third Reich Speer candidly addressed his failure to look for evidence of what was happening around him. "I did not query a friend who told him not to visit Auschwitz I did not query Himmler I did not query Hitler " he wrote. "I did not speak with personal friends. I did not investigate for I did not want to know what was happening there... for fear of discovering something which might have made me turn away from my course. I had closed my eyes."


Judge William Stoughton of Salem Massachusetts became complicit in injustice and murder by accepting evidence that he should have ignored. Albert Speer became complicit by ignoring evidence he should have accepted. Together they show us some of the gravest possible consequences of mismanaging the data around us and the vital importance of learning to manage it better. It is possible to do this: like in the U.S. legal system we as individuals can develop a fairer and more consistent relationship to evidence over time. By indirection Speer himself shows us how to begin. I did not query he wrote. I did not speak. I did not investigate. I closed my eyes. This are sins of omission sins of passivity and they suggest correctly that if we want to improve our relationship with evidence we must take a more active role in how we think must in a sense take the reins of our own minds.


To do this we must query and speak and investigate and open our eyes. Specifically and crucially we must learn to actively combat our inductive biases: to deliberately seek out evidence that challenges our beliefs and to take seriously such evidence when we come across it. ~ Kathryn Schulz,
1038:Several years ago, researchers at the University of Minnesota identified 568 men and women over the age of seventy who were living independently but were at high risk of becoming disabled because of chronic health problems, recent illness, or cognitive changes. With their permission, the researchers randomly assigned half of them to see a team of geriatric nurses and doctors—a team dedicated to the art and science of managing old age. The others were asked to see their usual physician, who was notified of their high-risk status. Within eighteen months, 10 percent of the patients in both groups had died. But the patients who had seen a geriatrics team were a quarter less likely to become disabled and half as likely to develop depression. They were 40 percent less likely to require home health services. These were stunning results. If scientists came up with a device—call it an automatic defrailer—that wouldn’t extend your life but would slash the likelihood you’d end up in a nursing home or miserable with depression, we’d be clamoring for it. We wouldn’t care if doctors had to open up your chest and plug the thing into your heart. We’d have pink-ribbon campaigns to get one for every person over seventy-five. Congress would be holding hearings demanding to know why forty-year-olds couldn’t get them installed. Medical students would be jockeying to become defrailulation specialists, and Wall Street would be bidding up company stock prices. Instead, it was just geriatrics. The geriatric teams weren’t doing lung biopsies or back surgery or insertion of automatic defrailers. What they did was to simplify medications. They saw that arthritis was controlled. They made sure toenails were trimmed and meals were square. They looked for worrisome signs of isolation and had a social worker check that the patient’s home was safe. How do we reward this kind of work? Chad Boult, the geriatrician who was the lead investigator of the University of Minnesota study, can tell you. A few months after he published the results, demonstrating how much better people’s lives were with specialized geriatric care, the university closed the division of geriatrics. ~ Atul Gawande,
1039:Absorbingly articulate and infinitely intelligent . . . There is nothing pop about Kahneman's psychology, no formulaic story arc, no beating you over the head with an artificial, buzzword -encrusted Big Idea. It's just the wisdom that comes from five decades of honest, rigorous scientific work, delivered humbly yet brilliantly, in a way that will forever change the way you think about thinking:' -MARIA POPOVA, The Atlantic "Kahneman's primer adds to recent challenges to economic orthodoxies about rational actors and efficient markets; more than that, it's a lucid, mar- velously readable guide to spotting-and correcting-our biased misunder- standings of the world:' -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "The ramifications of Kahneman's work are wide, extending into education, business, marketing, politics ... and even happiness research. Call his field 'psychonomics: the hidden reasoning behind our choices. Thinking, Fast and Slow is essential reading for anyone with a mind:' -KYLE SMITH,NewYorkPost "A stellar accomplishment, a book for everyone who likes to think and wants to do it better." - E. JAMES LIEBERMAN ,Libraryfournal "Daniel Kahneman demonstrates forcefully in his new book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, how easy it is for humans to swerve away from rationality:' -CHRISTOPHER SHEA , The Washington Post "A tour de force .. . Kahneman's book is a must-read for anyone interested in either human behavior or investing. He clearly shows that while we like to think of ourselves as rational in our decision making, the truth is we are subject to many biases. At least being aware of them will give you a better chance of avoiding them, or at least making fewer of them:' -LARRY SWEDROE, CBS News "Brilliant .. . It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of Daniel Kahne- man's contribution to the understanding of the way we think and choose. He stands among the giants, a weaver of the threads of Charles Darwin, Adam Smith and Sigmund Freud. Arguably the most important psycholo- gist in history, Kahneman has reshaped cognitive psychology, the analysis of rationality and reason, the understanding of risk and the study of hap pi- ness and well-being ... A magisterial work, stunning in its ambition, infused ~ Daniel Kahneman,
1040:Everything economic science posits as given, that is, the range of dispositions of the economic agent which ground the illusion of the ahistorical universality of the categories and concepts employed by that science, is, in fact, the paradoxical product of a long collective history, endlessly reproduced in individual histories, which can be fully accounted for only by historical analysis: it is because history has inscribed these concomitantly in social and cognitive structures, practical patterns of thinking, perception and action, that it has conferred the appearance of natural, universal self-evidence on the institutions economics claims to theorize ahistorically; it has done this by, among other things, the amnesia of genesis that is encouraged, in this field as in others, by the immediate accord between the ‘subjective’ and the ‘objective’, between dispositions and positions, between anticipations (or hopes) and opportunities. Against the ahistorical vision of economics, we must, then, reconstitute, on the one hand, the genesis of the economic dispositions of economic agents and, especially, of their tastes, needs, propensities or aptitudes (for calculation, saving or work itself) and, on the other, the genesis of the economic field itself, that is to say, we must trace the history of the process of differentiation and autonomization which leads to the constitution of this specific game: the economic field as a cosmos obeying its own laws and thereby conferring a (limited) validity on the radical autonomization which pure theory effects by constituting the economic sphere as a separate world. It was only very gradually that the sphere of commodity exchange separated itself out from the other fields of existence and its specific nomos asserted itself – the nomos expressed in the tautology ‘business is business’; that economic transactions ceased to be conceived on the model of domestic exchanges, and hence as governed by social or family obligations (‘there’s no sentiment in business’); and that the calculation of individual gain, and hence economic interest, won out as the dominant, if not indeed exclusive, principle of business against the collectively imposed and controlled repression of calculating inclinations associated with the domestic economy. The ~ Pierre Bourdieu,
1041:While most of us go through life feeling that we are the thinker of our thoughts and the experiencer of our experience, from the perspective of science we know that this is a distorted view. There is no discrete self or ego lurking like a minotaur in the labyrinth of the brain. There is no region of cortex or pathway of neural processing that occupies a privileged position with respect to our personhood. There is no unchanging “center of narrative gravity” (to use Daniel Dennett’s phrase). In subjective terms, however, there seems to be one — to most of us, most of the time.

Our contemplative traditions (Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, etc.) also suggest, to varying degrees and with greater or lesser precision, that we live in the grip of a cognitive illusion. But the alternative to our captivity is almost always viewed through the lens of religious dogma. A Christian will recite the Lord’s Prayer continuously over a weekend, experience a profound sense of clarity and peace, and judge this mental state to be fully corroborative of the doctrine of Christianity; A Hindu will spend an evening singing devotional songs to Krishna, feel suddenly free of his conventional sense of self, and conclude that his chosen deity has showered him with grace; a Sufi will spend hours whirling in circles, pierce the veil of thought for a time, and believe that he has established a direct connection to Allah.

The universality of these phenomena refutes the sectarian claims of any one religion. And, given that contemplatives generally present their experiences of self-transcendence as inseparable from their associated theology, mythology, and metaphysics, it is no surprise that scientists and nonbelievers tend to view their reports as the product of disordered minds, or as exaggerated accounts of far more common mental states — like scientific awe, aesthetic enjoyment, artistic inspiration, etc.

Our religions are clearly false, even if certain classically religious experiences are worth having. If we want to actually understand the mind, and overcome some of the most dangerous and enduring sources of conflict in our world, we must begin thinking about the full spectrum of human experience in the context of science.

But we must first realize that we are lost in thought. ~ Sam Harris,
1042:Our understanding of the sociology of knowledge leads to the conclusion that the sociologies of language and religion cannot be considered peripheral specialties of little interest to sociological theory as such, but have essential contributions to make to it. This insight is not new. Durkheim and his school had it, but it was lost for a variety of theoretically irrelevant reasons. We hope we have made it clear that the sociology of knowledge presupposes a sociology of language, and that a sociology of knowledge without a sociology of religion is impossible (and vice versa). Furthermore, we believe that we have shown how the theoretical positions of Weber and Durkheim can be combined in a comprehensive theory of social action that does not lose the inner logic of either. Finally, we would contend that the linkage we have been led to make here between the sociology of knowledge and the theoretical core of the thought of Mead and his school suggests an interesting possibility for what might be called a sociological psychology, that is, a psychology that derives its fundamental perspectives from a sociological understanding of the human condition. The observations made here point to a program that seems to carry theoretical promise. More generally, we would contend that the analysis of the role of knowledge in the dialectic of individual and society, of personal identity and social structure, provides a crucial complementary perspective for all areas of sociology. This is certainly not to deny that purely structural analyses of social phenomena are fully adequate for wide areas of sociological inquiry, ranging from the study of small groups to that of large institutional complexes, such as the economy or politics. Nothing is further from our intentions than the suggestion that a sociology-of-knowledge “angle” ought somehow to be injected into all such analyses. In many cases this would be unnecessary for the cognitive goal at which these studies aim. We are suggesting, however, that the integration of the findings of such analyses into the body of sociological theory requires more than the casual obeisance that might be paid to the “human factor” behind the uncovered structural data. Such integration requires a systematic accounting of the dialectical relation between the structural realities and the human enterprise of constructing reality—in history. We ~ Peter L Berger,
1043:Table 3–1. Definitions of Cognitive Distortions 1. ALL-OR-NOTHING THINKING: You see things in black-and-white categories. If your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total failure. 2. OVERGENERALIZATION: You see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat. 3. MENTAL FILTER: You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively so that your vision of all reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that colors the entire beaker of water. 4. DISQUALIFYING THE POSITIVE: You reject positive experiences by insisting they “don’t count” for some reason or other. In this way you can maintain a negative belief that is contradicted by your everyday experiences. 5. JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS: You make a negative interpretation even though there are no definite facts that convincingly support your conclusion. a. Mind reading. You arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting negatively to you, and you don’t bother to check this out. b. The Fortune Teller Error. You anticipate that things will turn out badly, and you feel convinced that your prediction is an already-established fact. 6. MAGNIFICATION (CATASTROPHIZING) OR MINIMIZATION: You exaggerate the importance of things (such as your goof-up or someone else’s achievement), or you inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny (your own desirable qualities or the other fellow’s imperfections). This is also called the “binocular trick.” 7. EMOTIONAL REASONING: You assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are: “I feel it, therefore it must be true.” 8. SHOULD STATEMENTS: You try to motivate yourself with shoulds and shouldn’ts, as if you had to be whipped and punished before you could be expected to do anything. “Musts” and “oughts” are also offenders. The emotional consequence is guilt. When you direct should statements toward others, you feel anger, frustration, and resentment. 9. LABELING AND MISLABELING: This is an extreme form of overgeneralization. Instead of describing your error, you attach a negative label to yourself: “I’m a loser.” When someone else’s behavior rubs you the wrong way, you attach a negative label to him: “He’s a goddam louse.” Mislabeling involves describing an event with language that is highly colored and emotionally loaded. 10. PERSONALIZATION: You see yourself as me cause of some negative external event which in fact you were not primarily responsible for. ~ David D Burns,
1044:A series of surprising experiments by the psychologist Roy Baumeister and his colleagues has shown conclusively that all variants of voluntary effort—cognitive, emotional, or physical—draw at least partly on a shared pool of mental energy. Their experiments involve successive rather than simultaneous tasks. Baumeister’s group has repeatedly found that an effort of will or self-control is tiring; if you have had to force yourself to do something, you are less willing or less able to exert self-control when the next challenge comes around. The phenomenon has been named ego depletion. In a typical demonstration, participants who are instructed to stifle their emotional reaction to an emotionally charged film will later perform poorly on a test of physical stamina—how long they can maintain a strong grip on a dynamometer in spite of increasing discomfort. The emotional effort in the first phase of the experiment reduces the ability to withstand the pain of sustained muscle contraction, and ego-depleted people therefore succumb more quickly to the urge to quit. In another experiment, people are first depleted by a task in which they eat virtuous foods such as radishes and celery while resisting the temptation to indulge in chocolate and rich cookies. Later, these people will give up earlier than normal when faced with a difficult cognitive task. The list of situations and tasks that are now known to deplete self-control is long and varied. All involve conflict and the need to suppress a natural tendency. They include: avoiding the thought of white bears inhibiting the emotional response to a stirring film making a series of choices that involve conflict trying to impress others responding kindly to a partner’s bad behavior interacting with a person of a different race (for prejudiced individuals) The list of indications of depletion is also highly diverse: deviating from one’s diet overspending on impulsive purchases reacting aggressively to provocation persisting less time in a handgrip task performing poorly in cognitive tasks and logical decision making The evidence is persuasive: activities that impose high demands on System 2 require self-control, and the exertion of self-control is depleting and unpleasant. Unlike cognitive load, ego depletion is at least in part a loss of motivation. After exerting self-control in one task, you do not feel like making an effort in another, although you could do it if you really had to. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
1045:One persistent attempt to find a thread in the history of mankind focuses on the notion of Reason. Human history, on this view, is the unfolding of rationality. Human thought, institutions, social organization, become progressively more rational. The idea that Reason is the goal or end-point of the development of mankind can fuse with the view that it also constitutes the principal agency which impels humanity along its path. It seems natural to suppose that changes in human life spring from growth of our ideas, our ways of thought. What is conduct if not implementation of ideas? If we improve, is it not because our ideas have improved? Though somewhat suspect as the fruit of vainglorious self-congratulation by nineteenth century Europeans, the role of thought and reason still deserves some consideration.

The problems and difficulties facing a reason-centred view of history are considerable. No doubt the idea is far less popular now than it was in the heady days of rationalistic optimism, which stretched, in one form or another, from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. But, in a sober and not necessarily optimistic form, it remains necessary to attempt some kind of sketch of the cognitive transformation of mankind, from the days of hunting to those of computing. The nature of our cognitive activities has not remained constant: not only have things changed, but the change has also been deep and fundamental. It is not merely a matter of more of the same. The changes that have occurred have been changes in kind.

A convenient baseline or starting point for the discussion of this problem is provided by the blatant absurdity of some at least of the beliefs of primitive man. Many of us like to think that the standards of what is acceptable in matters of belief have gone up, and that the advance of reason in history is manifest in this raising of standards. We have become fastidious and shrink from the beliefs of our distant ancestors, which strike us as absurd. Perhaps, so as not to prejudge an important issue, one ought to say-it is the translations frequently offered of some of the beliefs of some primitive men which now seem so absurd. It may be—and some have indeed argued this—that the absurdity is located not in the original belief itself but in its translation, inspired by a failure to understand the original context. On this view, it is the modern translator, and not the savage, who is guilty of absurdity. ~ Ernest Gellner,
1046:One persistent attempt to find a thread in the history of mankind focuses on the notion of Reason. Human history, on this view, is the unfolding of rationality. Human thought, institutions, social organization, become progressively more rational. The idea that Reason is the goal or end-point of the development of mankind can fuse with the view that it also constitutes the principal agency
which impels humanity along its path. It seems natural to suppose that changes in human life spring from growth of our ideas, our ways of thought. What is conduct if not implementation of ideas? If we improve, is it not because our ideas have improved? Though somewhat suspect as the fruit of vainglorious self-congratulation by nineteenth century Europeans, the role of thought and reason still deserves some consideration.

The problems and difficulties facing a reason-centred view of history are considerable. No doubt the idea is far less popular now than it was in the heady days of rationalistic optimism, which stretched, in one form or another, from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. But, in a sober and not necessarily optimistic form, it remains necessary to attempt some kind
of sketch of the cognitive transformation of mankind, from the
days of hunting to those of computing. The nature of our cognitive activities has not remained constant: not only have
things changed, but the change has also been deep and fundamental. It is not merely a matter of more of the same. The
changes that have occurred have been changes in kind.

A convenient baseline or starting point for the discussion of this problem is provided by the blatant absurdity of some at least of the beliefs of primitive man. Many of us like to think that the standards of what is acceptable in matters of belief have gone up, and that the advance of reason in history is manifest in this raising of standards. We have become fastidious and shrink from the beliefs of our distant ancestors, which strike us as absurd.
Perhaps, so as not to prejudge an important issue, one ought to say-it is the translations frequently offered of some of the beliefs of some primitive men which now seem so absurd. It may be—and some have indeed argued this—that the absurdity is located not in the original belief itself but in its translation, inspired by a failure to understand the original context. On this view, it is the modern translator, and not the savage, who is guilty of absurdity. ~ Ernest Gellner,
1047:One persistent attempt to find a thread in the history of mankind focuses on the notion of Reason. Human history, on this view, is the unfolding of rationality. Human thought, institutions, social organization, become progressively more rational. The idea that Reason is the goal or end-point of the development of mankind can fuse with the view that it also constitutes the principal agency
which impels humanity along its path. It seems natural to suppose that changes in human life spring from growth of our ideas, our ways of thought. What is conduct if not implementation of ideas? If we improve, is it not because our ideas have improved? Though somewhat suspect as the fruit of vainglorious self-congratulation by nineteenth century Europeans, the role of thought and reason still deserves some consideration.

The problems and difficulties facing a reason-centred view of history are considerable. No doubt the idea is far less popular now than it was in the heady days of rationalistic optimism,
which stretched, in one form or another, from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. But, in a sober and not necessarily optimistic form, it remains necessary to attempt some kind
of sketch of the cognitive transformation of mankind, from the
days of hunting to those of computing. The nature of our cognitive activities has not remained constant: not only have
things changed, but the change has also been deep and fundamental. It is not merely a matter of more of the same. The
changes that have occurred have been changes in kind.

A convenient baseline or starting point for the discussion of this problem is provided by the blatant absurdity of some at least of the beliefs of primitive man. Many of us like to think that the standards of what is acceptable in matters of belief have gone up, and that the advance of reason in history is manifest in this raising of standards. We have become fastidious and shrink from the beliefs of our distant ancestors, which strike us as absurd.
Perhaps, so as not to prejudge an important issue, one ought to say - it is the translations frequently offered of some of the beliefs of some primitive men which now seem so absurd. It may be — and some have indeed argued this — that the absurdity is located not in the original belief itself but in its translation, inspired by a failure to understand the original context. On this view, it is the modern translator, and not the savage, who is guilty of absurdity. ~ Ernest Gellner,
1048:meta-systemic operations ::: As the 1950's and 60s begin to roll around the last stage of first tier emerged as a cultural force. With the Green Altitude we see the emergence of Pluralistic, Multicultural, Post-Modern world-views.

Cognition is starting to move beyond formal-operations into the realm of co-ordinating systems of abstractions, in what is called Meta-systemic Cognition. While formal-operations acted upon the classes and relations between members of classes. Meta-systemic operations start at the level of relating systems to systems. The focus of these investigations is placed upon comparing, contrasting, transforming and synthesizing entire systems, rather than components of one system. This emergent faculty allows self-sense to focus around a heightened sense of individuality and an increased ability for emotional resonance. The recognition of individual differences, the ability to tolerate paradox and contradiction, and greater conceptual complexity all provide for an understanding of conflict as being both internally and externally caused. Context plays a major role in the creation of truth and individual perspective. With each being context dependent and open to subjective interpretation, meaning each perspective and truth are rendered relative and are not able to be judged as better or more true than any other. This fuels a value set that centers on softness over cold rationality. Sensitivity and preference over objectivity.

Along with a focus on community harmony and equality which drives the valuing of sensitivity to others, reconcilation, consensus, dialogue, relationship, human development, bonding, and a seeking of a peace with the inner-self. Moral decisions are based on rights, values, or principles that are agreeable to all individuals composing a society based on fair and beneficial practices. All of this leads to the Equality movements and multiculturalism. And to the extreme form of relativitism which we saw earlier as context dependant nature of all truth including objective facts.

Faith at the green altitude is called Conjunctive, and allows the self to integrate what was unrecognized by the previous stages self-certainty and cognitive and affective adaptation to reality. New features at this level of faith include the unification of symbolic power with conceptual meaning, an awareness of ones social unconscious, a reworking of ones past, and an opening to ones deeper self. ~ Essential Integral, 4.1-52, Meta-systemic Operations,
1049:The word “coherence” literally means holding or sticking together, but it is usually used to refer to a system, an idea, or a worldview whose parts fit together in a consistent and efficient way. Coherent things work well: A coherent worldview can explain almost anything, while an incoherent worldview is hobbled by internal contradictions. …

Whenever a system can be analyzed at multiple levels, a special kind of coherence occurs when the levels mesh and mutually interlock. We saw this cross-level coherence in the analysis of personality: If your lower-level traits match up with your coping mechanisms, which in turn are consistent with your life story, your personality is well integrated and you can get on with the business of living. When these levels do not cohere, you are likely to be torn by internal contradictions and neurotic conflicts. You might need adversity to knock yourself into alignment. And if you do achieve coherence, the moment when things come together may be one of the most profound of your life. … Finding coherence across levels feels like enlightenment, and it is crucial for answering the question of purpose within life.

People are multilevel systems in another way: We are physical objects (bodies and brains) from which minds somehow emerge; and from our minds, somehow societies and cultures form. To understand ourselves fully we must study all three levels—physical, psychological, and sociocultural. There has long been a division of academic labor: Biologists studied the brain as a physical object, psychologists studied the mind, and sociologists and anthropologists studied the socially constructed environments within which minds develop and function. But a division of labor is productive only when the tasks are coherent—when all lines of work eventually combine to make something greater than the sum of its parts. For much of the twentieth century that didn’t happen — each field ignored the others and focused on its own questions. But nowadays cross-disciplinary work is flourishing, spreading out from the middle level (psychology) along bridges (or perhaps ladders) down to the physical level (for example, the field of cognitive neuroscience) and up to the sociocultural level (for example, cultural psychology). The sciences are linking up, generating cross-level coherence, and, like magic, big new ideas are beginning to emerge.

Here is one of the most profound ideas to come from the ongoing synthesis: People gain a sense of meaning when their lives cohere across the three levels of their existence. ~ Jonathan Haidt,
1050:1. Recruit the smallest group of people who can accomplish what must be done quickly and with high quality. Comparative Advantage means that some people will be better than others at accomplishing certain tasks, so it pays to invest time and resources in recruiting the best team for the job. Don’t make that team too large, however—Communication Overhead makes each additional team member beyond a core of three to eight people a drag on performance. Small, elite teams are best. 2. Clearly communicate the desired End Result, who is responsible for what, and the current status. Everyone on the team must know the Commander’s Intent of the project, the Reason Why it’s important, and must clearly know the specific parts of the project they’re individually responsible for completing—otherwise, you’re risking Bystander Apathy. 3. Treat people with respect. Consistently using the Golden Trifecta—appreciation, courtesy, and respect—is the best way to make the individuals on your team feel Important and is also the best way to ensure that they respect you as a leader and manager. The more your team works together under mutually supportive conditions, the more Clanning will naturally occur, and the more cohesive the team will become. 4. Create an Environment where everyone can be as productive as possible, then let people do their work. The best working Environment takes full advantage of Guiding Structure—provide the best equipment and tools possible and ensure that the Environment reinforces the work the team is doing. To avoid having energy sapped by the Cognitive Switching Penalty, shield your team from as many distractions as possible, which includes nonessential bureaucracy and meetings. 5. Refrain from having unrealistic expectations regarding certainty and prediction. Create an aggressive plan to complete the project, but be aware in advance that Uncertainty and the Planning Fallacy mean your initial plan will almost certainly be incomplete or inaccurate in a few important respects. Update your plan as you go along, using what you learn along the way, and continually reapply Parkinson’s Law to find the shortest feasible path to completion that works, given the necessary Trade-offs required by the work. 6. Measure to see if what you’re doing is working—if not, try another approach. One of the primary fallacies of effective Management is that it makes learning unnecessary. This mind-set assumes your initial plan should be 100 percent perfect and followed to the letter. The exact opposite is true: effective Management means planning for learning, which requires constant adjustments along the way. Constantly Measure your performance across a small set of Key Performance Indicators (discussed later)—if what you’re doing doesn’t appear to be working, Experiment with another approach. ~ Josh Kaufman,
1051:Neoliberal economics, the logic of which is tending today to win out throughout the world thanks to international bodies like the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund and the governments to whom they, directly or indirectly, dictate their principles of ‘governance’,10 owes a certain number of its allegedly universal characteristics to the fact that it is immersed or embedded in a particular society, that is to say, rooted in a system of beliefs and values, an ethos and a moral view of the world, in short, an economic common sense, linked, as such, to the social and cognitive structures of a particular social order. It is from this particular economy that neoclassical economic theory borrows its fundamental assumptions, which it formalizes and rationalizes, thereby establishing them as the foundations of a universal model. That model rests on two postulates (which their advocates regard as proven propositions): the economy is a separate domain governed by natural and universal laws with which governments must not interfere by inappropriate intervention; the market is the optimum means for organizing production and trade efficiently and equitably in democratic societies. It is the universalization of a particular case, that of the United States of America, characterized fundamentally by the weakness of the state which, though already reduced to a bare minimum, has been further weakened by the ultra-liberal conservative revolution, giving rise as a consequence to various typical characteristics: a policy oriented towards withdrawal or abstention by the state in economic matters; the shifting into the private sector (or the contracting out) of ‘public services’ and the conversion of public goods such as health, housing, safety, education and culture – books, films, television and radio – into commercial goods and the users of those services into clients; a renunciation (linked to the reduction in the capacity to intervene in the economy) of the power to equalize opportunities and reduce inequality (which is tending to increase excessively) in the name of the old liberal ‘self-help’ tradition (a legacy of the Calvinist belief that God helps those who help themselves) and of the conservative glorification of individual responsibility (which leads, for example, to ascribing responsibility for unemployment or economic failure primarily to individuals, not to the social order, and encourages the delegation of functions of social assistance to lower levels of authority, such as the region or city); the withering away of the Hegelian–Durkheimian view of the state as a collective authority with a responsibility to act as the collective will and consciousness, and a duty to make decisions in keeping with the general interest and contribute to promoting greater solidarity. Moreover, ~ Pierre Bourdieu,
1052:Several teams of German psychologists that have studied the RAT in recent years have come up with remarkable discoveries about cognitive ease. One of the teams raised two questions: Can people feel that a triad of words has a solution before they know what the solution is? How does mood influence performance in this task? To find out, they first made some of their subjects happy and others sad, by asking them to think for several minutes about happy or sad episodes in their lives. Then they presented these subjects with a series of triads, half of them linked (such as dive, light, rocket) and half unlinked (such as dream, ball, book), and instructed them to press one of two keys very quickly to indicate their guess about whether the triad was linked. The time allowed for this guess, 2 seconds, was much too short for the actual solution to come to anyone’s mind. The first surprise is that people’s guesses are much more accurate than they would be by chance. I find this astonishing. A sense of cognitive ease is apparently generated by a very faint signal from the associative machine, which “knows” that the three words are coherent (share an association) long before the association is retrieved. The role of cognitive ease in the judgment was confirmed experimentally by another German team: manipulations that increase cognitive ease (priming, a clear font, pre-exposing words) all increase the tendency to see the words as linked. Another remarkable discovery is the powerful effect of mood on this intuitive performance. The experimenters computed an “intuition index” to measure accuracy. They found that putting the participants in a good mood before the test by having them think happy thoughts more than doubled accuracy. An even more striking result is that unhappy subjects were completely incapable of performing the intuitive task accurately; their guesses were no better than random. Mood evidently affects the operation of System 1: when we are uncomfortable and unhappy, we lose touch with our intuition. These findings add to the growing evidence that good mood, intuition, creativity, gullibility, and increased reliance on System 1 form a cluster. At the other pole, sadness, vigilance, suspicion, an analytic approach, and increased effort also go together. A happy mood loosens the control of System 2 over performance: when in a good mood, people become more intuitive and more creative but also less vigilant and more prone to logical errors. Here again, as in the mere exposure effect, the connection makes biological sense. A good mood is a signal that things are generally going well, the environment is safe, and it is all right to let one’s guard down. A bad mood indicates that things are not going very well, there may be a threat, and vigilance is required. Cognitive ease is both a cause and a consequence of a pleasant feeling. ~ Daniel Kahneman,
1053:WHY ADDICTION IS NOT A DISEASE In its present-day form, the disease model of addiction asserts that addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disease. This disease is evidenced by changes in the brain, especially alterations in the striatum, brought about by the repeated uptake of dopamine in response to drugs and other substances. But it’s also shown by changes in the prefrontal cortex, where regions responsible for cognitive control become partially disconnected from the striatum and sometimes lose a portion of their synapses as the addiction progresses. These are big changes. They can’t be brushed aside. And the disease model is the only coherent model of addiction that actually pays attention to the brain changes reported by hundreds of labs in thousands of scientific articles. It certainly explains the neurobiology of addiction better than the “choice” model and other contenders. It may also have some real clinical utility. It makes sense of the helplessness addicts feel and encourages them to expiate their guilt and shame, by validating their belief that they are unable to get better by themselves. And it seems to account for the incredible persistence of addiction, its proneness to relapse. It even demonstrates why “choice” cannot be the whole answer, because choice is governed by motivation, which is governed by dopamine, and the dopamine system is presumably diseased. Then why should we reject the disease model? The main reason is this: Every experience that is repeated enough times because of its motivational appeal will change the wiring of the striatum (and related regions) while adjusting the flow and uptake of dopamine. Yet we wouldn’t want to call the excitement we feel when visiting Paris, meeting a lover, or cheering for our favourite team a disease. Each rewarding experience builds its own network of synapses in and around the striatum (and OFC), and those networks continue to draw dopamine from its reservoir in the midbrain. That’s true of Paris, romance, football, and heroin. As we anticipate and live through these experiences, each network of synapses is strengthened and refined, so the uptake of dopamine gets more selective as rewards are identified and habits established. Prefrontal control is not usually studied when it comes to travel arrangements and football, but we know from the laboratory and from real life that attractive goals frequently override self-restraint. We know that ego fatigue and now appeal, both natural processes, reduce coordination between prefrontal control systems and the motivational core of the brain (as I’ve called it). So even though addictive habits can be more deeply entrenched than many other habits, there is no clear dividing line between addiction and the repeated pursuit of other attractive goals, either in experience or in brain function. London just doesn’t do it for you anymore. It’s got to be Paris. Good food, sex, music . . . they no longer turn your crank. But cocaine sure does. ~ Marc Lewis,
1054:Just as the availability of vast computational power drives the implementation of global surveillance, so its logic has come to dictate how we respond to it, and to other existential threats to our cognitive and physical well-being. The demand for some piece of evidence that will allow us to assert some hypothesis with 100 per cent certainty overrides our ability to act in the present. Consensus - such as the broad scientific agreement around the urgency of the climate crisis - is disregarded in the face of the smallest quantum of uncertainty. We find ourselves locked in a kind of stasis, demanding that Zeno's arrow hit the target even as the atmosphere before it warms and thickens. The insistence upon some ever-insufficient confirmation creates the deep strangeness of the present moment: everybody knows what's going on, and nobody can do anything about it.

Reliance on the computational logics of surveillance to derive truth about the world leaves us in a fundamentally precarious and paradoxical position. Computational knowing requires surveillance, because it can only produce its truth from the data available to it directly. In turn, all knowing is reduced to that which is computationally knowable, so all knowing becomes a form of surveillance. Thus computational logic denies our ability to think the situation, and to act rationally in the absence of certainty. It is also purely reactive, permitting action only after sufficient evidence has been gathered and forbidding action in the present when it is most needed.

The operation of surveillance, and our complicity in it, is one of the most fundamental characteristics of the new dark age, because it insists on a kind of blind vision: everything is illuminated, but nothing is seen. We have become convinced that throwing light upon the subject is the same thing as thinking it, and thus having agency over it. But the light of computation just as easily renders us powerless - either through information overload, or a false sense of security. It is a lie we have been sold by the seductive power of computational thinking.

Our vision is increasingly universal, but our agency is ever more reduced. We know more and more about the world, while being less and less able to do anything about it. The resulting sense of helplessness, rather than giving us pause to reconsider our assumptions, seems to be driving us deeper into paranoia and social disintegration: more surveillance, more distrust, an ever-greater insistence on the power of images and computation to rectify a situation that is produced by our unquestioning belief in their authority.

Surveillance does not work, and neither does righteous exposure. There is no final argument to be made on either side, no clinching statement that will ease our conscience and change the minds of our opponents. There is no smoking gun, no total confirmation or clear denial. The Glomar response, rather than the dead words of a heedless bureaucracy, turns out to be the truest description of the world that we can articulate. ~ James Bridle,
1055:The Divine Dance Christianity, alone among the world faiths, teaches that God is triune. The doctrine of the Trinity is that God is one being who exists eternally in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Trinity means that God is, in essence, relational. The Gospel writer John describes the Son as living from all eternity in the ‘bosom of the Father’ (John 1:18), an ancient metaphor for love and intimacy. Later in John’s Gospel, Jesus, the Son, describes the Spirit as living to ‘glorify’ him (John 16:14). In turn, the Son glorifies the Father (17:4) and the Father, the Son (17:5). This has been going on for all eternity (17:5b). What does the term ‘glorify’ mean? To glorify something or someone is to praise, enjoy and delight in them. When something is useful you are attracted to it for what it can bring you or do for you. But if it is beautiful, then you enjoy it simply for what it is. Just being in its presence is its own reward. To glorify someone is also to serve or defer to him or her. Instead of sacrificing their interests to make yourself happy, you sacrifice your interests to make them happy. Why? Your ultimate joy is to see them in joy. What does it mean, then, that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit glorify one another? If we think of it graphically, we could say that self-centredness is to be stationary, static. In self-centredness we demand that others orbit around us. We will do things and give affection to others, as long as it helps us meet our personal goals and fulfils us. The inner life of the triune God, however, is utterly different. The life of the Trinity is characterised not by self-centredness but by mutually self-giving love. When we delight and serve someone else, we enter into a dynamic orbit around him or her, we centre on the interests and desires of the other. That creates a dance, particularly if there are three persons, each of whom moves around the other two. So it is, the Bible tells us. Each of the divine persons centres upon the others. None demands that the others revolve around him. Each voluntarily circles the other two, pouring love, delight and adoration into them. Each person of the Trinity loves, adores, defers to and rejoices in the others. That creates a dynamic, pulsating dance of joy and love. The early leaders of the Greek church had a word for this – perichoresis. Notice the root of our word ‘choreography’ within it. It means literally to ‘dance or flow around’.1 The Father. . . Son . . . and Holy Spirit glorify each other. . . . At the center of the universe, self-giving love is the dynamic currency of the Trinitarian life of God. The persons within God exalt, commune with, and defer to one another. . . . When early Greek Christians spoke of perichoresis in God they meant that each divine person harbors the others at the center of his being. In constant movement of overture and acceptance each person envelops and encircles the others.2 In Christianity God is not an impersonal thing nor a static thing – not even just one person – but a dynamic pulsating activity, a life, a kind of drama, almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance. . . . [The] pattern of this three-personal life is . . . the great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality.3 The doctrine of the Trinity overloads our mental circuits. Despite its cognitive difficulty, however, this astonishing, dynamic conception of the triune God is bristling with profound, wonderful, life-shaping, world-changing implications.4 ~ Timothy J Keller,
1056:SELF-MANAGEMENT Trust We relate to one another with an assumption of positive intent. Until we are proven wrong, trusting co-workers is our default means of engagement. Freedom and accountability are two sides of the same coin. Information and decision-making All business information is open to all. Every one of us is able to handle difficult and sensitive news. We believe in collective intelligence. Nobody is as smart as everybody. Therefore all decisions will be made with the advice process. Responsibility and accountability We each have full responsibility for the organization. If we sense that something needs to happen, we have a duty to address it. It’s not acceptable to limit our concern to the remit of our roles. Everyone must be comfortable with holding others accountable to their commitments through feedback and respectful confrontation. WHOLENESS Equal worth We are all of fundamental equal worth. At the same time, our community will be richest if we let all members contribute in their distinctive way, appreciating the differences in roles, education, backgrounds, interests, skills, characters, points of view, and so on. Safe and caring workplace Any situation can be approached from fear and separation, or from love and connection. We choose love and connection. We strive to create emotionally and spiritually safe environments, where each of us can behave authentically. We honor the moods of … [love, care, recognition, gratitude, curiosity, fun, playfulness …]. We are comfortable with vocabulary like care, love, service, purpose, soul … in the workplace. Overcoming separation We aim to have a workplace where we can honor all parts of us: the cognitive, physical, emotional, and spiritual; the rational and the intuitive; the feminine and the masculine. We recognize that we are all deeply interconnected, part of a bigger whole that includes nature and all forms of life. Learning Every problem is an invitation to learn and grow. We will always be learners. We have never arrived. Failure is always a possibility if we strive boldly for our purpose. We discuss our failures openly and learn from them. Hiding or neglecting to learn from failure is unacceptable. Feedback and respectful confrontation are gifts we share to help one another grow. We focus on strengths more than weaknesses, on opportunities more than problems. Relationships and conflict It’s impossible to change other people. We can only change ourselves. We take ownership for our thoughts, beliefs, words, and actions. We don’t spread rumors. We don’t talk behind someone’s back. We resolve disagreements one-on-one and don’t drag other people into the problem. We don’t blame problems on others. When we feel like blaming, we take it as an invitation to reflect on how we might be part of the problem (and the solution). PURPOSE Collective purpose We view the organization as having a soul and purpose of its own. We try to listen in to where the organization wants to go and beware of forcing a direction onto it. Individual purpose We have a duty to ourselves and to the organization to inquire into our personal sense of calling to see if and how it resonates with the organization’s purpose. We try to imbue our roles with our souls, not our egos. Planning the future Trying to predict and control the future is futile. We make forecasts only when a specific decision requires us to do so. Everything will unfold with more grace if we stop trying to control and instead choose to simply sense and respond. Profit In the long run, there are no trade-offs between purpose and profits. If we focus on purpose, profits will follow. ~ Frederic Laloux,
1057:Why two (or whole groups) of people can come up with the same story or idea at the same time, even when across the world from each-other:
"A field is a region of influence, where a force will influence objects at a distance with nothing in between. We and our universe live in a Quantum sea of light. Scientists have found that the real currency of the universe is an exchange of energy. Life radiates light, even when grown in the dark. Creation takes place amidst a background sea of energy, which metaphysics might call the Force, and scientists call the "Field." (Officially the Zero Point Field) There is no empty space, even the darkest empty space is actually a cauldron of energies. Matter is simply concentrations of this energy (particles are just little knots of energy.) All life is energy (light) interacting. The universe is self-regenreating and eternal, constantly refreshing itself and in touch with every other part of itself instantaneously. Everything in it is giving, exchanging and interacting with energy, coming in and out of existence at every level. The self has a field of influence on the world and visa versa based on this energy.
Biology has more and more been determined a quantum process, and consciousness as well, functions at the quantum level (connected to a universe of energy that underlies and connects everything). Scientist Walter Schempp's showed that long and short term memory is stored not in our brain but in this "Field" of energy or light that pervades and creates the universe and world we live in.
A number of scientists since him would go on to argue that the brain is simply the retrieval and read-out mechanism of the ultimate storage medium - the Field. Associates from Japan would hypothesize that what we think of as memory is simply a coherent emission of signals from the "Field," and that longer memories are a structured grouping of this wave information. If this were true, it would explain why one tiny association often triggers a riot of sights, sounds and smells. It would also explain why, with long-term memory in particular, recall is instantaneous and doesn't require any scanning mechanism to sift through years and years of memory.
If they are correct, our brain is not a storage medium but a receiving mechanism in every sense, and memory is simply a distant cousin of perception.
Some scientists went as far as to suggest that all of our higher cognitive processes result from an interaction with the Field. This kind of constant interaction might account for intuition or creativity - and how ideas come to us in bursts of insight, sometimes in fragments but often as a miraculous whole. An intuitive leap might simply be a sudden coalescence of coherence in the Field.
The fact that the human body was exchanging information with a mutable field of quantum fluctuation suggested something profound about the world. It hinted at human capabilities for knowledge and communication far deeper and more extended than we presently understand. It also blurred the boundary lines of our individuality - our very sense of separateness. If living things boil down to charged particles interacting with a Field and sending out and receiving quantum information, where did we end and the rest of the world began? Where was consciousness-encased inside our bodies or out there in the Field?
Indeed, there was no more 'out there' if we and the rest of the world were so intrinsically interconnected. In ignoring the effect of the "Field" modern physicists set mankind back, by eliminating the possibility of interconnectedness and obscuring a scientific explanation for many kinds of miracles. In re-normalizing their equations (to leave this part out) what they'd been doing was a little like subtracting God. ~ Lynne McTaggart,
1058:Whites impose these rules on themselves because they know blacks, in particular, are so quick to take offense. Radio host Dennis Prager was surprised to learn that a firm that runs focus groups on radio talk shows excludes blacks from such groups. It had discovered that almost no whites are willing to disagree with a black. As soon as a black person voiced an opinion, whites agreed, whatever they really thought. When Mr. Prager asked his listening audience about this, whites called in from around the country to say they were afraid to disagree with a black person for fear of being thought racist.
Attempts at sensitivity can go wrong. In 2009, there were complaints from minority staff in the Delaware Department of Transportation about insensitive language, so the department head, Carolann Wicks, distributed a newsletter describing behavior and language she considered unacceptable. Minorities were so offended that the newsletter spelled out the words whites were not supposed to use that the department had to recall and destroy the newsletter.
The effort whites put into observing racial etiquette has been demonstrated in the laboratory. In experiments at Tufts University and Harvard Business School, a white subject was paired with a partner, and each was given 30 photographs of faces that varied by race, sex, and background color. They were then supposed to identify one of the 30 faces by asking as few yes-or-no questions as possible. Asking about race was clearly a good way to narrow down the possibilities —whites did not hesitate to use that strategy when their partner was white—but only 10 percent could bring themselves to mention race if their partner was black. They were afraid to admit that they even noticed race.
When the same experiment was done with children, even white 10- and 11-year olds avoided mentioning race, though younger children were less inhibited. Because they were afraid to identify people by race if the partner was black, older children performed worse on the test than younger children. “This result is fascinating because it shows that children as young as 10 feel the need to try to avoid appearing prejudiced, even if doing so leads them to perform poorly on a basic cognitive test,” said Kristin Pauker, a PhD candidate at Tufts who co-authored the study.
During Barack Obama’s campaign for President, Duke University sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva asked the white students in his class to raise their hands if they had a black friend on campus. All did so. At the time, blacks were about 10 percent of the student body, so for every white to have a black friend, every black must have had an average of eight or nine white friends. However, when Prof. Bonilla-Silva asked the blacks in the class if they had white friends none raised his hand. One hesitates to say the whites were lying, but there would be deep disapproval of any who admitted to having no black friends, whereas there was no pressure on blacks to claim they had white friends.
Nor is there the same pressure on blacks when they talk insultingly about whites. Claire Mack is a former mayor and city council member of San Mateo, California. In a 2006 newspaper interview, she complained that too many guests on television talk shows were “wrinkled-ass white men.” No one asked her to apologize.
Daisy Lynum, a black commissioner of the city of Orlando, Florida, angered the city’s police when she complained that a “white boy” officer had pulled her son over for a traffic stop. She refused to apologize, saying, “That is how I talk and I don’t plan to change.”
During his 2002 reelection campaign, Sharpe James, mayor of Newark, New Jersey, referred to his light-skinned black opponent as “the faggot white boy.” This caused no ripples, and a majority-black electorate returned him to office. ~ Jared Taylor,
1059:Le regole per scrivere bene (adattate da Umberto Eco)

1. Evita le allitterazioni, anche se allettano gli allocchi.

2. Non è che il congiuntivo va evitato, anzi, che lo si usa quando necessario.

3. Evita le frasi fatte: è minestra riscaldata.

4. Esprimiti siccome ti nutri.

5. Non usare sigle commerciali & abbreviazioni etc.

6. Ricorda (sempre) che la parentesi (anche quando pare indispensabile) interrompe il filo del discorso.

7. Stai attento a non fare... indigestione di puntini di sospensione.

8. Usa meno virgolette possibili: non è “fine”.

9. Non generalizzare mai.

10. Le parole straniere non fanno affatto bon ton.

11. Sii avaro di citazioni. Diceva giustamente Emerson: “Odio le citazioni. Dimmi solo quello che sai tu.”

12. I paragoni sono come le frasi fatte.

13. Non essere ridondante; non ripetere due volte la stessa cosa; ripetere è superfluo (per ridondanza s’intende la spiegazione inutile di qualcosa che il lettore ha già capito).

14. Solo gli stronzi usano parole volgari.

15. Sii sempre più o meno specifico.

16. L'iperbole è la più straordinaria delle tecniche espressive.

17. Non fare frasi di una sola parola. Eliminale.

18. Guardati dalle metafore troppo ardite: sono piume sulle scaglie di un serpente.

19. Metti, le virgole, al posto giusto.

20. Distingui tra la funzione del punto e virgola e quella dei due punti: anche se non è facile.

21. Se non trovi l’espressione italiana adatta non ricorrere mai all’espressione dialettale: peso e! tacòn del buso.

22. Non usare metafore incongruenti anche se ti paiono “cantare”: sono come un cigno che deraglia.

23. C’è davvero bisogno di domande retoriche?

24. Sii conciso, cerca di condensare i tuoi pensieri nel minor numero di parole possibile, evitando frasi lunghe — o spezzate da incisi che inevitabilmente confondono il lettore poco attento — affinché il tuo discorso non contribuisca a quell’inquinamento dell’informazione che è certamente (specie quando inutilmente farcito di precisazioni inutili, o almeno non indispensabili) una delle tragedie di questo nostro tempo dominato dal potere dei media.

25. Gli accenti non debbono essere nè scorretti nè inutili, perchè chi lo fà sbaglia.

26. Non si apostrofa un’articolo indeterminativo prima del sostantivo maschile.

27. Non essere enfatico! Sii parco con gli esclamativi!

28. Neppure i peggiori fans dei barbarismi pluralizzano i termini stranieri.

29. Scrivi in modo esatto i nomi stranieri, come Beaudelaire, Roosewelt, Niezsche, e simili.

30. Nomina direttamente autori e personaggi di cui parli, senza perifrasi. Così faceva il maggior scrittore lombardo del XIX secolo, l’autore del 5 maggio.

31. All’inizio del discorso usa la captatio benevolentiae, per ingraziarti il lettore (ma forse siete così stupidi da non capire neppure quello che vi sto dicendo).

32. Cura puntiliosamente l’ortograffia.

33. Inutile dirti quanto sono stucchevoli le preterizioni.

34. Non andare troppo sovente a capo.
Almeno, non quando non serve.

35. Non usare mai il plurale majestatis. Siamo convinti che faccia una pessima impressione.

36. Non confondere la causa con l’effetto: saresti in errore e dunque avresti sbagliato.

37. Non costruire frasi in cui la conclusione non segua logicamente dalle premesse: se tutti facessero così, allora le premesse conseguirebbero dalle conclusioni.

38. Non indulgere ad arcaismi, apax legomena o altri lessemi inusitati, nonché deep structures rizomatiche che, per quanto ti appaiano come altrettante epifanie della differanza grammatologica e inviti alla deriva decostruttiva – ma peggio ancora sarebbe se risultassero eccepibili allo scrutinio di chi legga con acribia ecdotica – eccedano comunque le competente cognitive del destinatario.

39. Non devi essere prolisso, ma neppure devi dire meno di quello che.

40. Una frase compiuta deve avere. ~ Umberto Eco,

IN CHAPTERS [29/29]



   4 Psychology
   3 Philosophy
   2 Christianity
   1 Yoga
   1 Integral Theory


   11 Sri Aurobindo
   4 Jordan Peterson


   5 The Life Divine
   4 The Synthesis Of Yoga
   4 Maps of Meaning


1.010 - Self-Control - The Alpha and Omega of Yoga, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
  The whole of yoga is self-control in one word, 'self-mastery' in the sense that the rays of the mind and the senses, the projecting powers of individuality, have to be brought back to their source in order that there may be consciousness of the cause. There cannot be a consciousness of the cause as long as the cause is not the object of consciousness, inasmuch as the latter is involved in the externalised activity of the mind and the senses. We cannot know an object unless the consciousness follows this cognitive act and enlivens the senses, activates them towards the object which is seen, cognised or perceived by them. On account of this engagement of consciousness through the mind and the senses in respect of objects outside and in all acts of perception and cognition, it finds no time to revert to its cause. We have no time. The consciousness cannot find time to become aware of its own background, inasmuch as it is heavily engaged and is very busy throughout the day and the night in attending to the needs of the mind and the senses in their activity of projection externally to objects. So, to become aware of the cause would be to enable the consciousness to revert itself in that direction inwardly for which purpose it has to be withdrawn, tentatively at least, in an appreciable measure, from its engagement in objective perception through the mind and the senses.
  All perceptions are, therefore, engagements of consciousness, which prevents it from knowing its own background and conditions of action, so that when we are busily engaged in the perceptions and cognitions through the mind and the senses, we cannot know our own background, and we look helpless. The necessity for self-control arises merely because of the fact that the object of our quest is inherently present in the very act of our individual experience, and it cannot be observed by the ordinary means of an academic character or a scientific nature. Here we need no instruments, no types of apparatus either for observation or knowledge, because the object here is the background of our own self. There are causes behind causes, extending one behind the other, and lying one behind the other in larger and larger expansiveness one implying the other, and one inclusive of the other. The causes that are precedent are inclusive of the causes that are succeeding, so that when we go higher up we do not lose anything that is lower, but get everything that is lower in a refined form by transcendence.
  --
  Previously we were touching upon the nature of perceptions of objects, and these were explained as the reasons behind our attachments and aversions, our love of individual physical life and dread of death, etc. It was also discovered that self-affirmation or egoism becomes a necessary link, an intermediary between the external acts of cognition, perception, attachment, aversion etc., and the ultimate cause of the appearance of this phenomenon, of which we have no knowledge. This phenomenon was explained also as having been caused by a vast multiple manifestation of the Ultimate Reality in the form of what we may call 'located individuals', as if one is not connected with the other, so that each individual which was originally an inseparable part of the Ultimate Truth or Reality, enjoying the status of pure selfhood or subjectivity got distorted into an object of the cognitive act and perceptive action of the senses, so that it is possible to regard any person and any object in this world either as a subject from its own point of view, or as an object from another's point of view. It is this peculiar double character, or dual role, of persons and things in this world that has made life difficult. Which is the correct attitude: to regard things as subjects, or regard them as objects? Well, the correct attitude would be to regard everything as it ought to be regarded from the point of view of what it really is.
  Can we look upon anything, any person, any object for the matter of that, as something which is to be utilised as a kind of instrument in perception or cognition, or has it a status of its own? What we mean by a status of one's own is a capacity to exist by oneself, independent of external relations and dependence on others; this is the nature of subjectivity. Everyone, you and I included, has a status of one's own. It is this status that gets distorted later on into what they call egoism, pride, etc., what is called ijjat in Hindi a kind of stupid form which it has taken, though originally it was a spiritual status. Our status as pure subjects is incapable of objectification, and it is not intended to be used as a tool for another's activity or satisfaction. It is not in the nature of things to subject themselves into objects as vehicles of action and satisfaction for somebody else, because every individual, judged from its own real status, enjoys subjectivity. It is an end in itself, and not a means.

1.01 - Who is Tara, #How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator, #Thubten Chodron, #unset
  attachment, and the karma that causes cyclic existence and cognitive obscurations the subtle stains or predispositions of afictions on the mind and
  the appearance of inherent existence that they cause. Any Buddha has totally

1.02 - MAPS OF MEANING - THREE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
  compelling body of evidence suggests that our affective, cognitive and behavioral responses to the
  unknown or unpredictable are hardwired; suggests that these responses constitute inborn structural
  --
  contrast them against the present that makes human beings capable of using their cognitive systems to
  modulate their affective reactions. 28
  --
  and cognitive resources you can muster. You are generating hypotheses about the potential cause of the
  noise even before you turn. Has a van jumped the kerb? The image flashes through your mind. Has
  --
  situation. This cognitive frame of reference acts as the intermediary between past learning, present
  experience, and future desire. This intermediary is a valid object of scientific exploration a phenomenon
  --
  demanding of cognitive resources than attempts to understand the details of a given reinforcement
  history.
  --
  We normally use our conceptions of cognitive processes to illuminate the working of the brain
  (normally use our models of thought to determine what must be the case physiologically). However,
  --
  One may summarize the cognitive conditions that evoke the N2/P3 as being the presentation of stimuli
  that are novel or that are signals for behavioral tasks, and thus need to be attended to, and processed.
  --
  state. This capability for awe, this desire to copy, often serves to impel further psychological and cognitive
  development. The worshipful attitude that small boys adopt towards their heroes, for example, constitutes
  --
  established, its structure can rapidly become described and codified (presuming sufficient cognitive ability
  and level of maturation). This process can in fact be observed during the spontaneous construction (and
  --
  (thought). This interactive loop and its putative relationship to underlying cognitive/memory structures
   is represented schematically in Figure 13: Abstraction of Wisdom, and the Relationship of Such
  --
  implies that most consummatory rewards will simultaneously possess an incentive aspect). The cognitive
  operations dependent upon the intact prefrontal cortex can move up and down these levels, so to speak,
  --
  with minimal cognitive effort 196. I dont know what drives the mechanism that determines the appropriate
  level of analysis. Elements of probability and predictability must play a role. It is, after all, increasingly
  --
  at all possible levels of analysis, simultaneously. This would constitute an impossible cognitive burden. It
  seems that the cortex must temporarily fixate at a chosen level, and then act as if that is the only
  --
  been described (recently) as the cognitive model. cognitive models are characterized by a number of
  interesting and distinctive properties (as paraphrased, in part, from George Lakoff201):
  --
  in description. Two things classified within the same cognitive model are two things that evoke the same
  behavior, and can therefore be regarded, at least from the perspective of action, as one thing. If you are
  utilizing a cognitive model, and someone asks you to describe its content (What makes a dog?) you
  might say, I cant say, but I know one when I see one. You know that a dog is, for example, something
  --
  properties of the objects in a cognitive model means that any or all of those objects can stand for any or
  all of the others. This capacity makes sense, since all of the objects in a given category are by definition
  --
  for metonymic reasoning, and the use of richly meaningful cognitive models.
  4) They are characterized by membership and centrality gradience. Membership gradience implies
  --
  later in this manuscript arises when the relationship of objects within a particular cognitive model is
  analogous in some sense to the relationship that obtains between cognitive models. Great works of
  literature are always polysemic, in this manner: the characters within the story stand in the same
  --
  to what might normally be considered higher cognitive processing. The nervous system responds to
  irregular change, and eliminates regularity. There is limited information, positive and negative, in the
  --
  capable of inducing cognitive and behavioral possession, impossible to incorporate into the domain of
  normal, culturally-established being. Figure 33: The Spontaneous Personification of Unexplored
  --
  (episodic or semantic) cognitive systems become activated that goals become explicitly imagined (and
  that they can be considered, abstractly, before their enaction). So this means that it is possible to act in a

1.03 - APPRENTICESHIP AND ENCULTURATION - ADOPTION OF A SHARED MAP, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
  course of socially-mediated human cognitive evolution. Nonetheless even at the present it is very
  difficult to determine and explicitly state just what virtuous behavior consists of; to describe, with accuracy,

1.04 - THE APPEARANCE OF ANOMALY - CHALLENGE TO THE SHARED MAP, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
  A paradigm is a complex cognitive tool, whose use presupposes acceptance of a limited number of
  axioms (or definitions of what constitutes reality, for the purposes of argument and action), whose
  --
  memory, and then coded explicitly insofar as current cognitive development makes that possible. The
  explicit moral code is therefore predicated upon presumptions which are valid purely from the episodic
  --
  anomalies perhaps because a substantial amount of negative emotion and abstract cognitive consideration
  can be elicited merely through positing their possibility (what if we were threatened by the foreign
  --
  emotionally upsetting and cognitively challenging that the murder of the anomalous other in the
  morally-acceptable guise of war frequently seems a comforting alternative.
  --
  describes characterized all cognitive revolutions, including those that take place in the universe of (normal)
  morality:
  --
  and cognitive chaos. It is much more likely, in consequence, that a foreign viewpoint will appear evil, or
  will come to be defined as such, with passage of time (especially during times rendered unstable
  --
  capable of resonating, so to speak, down the cognitive chain to procedure itself. Likewise, alterations in
  procedure are (and should be) capable of producing profound effects upon episodic and semantic
  --
  European cognitive process, had the capacity to undermine the most fundamental presuppositions of
  Russian culture (as it had undermined those of the West):
  --
  granted technological and cognitive artifacts by the individuals within that society. What is desired depends
  upon the goal towards which a given society moves. The goal is posited as valuable, initially, as a
  --
  The goal towards which behavior is devoted serves as one pole of the cognitive schema which
  determines the motivational significance of events. Members of the same culture share the same goal. This
  --
  Perhaps it was necessary for science, struggling to escape from a cognitive world dominated by religious
  and mythical thinking, to devalue that world, in order to set up an independent existence. That existence
  --
  The shamanic process of transformation appears as the means by which cognitive systems are
  updated, when necessary; the affect that is released, during the process, is necessarily part of the
  --
  Our great transpersonal cognitive power, however, has not yet rescued us from the valley of the shadow
  of death.
  --
  with the creator of things. From this viewpoint, cognitive transformations alter the structure of existence as
  such; transform the very relationship between heaven and earth, creator and created; permanently alter the
  --
  our elaborate cognitive systems: worse (better) we can see mortal danger in everything unknown. This
  makes us anxious, certainly but also (if we dont run away) awake. The serpent of the external

1.05 - THE HOSTILE BROTHERS - ARCHETYPES OF RESPONSE TO THE UNKNOWN, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
  than in light of his cognitive abilities, or his place in nature. The essence of this spirit identified with God
  is the eternal capacity to create and to transform. Niebuhr observes that
  --
  transitions in cognitive ability of this magnitude; generation akin to that accompanying the insight
  phenomena typical of creative (or psycho therapeutic) endeavor. This might be considered a consequence of
  --
  consciousnesses, emerging in a qualitative shift of cognitive sophistication, in the intrapsychic activity of a
  mythologized cultural hero, whose actions are identified by the story with heavenly attri butes, to signify
  --
  Piaget associates morality of constraint with an earlier level of cognitive development a level that
  nonetheless serves as a necessary precondition for further development. Piaget states: For very young
  --
  (and little recognition of original source), in the fields of cognitive neuroscience and social psychology.
  The boxing and filing away of Jung is one-sided because experimental procedure constitutes, at best, one
  --
  Beck, A. (1979). cognitive therapy of depression. New York: Guilford Press.
  Becker, E. (1973). The denial of death. New York: The Free Press.
  --
  Goldberg, E., Podell, K., and Lovell, M. (1994). Lateralization of frontal lobe functions and cognitive
  novelty. Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 6, 371-378.
  --
  Grossberg, S. (1987). Competitive learning: From interactive activation to adaptive resonance. cognitive
  Science, 11, 23-63.
  --
  disorder. cognitive Therapy and Research, 20, 625-635.
  Nauta, W.J.H. (1971). The problem of the frontal lobe: A reinterpretation. Psychiatry Research, 8, 167-187.
  --
  Piaget, J. (1977). The development of thought: Equilibration of cognitive structures (A . Rosin, Trans.).
  New York: Viking.
  --
  for a cognitive theory of defensive behavior. In R.J. Blanchard, P.F. Brain, D.C. Blanchard, & S.
  Parmigiani. (Eds.), Ethoexperimental approaches to the study of behavior (pp. 137-155). Boston:
  --
  categories. cognitive Psychology, 8, 382-439.
  Russell, J.B. (1986). Mephistopheles: The devil in the modern world. London: Cornell University Press.
  --
  sensorimotor, cognitive, and visuospatial gating. Biological Psychiatry, 37, 286-299.
  Tchelitchew, P. (1992). Hide and seek. Scientific American, 267, 49.
  --
  circumscribed by defined, logic, internally-consistent cognitive structures. From such a perspective, meaningful
  experiences might be considered guideposts marking the path to a new mode of being. Any form of art that produces
  --
  Persons suffering from schizophrenia, once again, or characterized by related cognitive abnormalities [Swerdlow, N.R,
  Filion, D., Geyer, M.A., & Braff, D.L. (1995).] manifest decreased PPI indicating, perhaps, that they cannot
  --
  producing behavioural and cognitive patterns foreign to those afflicted (and to those concerned with the afflicted)
  [Rapoport, J. (1989)].
  --
  Epileptic seizures, often accompanied by strange perceptual, emotional and cognitive changes, run the gamut from
  awe-inspiring and holy to demonic and terrifying [see Ervin, F. & Smith, M. (1986)]. The discussion presented in this

1.06 - Man in the Universe, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  18:We have seen that the Non-Being beyond may well be an inconceivable existence and perhaps an ineffable Bliss. At least the Nirvana of Buddhism which formulated one most luminous effort of man to reach and to rest in this highest Non-Existence, represents itself in the psychology of the liberated yet upon earth as an unspeakable peace and gladness; its practical effect is the extinction of all suffering through the disappearance of all egoistic idea or sensation and the nearest we can get to a positive conception of it is that it is some inexpressible Beatitude (if the name or any name can be applied to a peace so void of contents) into which even the notion of self-existence seems to be swallowed up and disappear. It is a Sachchidananda to which we dare no longer apply even the supreme terms of Sat, of Chit and of Ananda. For all terms are annulled and all cognitive experience is overpassed.
  19:On the other hand, we have hazarded the suggestion that since all is one Reality, this inferior negation also, this other contradiction or non-existence of Sachchidananda is none other than Sachchidananda itself. It is capable of being conceived by the intellect, perceived in the vision, even received through the sensations as verily that which it seems to deny, and such would it always be to our conscious experience if things were not falsified by some great fundamental error, some possessing and compelling Ignorance, Maya or Avidya. In this sense a solution might be sought, not perhaps a satisfying metaphysical solution for the logical mind, - for we are standing on the border-line of the unknowable, the ineffable and straining our eyes beyond, - but a sufficient basis in experience for the practice of the divine life.

1.07 - The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, #Sex Ecology Spirituality, #Ken Wilber, #Philosophy
  Numerous psychologists (Bruner, Flavell, Arieti, Cowan, Kramer, Commons, Basseches, Arlin, etc.) have pointed out that there is much evidence for a stage beyond Piaget's formal operational. It has been called "dialectical," "integrative," "creative synthetic," "integral-aperspectival," "postformal," and so forth. I, of course, am using the terms vision-logic or network-logic. But the conclusions are all essentially the same: "Piaget's formal operational is considered to be a problem-solving stage. But beyond this stage are the truly creative scientists and thinkers who define important problems and ask important questions. While Piaget's formal model is adequate to describe the cognitive structures of adolescents and competent adults, it is not adequate to describe the towering intellect of Nobel laureates, great statesmen and stateswomen, poets, and so on."5 True enough. But I would like to give a different emphasis to this structure, for while very few people might actually gain the "towering status of a Nobel laureate," the space of vision-logic (its worldspace or worldview) is available for any who wish to continue their growth and development. In other words, to progress through the various stages of growth does not mean that one has to extraordinarily master each and every stage, and demonstrate a genius comprehension at that stage before one can progress beyond it. This would be like saying that no individuals can move beyond the oral stage until they become gourmet cooks.
  It is not even necessary to be able to articulate the characteristics of a particular stage (children progress beyond preop without ever being able to define it). It is merely necessary to develop an adequate competence at that stage, in order for it to serve just fine as a platform for the transcendence to the next stage. In order to transcend the verbal, it is not necessary to first become Shakespeare.
  --
  As usual, this new centauric stage possesses not just a new cognitive capacity (vision-logic)-it also involves a new sense of identity (centauric), with new desires, new drives, new needs, new perceptions, new terrors, and new pathologies: it is a new and higher self in a new and wider world of others. And Broughton has very carefully mapped out the developmental stages of self and knowing that lead up to this new centauric mode of being-in-the-world.7
  To simplify considerably, Broughton asked individuals from preschool age to early adulthood: what or where is your self?
  --
  There is, of course, one proviso: the experimenter must, in his or her own case, have developed the requisite cognitive tools. If, for example, we want to investigate concrete operational thought, a community of those who have only developed to the preoperational level will not do. If you take a preop child, and in front of the child pour the water from a short fat glass into a tall thin glass, the child will tell you that the tall glass has more water. If you say, no, there is the same amount of water in both glasses, because you just saw me pour the same water from one glass to the other, the child will have no idea what you're talking about. "No, the tall glass has more water." No matter how many times you pour the water back and forth between the two glasses, the child will deny they have the same amount of water. (Interestingly, if you videotape the child at this stage, and then wait a few years until the child has developed conop-at which point it will seem utterly obvious to him that the glasses have the same amount of water-and then show the child the earlier videotape, he will deny that it's him. He thinks you've doctored the videotape; he cannot imagine anybody being that stupid.) The preop child is immersed in a world that includes conop realities, is drenched in those realities, and yet cannot "see" them: they are all "otherworldly."
  At every stage of development, in fact, the next higher stage always appears to be a completely "other world," an "invisible world"-it has literally no existence for the individual, even though the individual is in fact saturated with a reality that contains the "other" world. The individual's "this-worldly" existence simply cannot comprehend the "otherworldly" characteristics lying all around it.
  --
  But one must be adequate to the experience, or it remains an invisible other world. When the yogis and sages and contemplatives make a statement like, "The entire world is a manifestation of one Self," that is not a merely rational statement that we are to think about and see if it makes logical sense. It is rather a description, often poetic, of a direct apprehension or a direct experience, and we are to test this direct experience, not by mulling it over philosophically, but by taking up the experimental method of contemplative awareness, developing the requisite cognitive tools, and then directly looking for ourselves.
  As Emerson put it, "What we are, that only can we see."
  --
  Rather, these worldspaces are disclosed/created by cognitive transformations in the context of background injunctions or social practices.19
  Put simply, the first strand of knowledge accumulation is never simply "Look"; it is "Do this, then look." Kuhn, in one of the great misunderstood concepts of our era, pointed out that normal science proceeds by way of exemplary injunctions-that is, shared practices and methods that scientists agree disclose and address the important issues of their field. Kuhn called such an agreed-upon injunction an "exemplar" or a "paradigm"-an exemplary practice or technique or methodology that all agreed was central to furthering the knowledge quest. And it was the paradigm, the exemplary injunction, that disclosed a type of data, so that the paradigm itself was a matter of consensus, not merely correspondence.
  --
  Once one masters the exemplar or the paradigmatic practice (strand one), then one is ushered into a worldspace in which new data disclose themselves (strand two). These are direct apprehensions or illuminations-in a word, direct spiritual experiences (unio mystica, satori, kensho, shaktipat, nada, shabd, etc.). These data are rigorously checked (strand three) in the community of those who have also completed the first two strands (injunction and illumination). Bad data are rebuffed by the community (the sangha) of those whose cognitive eyes are adequate to the addressed domain.
  Thus, as I covered in more detail in Eye to Eye, au thentic knowledge has a component that is similar to Kuhn's paradigm (namely, the injunction), a component that is similar to the broad empirical demand for evidence or data or experience (namely, the illumination or apprehension, whether that be from sensory experience, mental experience, or spiritual experience), and a component similar to Sir Karl Popper's fallibilistic criterion (namely, the potential confirmation or refutation by a community of the adequate).

1.10 - GRACE AND FREE WILL, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
  St. Bernard distinguishes between voluntas communis and voluntas propria. Voluntas communis is common in two senses; it is the will to share, and it is the will common to man and God. For practical purposes it is equivalent to charity. Voluntas propria is the will to get and hold for oneself, and is the root of all sin. In its cognitive aspect, voluntas propria is the same as sensum proprium, which is ones own opinion, cherished because it is ones own and therefore always morally wrong, even though it may be theoretically correct.
  Two students from the University of Paris came to visil Ruysbroeck and asked him to furnish them with a short phrase or motto, which might serve them as a rule of life.

1.1.2 - Commentary, #Kena and Other Upanishads, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  rational basis for this theory of a cognitive faculty or principle
  superior to Mind. We may say indeed that if we grant a divine
  --
  The Upanishad asserts about this supreme cognitive principle, first, that it is beyond the reach of mind and the senses;
  secondly, that it does not itself think with the mind; thirdly,
  --
  This supreme cognitive Principle does not think by the mind.
  Mind is to it an inferior and secondary action, not its own
  --
  We see, then, that these two cognitive Principles start from
  two opposite poles and act in opposite directions by opposite
  methods. Yet it is by the higher cognitive that the lower is formed
  and governed. Mind is thought by that which is beyond Mind;

1.A - ANTHROPOLOGY, THE SOUL, #Philosophy of Mind, #unset, #Zen
   387 Mind, on the ideal stage of its development, is mind as cognitive. Cognition, however, being taken here not as a merely logical category of the Idea ( 223), but in the sense appropriate to the concrete mind.
  Subjective mind is:

2.06 - Reality and the Cosmic Illusion, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Something that is behind the world shown to us by our mind and senses. Our cognitive action of thought, our action of life and being seem to overlay the truth, the reality; they grasp the finite but not the infinite, they deal with the temporal and not the eternal Real. It is reasoned that this is so because all action, all creation, all determining perception limits; it does not embrace or grasp the Reality, and its constructions disappear when we enter into the indivisible and indeterminable consciousness of the Real: these constructions are unreal in eternity, however real they may seem or be in Time. Action leads to ignorance, to the created and finite; kinesis and creation are a contradiction of the immutable Reality, the pure uncreated Existence. But this reasoning is not wholly valid because it is looking at perception and action only as they are in our mental cognition of the world and its movement; but that is the experience of our surface being regarding things from its shifting motion in Time, a regard itself superficial, fragmentary and delimited, not total, not plunging into the inner sense of things. In fact we find that action need not bind or limit, if we get out of this moment-cognition into a status of cognition of the eternal proper to the true consciousness.
  Action does not bind or limit the liberated man; action does not bind or limit the Eternal: but we can go farther and say that action does not bind or limit our own true being at all. Action has no such effect on the spiritual Person or Purusha or on the psychic entity within us, it binds or limits only the surface constructed personality. This personality is a temporary expression of our self-being, a changing form of it, empowered to exist by it, dependent on it for substance and endurance, - temporary, but not unreal. Our thought and action are means for this expression of ourselves and, as the expression is incomplete and evolutive, as it is a development of our natural being in Time, thought
  --
  All turns round the question "What is Reality?" Our cognitive consciousness is limited, ignorant, finite; our conceptions of reality depend on our way of contact with existence in this limited consciousness and may be very different from the way in which an original and ultimate Consciousness sees it. It is necessary to distinguish between the essential Reality, the phenomenal reality dependent upon it and arising out of it, and the restricted and often misleading experience or notion of either that is created by our sense-experience and our reason. To our sense the earth is flat and, for most immediate practical purposes, within a limit, we have to follow the sense reality and deal with the flatness as if it were a fact; but in true phenomenal reality the flatness of the earth is unreal, and Science seeking for the truth of the phenomenal reality in things has to treat it as approximately round. In a host of details Science contradicts the evidence of the senses as to the real truth of phenomena; but, still, we have to accept the cadre provided by our senses because the practical relations with things which they impose on us have validity as an effect of reality and cannot be disregarded. Our reason, relying on the senses and exceeding them, constructs its own canons or notions of the real and unreal, but these canons vary according to the standpoint taken by the reasoning observer. The physical scientist probing into phenomena erects formulas and standards based on the objective and phenomenal reality and its processes: to his view mind may appear as a subjective result of
  Matter and self and spirit as unreal; at any rate he has to act as if matter and energy alone existed and mind were only an observer of an independent physical reality which is unaffected

2.06 - Works Devotion and Knowledge, #Essays On The Gita, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  This integral turning of the soul Godwards bases royally the Gita's synthesis of knowledge and works and devotion. To know God thus integrally is to know him as One in the self and in all manifestation and beyond all manifestation, - and all this unitedly and at once. And yet even so to know him is not enough unless it is accompanied by an intense uplifting of the heart and soul Godwards, unless it kindles a one-pointed and at the same time all-embracing love, adoration, aspiration. Indeed the knowledge which is not companioned by an aspiration and vivified by an uplifting is no true knowledge, for it can be only an intellectual seeing and a barren cognitive endeavour. The vision of God brings infallibly the adoration and passionate seeking of the Divine, - a passion for the Divine in his self-existent being, but also for the Divine in ourselves and for the Divine in all that is. To know with the intellect is simply to understand and may be an effective starting-point, - or, too, it may not be, and it will not be if there is no sincerity in the knowledge, no urge towards inner realisation in the will, no power upon the soul, no call in the spirit: for that would mean that the brain has
  Works, Devotion and Knowledge

2.10 - Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
   is a knowledge by direct contact associated at its roots with a secret knowledge by identity or starting from it, but actually separated from its source and therefore powerful but incomplete in its cognition; the third is a knowledge by separation from the object of observation, but still with a direct contact as its support or even a partial identity; the fourth is a completely separative knowledge which relies on a machinery of indirect contact, a knowledge by acquisition which is yet, without being conscious of it, a rendering or bringing up of the contents of a pre-existent inner awareness and knowledge. A knowledge by identity, a knowledge by intimate direct contact, a knowledge by separative direct contact, a wholly separative knowledge by indirect contact are the four cognitive methods of Nature.
  The first way of knowing in its purest form is illustrated in the surface mind only by our direct awareness of our own essential existence: it is a knowledge empty of any other content than the pure fact of self and being; of nothing else in the world has our surface mind the same kind of awareness. But in the knowledge of the structure and movements of our subjective consciousness some element of awareness by identity does enter; for we can project ourselves with a certain identification into these movements. It has already been noted how this can happen in the case of an uprush of wrath which swallows us up so that for the moment our whole consciousness seems to be a wave of anger: other passions, love, grief, joy have the same power to seize and occupy us; thought also absorbs and occupies, we lose sight of the thinker and become the thought and the thinking. But very ordinarily there is a double movement; a part of ourselves becomes the thought or the passion, another part of us either accompanies it with a certain adherence or follows it closely and knows it by an intimate direct contact which falls short of identification or entire self-oblivion in the movement.

2.26 - The Ascent towards Supermind, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  The Illumined Mind does not work primarily by thought, but by vision; thought is here only a subordinate movement expressive of sight. The human mind, which relies mainly on thought, conceives that to be the highest or the main process of knowledge, but in the spiritual order thought is a secondary and a not indispensable process. In its form of verbal thought, it can almost be described as a concession made by Knowledge to the Ignorance, because that Ignorance is incapable of making truth wholly lucid and intelligible to itself in all its extent and manifold implications except through the clarifying precision of significant sounds; it cannot do without this device to give to ideas an exact outline and an expressive body. But it is evident that this is a device, a machinery; thought in itself, in its origin on the higher levels of consciousness, is a perception, a cognitive seizing of the object or of some truth of things which is a powerful but still a minor and secondary result of spiritual vision, a comparatively external and superficial regard of the self upon the self, the subject upon itself or something of itself as object for all there is a diversity and multiplicity of the self.
  In mind there is a surface response of perception to the contact of an observed or discovered object, fact or truth and a consequent conceptual formulation of it; but in the spiritual light there is a deeper perceptive response from the very substance of consciousness and a comprehending formulation in that substance, an exact figure or revelatory ideograph in the stuff of the being, - nothing more, no verbal representation is needed for the precision and completeness of this thought knowledge.

2.28 - The Divine Life, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  50: A new power and powers of consciousness would be, then, an inevitable consequence of an evolution of Consciousness-Force passing beyond mind to a superior cognitive and dynamic principle. In their essential nature these new powers must have the character of a control of mind over life and matter, of the conscious life-will and life-force over matter, of the spirit over mind, life and matter; they would have the character also of a breaking down of the barriers between soul and soul, mind and mind, life and life: such a change would be indispensable for the instrumentation of the gnostic life. For a total gnostic or divine living would include not only the individual life of the being but the life of others made one with the individual in a common uniting consciousness. Such a life must have for its main constituting power a spontaneous and innate, not a constructed, unity and harmony; this can only come by a greater identity of being and consciousness between individual and individual unified in their spiritual substance, feeling themselves to be self and self of one self-existence, acting in a greater unitarian force of knowledge, a greater power of the being. There must be an inner and direct mutual knowledge based upon a consciousness of oneness and identity, a consciousness of each other's being, thought, feeling, inner and outer movements, a conscious communication of mind with mind, of heart with heart, a conscious impact of life upon life, a conscious interchange of forces of being with forces of being; in any absence or deficiency of these powers and their intimate light there could not be a real or complete unity or a real and complete natural fitting of each individual's being, thought, feeling, inner and outer movements with those of the individuals around him. A growing basis and structure of conscious unanimism, we might say, would be the character of this more evolved life.
  51: Harmony is the natural rule of the spirit, it is the inherent law and spontaneous consequence of unity in multiplicity, of unity in diversity, of a various manifestation of oneness. In a pure and blank unity there could be indeed no place for harmony, for there is nothing to harmonise; in a complete or a governing diversity there must be either discord or a fitting together of differences, a constructed harmony. But in a gnostic unity in multiplicity the harmony would be there as a spontaneous expression of the unity, and this spontaneous expression presupposes a mutuality of consciousness aware of other consciousness by a direct inner contact and interchange. In infrarational life harmony is secured by an instinctive oneness of nature and oneness of the action of the nature, an instinctive communication, an instinctive or direct vital-intuitional sense-understanding by which the individuals of an animal or insect community are able to co-operate. In human life this is replaced by understanding through sense-knowledge and mental perception and communication of ideas by speech, but the means that have to be used are imperfect and the harmony and co-operation incomplete. In a gnostic life, a life of superreason and supernature, a self-aware spiritual unity of being and a spiritual conscious community and interchange of nature would be the deep and ample root of understanding: this greater life would have evolved new and superior means and powers of uniting consciousness inwardly with consciousness; intimacy of consciousness communicating inwardly and directly with consciousness, thought with thought, vision with vision, sense with sense, life with life, body-awareness with body-awareness, would be its natural basic instrumentation. All these new powers taking up the old outward instruments and using them as a subordinate means with a far greater power and to more purpose would be put to the service of the self-expression of the spirit in a profound oneness of being and life.

3-5 Full Circle, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  The generalist's input comes from his field too; but that consists of all the sciences--physical, biological, and psycho-socio-political, Systems-hierarchically organized; and all the humanities--the arts, philosophy, and religion--similarly organized; together with the tactics and strategy of decision-making and execution, of practical leadership, currently called management. The latter has been treated in Plain Truth--And Redirection of the Cold War.23 The humanities will be dealt with to a considerable extent in Chapter V. Let us therefore confine ourselves here to the generalist's cognitive aspect, Unified Science.
  The generalist's cognitive controller, which Thomas Kuhn calls his system of paradigms, organizes his many diverse-appearing kinds of data by means of a single background theory. It maps them coherently into his central paradigm, the Periodic coordinate system. The result is Unified Science.--His output goes to all the sciences and is, ex hypothesi, acceptable to them all. We have tested this model for several years in two colleges, two pilot plants, and found it to work as intended. (See Jere Clark's Chapter III.)
  FIGURE IV-12 The Generalist and organized specialist: assemblable products of the New University.
  --
  There is now much evidence, originating in the work of Piaget (1960) and substantiated in numerous experiments by other child psychologists both here and abroad (for reviews see Flavell, 1963; Kohlberg, 1968; and Phillips, 1969), that individual cognitive development proceeds by distinct, qualitatively different stages in children's modes of thinking and problem solving at different ages. Piaget and others have demonstrated that children's thinking is not just a watered-down or inferior approximation to adult thinking; it is radically and qualitatively different. The stages of mental development form an invariant sequence or succession of individual development. Each stage of cognitive development is a structured whole; mental development does not consist of the mere accretion of specific stimulus-response associations. cognitive stages are hierarchically integrated; higher stages reintegrate the cognitive structures found at lower stages. Also, as Kohlberg (1968, p. 1021) points out "...there is a hierarchical preference within the individual...to prefer a solution of a problem at the highest level available to him." In reviewing the experimental literature on children's learning, Sheldon White (1965) has amassed evidence for two broad stages of mental development, which he labels associative and cognitive. The transition from one to the other occurs for the vast majority of children between five and seven years of age. In the simplest terms, these stages correspond to concrete-associative thinking and abstract-conceptual thinking. The latter does not displace the former in the course of the child's mental development; in older children and adults the two modes co-exist as hierarchical layers.
  Ontogeny of Human Mental Abilities.
  --
  Social classes as defined largely in terms of educational and occupational status are subject to differential selection for mental abilities. Since these have genetic as well as environmental components, they are transmitted to the offspring, and because of a high degree of assortative mating for mental traits in Western cultures, the gene pools for difFerent social classes will differ in the genetic factors related to ability. The evidence for phenotypic mental ability differences among social classes, along with evidence for genotypic differences, has been reviewed extensively elsewhere (Eckland, 1967; Jensen, 1970). It is now generally accepted by geneticists, psychologists, and sociologists who have reviewed the evidence that social class differences in mental abilities have a substantial genetic component. This genetic component should be expected to increase in an open society that permits and encourages social mobility. Phenotypically, of course, social class differences in patterns of mental ability are firmly established. Jensen (1968) has found that lower-class and middle-class population samples differ much less in abilities that are lower in the ontogenetic hierarchy, such as associative learning and memory span, than in higher cognitive abilities, such as conceptual learning and abstract reasoning. A different pattern of correlations between lower and higher abilities also is found in lower-class and middle-class groups, implying a hierarchical relationship among abilities, such that lower-level abilities are necessary-but-not-sufficient for the development or utilization of higher-level abilities.1
  Scientific knowledge concerning the genetic aspect of ability differences among racial groups, having been generally shunned as a subject of scientific study in modern genetics and psychology, is far more ambiguous and more in dispute than social class differences. The uncertainty in this area will be reduced only through further appropriate research using the most advanced techniques of behavior-genetic analysis. Phenotypically, racial differences in abilities are well established, both with respect to overall average level of performance and to the pattern of relative strengths of various abilities (e.g. Lesser, Fifer, and Clark, 1965). Both social class and racial (Caucasian, Negro, and Oriental) differences have been found in rates of cognitive development as assessed by Piagetian test procedures, such as ability to grasp concepts of conservation of number, quantity, and volume (Tuddenham, 1968): Some indication of the role of genetic factors in the Piagetian indices of levels of cognitive development is shown in a study of Australian aboriginal children, the majority of whom, if full-blooded aborigines, do not show ability for grasping the concepts of conservation of quantity, weight, volume, number, and area, even by the time they have reached adolescence, while the majority of Caucasian children attain this level of mental development by seven years of age. However, aboriginal children having (on the average genetically) one Caucasian grandparent, but reared in the same circumstances as the full-blooded aborigines, performed significantly better (i.e. showed higher levels of cognitive development) than the full-blooded aborigines (De Lemos, 1966).
  Personality Correlates of Ability.
  --
  Kohlberg, L., "Early education: A cognitive-developmental view." Child Development, 1968, 39, 1013-1062.
  Lesser, G. S., Fifer, G. and Clark, D. H., "Mental abilities of children from different social-class and cultural groups." Monogr. Soc. for Res. in Child Development, 1965, 30 (4).
  --
  The Periodic Law is so constructed that only after vast knowledge of some given kind of system's properties (say the atoms') has been amassed, can it be seen that they are a function of anything, let alone of such an elusive, subtle thing as coaction, the moral relation between the system's work component and controller.--Because of this necessary sequence of events, even the finest human beings--which almost all the scientists I know most surely are--have first to become "giants" of cognitive intellect (Lower Industrialists) while long remaining moral "dwarfs"; that is, without scientific moral orientation.
  It was Mendeleev's completion of the Periodic Law a century ago in chemistry (and only Mendeleev intuited its cosmic or philosophical implications) which prematurely organized the physical sciences. And it will be the extension of this organization to the social and biological sciences which will complete this basically moral orientation, transmuting Koestler's "moral dwarfs" into (computer-assisted) moral giants, and giving our society's controller moral direction, and thus balance and stabilitv.

4.01 - THE COLLECTIVE ISSUE, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
  with a new organising power vastly concentric to the first the cognitive
  organisation of the universe. To think ' the world ' (as physics is beginning

4.01 - The Principle of the Integral Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  Each Yoga in its process has the character of the instrument it uses; thus the Hathayogic process is psycho-physical, the Rajayogic mental and psychic, the way of knowledge is spiritual and cognitive, the way of devotion spiritual, emotional and aesthetic, the way of works spiritual and dynamic by action. Each is guided in the ways of its own characteristic power. But all power is in the end one, all power is really soul-power. In the ordinary process of life, body and mind this truth is quite obscured by the dispersed, dividing and distributive action of Nature which is the normal condition of all our functionings, although even there it is in the end evident; for all material energy contains hidden the vital, mental, psychic, spiritual energy and in the end it must release these forms of the one shakti, the vital energy conceals and liberates into action all the other forms, the mental supporting itself on the life and body and their powers and functionings contains undeveloped or only partially developed the psychic and the spiritual power of the being. But when by Yoga any of these powers is taken up from the dispersed and distributive action, raised to its highest degree, concentrated, it becomes manifest soul-power and reveals the essential unity. Therefore the Hathayogic process has too its pure psychic and spiritual result, the Rajayogic arrives by psychic means at a spiritual consummation. The triple way may appear to be altogether mental and spiritual in its way of seeking and its objectives, but it can be attended by results more characteristic of the other paths, which offer themselves in a spontaneous and involuntary flowering, and for the same reason, because soul-power is all-power and where it reaches its height in one direction its other possibilities also begin to show themselves in fact or in incipient potentiality. This unity at once suggests the possibility of a synthetic Yoga.
  Tantric discipline is in its nature a synthesis. It has seized on the large universal truth that there are two poles of being whose essential unity is the secret of existence, Brahman and shakti, Spirit and Nature, and that Nature is power of the spirit or rather is spirit as power. To raise nature in man into manifest power of spirit is its method and it is the whole nature that it gathers up for the spiritual conversion. It includes in its system of instrumentation the forceful Hathayogic process and especially the opening up of the nervous centres and the passage through them of the awakened shakti on her way to her union with the Brahman, the subtler stress of the Rajayogic purification, meditation and concentration, the leverage of will-force, the motive power of devotion, the key of knowledge. But it does not stop short with an effective assembling of the different powers of these specific Yogas. In two directions it enlarges by its synthetic turn the province of the Yogic method. First, it lays its hand firmly on many of the main springs of human quality, desire, action and it subjects them to an intensive discipline with the soul's mastery of its motives as a first aim and their elevation to a diviner spiritual level as its final utility. Again, it includes in its objects of Yoga not only liberation,586a which is the one all-mastering preoccupation of the specific systems, but a cosmic enjoyments586b of the power of the Spirit, which the others may take incidentally on the way, in part, casually, but avoid making a motive or object. It is a bolder and larger system.

4.20 - The Intuitive Mind, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  A second movement is one which comes naturally to those who commence the Yoga with the initiative that is proper to the way of Bhakti. It is natural to them to reject the intellect and its action and to listen for the voice, wait for the impulsion or the command, the adesa, obey only the idea and will and power of the Lord within them, the divine Self and Purusha in the heart of'lle creature, isvarah sarvabhutanam hrddese. This is a movement which must tend more and more to intuitivise the whole nature, for the ideas, the will, the impulsions, the feelings which come from the secret Purusha in the heart are of the direct intuitive character. This method is consonant with a certain truth of our nature. The secret Self within us is an intuitive self and this intuitive self is seated in every centre of our being, the physical, the nervous, the emotional, the volitional, the conceptual or cognitive and the higher more directly spiritual centres. And in each part of our being it exercises a secret intuitive initiation of our activities which is received and represented imperfectly by our outer mind and converted into the movements of the ignorance in the external action of these parts of our nature. The heart or emotional centre of the thinking desire-mind is the strongest in the ordinary man, gathers up or at least affects the presentation of things to the consciousness and is the capital of the system. It is from there that the Lord seated in the heart of all creatures turns them mounted on the machine of Nature by the Maya of the mental ignorance. It is possible then by referring back all the initiation of our action to this secret intuitive Self and Spirit, the ever-present Godhead within us, and replacing by its influences the initiations of our personal and mental nature to get back from the inferior external thought and action to another, internal and intuitive, of a highly spiritualised character. Nevertheless the result of this movement cannot be complete, because the heart is not the highest centre of our being, is not supramental nor directly moved from the supramental sources. An intuitive thought and action directed from it may be very luminous and intense but is likely to be limited, even narrow in its intensity, mixed with a lower emotional action and at the best excited and troubled, rendered unbalanced or exaggerated by a miraculous or abnormal character in its action or at least in many of its accompaniments which is injurious to the harmonised perfection of the being. The aim of our effort at perfection must be to make the spiritual and supramental action no longer a miracle, even if a frequent or constant miracle, or only a luminous intervention of a greater than our natural power, but normal to the being and the very nature and law of all its process. The highest organised centre of our embodied being and of its action in the body is the supreme mental centre figured by the yogic symbol of the thousand-petalled lotus, sahasradala, and it is at its top and summit that there is the direct communication with the supramental levels. It is then possible to adopt a different and a more direct method, not to refer all our thought and action to the Lord secret in the heart-lotus but to the veiled truth of the Divinity above the mind and to receive all by a sort of descent from above, a descent of which we become not only spiritually but physically conscious. The siddhi or full accomplishment of this movement can only come when we are able to lift the centre of thought and conscious action above the physical brain and feel it going on in the subtle body. If we can feel ourselves thinking no longer with the brain but from above and outside the head in the subtle body, that is a sure physical sign of a release from the limitations of the physical mind, and though this will not be complete at once nor of itself bring the supramental action, for the subtle body is mental and not supramental, still it is a subtle and pure mentality and makes an easier communication with the supramental centres. The lower movements must still come, but it is then found easier to arrive at a swift and subtle discrimination telling us at once the difference, distinguishing the intuitional thought from the lower intellectual mixture, separating it from its mental coatings, rejecting the mere rapidities of the mind which imitate the form of the intuition without being of its true substance. It will be easier to discern rapidly the higher planes of the true supramental being and call down their power to effect the desired transformation and to refer all the lower action to the superior power and light that it may reject and eliminate, purify and transform and select among them its right material for the Truth that has to be organised within us. This opening up of a higher level and of higher and higher planes of it and the consequent re-formation of our whole consciousness and its action into their mould and into the substance of their power and luminous capacity is found in practice to be the greater part of the natural method used by the divine shakti.
  A fourth method is one which suggests itself naturally to the developed intelligence and suits the thinking man. This is to not to cherish its limitations, but to heighten its capacity, light, intensity, degree and force of activity until it borders on the thing that transcends it and can easily be taken up and transformed into that higher conscious action. This movement also is founded on the truth of our nature and enters into the course and movement of the complete Yoga of self-perfection. That course, as I have described it, included a heightening and greatening of the action of our natural instruments and powers till they constitute in their purity and essential completeness a preparatory perfection of the present normal movement of the shakti that acts in us. The reason and intelligent will, the Buddhi, is the greatest of these powers and instruments, the natural leader of the rest in the developed human being, the most capable of aiding the development of the others. The ordinary activities of our nature are all of them of use for the greater perfection we seek, are meant to be turned into material for them, and the greater their development, the richer the preparation for the supramental action.

5.06 - Supermind in the Evolution, #Essays In Philosophy And Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
  - if we can regard consciousness and not life and form as the fundamental and essential evolutionary principle and its emergence and full development of its possibilities as the object of the evolutionary urge. The inconscience of Matter cannot be an insuperable obstacle; for in this inconscience can be detected an involved consciousness which has to evolve; life and mind are steps and instruments of that evolution; the purposeful drive and workings of the inconscient material Energy are precisely such as we can attribute to the presence of an involved consciousness, automatic, not using thought like the mind but guided by something like an inherent material instinct practically infallible in all its steps, not yet cognitive but miraculously creative.
  The entirely and inherently enlightened Truth-consciousness we attri bute to supermind would be the same reality appearing at an ultimate stage of the evolution, finally evolved and no longer wholly involved as in Matter or partly and imperfectly evolved and therefore capable of imperfection and error as in life and mind, now possessed of its own natural fullness and perfection, luminously automatic, infallible. All the objections to a complete

Blazing P1 - Preconventional consciousness, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  that life poses us and our struggle to answer them. For example, the cognitive line arises in
  response to the question, What am I aware of? and the values line is born from, Of the
  --
  The first [era of cognitive development], sensorimotor, covers the period of infancy from
  birth to 18 to 24 months. During this period the infants knowledge is in the form of action
  --
  Object permanence and separation anxiety may be the cognitive and affective expressions of a
  single motion in personality development. The infant was completely embedded in his
  --
  But such transformations are not cognitive alone. Both the structure and the process of this
  transformation have implications of an understanding of early childhood emotions.
  --
  [Note that this stage of cognitive development covers both the Magenta and the Red stage of
  consciousness.]
  --
  this period that children first have the cognitive structures necessary for knowing that objects
  exist even when they are not within sight, touch, or hearing. 35
  --
  consequence of this in the cognitive domain is the inability to take the role of another
  person, since to do so involves what Piaget called reversibility (the ability to move back and
  --
  this first stage of subject-object differentiation appears to underlie and unite the cognitive
  Infancy to Enlightenment, Part I: Preconventional Consciousness
  --
  [See the Preoperational stage of cognitive development in the Magenta section. This stage
  goes through both the Magenta and Red stages of consciousness.]
  --
  door, Adults Keep Out. The cognitive and affective expression of this new organization are,
  of course, Piagets concrete operations and Freuds latency stage, respectively. When the
  --
  reflection possible and necessary. Previous literalism breaks down; new cognitive conceit
  Infancy to Enlightenment, Part I: Preconventional Consciousness
  --
  For a snapshot summary of these fields (except for cognitive science but including autopoiesis), as held within
  Wilbers larger framework of Integral Methodological Pluralism, see Brown, Integrating the major research
  --
  consciousness theoretically bundles the cognitive, interpersonal, and intrapersonal lines. With respect to selfidentity, or ego development as it is also called, Cook-Greuter summarizes the theory in her Ph.D. dissertation
  (1999, pp. 38-39): Overall, the question of whether development is unified or whether it has many strands is
  --
  Technically, in Integral spirituality, Wilber talks about how the cognitive line leads the others, as it helps to
  identify what am I aware of. However, since orders of consciousness and the self-identity line are so strongly
  based upon and measure the cognitive line, I am grouping them here with cognition as measuring the structure
  of consciousness, as opposed to the content of consciousness.
  --
  Small, cognitive Development, 1990, p. 6
  Kegan, The Evolving Self: Problem and Process in Human Development, 1982, p. 34. Original source is
  --
  Small, cognitive Development, 1990, p. 6
  Piaget, Gruber, & Vonche, The Essential Piaget, 1995, pp. 457-458
  --
  to education: Examples from cognitive, moral, and psychological education, in M. C.
  Reynolds (Ed.), The Proceedings of the Conference on Psychology and the Process of
  --
  Small, Melinda Y. (1990). cognitive development. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
  Torbert, William (2004). Action inquiry: The secret of timely and transformational

Blazing P2 - Map the Stages of Conventional Consciousness, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  [Note that this stage of consciousness has two stages of cognitive development: formal
  operations and systematic. Piagets research ended at formal operations, after which other
  --
  During [this] stage, formal operations, adolescents have acquired the cognitive structures
  that make it possible to think about thoughts themselves. They are no longer reflecting
  --
  This stage [of cognitive development] was introduced by Herb Koplowitz (1982). At the
  systematic order, ideal task completers discriminate the frameworks for relationships
  --
  himself and observes in others a variety of cognitively shaded emotions. Behavior is seen not
  just in terms of actions but in terms of patterns, hence of traits and motives. His descriptions
  --
  Small, cognitive Development, 1990, p. 6
  Piaget, Gruber, & Vonche, The Essential Piaget, 1995, pp. 458-461
  --
  Small, cognitive Development, 1990, p. 6
  Piaget, Gruber, & Vonche, The Essential Piaget, 1995, pp. 461-463
  --
  Beyond formal operations: Late adolescent and adult cognitive development (pp. 272-295).
  New York: Praeger.
  --
  Small, Melinda Y. (1990). cognitive development. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
  Torbert, William (2004). Action inquiry: The secret of timely and transformational

Blazing P3 - Explore the Stages of Postconventional Consciousness, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  suppressed or unrecognized in the interest of Stage 4s self-certainty and conscious cognitive
  and affective adaptation to reality. This stage develops a second naivet (Ricoeur) in which
  --
  insight into his future. Now, with his energies free for cognitive activation, man focuses upon
  his self and his world.
  --
  his species existential problem. Thus at the seventh level, the cognitive level, man truly sees
  the problems before him if life, any life, is to continue.
  --
  with others to the AN cognitive level of knowing and having to do so that all can be and can
  continue to be, it is possible to see the enormous differences between man and other animals.
  --
  Theoretically, he will move on to repeat his six stages to the benefit of cognitive man (AN),
  and then again to the benefit of compassionate man (BO), and so on. By then, man will, in
  --
  Truth: No matter what level of abstraction and what level of cognitive insight one gains, one
  is always separated from the underlying seamless reality or ultimate truth71
  --
  [Note: For the remaining levels of cognitive development, only the phenomenological data
  from Sri Aurobindo is available. There is not any data available on the structure of
  --
  with the whole of nature results from the cognitive ability to see nature as an organized
  system of natural laws and to see every part of nature, including oneself, as parts of that
  --
  This act of insight is, however, not purely cognitive. One cannot see the whole or the infinite
  ground of being unless one loves it and aspires to love it. Such love, Spinoza tells us, arises
  --
  during ordinary states, as well as the cognitive complexity that integrates altered-state
  material into the intervals of ordinary awareness, are key distinguishers of Transcendent
  --
  The only Western developmentalist to map [Ultraviolet] consciousness cognitively (as an
  ordinary state, as opposed to Wilbers treating it as a religious experience) is Koplowitz
  --
  Nondualistic concepts are ineffable and beyond the cognitive mediation of symbolization,
  especially language. For that reason, direct quotes from enlightened people and esoteric
  --
  operations: Late adolescent and adult cognitive development. New York: Praeger.
  Infancy to Enlightenment, Part III: Postconventional Consciousness
  --
  relations between spiritual development and cognitive development. In M. L. Commons, C.
  Armon, L. Kohlberg, F. A. Richards, T. A. Grotzer, & J. D. Sinnott (Eds.), Adult development,

BS 1 - Introduction to the Idea of God, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  Jung didnt believe thatespecially not after interacting with Freudbecause he saw that human beings were deeply, deeply affected by things that were beyond their conscious control. No one really knows how to conceptualize those things. The cognitive psychologists think of them as computational machines. The ancient people thought of them as gods, although its more complicated than that. Mars would be the God of rage; thats the thing that possesses you when youre angry. It has a viewpoint, and it says what it wants to say, and that might have very little to do with what you want to say, when youre being sensible. It doesnt just inhabit you: it inhabits everyone, and it lives forever, and it even inhabits animals. Its this transcendent psychological entity that inhabits the body politic, like a thought inhabiting the brain. Thats one way of thinking about it. Its a very strange way of thinking, but it certainly has its merits. Those things, in some sense, are deities. But its not that simple.
  Jung got very interested in dreams, and he started to understand the relationship between dreams and myths. He was deeply read in mythology, and he would see, in his clients dreams, echoes of stories that he knew. He started to believe that the dream was the birthplace of the myth and that there was a continual interaction between the two processes: the dream and the story, and storytelling. You can tell your dreams as stories, when you remember them, and some people remember dreams all the timetwo or three, at night. Ive had clients like that. They often have archetypal dreams that have very clear mythological structures. I think thats more the case with people who are creativeespecially if theyre a bit unstable at the timebecause the dream tends to occupy the space of uncertainty, and to concentrate on fleshing out the unknown reality, before you get a real grip on it. So the dream is the birthplace of thinking. Thats a good way of thinking about it, because its not that clear. Its doing its best to formulate something. That was Jungs notion, as of post-Freud, who believed that there were internal censors that were hiding the dreams true message. Thats not what Jung believed. He believed the dream was doing its best to express a reality that was still outside of fully articulated, conscious comprehension.

DS4, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  olfactory, gustatory, tactile, and cognitive elements. But upon closer analysis, each of these elements
  turns out to be constantly changing and impossible to isolate from other elements. Thus, nothing is

ENNEAD 04.05 - Psychological Questions III. - About the Process of Vision and Hearing., #Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02, #Plotinus, #Christianity
  1. Above161 we suggested the question whether it be possible to see without some medium such as the air or a diaphanous body162; we shall now try to consider it. It has already been asserted that in general the soul cannot see or feel without the intermediation of some body; for, when completely separated from the body (the soul dwells in the intelligible world). But, as touch consists of perception, not indeed of intelligible entities, but only of sense-objects, the soul cannot see or feel without the intermediation of some body; for when completely separated from some body, the soul dwells in the intelligible world. But, as touch consists of perception, not indeed of intelligible entities, but only of sense-object, the soul in order to come in contact with these sense-objects, must enter into cognitive or affective relation with them by the means of intermediaries which must possess an analogous nature; and that is why the knowledge of bodies must be acquired by the means of corporeal organs. Through these organs which are so interrelated as to form a sort of unity, the soul approaches sense-objects in a manner such as to establish effective communion. That contact between the organ and the cognized object must be established is evident enough for tangible objects, but is doubtful for visible objects. Whether contact515 be necessary for hearing is a question we shall have to discuss later.163 Here we shall first discuss whether sight demand a medium between the eye and color.
  REFUTATION OF ARISTOTLE'S INSISTENCE ON A MEDIUM OF SIGHT.

MoM References, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
  Beck, A. (1979). cognitive therapy of depression. New York: Guilford Press.
  Becker, E. (1973). The denial of death. New York: The Free Press.
  --
  Goldberg, E., Podell, K., and Lovell, M. (1994). Lateralization of frontal lobe functions and cognitive novelty. Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 6, 371-378.
  Goldberg, L.R. (1993). The structure of phenotypic personality traits. American Psychologist, 48, 26-34.
  --
  Grossberg, S. (1987). Competitive learning: From interactive activation to adaptive resonance. cognitive
  Science, 11, 23-63.
  --
  Nader, A., McNally, R.J., & Wiegartz, P.S. (1996). Implicit memory bias for threat in posttraumatic stress disorder. cognitive Therapy and Research, 20, 625-635.
  Nauta, W.J.H. (1971). The problem of the frontal lobe: A reinterpretation. Psychiatry Research, 8, 167-187.
  --
  Piaget, J. (1977). The development of thought: Equilibration of cognitive structures (A . Rosin, Trans.).
  New York: Viking.
  --
  Pinel, J.P.J. & Mana, M.J. (1989). Adaptive interactions of rats with dangerous inanimate objects: Support for a cognitive theory of defensive behavior. In R.J. Blanchard, P.F. Brain, D.C. Blanchard, & S.
  Parmigiani. (Eds.), Ethoexperimental approaches to the study of behavior (pp. 137-155). Boston:
  --
  Rosch, E., Mervis, C.B., Gray, W., Johnson, D., & Boyes-Braem (1976). Basic objects in natural categories. cognitive Psychology, 8, 382-439.
  Russell, J.B. (1986). Mephistopheles: The devil in the modern world. London: Cornell University Press.
  --
  Swerdlow, N.R., Filion, D., Geyer, M.A., & Braff, D.L. (1995). Normal personality correlates of sensorimotor, cognitive, and visuospatial gating. Biological Psychiatry, 37, 286-299.
  Tchelitchew, P. (1992). Hide and seek. Scientific American, 267, 49.

The Act of Creation text, #The Act of Creation, #Arthur Koestler, #Psychology
  perceptual, cognitive, and motor skills and to the psychological
  structures variously called 'frames of reference*, 'associative contexts',
  --
  of perceptual and cognitive skills, the working of memory, the ebbs
  and tides of emotion. We are conscious only of a fraction of the input
  --
  Analogous situations occur on the cognitive level, where the 'hyper-
  excited part' appears in the guise of the idiejixe, or a closed system' of
  --
  hierarchy controlling the various sensory, motor, and cognitive pro-
  cesses which constitute the skill of driving; then the brake-pedal will
  --
  and relayed by various stations of the perceptual and cognitive hier-
  archy, and is eventually re-coded into a 'sign releaser' which triggers
  --
  the perceptual and cognitive hierarchies, the codes which govern per-
  formance (e.g. grammar and syntax) function on lower levels of
  --
  central and neural . . . organized and proliferated cognitive structure
  itself is the goal towards which learning moves'. 39 In other words,
  --
  images, because the cognitive glue which holds the true perceptual
  units together (verticals, loops, etc.) has not yet hardened or has
  already decayed like the aggregate of visual and cognitive elements
  which constitutes the image of the elephant. Thus hearing is inex-
  --
  ceptual elements, held together by cognitive linkages, as the 'sound-
  pictures' of speech are given coherence by their meaning. They are
  --
  S.-R. Theories contra cognitive Theories
  Conditioning Insight
  --
  contra cognitive Theories
  Motivation by exploratory
  --
  The rat must piece together, bit by bit, his cognitive map of the maze;
  THE PITFALLS OF GESTALT
  --
  previous independence of the cognitive structures which are made to
  fuse in the creative act is, as we saw before, one of the criteria of
  --
  known to the dog. But such gaps occur on all levels of cognitive pro-
  cesses. When the average citizen turns on his radio he has about as
  --
  to some extent cognitively controlled, the distinction between blind
  learning and learning with understanding becomes one of degree.' 36
  --
  the cognitive hierarchy, which represents a sharp break in the con-
  tinuity of learning processes in animals and man. Homologue laws
  --
  are symbols for perceptual and cognitive events, but they are not the
  events. J'hey are vehicles of thought, but the vehicle should not be
  --
  the lecturer converts into verbal currency cognitive sub-wholes on
  lower levels of the hierarchy, which have already been portioned out
  --
  and the cognitive map which it abstracts from a number of concrete
  tries provides it with a matrix of remarkable plasticity see Lashley's

WORDNET



--- Overview of adj cognitive

The adj cognitive has 1 sense (no senses from tagged texts)
                  
1. cognitive ::: (of or being or relating to or involving cognition; "cognitive psychology"; "cognitive style")





--- Similarity of adj cognitive

1 sense of cognitive                          

Sense 1
cognitive


--- Antonyms of adj cognitive
                                    



--- Pertainyms of adj cognitive

1 sense of cognitive                          

Sense 1
cognitive
   Pertains to noun cognition (Sense 1)
   =>cognition, knowledge, noesis
   => psychological feature


--- Derived Forms of adj cognitive

1 sense of cognitive                          

Sense 1
cognitive
   RELATED TO->(verb) cognize#1
     => know, cognize, cognise


--- Grep of noun cognitive
basic cognitive process
cognitive content
cognitive factor
cognitive neuroscience
cognitive neuroscientist
cognitive operation
cognitive process
cognitive psychology
cognitive science
cognitive scientist
cognitive semantics
cognitive state
higher cognitive process



IN WEBGEN [10000/669]

Wikipedia - Aimee Dunlap -- American cognitive ecologist
Wikipedia - Allen Newell -- American cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Amnesia -- Cognitive disorder where the memory is disturbed or lost
Wikipedia - Analogy -- cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject to another
Wikipedia - Anchoring (cognitive bias) -- A cognitive bias where an individual depends too heavily on an initial piece of information offered when making decisions
Wikipedia - Anne Castles -- Cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Ann-Sophie Barwich -- Cognitive scientist, philosopher, and historian of science
Wikipedia - Anxiety disorder -- Cognitive disorder with an excessive, irrational dread of everyday situations
Wikipedia - Applied Cognitive Psychology -- Academic journal
Wikipedia - Aron K. Barbey -- American cognitive neuroscientist
Wikipedia - Arthur F. Kramer -- American cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Artificial brain -- Software and hardware with cognitive abilities similar to those of the animal or human brain
Wikipedia - Artificial consciousness -- Field in cognitive science
Wikipedia - Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies
Wikipedia - Attribute substitution -- Type of cognitive bias
Wikipedia - Barbara Landau -- Cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Bayesian cognitive science
Wikipedia - Beck's cognitive triad
Wikipedia - Bee learning and communication -- Cognitive and sensory processes in bees
Wikipedia - Brenda Rapp -- American cognitive neuroscientist
Wikipedia - Brian Butterworth -- Professor of cognitive neuropsychology
Wikipedia - British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies
Wikipedia - Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery -- Group of 25 tests to assess cognitive function
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive architecture
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapists
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive behavioral therapy
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive biases
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive development researchers
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive dissonance
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive inertia
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive linguistics
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive modeling
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive neuroscience
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive neuroscientists
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive psychologists
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive psychology
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive science articles needing expert attention
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive science lists
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive science
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive scientists
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive tests
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive therapy
Wikipedia - Category:Cognitive training
Wikipedia - Category:Fellows of the Cognitive Science Society
Wikipedia - Category talk:Cognitive science lists
Wikipedia - Category:The Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science laureates
Wikipedia - Category:Women cognitive scientists
Wikipedia - Cerebellar Cognitive Affective Syndrome
Wikipedia - Cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome -- Cognitive and affective symptoms of cerebellum damage
Wikipedia - Christine E. Dickson -- American cognitive psychologist
Wikipedia - CLARION (cognitive architecture)
Wikipedia - Cognitive Abilities Screening Instrument -- Cognitive test screening for dementia
Wikipedia - Cognitive abilities
Wikipedia - Cognitive ability
Wikipedia - Cognitive acceleration
Wikipedia - Cognitive, Affective, > Behavioral Neuroscience
Wikipedia - Cognitive analytic therapy
Wikipedia - Cognitive anthropology
Wikipedia - Cognitive appraisal
Wikipedia - Cognitive apprenticeship -- Theory that emphasizes the importance of the process
Wikipedia - Cognitive archaeology -- Archaeological sub-discipline
Wikipedia - Cognitive archeology
Wikipedia - Cognitive architectures
Wikipedia - Cognitive architecture
Wikipedia - Cognitive Assessment System
Wikipedia - Cognitive behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy
Wikipedia - Cognitive-behavioral therapist
Wikipedia - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Wikipedia - Cognitive-behavioral therapy
Wikipedia - Cognitive behavioral therapy -- therapy to improve mental health
Wikipedia - Cognitive behavioral treatment of eating disorders
Wikipedia - Cognitive Behavior Therapy
Wikipedia - Cognitive behavior therapy
Wikipedia - Cognitive-behavior therapy
Wikipedia - Cognitive behavioural therapy
Wikipedia - Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (journal)
Wikipedia - Cognitive biases
Wikipedia - Cognitive bias in animals
Wikipedia - Cognitive bias mitigation -- Reduction of the negative effects of cognitive biases
Wikipedia - Cognitive bias -- Systematic pattern of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment
Wikipedia - Cognitive biology -- Emerging science
Wikipedia - Cognitive capacities
Wikipedia - Cognitive closure (philosophy)
Wikipedia - Cognitive closure (psychology)
Wikipedia - Cognitive computing
Wikipedia - Cognitive control
Wikipedia - Cognitive-cultural economy
Wikipedia - Cognitive deficit
Wikipedia - Cognitive description
Wikipedia - Cognitive development -- Field of study in neuroscience and psychology
Wikipedia - Cognitive Development -- Quarterly scientific journal
Wikipedia - Cognitive dimensions of notations
Wikipedia - Cognitive (disambiguation)
Wikipedia - Cognitive disorder
Wikipedia - Cognitive dissonance theory
Wikipedia - Cognitive dissonance -- Psychological stress resulting from multiple contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values held at the same time
Wikipedia - Cognitive distortions
Wikipedia - Cognitive distortion -- An exaggerated or irrational thought pattern involved in the onset or perpetuation of psychopathological states
Wikipedia - Cognitive ecology -- Branch of ecology studying cognition in social and natural contexts
Wikipedia - Cognitive elite
Wikipedia - Cognitive emotional behavioral therapy
Wikipedia - Cognitive engineering
Wikipedia - Cognitive enhancement
Wikipedia - Cognitive epidemiology
Wikipedia - Cognitive ergonomics
Wikipedia - Cognitive ethnography
Wikipedia - Cognitive ethology
Wikipedia - Cognitive evaluation theory
Wikipedia - Cognitive-Experiential Self-Theory
Wikipedia - Cognitive flexibility
Wikipedia - Cognitive function
Wikipedia - Cognitive genomics
Wikipedia - Cognitive geography -- An interdisciplinary study of cognitive science and geography
Wikipedia - Cognitive grammar
Wikipedia - Cognitive impairment
Wikipedia - Cognitive inertia -- The tendency for a particular orientation in how an individual thinks about an issue, belief or strategy to endure or resist change
Wikipedia - Cognitive informatics
Wikipedia - Cognitive inhibition
Wikipedia - Cognitive Interventions
Wikipedia - Cognitive interventions
Wikipedia - Cognitive liberty -- Freedom of an individual to control their own mental processes
Wikipedia - Cognitive Linguistics
Wikipedia - Cognitive linguistics
Wikipedia - Cognitive load -- effort being used in the working memory
Wikipedia - Cognitive map
Wikipedia - Cognitive miser -- Psychological tendency of people to think and solve problems in simple ways
Wikipedia - Cognitive modeling
Wikipedia - Cognitive model
Wikipedia - Cognitive modules
Wikipedia - Cognitive module
Wikipedia - Cognitive musicology
Wikipedia - Cognitive neuropsychiatry
Wikipedia - Cognitive Neuropsychology
Wikipedia - Cognitive neuropsychology
Wikipedia - Cognitive Neuroscience (journal)
Wikipedia - Cognitive neuroscience of dreams
Wikipedia - Cognitive neuroscience of music
Wikipedia - Cognitive neuroscience of visual object recognition
Wikipedia - Cognitive Neuroscience Society
Wikipedia - Cognitive Neuroscience
Wikipedia - Cognitive neuroscience
Wikipedia - Cognitive neuroscientist
Wikipedia - Cognitive philology
Wikipedia - Cognitive poetics
Wikipedia - Cognitive processes
Wikipedia - Cognitive processing speed
Wikipedia - Cognitive processing therapy
Wikipedia - Cognitive process
Wikipedia - Cognitive psychologist
Wikipedia - Cognitive Psychology (journal)
Wikipedia - Cognitive Psychology
Wikipedia - Cognitive psychology -- Subdiscipline of psychology
Wikipedia - Cognitive psychotherapy
Wikipedia - Cognitive relativism
Wikipedia - Cognitive remediation therapy -- Treatment designed to improve neurocognitive abilities
Wikipedia - Cognitive restructuring
Wikipedia - Cognitive revolution
Wikipedia - Cognitive robotics
Wikipedia - Cognitive Science (journal)
Wikipedia - Cognitive science of mathematics
Wikipedia - Cognitive science of religion
Wikipedia - Cognitive Science Society
Wikipedia - Cognitive sciences
Wikipedia - Cognitive Science
Wikipedia - Cognitive science -- Interdisciplinary scientific study of the mind and its processes
Wikipedia - Cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Cognitive semantics -- Topic in the field of cognitive linguistics
Wikipedia - Cognitive semiotics
Wikipedia - Cognitive shift
Wikipedia - Cognitive skill
Wikipedia - Cognitive slippage
Wikipedia - Cognitive space
Wikipedia - Cognitive specialization
Wikipedia - Cognitive styles
Wikipedia - Cognitive style
Wikipedia - Cognitive Surplus -- Book by Clay Shirky
Wikipedia - Cognitive system
Wikipedia - Cognitive tests
Wikipedia - Cognitive test
Wikipedia - Cognitive Theory of Inquiry Teaching -- Learning theory
Wikipedia - Cognitive Therapy
Wikipedia - Cognitive therapy
Wikipedia - Cognitive traps for intelligence analysis
Wikipedia - Cognitive tutors
Wikipedia - Cognitive tutor
Wikipedia - Cognitive vulnerability
Wikipedia - Cognitive walkthrough
Wikipedia - Cognitive
Wikipedia - Concreteness training -- Repeated practice of cognitive skills to create habitual behaviors
Wikipedia - Congruence bias -- Type of cognitive bias, similar to confirmation bias
Wikipedia - Connectionism -- Approach in cognitive science that hopes to explain mental phenomena using artificial neural networks
Wikipedia - Curse of knowledge -- Cognitive bias of assuming that others have the same background to understand
Wikipedia - Cyma Van Petten -- American cognitive neuroscientist
Wikipedia - Dalle Molle Institute for Semantic and Cognitive Studies -- Research institute in Geneva, Switzerland
Wikipedia - Damien Fair -- US cognitive neuroscientist
Wikipedia - Daphne Bavelier -- Professor and cognitive neuroscientist
Wikipedia - Debra Titone -- Cognitive psychologist
Wikipedia - Decatastrophizing -- Cognitive restructuring technique to treat cognitive distortions
Wikipedia - Decision-making -- Cognitive process resulting in choosing a course of action
Wikipedia - Deirdre Wilson -- British linguist and cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Developmental cognitive neuroscience
Wikipedia - Dieter Hillert -- German-American biolinguist and cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Digital Reasoning -- American cognitive computing company
Wikipedia - Disabilities affecting intellectual abilities -- Subnormal intellectual functioning (cognitive disorder)
Wikipedia - Donald D. Hoffman -- American cognitive psychologist and popular science author
Wikipedia - Douglas Hofstadter -- American professor of cognitive science
Wikipedia - DUAL (cognitive architecture)
Wikipedia - Dunning-Kruger effect -- Cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability
Wikipedia - Effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance -- Consequences of not getting enough sleep
Wikipedia - E-learning (theory) -- Cognitive science principles of effective multimedia learning
Wikipedia - Elementary cognitive task
Wikipedia - Elizabeth Loftus -- American cognitive psychologist
Wikipedia - Elizabeth Spelke -- American cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Embodied cognitive science
Wikipedia - Enterprise cognitive system -- Computing system
Wikipedia - Ethnomusicology -- Study of music emphasizing cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dimensions
Wikipedia - European Society for Cognitive Psychology
Wikipedia - European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music
Wikipedia - Evelina Fedorenko -- cognitive neuroscientist
Wikipedia - Eveline Crone -- Dutch professor of cognitive neuroscience
Wikipedia - False consensus effect -- Attributional type of cognitive bias
Wikipedia - Federation of Behavioral, Psychological, and Cognitive Sciences
Wikipedia - FORR -- Type of cognitive architecture
Wikipedia - George Armitage Miller -- American cognitive psychologist
Wikipedia - Gina Rippon -- Professor of cognitive neuroimaging
Wikipedia - Giordana Grossi -- American cognitive neuroscientist
Wikipedia - Global developmental delay -- Umbrella term used when children are significantly delayed in their cognitive and physical development
Wikipedia - Guilt (emotion) -- Cognitive or an emotional experience
Wikipedia - Hard-easy effect -- A cognitive bias relating to mis-estimating success based on perceived difficulty
Wikipedia - High-functioning autism -- People with autism who are deemed to be cognitively "higher functioning" (with an IQ of 70 or greater) than other people with autism
Wikipedia - Hippocampal prosthesis -- Type of cognitive prosthesis
Wikipedia - HIV-associated neurocognitive disorder
Wikipedia - Human Cognitive Abilities -- Book about human intelligence measurement
Wikipedia - IKEA effect -- Cognitive bias in which consumers place a disproportionately high value on products they partially created
Wikipedia - Illusory superiority -- Overestimating one's abilities and qualifications; a cognitive bias
Wikipedia - Index of cognitive science articles -- Wikipedia index
Wikipedia - Indiana Archives of Cognitive Science
Wikipedia - Infant cognitive development
Wikipedia - Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
Wikipedia - Intelligence analysis -- Application of individual and collective cognitive methods to weigh data and test hypotheses within a secret socio-cultural context
Wikipedia - International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion -- Cognitive science organization
Wikipedia - Ivan Sag -- linguist and cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Jane Oakhill -- British cognitive psychologist
Wikipedia - Janet L. Kolodner -- American cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Jill H. Larkin -- American cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Jim Davies (cognitive scientist)
Wikipedia - John McCarthy (computer scientist) -- American computer scientist and cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Joni Wallis -- US cognitive neurophysiologist
Wikipedia - Joscha Bach -- cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
Wikipedia - Jungian cognitive functions
Wikipedia - Karen Neander -- Philosopher of cognitive science
Wikipedia - Katherine A. Rawson -- Cognitive psychologist
Wikipedia - Kristina Hooper Woolsey -- American cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Larry L. Jacoby -- American cognitive psychologist
Wikipedia - Lateralization of brain function -- Specialization of some cognitive functions in one side of the brain
Wikipedia - Law of the instrument -- cognitive bias
Wikipedia - Learning power -- Concept in cognitive science
Wikipedia - LIDA (cognitive architecture)
Wikipedia - Lise Abrams -- American cognitive psychologist and Peter W. Stanley Professor
Wikipedia - List of cognitive-behavioral therapies -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of cognitive biases -- Systematic patterns of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment
Wikipedia - List of cognitive neuroscientists
Wikipedia - List of cognitive psychologists -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of cognitive science topics
Wikipedia - List of cognitive scientists -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - Marcia Linn -- American cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Maria Natasha Rajah -- Professor and researcher in cognitive neuroscience
Wikipedia - Mario Beauregard -- Canadian cognitive neuroscientist
Wikipedia - Mark Turner (cognitive scientist)
Wikipedia - Martha Farah -- American cognitive neuroscientist
Wikipedia - Marvin Minsky -- American cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Mary C. Potter -- American cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Mary Czerwinski -- American cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Max Coltheart -- Australian cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Wikipedia - Mental representation -- Hypothetical internal cognitive symbol that represents external reality
Wikipedia - Metacognitive therapy
Wikipedia - Metacognitive training -- Approach for treating the symptoms of psychosis in schizophrenia
Wikipedia - Metacognitive
Wikipedia - Michela Gallagher -- Cognitive psychologist
Wikipedia - Michelene Chi -- Cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit
Wikipedia - Mild cognitive impairment
Wikipedia - Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy
Wikipedia - Mind -- Combination of cognitive faculties that provide consciousness, thinking, reasoning, perception and judgment
Wikipedia - Mini-Mental State Examination -- Test to measure cognitive impairment
Wikipedia - MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Wikipedia - Motivated tactician -- Someone who shifts between quick-and-dirty cognitively economical tactics and more thoughtful, thorough strategies
Wikipedia - Muireann Irish -- Cognitive neuropsychologist and researcher
Wikipedia - Neil Burgess (neuroscientist) -- English Professor of Cognitive and Computational Neuroscience (born 1966)
Wikipedia - Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development
Wikipedia - Neurobiological effects of physical exercise -- Neural, cognitive, and behavioral effects of physical exercise
Wikipedia - Neurocognitive
Wikipedia - Nootropic -- Drug, supplement, or other substance that improves cognitive function
Wikipedia - Optimism bias -- Cognitive bias that causes someone to believe that they themselves are less likely to experience a negative event
Wikipedia - Perspective (cognitive)
Wikipedia - Philosophy of cognitive science
Wikipedia - Piaget's theory of cognitive development
Wikipedia - Post-chemotherapy cognitive impairment -- Impairment that can result from chemotherapy treatment
Wikipedia - Premotor theory of attention -- Theory in cognitive neuroscience
Wikipedia - Psychology of self -- The study of either the cognitive, conative or affective representation of one's identity, or the subject of experience
Wikipedia - Reactive devaluation -- Cognitive bias
Wikipedia - Rebecca Saxe -- American cognitive neuroscientist
Wikipedia - Roi Cohen Kadosh -- Israeli-British cognitive neuroscientist
Wikipedia - Ruth M. J. Byrne -- Irish cognitive scientist and psychologist
Wikipedia - Satisficing -- Cognitive heuristic of searching for an acceptable decision
Wikipedia - Self-handicapping -- Cognitive strategy by which people avoid effort in the hopes of keeping potential failure from hurting self-esteem
Wikipedia - Selmer Bringsjord -- American computer and cognitive scientist
Wikipedia - Sensory stimulation therapy -- Experimental therapy that aims to utilize neural plasticity mechanisms to aid in the recovery of somatosensory function after stroke or cognitive ageing
Wikipedia - Sharlene Newman -- American cognitive neuroscientist
Wikipedia - Sharon Thompson-Schill -- American cognitive psychologist
Wikipedia - Sluggish cognitive tempo
Wikipedia - Soar (cognitive architecture)
Wikipedia - Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
Wikipedia - Social cognitive neuroscience -- Use of neuroscience in study of social cognition
Wikipedia - Social cognitive optimization
Wikipedia - Social cognitive theory of morality
Wikipedia - Social cognitive theory
Wikipedia - Society for Experimental Psychology and Cognitive Science
Wikipedia - Socio-cognitive
Wikipedia - Stanislas Dehaene -- French cognitive neuroscientist
Wikipedia - Steering cognition -- Model of a cognitive executive function which contributes to how attention is regulated and corresponding responses coordinated
Wikipedia - Steven Pinker -- Canadian-American cognitive psychologist, linguist, and popular science author
Wikipedia - Stress inoculation training -- Building resistance to stress through cognitive and behavioral skill training and exposure to stressful stimuli
Wikipedia - Structured cognitive behavioral training
Wikipedia - Template talk:Cognitive behavioral therapy
Wikipedia - Template talk:WikiProject Cognitive science
Wikipedia - The neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development
Wikipedia - Theory of Cognitive development
Wikipedia - Theory of cognitive development
Wikipedia - Thought-terminating clichM-CM-) -- commonly used phrase used to propagate cognitive dissonance
Wikipedia - Tracy Packiam Alloway -- British cognitive psychologist
Wikipedia - Trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy -- Therapy
Wikipedia - Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Wikipedia - UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
Wikipedia - Validation therapy -- Therapy for older people with cognitive impairments and dementia
Wikipedia - Vascular dementia -- Dementia that involves impairments in cognitive function caused by problems in blood vessels that feed the brain
Wikipedia - Verificationism -- Philosophical doctrine that only statements that are empirically verifiable are cognitively meaningful
Wikipedia - Volition (psychology) -- Cognitive process by which an individual decides on and commits to a particular course of action
Wikipedia - Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science
Wikipedia - Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities
Wikipedia - Working memory -- Cognitive system for temporarily holding information
Wikipedia - Worldview -- Fundamental cognitive orientation of an individual or society
Amos Tversky ::: Born: March 16, 1937; Died: June 2, 1996; Occupation: Cognitive Psychologist;
Dan Sperber ::: Born: June 20, 1942; Occupation: Cognitive scientist;
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40748890-cognitive-foundations-for-improving-mathematical-learning
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/421520.Cognitive_Behavioral_Treatment_of_Borderline_Personality_Disorder
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44308196-cognitive-foundations-for-improving-mathematical-learning-mathematical
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/459018.Cognitive_Therapy_for_Personality_Disorders
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https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/789649.Cognitive_Behavior_Therapy_of_Dsm_IV_Tr_Personality_Disorders
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/796487.The_Cognitive_Neuroscience_of_Consciousness
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https://psychology.wikia.org/wiki/Cognitive_&_experimental_psychology
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Category:Cognitive_biases
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Category:Cognitive_science_literature
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
https://religion.wikia.org/wiki/Noble_Eightfold_Path#The_noble_eightfold_path_and_cognitive_psychology
Integral World - Leading Edge Cognitive Capacities, Tom Christensen
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selforum - non cartesian cognitive science
selforum - anthropology must explore cognitive
https://thoughtsandvisions-searle88.blogspot.com/2012/10/cognitive-behavioral-therapy.html
https://thoughtsandvisions-searle88.blogspot.com/2012/10/cognitive-neuroscience.html
https://thoughtsandvisions-searle88.blogspot.com/2012/10/cognitive-science.html
https://esotericotherworlds.blogspot.com/2019/07/christopher-langhan-and-cognitive.html
Psychology Wiki - Category:Cognitive_processes
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Psychology Wiki - Decision_making#Cognitive_neuroscience_of_decision_making
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Psychology Wiki - Human_sex_differences#Cognitive_differences
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Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - cognitive-disability
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - cognitive-science
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/Cognitive
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https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Category:Cognitive_scientists
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
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https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cognitive_psychology
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Cognitive_science
Seeing things (1981 - 1987) - Louis Ciccone is a reporter for the Toronto Gazette, but life's given him a forced side activity. This is due to his inconvenient power as a postcognitive, a person who is able to see visions of past events. These visions are always related to a murder of a person he encounters by happenstance. Whil...
https://myanimelist.net/anime/27957/Steins_Gate__Soumei_Eichi_no_Cognitive_Computing --
Psycho-Pass ::: TV-MA | 25min | Animation, Action, Crime | TV Series (2012- ) Episode Guide 41 episodes Psycho-Pass Poster -- Believing in humanity and order, policewoman Akane Tsunemori obeys the ruling, computerized, precognitive Sibyl System. But when she faces a criminal mastermind who can elude this "perfect" system, she questions both Sibyl and herself. Creator:
https://chataboutheroesrp.fandom.com/wiki/Precognitive_Visions
https://cogling.fandom.com/wiki/Cognitive_Linguistics:Community_Portal
https://guildopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Precognitive
https://list.fandom.com/wiki/Unsolved_problems_in_cognitive_science
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https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Cognitive_subroutine
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https://steins-gate.fandom.com/wiki/Steins;Gate_-_The_Sagacious_Wisdom_of_Cognitive_Computing
https://witchesofeastend.fandom.com/wiki/Precognitive_Dreaming
Steins;Gate: Soumei Eichi no Cognitive Computing -- -- White Fox -- 4 eps -- Visual novel -- Slice of Life Comedy -- Steins;Gate: Soumei Eichi no Cognitive Computing Steins;Gate: Soumei Eichi no Cognitive Computing -- Anime shorts created in collaboration with IBM. -- -- Episode 1: Cooking-hen -- Episode 2: Navigation-hen -- Episode 3: Fashion-hen -- Episode 4: Kaigi-hen -- ONA - Oct 15, 2014 -- 85,844 7.41
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cognitive_biases
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Cognitive_models
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https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Cognitive_science
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:WhatLinksHere&target=Category:Cognitive+science
Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination
Amir Hussain (cognitive scientist)
Anchoring (cognitive bias)
Applied Cognitive Psychology
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Beck's cognitive triad
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Biologically inspired cognitive architectures
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Canine cognitive dysfunction
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Dalle Molle Institute for Semantic and Cognitive Studies
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Spanish Cognitive Linguistics Association
The Cognitive Rules
Topics in Cognitive Science
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