Download Evolution of Control-Related Mental Models

Evolution of Control-Related
Mental Models
Crystal A. Brandon
Brief Overview
• Cognitive and Brain systems that
support explicit, controlled problems
solving
• Brain regions that support controlled
problem solving and a sense of self
• Selection Characteristics that support an
evolutionary basis for controlled
problem solving
Implicit vs. Explicit Processes
• Implicit: neural, sensory, perceptual, and
cognitive systems that automatically captures
and processes information below the
individual’s awareness.
• Explicit: inhibition of heuristic-based
responding and the formation of conscious,
explicit representations of corresponding
information
The Central Executive
Time 1
Auditory
Spatial
Olfactory
Central Executive
Time 2
Attentional Control &
Information Manipulation
Kinesthetic
Visual
Gustatory
Auditory
Spatial
Olfactory
Central Executive
Attentional Control &
At Time 1 there is no specific
focus of attention, but at Time 2
attention is focused on a face,
which then becomes available to
conscious awareness.
Information Manipulation
Kinesthetic
Object
Visual
Face
Gustatory
The Central Executive &
Working Memory
• Important features of working memory.
• Differences in working memory capacity
• Performance on working memory tasks
• What is the connection between CE &
working memory?
Baddeley’s Slave System
• Baddeley and Hitch proposed:
Working memory is composed of the CE that controls
attentional allocation and two slave systems,
1. Phonological Loop
2. Visuospatial Sketch Pad
• Third slave system?
3. Episodic Buffer
Autonoetic Awareness &
Motivation to Control
• Semantic and episodic memory
• Noetic awareness & autonoetic
awareness
• Autonoetic awareness & Motivation to
Control
Prefrontal Cortex
Cognitive functions of
the prefrontal cortex
(Wheeler)
1.
2.
3.
Monitoring and integrating
patterns of information as
related to achievement of
goals
Attentional control and
inhibition of irrelevant
information
Episodic memory and selfawareness
Prefrontal Cortex &
Working Memory
• Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (Areas 9 & 46)
– Activated when goal achievement requires dealing with some
degree of novelty or conflict
– Involved in maintaining the task goal in mind, guiding the
sequencing of multiple problem solving, and suppressing
interfering external or internal distractions
• Anterior Cingulated Cortex (Area 24)
– Activated in situations that involve conflicting information during
problem-solving
– Activation of the ACC results in attentional shifts to working
memory, allowing the individual to choose the appropriate
alternative to solve the problem
Episodic Memory &
Autonoetic Awareness
• Right prefrontal cortex is involved in the
retrieval of episodic memories and in selfawareness.
• Injuries to the right prefrontal cortex
Ex. Patient KC
Selection Characteristics
1. Concerns the frequency and predictability of
information change; adaptation to change
involves the operation of the central executive
2. Self-awareness and the ability to do mental time
travel
3. Potential for a co-evolutionary arms race that
would favor brain and cognitive evolution
4. Concerns whether the three forms of selection
pressures are substantially different comparing
humans to apes and other primates
Climatic Conditions
1. Time scale of climatic changes; explicit
recall of climatic patterns
2. Not Clear!
3. Climatic variation does not fit conditions
normally associated with an arms race
4. Other primates did not undergo the same
changes as humans in the same climate
Ecological Conditions
1. Hunting involves sustained attention, a main
feature of executive control
2. Planning a hunt allows projection of one’s self
into the future
3. Hunting entails a predator-prey relationship,
competition for supremacy
4. Humans are set apart from other primates in
their ability to think abstractly understand the
essence of other species
Social Conditions
1. Group-level competition involves unpredictable
changes in information and behavioral patterns
2. Scenarios in which people project themselves
are most often social
3. Within species social competition
4. Understanding of the self as a social being,
language, and theory of mind are uniquely
human social-cognitive models
Human Brain Evolution
• Expansion Views
– Slightly larger human prefrontal cortex than great apes
– Increased neural connection and surface area of the
prefrontal cortex
• Reorganization Views
– Evidence for change in organization of the anterior
cingulate cortex and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
– Both in combination are important for maintaining
attentional focus, controlled problem solving, and
involved in self-awareness.
Conscious-Psychological Evolution
Cognition
1. Autonoetic Mental
Model
2. “Perfect World” view
3. Consciousness
4. Self-awareness
5. Mental time travel
6. Problem solving
7. Controlled Attention &
Working Memory
8. Feelings, positive and
negative
Brain
1. Expansion of the
prefrontal cortex
2. Reorganization of the
anterior cingulate cortex
and dorsolateral
prefrontal cortex
3. Interconnection of
cognitive and brain
systems
Self-awareness &
Theory of Mind
• Theory of Mind – the ability to attribute
mental states to oneself and others and to
understand that others have beliefs, desires,
and intentions that are different from one’s
own
• Co-evolving relationship between selfawareness and theory of mind
Relation of Conscious-Psychological
Mechanisms & Motivation to Control
• Self-efficacy: the belief that one is capable
of performing in a certain manner or
attaining certain goals
• Conscious-psychological mechanisms that
aim to maintain self-efficacy
– Attributing failure to external causes
– Attributing others failure to internal causes