A social psychologist illuminates cognition

2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 673-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amir Raz ◽  
Kim L. Norman
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Neural Correlates Of Consciousness ◽  
Social Psychologist ◽  
Bona Fide ◽  
Post Hoc

Sprinkled with humor, social psychology illuminates cognition in Wegner's beautifully written and cleverly crafted book. However, scantily exploiting such themes as psychopathology, development, and neural correlates of consciousness, Wegner's account does not fully project into cognitive neuroscience. Broaching the topic of self-regulation, we outline neurocognitive data supplementing the notion that voluntariness is perhaps more post hoc ascriptions than bona fide introspection.

Global-workspace theory

2019 ◽  
pp. 96-115
Author(s):  
Peter Carruthers
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Neural Correlates Of Consciousness ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Global Workspace ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Global Workspace Theory

The present chapter outlines and defends the empirical case supporting global-workspace theory as the best account of the functional/neural correlates of consciousness, at least. The chapter explains the theoretical background to global-workspace theory and the evidence that supports it. It shows how the theory is well-supported by raft of findings in psychology and cognitive neuroscience, as well as by recent experiments tracking conscious contents in the brain. The chapter also replies to a variety of critiques and alleged forms of counter-evidence. It concludes by considering whether the fact that much of this evidence has been collected in work with nonhuman animals begs the consciousness-question that forms our topic (arguing that it does not).

scholarly journals Integrating Models of Self-Regulation

2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
pp. 319-345
Author(s):  
Michael Inzlicht ◽  
Kaitlyn M. Werner ◽  
Julia L. Briskin ◽  
Brent W. Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Personal Goals ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Human Functioning ◽  
Vast Literature ◽  
The Many ◽  
Level Of Analysis

Self-regulation is a core aspect of human functioning that helps facilitate the successful pursuit of personal goals. There has been a proliferation of theories and models describing different aspects of self-regulation both within and outside of psychology. All of these models provide insights about self-regulation, but sometimes they talk past each other, make only shallow contributions, or make contributions that are underappreciated by scholars working in adjacent areas. The purpose of this article is to integrate across the many different models in order to refine the vast literature on self-regulation. To achieve this objective, we first review some of the more prominent models of self-regulation coming from social psychology, personality psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. We then integrate across these models based on four key elements—level of analysis, conflict, emotion, and cognitive functioning—specifically identifying points of convergence but also points of insufficient emphasis. We close with prescriptions for future research.

scholarly journals Integrating Models of Self-Regulation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Inzlicht ◽  
Kaitlyn M. Werner ◽  
Julia Leah Briskin ◽  
Brent Roberts
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Personal Goals ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Human Functioning ◽  
Vast Literature ◽  
The Many ◽  
Level Of Analysis

Self-regulation is a core aspect of human functioning that helps facilitate the successful pursuit of personal goals. There has been a proliferation of theories and models describing different aspects of self-regulation both within and outside of psychology. All of these models provide insights about self-regulation, but sometimes talk past each other, make only shallow contributions, or make contributions that are under-appreciated by scholars working in adjacent areas. The purpose of this article is to integrate across the many different models in order to refine the vast literature on self-regulation. To achieve this objective, we first review some of the more prominent models of self-regulation coming from social psychology, personality psychology, and cognitive neuroscience. We then integrate across these models based on four key elements—level of analysis, conflict, emotion, and cognitive functioning—specifically identifying points of convergence, but also points of insufficient emphasis. We close with prescriptions for future research.

scholarly journals Conscious Perception: Time for an Update?

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moti Salti ◽  
Asaf Harel ◽  
Sébastien Marti
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Dynamic Process ◽  
Alternative Hypothesis ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Conscious Perception ◽  
Neural Correlates Of Consciousness ◽  
Stimulus Saliency ◽  
Perception Time

Understanding the neural mechanisms underlying conscious perception has become a central endeavor in cognitive neuroscience. In theories of conscious perception, a stimulus gaining conscious access is usually considered as a discrete neuronal event to be characterized in time or space, sometimes referred to as a conscious “episode.” Surprisingly, the alternative hypothesis according to which conscious perception is a dynamic process has rarely been considered. Here, we discuss this hypothesis and its implications. We show how it can reconcile inconsistent empirical findings on the timing of the neural correlates of consciousness and make testable predictions. According to this hypothesis, a stimulus is consciously perceived for as long as it is recoded to fit an ongoing stream composed of all other perceived stimuli. We suggest that this “updating” process is governed by at least three factors (1) context, (2) stimulus saliency, and (3) observers' goals. Finally, this framework forces us to reconsider the typical distinction between conscious and unconscious information processing.

scholarly journals Contemplative Neuroscience as an Approach to Volitional Consciousness

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Mental States ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Coordination Dynamics ◽  
Intentional Causation ◽  
Contemplative Neuroscience

This chapter presents a methodological approach to volitional consciousness for cognitive neuroscience based on studying the voluntary self-generation and self-regulation of mental states in meditation. Called contemplative neuroscience, this approach views attention, awareness, and emotion regulation as flexible and trainable skills, and works with experimental participants who have undergone training in contemplative practices designed to hone these skills. Drawing from research on the dynamical neural correlates of contemplative mental states and theories of large-scale neural coordination dynamics, I argue for the importance of global system causation in brain activity and present an “interventionist” approach to intentional causation.

scholarly journals Luminance and contrast of images in the THINGS database

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William J Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Close Agreement ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Luminance Contrast ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Natural Images ◽  
Technical Details ◽  
Post Hoc

The THINGS database is a freely available stimulus set that has the potential to facilitate the generation of theory that bridges multiple areas within cognitive neuroscience. The database consists of 26,107 high quality digital photos that are sorted into 1,854 concepts. While a valuable resource, relatively few technical details relevant to the design of studies in cognitive neuroscience have been described. We present an analysis of two key low-level properties of THINGS images, luminance and luminance contrast. These image statistics are known to influence common physiological and neural correlates of perceptual and cognitive processes. In general, we found that the distributions of luminance and contrast are in close agreement with the statistics of natural images reported previously. However, we found that image concepts are separable in their luminance and contrast: we show that luminance and contrast alone are sufficient to classify images into their concepts with above chance accuracy. We describe how these factors may confound studies using the THINGS images, and suggest simple controls that can be implemented a priori or post-hoc. We discuss the importance of using such natural images as stimuli in psychological research.

scholarly journals Cognitive neuroscience of self-regulation failure

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 132-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd F. Heatherton ◽  
Dylan D. Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Self Regulation

scholarly journals Can binocular rivalry reveal neural correlates of consciousness?

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1641) ◽  
pp. 20130211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randolph Blake ◽  
Jan Brascamp ◽  
David J. Heeger
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Binocular Rivalry ◽  
Neural Activity ◽  
Neural Correlates ◽  
Causal Link ◽  
Neural Dynamics ◽  
Perceptual Decision Making ◽  
Neural Correlate ◽  
Neural Correlates Of Consciousness ◽  
Neural Correlate Of Consciousness

This essay critically examines the extent to which binocular rivalry can provide important clues about the neural correlates of conscious visual perception. Our ideas are presented within the framework of four questions about the use of rivalry for this purpose: (i) what constitutes an adequate comparison condition for gauging rivalry's impact on awareness, (ii) how can one distinguish abolished awareness from inattention, (iii) when one obtains unequivocal evidence for a causal link between a fluctuating measure of neural activity and fluctuating perceptual states during rivalry, will it generalize to other stimulus conditions and perceptual phenomena and (iv) does such evidence necessarily indicate that this neural activity constitutes a neural correlate of consciousness? While arriving at sceptical answers to these four questions, the essay nonetheless offers some ideas about how a more nuanced utilization of binocular rivalry may still provide fundamental insights about neural dynamics, and glimpses of at least some of the ingredients comprising neural correlates of consciousness, including those involved in perceptual decision-making.

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