The Illusion of Conscious Thought

BackgroundSocial marketing is a tool used in the domain of public health for prevention and public education. Because injury prevention is a priority public health issue in British Columbia, Canada, a 3-year consultation was undertaken to understand public attitudes towards preventable injuries and mount a province-wide social marketing campaign aimed at adults aged 25–55 years.MethodsPublic response to the campaign was assessed through an online survey administered to a regionally representative sample of adults within the target age group between 1 and 4 times per year on an ongoing basis since campaign launch. A linear regression model was applied to a subset of this data (n=5186 respondents) to test the association between exposure to the Preventable campaign and scores on perceived preventability of injuries as well as conscious forethought applied to injury-related behaviours.ResultsCampaign exposure was significant in both models (preventability: β=0.27, 95% CI 0.20 to 0.35; conscious thought: β=0.24, 95% CI 0.13 to 0.35), as was parental status (preventability: β=0.12, 95% CI 0.03 to 0.21; conscious thought: β=0.18, 95% CI 0.06 to 0.30). Exposure to the more recent campaign slogan was predictive of 0.47 higher score on conscious thought (95% CI 0.27 to 0.66).DiscussionThis study provides some evidence that the Preventable approach is having positive effect on attitudes and behaviours related to preventable injuries in the target population. Future work will seek to compare these data to other jurisdictions as the Preventable social marketing campaign expands to other parts of Canada.

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The Dialogic Nature of Semiotic Tools in Facilitating Conscious Thought: Peirce’s and Vygotskii’s Models

Model-Based Reasoning in Science and Technology - Studies in Applied Philosophy, Epistemology and Rational Ethics ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-32722-4_12 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 193-216

Author(s):

Donna E. West

Keyword(s):

Conscious Thought

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Similar Effects for Resting State and Unconscious Thought: Both Solve Multi-attribute Choices Better Than Conscious Thought

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01360 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

Author(s):

Fengpei Hu ◽

Xiang Yu ◽

Huadong Chu ◽

Lei Zhao ◽

Uyi Jude ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Resting State ◽

Unconscious Thought ◽

Conscious Thought ◽

Better Than

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Conscious thought as simulation of behaviour and perception

Trends in Cognitive Sciences ◽

10.1016/s1364-6613(02)01913-7 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 6 (6) ◽

pp. 242-247 ◽

Cited By ~ 319

Author(s):

Germund Hesslow

Keyword(s):

Conscious Thought

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Sports, Brain, Body, and the World

Sport ◽

10.7312/columbia/9780231176767.003.0002 ◽

2016 ◽

Author(s):

Jay Schulkin

Keyword(s):

Social Context ◽

Social Contact ◽

Conscious Thought ◽

The World ◽

Muscle Memory ◽

The Brain ◽

Cognitive Event

Sport as a practice and cognitive event is largely action-oriented: there is thought in action, even if it is not particularly conscious thought. Habits codified in the motor regions of the brain underlie action. Muscle memory is fundamental; it is a metaphor for the organization of action. Importantly, neurotransmitters such dopamine are tied to the organization of action, salience, cognition, and, perhaps, the prediction of events. Diverse regions of the brain (e.g., the amygdala) and neuropeptides (oxytocin) are linked to social contact and play-related behaviors, and these same regions are crucial to a broad-based assessment of social context and meaning.

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