The Correlation between Thinking and Consciousness
It inherent to a human being to have the ability to reason and think, but how is it exactly that we go about doing this? Is thinking merely due to input and output, but if so then how come a person can build on previous knowledge? Where is this knowledge stored? Can we "max out" our brain or is it elastic? And is intelligence past knowledge or is that something we come programmed with? We cannot hope to answer all these questions, but it is interesting to note how if these questions were to be asked to five different people, their responses would be different because of their previous knowledge. They have all learned differently, and have all learned to think differently. All these
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To understand this, we need to understand what the brain is made up of. The brain is "Four pounds and several thousand miles of interconnected nerve cells (about 100 billion)" that control movement, sensations, thoughts, emotions(3). The brain itself consists of trillions of neurons which are all interconnected and all transmit signals at an astonishing rate. We then have to understand how things are understood by the brain. It all begins with an image or a distal stimulus. A distal stimulus is any object that is in the world that a human being can perceive. Then that distal stimulus becomes a proximal stimulus which is the retinal image of the book. Finally, the book becomes a percept, which is where your brain recognizes the object as a book(2). The percept is what you see and in the future becomes your interpretation of the same object. Now you know what a book looks like and if you come across a similar looking object, your brain perceives that also as a book. As a child, this is how you perceive the world. Your parents hold an object in front of you, repeat its name and try to have you make the same sounds. Then they show you how it is used. It is through this form of association that a child learns what a bottle is and what they can do to get one. This is also found through conditioning, which is one theory of how …show more content…
What indicates that a person is learning and is it possible to measure the amount of material that a person learns everyday and does thinking indicate learning? We've been thinking about consciousness and trying to understand if how closely learning and thinking are related. Our brains are in a constant state of consciousness. We are constantly alert to what is going on around us and we are constantly observing. It would be impossible to measure the amount of information that the brain absorbs, but as we realize its elastic potential, it makes us see how great the pursuit of knowledge really is. Our brains, unlike animals, have an incredible ability to reason, think, and pursue ideas. Our thoughts can be independent of our actions and we have the ability to critically observe the world around us. It is this gift that we are given as humans and it reinforces the idea that a mind is a terrible thing to waste.
References
1) Harris, Richard J, Leahey, Thomas H. Learning and Cognition. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
2) Galotti, Kathleen. Cognitive Psychology In and Out of the Laboratory. New York: Wadsworth Publishing Co.,1999.
3)Brain Source A great site to find out about learning, brain disorders, damaged brains and the effects of stress on the brain http://www.brainsource.com/amazing%20brain.htm 4)What is
Thinking is just the capability to understand and analyze everything around you and make you capable
The World of Psychology. (2002). A Pearson Education Company. Boston, MA: Samuel Wood & Ellen Green Wood p. 593
Because of Canada’s boost in the industrial economy and its status in World War II, job options were abundant. By 1942 there was a full employment as hundreds and thousands of Canadian men and women found work in war industries.
In this marriage Katherine has no power. She is verbally abused by Petruchio and denied what she needs. As said in the article,“ Kate is transformed after enduring the irrational world of Petruchio 's country house, where she is denied food, sleep, and fashionable accoutrements of her social class” (Karen 263). Katherine is tamed and she praises and respects him now that she is tamed. At the end of the play, when Katherine and Petruchio are at the wedding, Katherine is the only woman out of all at the wedding that actually listens to her husband when they all call their wives. Katherine ends up giving them a speech and telling them to respect their husband: “Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper, Thy head thy sovereign, one that cares for thee And for thy maintenance commits his body” (Shakespear V. ii . 162-164). She respects who he is and all the work that he does for her. Petruchio has the power in marriage because she respects him and his
Gross, R (2010). Psychology: The science of mind and behaviour. 6th ed. London: Hodder Education. p189.
Sternberg, R. J. (1999). Cognitive psychology (2nd ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers
Cognitive theory is concerned with the development of a person’s thought process. Cognitive theory influences how one understands and interacts with the world. Cognitive Theorist Paiget, proposed an idea that served information on the development to account for the steps and sequence of children’s intellect differently than adults. This paper will compare and contrast the 3 cognitivist theories: Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory, Vygotsky’s Socio Cultural Cognitive Theory and the Information Processing Approach in Kermit and the Keyboard.
Walkup. (2008). Learning and Cognitive Development. In B. a. Kay, Advanced Early Years (pp. 132 - 149). Harlow: Heinemann.
(2004) Psychology (2nd European edition). Essex: Pearson Education Limited Gross, R (1996).Psychology, The Science of mind and behaviour (3rd Ed). London: Hodder & Stoughton
Learners have shown that the acquisition of knowledge is a two-input contribution were an individual must strive to make sense of fresh information by actively implementing prior knowledge to be able to understand a new subject. The reason why no certainty can be entirely drawn from imagination or intuition is because both ways of knowing base off their processing of information in the same way; with the help of previous knowledge the mind has already acquired somewhere else. Therefore ideas and thoughts that claim to be born out of imagination and intuition turn out to be a mere hybrid interpretation of previously processed ideas. Intuition and imagination provide juxtaposition because even though they're supposed to be ideals defined by creativity
Keil, F. C. and Wilson, R. A. (1999) The MIT Encyclopedia of the Cognitive Sciences. Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, England: The MIT Press
In philosophy, the majority of studies relate to the mind. Whether it is the main subject or just a helpful side topic to move the main subject along, this term is used often. Defining the term mind is difficult, and is a topic that is popularly studied and debated among philosophers. These qualified and knowledgeable people try to determine whether or not the mind is who people are or if they are their body or a combination. Although they have learned many helpful truths and defined other useful terms, the debate is still evident in the philosophical community today. Learning about how the mind relates to the body, and whether the mind and the brain are the same thing are other ways to look at the many options of how to discern
Ideas are what the mind is thinking of when something happens. Human minds know ideas not objects. George Berkeley discusses idea from the eye of the perceiver. We perceive ordinary objects such as houses, mountains and etc. We perceive only ideas therefore implying that ordinary objects are ideas. Through objects and things we are able to experience having ideas. The ideas represent external material objects which allows us to perceive them. According to Berkeley "esse est percipi" which translates to “to be is to be perceived" (Stanford, 2014). The existence of an idea cannot be separated from what is being perceived. If an idea or object is not perceived, then it does not exist. By sight I have the thoughts of light and hues with their few degrees and varieties. By touch I see and feel how hard and delicate, warmth and chilly, movement and resistant something is. Anything that we cannot perceive with our senses doesn 't exist. The soul cannot be perceived. However I wouldn 't go so far as to say "realize and recognize its presence." I think that instead of taking the literal approach that it could be extended to things that we do not yet know are there and yet are capable of being perceived "one day."
Boyd, D., Wood, E.G., Wood, S.E. (2014, 2011, 2008). Mastering the world of psychology. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. 128-129, 329-330, 335-340. Print.
Balota, D. A. and Marsh, E.J. Cognitive psychology. Key Readings. (2004) Hove: East Sussex: Psychology Press.