It is fair to say that during one’s
thought process on a memory or prospections towards future, one does not
actively think about what they are thinking until they get to the final end of
the thought. That is to say that while we are thinking, the end goal of that
thought is what we care for the most, disregarding the steps we need to take to
get there until we invest conscious awareness of the task at hand. An
interesting article published by the New
York Times titled, “We Aren’t Built to Live in the Moment” by Martin E.P.
Seligman and John Tierney suggests that our immediate thoughts and moods are
not that immediate because our subconscious mind has us running through
prospections of the future to assist in trying to figure out how we feel in the
present moment.
The article explains how studies
cast onto 500 citizens of Chicago, who were asked to record their immediate
thoughts and moods throughout the day. The study showed how the people were
focusing on the future, rather than the past, when focusing on a certain
thought. Those that thought about the past, only thought about it in order to
consider what will happen to them in the future. It is intuitive to understand
that when we are planning and organized about what we wish to get down, we are
calm and happy. The reverse of this notion would be correct as well, though it
is important to note the idea of prospection as is influenced based on past
experiences. A happy past will lead for better views of the future, whereas a
traumatic past leads less, if any, positive thoughts on the future. The article
further explains how behaviorists dub the explanation of learning as repetition
and reinforcement in order for one to engrain certain habits to long term
memory. Furthermore, Seligman emphasizes how the long term memory of the brain
actively rewrites our past as it conforms to the context we are presented with.
This exploration brings researchers
in understanding how humans layout and plan their lives. Essentially the goal
is to prevent the idea of prospection to reach a morbid level. We clearly do not
want anyone planning out their own deaths, let alone executing the plan. It is
fair to mention that less than 1% of the tested group from the Chicago study
had thoughts involving death in general. It is interesting how the fluidity of
the brain and its long-term memory allow for one to effectively create a
prospection of the future. That being said, it comes to question how one can
essentially alter certain memories based on sheer focus on the past in order to
plan for the future. Alteration of the conscious thought process can allow for
a change in long-term encoded memory, thus effectively allowing one to change
their beliefs and conform them in order to lead a better future. Is it fair to
say that the brain is constantly rewiring itself for the safety of the
individual? Is it a defense mechanism we have to keep ourselves in “sane”
manner of living?
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/19/opinion/sunday/why-the-future-is-always-on-your-mind.html
ReplyDeleteBecause many theories of Psychology focus on the past to explain behavior, it was very interesting to learn about the future playing an equally, if not more, important role. It was fascinating to read about the importance of prospection in our immediate thoughts and moods.
I think the study’s findings that people think about the future rather than the past when focusing on thoughts is an important step to further exploration. Nevertheless, vast research is still needed in this area. I think that past is still an important determinant of one’s thoughts and emotions, including mechanisms like rumination. The article discusses the ability of long-term memories to be changed and restructured, which is an important and fascinating factor. In addition, human cognitive biases in processing, encoding, and recalling information suggest that memories should be interpreted with caution. It was also interesting to see the article’s connection to our lecture material, including the function of the medial temporal lobe.
This article is very interesting; I had never considered how consistently our prospections influence our current emotions. If the authors of the article claim people only spend time thinking about the past to consider what will happen to them in the future, I wonder if they explain fixation on emotionally-charged events. By extension, I wonder how the authors would explain the meta-cognitive emotional processing that we discussed in lecture. This stage of emotional regulation requires reflection on past activities, perhaps without an explicit focus on the future. The article does bring up the possibility of prospections reaching a morbid level, but I am also curious about the opposite: our retrospections reaching a morbid level, such as the flashbacks that are characteristic of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
ReplyDeleteFinally, I would like to raise a quick point about the subject group from Chicago. The fact that only 1% of this group had thoughts involving death could be a reflection of culture, not human cognitive processes. It is frequently argued that in the United States – and other Western countries – the population avoids the idea of death, whereas other cultures show no such aversion. The pattern found by the researchers may not be a way that human beings avoid a morbid level of prospection, especially if the pattern is not replicable across cultures.
I think this idea of thinking of the past very interesting as well as confusing. It makes sense that we would consider the past to make future plans and that in the moment we think of the potential outcomes in the future it will lead to. I wonder how this theory applies to amnestic that cannot remember there past, or a past that would be beneficial to there future decision making. It is find of crazy how are minds are always changing the way we interpret or remember things. Especially when you are trying to recall a memory or recall is so many times that the details all become so fuzzy and soon start making the most random unrelated things up. I wonder if these outlooks on the future from positive previous life experiences and or negative previous life experiences are what make pessimists and optimists?
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, extremely intriguing article choice. Secondly, it was interesting and confusing at the same time to learn that people opted to think about the future in order to analyze their present emotions. I would expect people to think about the past instead however, this brings a point in how the unconscious mind is where prospection occurs. We talked about in class how our brain is always reconstructing what happened in the past and even how it plays a role in dreams. I think that the focus should equally be presented in how humans use predictions of the future. The article mentions what happens behind a wandering mind and how during that time it is thinking about the future. I have never thought about that and most people don't analyze their own thoughts after zoning out. It is hard not to believe that we are wired this way for the simple aspect of safety. I would love to look more into how past life experiences impact the outlook people have for the future. Of course we know how crucial the medial temporal lobe is for memory, but how would a damaged medial temporal lobe and prospection look?
ReplyDeleteThis was a very thought-provoking read. It's not entirely surprising that the brain does more than simply store information; hardly anything about the brain is static, and long-term memory didn't strike me as a part of human cognition that would deviate from that. While I would've expected people to be as focused on the past as we are on the future, reading further, it became clear that, with the brain's subconscious ruminating over our past for us, it is completely reasonable that we would spend most of our conscious thought pondering the future. It was heartening to find that most of these future-oriented thoughts were of an optimistic nature. However, the fact that our brain is not only mulling over old information, but also rewriting it, was harder to accept. The ability of prospection proves to be a unique asset - like the article said, the point of memory is to improve our ability to face the present and the future. And after all, if we can change our perception of the past, then we can in turn change the course of our future behaviors and decisions before we even have to make them.
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