On Tue, 22 Oct 1996, John Zavacki wrote:
> I wonder if we can honestly call the brain a "limited capacity information
> processing device" without having its information content rebel? We come
> into the interesting area of levels of complexity here. In the case of
> the brain, we are dealing hypothetically with limits. We can estimate the
> number of cells, connections, and transactions per unit time, but we are
> not yet aware of the maxima of hologrammatic representations and their
> storage potential for multiple gestalts within the same unit.
I don't think these limits are hypothetical, and the cognitive sciences
have developed the concept of working memory space, which is presumably a
limit. Second, if you dont want to buy the limited capacity part, you
might want to consider that the brain's function, at least as we know it,
is reductionist. That is it functions to reduce the amount of information
needed to survive, sensorily, perceptually and cognitively. I don't think
this is really contested in psychology, unless there is stuff more
recently.
To make this quick, the brain/mind creates a set of perceived
consistencies in the world, and one of those sets is about ourselves,
BECAUSE, we cannot make sense of ourselves or the world without
recognizing these consistencies. Our personality is a set of constructed
consistencies (though not accurate). For example, people will use the term
honest to describe themselves (a perception), but will behave sometimes
contrary to that. The explanation is that if we did not percieve some
continuity, some pattern, howveer wrong, we would not function.
Hence, superstitious behaviour (in the psych. sense) cognitive dissonance
factors to preserve consistency perceptions.
Robert Bacal - CEO, Institute For Cooperative Communication
Internet Address - dbt359@freenet.mb.ca
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. (204) 888-9290
Join us at our Resource Centre at: http://www.winnipeg.freenet.mb.ca/~dbt359
--Robert Bacal <dbt359@freenet.mb.ca>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>