AWARENESS
IS AN AUTOMATIC PROCESS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS
Ali Riza SARAL
Complex dynamic tasks are frequently formed of repetitive similar events[2]
like driving a car in long distance. The pilot of today’s aircraft, the air traffic controller,
the power plant operator, the anesthesiologist: all must perceive and
comprehend a limited but large array of data which is often changing very
rapidly[3].
“Awareness is the automatic repetition of sensing a well-defined
environment with a pre-assigned procedure. Conscious awareness
occurs when awareness is not automatic.[1.1]” The automatic repetition is done by the
subconscious.
McGowan, Alastair’s article, COGNITIVE FACTORS MEDIATING
SITUATION AWARENESS, states “a distinction is necessary between conscious awareness
(explicit SA), and SA that can only be inferred from behaviour (implicit
SA).[2.2]” in his Thesis. Here,
‘Explicit awareness’ describes ‘conscious awareness’ and ‘implicit awareness’
describes ‘awareness’ as described in [1.1].
The term ‘implicit awareness’ does not describe what the phenomenon is
but it describes how it is seen from the outside. Also what is ‘implicit’ in awareness exists
also in ‘conscious awareness’ or ‘explicit awareness’ as coined by McGowan.
McGowan states further on “when a person has driven a car
for a period and cannot subsequently recall having done so[2.4]” and “ If a
person can drive a car effectively or safely, a complex dynamic task which
requires real-time adaptive behaviour, without conscious awareness then
conscious awareness cannot be deemed entirely necessary to the performance of
that task[2.4]”
He makes the distinction between “without conscious
awareness and conscious awareness”.
McGowan further elaborates as “ implicit awareness can be
said to be non-conscious in the same way that automatic processing
does not require conscious control[2.5]”
This is totally similar with my statement: “Awareness is a subconscious phenomenon. Subconscious has to be setup by
the conscious which decides the intentions and task lists so that the limits
and the content of the awareness are determined. Subconscious can be
conditioned by conscious[1.2]”
Stating that awareness is done by
subconscious yields the possibility of conditioning the subconscious by the
conscious as in :” In contrast to these classical theories, our
attentional sensitization model of unconscious information processing proposes
that unconscious processing is susceptible to executive control and is only
elicited if the cognitive system is configured accordingly.[5]” This may be viewed in the necessity of
awareness to be directed at some task-related goal[4].
Being an automatic process of the subconscious implies
that the observations on automatic processes applies also to ‘awareness’:
“The distinction between automatic and controlled processing: Controlled processing has a limited capacity
and depends on attention. Modifying an automatic process is more difficult than
modifying a controlled process, since automaticity is highly inaccessible to
conscious control, whereas by definition controlled processes are accessible
and controllable. [2]”
References:
[1] Saral, Ali R.; Consciousness
vs Awareness
[1.1] “Awareness
is the automatic repetition of sensing a well-defined environment with a
pre-assigned procedure. Conscious awareness occurs when awareness is
not automatic.[1.1]”
[1.2] “Awareness is a subconscious phenomenon. Subconscious has to be setup by
the conscious which decides the intentions and task lists so that the limits
and the content of the awareness are determined. Subconscious can be
conditioned by conscious[1]. Once the limits of the subject area is set
and the details of actions to be taken are determined the procedure is
activated repeatedly in the given subject area. This causes us to
‘feel’ a sense of awareness for a while. This process continues
either for a decay period of time or like every feeling ends as soon as this
awareness is explicitly addressed.”
[2]
McGowan, Alastair; COGNITIVE FACTORS MEDIATING SITUATION AWARENESS, Thesis submitted to Cardiff University, 2006
[2.1]
“distraction from focusing on known cognitive processes and their relationships
with factors in the world that are critical to the performance of complex
dynamic tasks”.
[2.2]
“a distinction is necessary between conscious awareness (explicit SA), and SA that
can only be inferred from behaviour (implicit SA).”
[2.3]
Implicit and explicit SA
Implicit awareness is that which is inferred
from behaviour, in human factors research this is usually within the context of
a task. In order to respond correctly to a given situation other than by chance
a person must have had awareness of relevant information at some level, since processing of that information is a logical necessity for performance of the
task. This is irrespective of whether or not the person is able to
consciously articulate the relevant information content that she has been
processing. Implicit awareness is therefore awareness deduced from behaviour observed in
relation to a task. Explicit awareness can be defined as occurring when
the operator can articulate information about a situation.
These two forms of awareness may be experienced differently and they may be
processed differently, although ultimately they both serve the same function of
performance on a task.
[2.4] Driving without awareness mode (DWAM; e.g.,
May & Gale, 1998) occurs when a person has driven a car for a period and
cannot subsequently recall having done so. If a person can drive a car
effectively or safely, a complex dynamic task which requires real-time adaptive
behaviour, without conscious awareness then conscious awareness cannot be
deemed entirely necessary to the performance of that task. It is therefore
proposed that explicit SA (conscious awareness) is not a necessary condition
for performance. This is not to say that conscious awareness cannot enhance
performance in certain situations (e.g., novel situations) but that explicit SA
is not always a prerequisite for adequate performance.
[2.5]
The distinction between implicit and explicit awareness is conceptually related to Shiffrin and Schnieder's (1977) distinction between automatic and
controlled processing. That is, implicit awareness can be said to be
non-conscious in the same way that automatic processing does not require
conscious control and hence conscious awareness. In contrast, explicit awareness equates with
conscious awareness and relates to controlled processing.
[3] Patrick, J. And James. N. (2004) A task-oriented perspective of
situation awareness.
“the awareness must necessarily be directed at
some task-related goal. That is, the situation is always within the context of
a task and its goal (Patrick & James, 2004)”.
[4] Endsley, M.
R. and Garland D. J (Eds.) (2000) THEORETICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF SITUATION
AWARENESS: A CRITICAL REVIEW, Situation Awareness Analysis and Measurement.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
[5] A short outline
and translation of
Markus Kiefer, “ Executive control over unconscious cognition: attentional
sensitization of unconscious information processing”, Front Hum Neurosci. 2012;
6: 61.
“Bilinçsiz süreçler
kasıtlı niyet olmadan harekete geçirilen otomatik süreçlerin tipik
örneğidir(Posner and Snyder, 1975).
Unconscious processes are prototypical examples of automatic processes, which are initiated without deliberate intention (Posner and Snyder, 1975).
Unconscious processes are prototypical examples of automatic processes, which are initiated without deliberate intention (Posner and Snyder, 1975).
Klasik
otomatiklik teorileri bu tür bilinçsiz otomatik süreçlerin yönetsel kontrol
mekanizmalarından bağımsız olarak tamamen en aşağıdan-yukarıya şekilde
oluştuğunu kabul eder.
Classical theories of automaticity
assume that such unconscious automatic processes occur in a purely bottom-up
driven fashion independent of executive control mechanisms.
Bu
klasik teorilere karşıt olarak, bilinçsiz bilgi işleme ile ilgili dikkatsel
duyarlaştırma modeli, bilinçsiz işleyişin yönetsel kontrolün etkisine açık
olduğunu ve, bunun yalnızca muhakemesel sistem ona uygun şeklide kurulmuş ise
mümkün olduğunu ileri sürer.
In contrast to these classical theories,
our attentional sensitization model of unconscious information processing
proposes that unconscious processing is susceptible to executive control and is
only elicited if the cognitive system is configured accordingly.”
