Comments on: Careful Analysis vs. Automatic Processing

By: Ashana M

Ashana M — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 03:38:21 +0000

I find automatic processing allows me to access (and analyze) a great deal more information, and that is its main advantage. I can only keep a very small number of specific examples in mind when I am thinking effortfully (perhaps 4 or 5). I see the difference between automatic and effortful processing as being more about inductive vs. deductive reasoning. If I need to examine examples for patterns, automatic processing is the way to go. If I need to follow a chain of processing, effortful processing is more effective. Ideally, the two ways of thinking complement each other.

By: Ilya Kipnis

Ilya Kipnis — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 04:59:53 +0000

But when you have the luxury to think about a problem, in my opinion, you should always take that luxury to come up with a well-thought-out answer.

This is why I am in such favor of “take-home” programming assessments for technical roles, and not having to be put on the spot to solve ad-hoc brain benders or parrot out concepts and/or definitions from classes you may have had several years ago.

By: john

john — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:34:38 +0000

In reply to john. I meant Pavlov himself would see the relation (or, Pavlov himself would not not see the relation).

By: john

john — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:09:10 +0000

Have you read Ivan Pavlov’s work? The common thought of “conditioned” (vs conditional) reflex seems to be a mistranslation*, leading to people seeing “automatic” responses as a dumbing down of the animal. But, I think his interpretation was that it was actually an increase of awareness/intelligence, and that the animal recognized certain conditions as temporary and responded accordingly. Perhaps the average person learning about Pavlov in high school would see little relation between your chess example and a dog responding to a bell, but I doubt Pavlov himself would.

*In English, “condition” is a homonym that can mean “state of being” or “stipulation,” but I think each definition has its own word in Russian, one with latin origins and one with slavic. With this in mind, I don’t understand how such a translation error could occur.