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.modeling Learning through observation and imitation of the behavior of otherindividuals and the consequences of that behavior.Durand 2-53prepared learning Certain associations can be learned more readily than othersbecause this ability has been adaptive for evolution.Cognitive Science and the UnconsciousAdvances in cognitive science have revolutionized our conceptions of theunconscious.We are not aware of much of what goes on inside our heads, but ourunconscious is not necessarily the seething caldron of primitive emotional conflictsenvisioned by Freud.Rather, we simply seem able to process and store information,and act on it, without having the slightest awareness of what the information is or whywe are acting on it (Bargh & Chartrand, 1999).Is this surprising? Consider brieflythese two examples.Lawrence Weiskrantz (1992) describes a phenomenon called blind sight orunconscious vision.He relates the case of a young man who, for medical reasons, hada small section of his visual cortex (the center for the control of vision in the brain)surgically removed.Though the operation was considered a success, the young manbecame blind in both eyes.Later, during routine tests, a physician raised his hand tothe left of the patient who, much to the shock of his doctors, reached out and touchedit.Subsequently, scientists determined that he not only could reach accurately forobjects but also could distinguish among objects and perform most of the functionsusually associated with sight.Yet, when asked about his abilities, he would say,  Icouldn t see anything, not a darn thing, and that all he was doing was guessing.The phenomenon in this case is associated with real brain damage.Much moreinteresting, from the point of view of psychopathology, is that the same thing seems tooccur in healthy individuals who have been hypnotized (Hilgard, 1992; Kihlstrom,1992); that is, normal individuals, provided with hypnotic suggestions that they areblind, are able to function visually but have no awareness or memory of their visualDurand 2-54abilities.This condition, which illustrates a process of dissociation between behaviorand consciousness, is the basis of the dissociative disorders discussed in Chapter 5.A second example, more relevant to psychopathology, is called implicit memory(Craighead et al., 1997; Graf, Squire, & Mandler, 1984; Kihlstrom, Barnhardt, &Tataryn, 1992; McNally, 1999; Schacter, Chiu, & Ochsner, 1993).Implicit memory isapparent when someone clearly acts on the basis of things that have happened in thepast but can t remember the events.(A good memory for events is called explicitmemory.) But implicit memory can be selective for only certain events orcircumstances.Clinically, we have already seen in Chapter 1 an example of implicitmemory at work in the story of Anna O., the classic case first described by Breuer andFreud (1895/1957) to demonstrate the existence of the unconscious.It was only aftertherapy that Anna O.remembered events surrounding her father s death and theconnection of these events to her paralysis.Thus, Anna O. s behavior (occasionalparalysis) was evidently connected to implicit memories of her father s death.Manyscientists have concluded that Freud s speculations on the nature and structure of theunconscious went beyond the evidence, but the existence of unconscious processeshas since been demonstrated, and we must take them into account as we studypsychopathology.What methods do we have for studying the unconscious? In the Stroop color-naming paradigm, subjects are shown a variety of words, each printed in a differentcolor.They are shown these words quickly and asked to name the colors in whichthey are printed while ignoring their meaning [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]