Question

1. Debate the idea that consciousness is an epiphenomenon, or byproduct, of observable behavior.

2. Define and provide examples of controlled and automatic processes and relate them to the study of consciousness. Describe how activities can transition from controlled to automatic processes and the conditions under which an automatic process might become a controlled process.

please anwser for me

Answer 1

Consciousness is simply the awareness or knowledge of one's surrounding and actions. Its a covert process and its working is evident from the overt/ displayed behavior.

Whenvever you find a person displaying behavior or speech which is indicative of his awareness of the premise he is acting or speaking about. We conclude he is a conscious person.

Being an abstract process it can be construed only through its overt display.

Having said , the observable behavior can be said to be a concomitant of consciousness. But to say that consciousness is a by product of observable behaviour seems a ambiguous one.

The second part of the question enquires into the transition of automatic to controlled consciousness.

A novice learning a car . Is all focused and consciousness about every passing vehicle, honking horn, vehicles turning, gear shifting , and the plethora that comes with driving.

As the person hones his driving skills his controlled process gradually shifts to automatic one. The finess with which the person will shift gears,chat to his co-passenger, drive with a considerable speed, can considerably ignore the honking horns, we can construe that the person has moved from a controlled to an automatic process .

Automatic process seems like the ones which are not demanding any conscious effort from the person. While controlled are the ones where the person seems all emmersed and focused about.

now lets look into the premise of an automatic process turning into a controlled one

Suppose this person who has now honed the skill of car driving is manueuvering his car and encounters speeding cars and vehicles around him and is just saved from an accident.

Immediately the process will shift from automatic to controlled. He will stop taking his skills for granted and will now be conscious about the road ahead.