Event overview
As part of The Whitehead Lectures Jonathan Smallwood, University of York, will present a framework to understand the different component processes that are engaged when we self-generate thought based on recent cognitive and neuroscientific evidence.
ABSTRACT: Even when deprived of salient sensory input, the human mind is rarely idle. Instead it often engages in thoughts and feelings that have little relationship to the surrounding environment. These self-generated thoughts, such as occur when our mind wanders or when we daydream, occupy
almost half of waking thought suggesting they are a core element of human cognition. The current talk will present a framework to understand the different component processes that are engaged when we self-generate thought based on recent cognitive and neuroscientific evidence. Furthermore, it will argue that one function of our capacity for
self-generated thought is to allow us the opportunity to make choices other than those dictated by the external environment, a capacity known as freedom from immediacy.
BIO: For the last fifteen years Jonathan has tried to understand how the brain self-generates experiences that do not arise directly from immediate perceptual input, common examples of these are the states of daydreaming or mind-wandering. He completed both his undergraduate and PhD work on this topic at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow in the late 1990s. Since then he worked as a researcher in institutions in several different countries including Canada, Germany and the USA. He uses the tools of experience sampling, in conjunction with those of cognitive neuroscience, including EEG and fMRI, to probe the neural correlates of the experience. Currently he works as a reader at the University of York.
www.gold.ac.uk/cccc/whitehead/
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 13 Nov 2013 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm |
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