Alcock's Belief Engine

• Welcome to the BOL Forum on Evolutionary Psychology by John Grohol, 3/19/97
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    • Cerebral Cortex and the need for Meaning by Dr Anjum Madani, 1/2/98
      
      

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post, and though I'm certainly the least qualified on this board to offer a reply, discretion was never my strong suit.

It seems to me that the search for meaning, though probably a natural artifact of our brain's composition, has become more poignant in today's world where there are underground whispers abroad that there may, in fact, be no 'meaning' at all. My own thinking on this has been sharply influenced by a short article written by James E. Alcock in the Skeptical Inquirer - May/June 1995 entitled: The Belief Engine

The lead reads: "Our brains and nervous systems constitute a belief-generating machine, a system that evolved to assure not truth, logic, and reason, but survival. The belief engine has seven major components."

While such a listing imparts an artificially mechanistic flavor - he is very readable with many (at least for me) insights.

1. The learning unit - tied to magical thinking - the linking of two events in a cause and effect relationship. (with a rabbit story I'm sorely tempted to post!)

3. The yearning unit - Contending that we are not simply passive receivers of information, but that we "...actively seek out information to satisfy our many needs. We may yearn to find meaning in life. We may yearn for a sense of identity. We may yearn for recovery from a disease...Often beliefs that might be categorized as irrational by scientists are the most efficient at reducing these yearnings..."

4. The input unit - wherein our "perceptual apparatus" selects and organizes input to form patterns that "make sense" . We are a very good pattern making animal.

5. The emotional response unit - Experiences accompanied by strong emotion are likely to leave strong impressions, often influencing the very perception and memory of events.

6. The memory unit - of which Alcock writes: "Not only does memory involve itself in the processing of incoming information and the shaping of beliefs; it is itself influenced strongly by current perceptions and beliefs. Yet it is very difficult for an individual to reject the products of his or her own memory process, for memory can seem so "real."

7. The Environmental Feedback Unit - "If we operate on the basis of a belief, and if it "works" for us, even though faulty, why would we be inclined to change it? Feedback from the external world reinforces or weakens our beliefs, but since the beliefs themselves influence how that feedback is perceived, beliefs can become very resistant to contrary information and experience."

[James E. Alcock is professor of psychology, Glendon College, York University, Toronto]

I realize this was not quite what you were requesting - and does not touch on the equally interesting aspect of mankind - his art, music, and creative fun.

bill

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