Thinking Fast and Slow

Here is a journal that I wrote for my cognitive psych class. I thought the ideas were fascinating and I thought I would share. It isn't polished at all so it feels pretty convoluted, but you can probably pick up on the main theme.

In my recent reading time I have been working through Thinking Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman. Although I am only one fifth of the way through, I have already begun to understand one of the main points of the book. Kahneman argues that we have two judgment systems; the ‘fast’ system he labels System 1, and calls the ‘slow’ system System 2. System 1 uses all sorts of quick ways to make judgments, it is intuitive, uses biases, preconceptions, availability heuristics; it is easy and effortless, takes little time and works with no conscious effort. In opposition to system 1, system 2 works using logic, compilation of data, analyzation of information; it is conscious, effortful and slow. Ironically, even though system 2 often has the advantage of accuracy, we tend to be more confident in the quick, snap decisions of system 1.

When I read chapter 6 in Cognition by Reisberg, I couldn’t help but compare the implicit and explicit memory section to what I had been reading in Kahneman’s book. The way that Reisberg described implicit memory, its advantages and disadvantages played along exactly with what Kahneman had to say. They both appreciate that there are positive and negative characteristics of implicit and explicit memory.

Implicit memory from Reisberg, just like System 1 from Kahneman, uses quick, unconscious processes. It is virtually impossible to consciously control implicit memory; it is almost by definition, unconscious. Making a connection, it seems that the similarity is that the two memory systems that Reisberg described do more than just correspond with the two judgment systems outlined by Kahneman; they seem to be the same thing. Implicit memory informs System 1 judgment calls. Likewise explicit memory is used when making decisions using System 2.

Before moving on to System 2, let us explore System 1. The two huge advantages that System 1 has are its ease, and speed of use. It happens all of the time, never stops working, never shuts down, never takes a break. It does not need to stop for a break because it works without us ever trying. In the same way that our heart beats without us consciously telling it to, we make decisions about our world without consciously trying to. Our automatic brain functions pull up implicit memories which inform implicit decisions. An example is that our familiarity with a certain group, people, or situation helps us quickly decide how to act. Psychologists like to call this kind of memory a schema. We have gone through a certain type of experience enough times to know what to expect and run on autopilot, depending upon implicit memory to inform our implicit decisions. I often make implicit decisions, I am sure that I most often miss the moment when I make a decision using this implicit process, but when I do catch it, I instantly start looking for reasons for my action. This is where System 1 hands the process over to System 2.

If System 2 were a person, people would describe it as a lazy, smart, unconfident individual. It only does its work when system 1 gives it a problem like the one in the example above. When it does receive a problem, many things happen, one of which is that our physiology changes; our sweat glands activate, our heart rate and breathing speed up and our pupils dilate. The change in physiology in an indicator that inside the head, System 2 has activated, we have started thinking in logical terms, trying to come up with a solution using our extensive explicit memory, sorting through to find the most reasonable answer. However, this process often fails to find the correct solution.

Reisberg wrote that we often attribute a memory to the wrong source; labeled source confusion. There are many times during any given day when we use a piece of information even though we don’t know its origin. When we ask how we know something, our System 2 tries to come online to answer the question. Sometimes System 2 is effective. An example of it working correctly is that I will remember correctly that Emily told me that she wrote R and L on her right and left hand before taking her driving test in order to be able to follow the oral instruction of her test instructor. However, if either I had failed to store the memory that Emily told me the story, or I failed to have the right cue to retrieve the memory, I will either say that I do not remember who I heard it from, or attribute the story to someone else. In this example, I embarrassingly forgot that Emily had told me this story about herself and told her the same story as if it were someone else who was terrible with their rights and lefts and wrote R and L on the back of their hand. She then reminded me that she had told me that story about herself.

What seemed to happen here was that my System 2, explicit memory, failed and left it up to my implicit memory to recall the story. The defining characteristic of the System 1 memory system is that it tends to know information whereas System 2 memory system remembers information. The important distinction is that it rarely happens that one can consciously remember when general information was learned, hence it is simply knowledge. In my example from Emily I knew the story, but I did not remember who had told me. It was only when I had the sufficient retrieval cue, her telling me that she had told me the story, that I was able to remember.

Although this is an extremely brief and convoluted reflection on the complexity of these two systems, it is easily apparent that the depth that is needed to understand the system goes far beyond the scope of a short writing. I continue to reflect on the interaction of the systems, tease out the differences, meditate on the strengths and weaknesses, and develop an intuitive along with thoughtful understanding of both systems. 

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Living in the Woods

As many already know, I have elected to spend my spring semester living outside. After unsuccessfully trying to get the college to allow us to camp in the campus woods (we got as far as getting approval from the dean of students) I asked one of my professors if I could rent a portion of his back yard to set up a small camp. He said that I could, and I moved in earlier this week. So far I have spent three nights there, and have enjoyed every one.

One may ask why I have decided to undertake this enterprise; I will answer it lazily, using the e-mail that I sent to Ron Hilton, the head of Auxiliary Services, pleading our case to live in the woods.

Hi Ron,

There are many reasons why I wish to spend a semester living in the woods. I acknowledge that there will be a certain difficulty in this enterprise, but I also realize that there are many rewards of greater value. The rewards that I foresee include; the opportunity to practice my outdoor living skills, to live simply, intentionally and practically, along with living in a more frugal manner.

Simplicity is the main objective of this experience. Simplicity is difficult to find in our everyday life around campus, at work, and in dorm life. One thing that makes it unnecessarily complex is the things we use to make our lives easier. This paradox that easier is more complex is difficult to understand and explain. We have tons of time saving techniques and gadgets; word processors that make our homework go faster, iPods that help us organize our calendar more efficiently (among a multitude of other things), and we can shower by going twenty feet away and turning on a tap. But with each ‘timesaver’, a new level of complexity arises along with the possibility of a distraction. With word processers, we need to know how to use all of the functions and commands that we never had to worry about with typewriters or even further back, handwritten work. Our iPods work better at organizing our calendar than our old notebook, but we soon find ourselves distracted by all of the cool things that the calendar can do, not to mention all of the other distracting functions of the iPod (games, movies and the like). The list can go on interminably; washing machines, TV, computers ect. Every time we add a ‘convenience’ to make our lives simpler, we find that our lives actually become, more complex; we need to think of all the things we need to do to maintain the same level of ‘convenience’ that we currently have. Inevitably, with so many time saving tricks and gadgets, we do end up with more time on our hands. But where does that time end up? It seems that most of it is spent in front of the TV or computer, which begs the question, is it really worth saving?

Living outside of a dorm, with many of its conveniences will be a personal experiment to see if, when many of the conveniences of dorm life are taken away, life does become simpler. The environment where not many things can be possessed, (the outdoors are not conducive to owning many things beyond the essentials) very well might help to decrease one’s dependence upon this complexity that I am perceiving. Richard E. Byrd, a noted Antarctic explorer is quoted with saying, “I am learning…...that a man can live profoundly without masses of things.” This quote strikes at the heart of what I am explaining; without having space for copious amounts of belongings I will live with less.

Jesus himself seemed to propose a similar lifestyle to the one that I have been describing. According to Richard Foster, Jesus spoke on economy more than any other single social issue. It does not take long to think of some of his sayings such as, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” Matthew 19:24 and a little before that “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” The list could go on. What better reason to live simply than to follow Jesus’ calling?

In his well acclaimed book, Celebration of Discipline, Foster devotes an entire chapter to the idea of simplicity. He writes about how in our society, we are taught that it is shameful to wear our clothes until they are threadbare, that we are often thought of as crazy if we do not follow the trends of pop-culture. He sees Jesus telling us to live one way, and us as a culture, living another. I want to practice living in an ascetically fulfilling way, not as abstaining from all pleasure as asceticism is sometimes understood, but partaking in what is necessary for pleasure and the good life, but abstaining from indulgence.

Gordon College’s Christian Life and Conduct guidelines echo what has already been said.

Important to an understanding of all behavioral standards is the obligation of Christians to separate themselves from worldliness (Romans 12:2, I John 2:15). Worldliness is a subtle issue involving uncritical conformity to the prevailing spirit of the age. One’s disposition concerning such matters as materialism, secularism, isolationism, security, success, injustice, hedonism and moral relativism must stand in perpetual review.

This time spent not living in a dorm, or in an off campus apartment, will help me in the discovery of where I stand of these issues. Living apart from the distractions that come with living in a dorm and instead living in an austere environment with fewer distractions, I will be more able to discover what I value, at least as far as materialism, security, success and hedonism are concerned. The environment would be most conducive to self-discovery on those issues.

Up until this point, I have made it seem as if I am embarking on this endeavor by myself. This is not the case. A fellow W.I.L.D. semester student, Nate Mori is equally interested in exploring the possibility of living outdoors. We have spent some time conversing on the topic, simplicity, I have outlined above. If we are able to do this together, we would be able to build each other up, encourage each other, and build a type of community from which we can go and have a positive impact on the way others live their lives.

The benefits of living outdoors do not end with living simply. Nate Mori is especially interested in the biophilia hypothesis, that says that humans develop and function better when in close contact with nature (this makes sense as one can get closer to the creator through the creation). I have been influenced by people like Thoreau who make an example of living in such a way that is economical, completely free of external constraints yet fulfilling in their own way. We appreciate the intentionality it would take to live outdoors as we always do when we go backpacking. It creates a type of awareness that is not generally attainable when living in the ‘safety’ of comfortable dorms. This brings me to another benefit, that living outdoors would help us hone our skills and dispositions that we began learning this W.I.L.D. semester. I could expound and expand upon our reasons, making this e-mail take me several days to write, but will refrain as it is going to be quite long as it is.

It must be understood that we realize the difficulty in camping outdoors. However, we are well experience campers and would have no trouble with finding qualified outdoors people to vouch for our skill and experience. We have camped enough that it would be foolish to think that this is simply a grab at noteworthiness, a way to get ourselves attention from the Gordon Community; it is not something that we desire. It is also not an attempt to withdraw from the Gordon Community or circumvent its rules and regulation. It should be evident from the fact that you received this e-mail that it is not our goal to break any rules. If it is deemed prudent, we are willing to live within any conditions that are normal for on campus students such as visitation hours and having an RD. We realize that Gordon puts a heavy emphasis on community, and rightly so. Community is important for the development and wellbeing of human individuals. We do not wish to emasculate ourselves from Gordon’s community. Community and fellowship are what help make life worth living and we would be truly destitute if we denied ourselves their pleasure.

When considering whether we would be allowed to pursue our goal of living in the woods, we came up with what might be a few objections to our proposition. We decided that it would be prudent to respond to as many as we could foresee in order to forestall a lengthy discussion and debate.

First objection that we thought of is utility use. Would it be fair for students not paying for on campus housing to have equal access to utilities as those who are paying for housing? In reply I can point out that all off campus students would have equal access as we would living in the woods. An off campus student can come to campus early in the morning, use the shower before swimming in the pool, and use the toilets all day long, just as we would. There seems no unfairness when one understands that we would have equal access to the facilities that off campus students do.

Second objection would be for hygiene. How will we be able to camp in a small area and keep ourselves and our gear properly clean and free of disease? As campers who have experienced extended camping trips, both Nate Mori and I have practiced proper hygiene techniques on trial. It would only be easier than on the trail because of there being facilities nearby from which to easily procure clean water.

Third is environmental impact. How will we be able to spend so much time in a small area without seriously impacting the environment around us? There are two responses to this. The first is that this area is so well urbanized that there would be little impact to the overall ecosystem. The second response is that we are both Leave No Trace (LNT) trainers from our Wilderness Education Association (WEA) trip this last fall. We know skills and techniques on how to leave as little impact on the environment as possible, even over an extended period of time.

Fourth, will we be able to persevere? This is a difficult question to answer outright with a yes because I do not know the future. However, looking at our experience, our training, and our abilities, it seems likely that we know what we are getting into, and know what it will take to push through the entire semester.

Fifth, will it affect our grades? I doubt that it will negatively affect our grades as it will not take an extravagant amount of time to function in the woods.

Sixth, how will we eat? As camp savvy people, we are deft at handling camp stove and cooking delicious meals. I will have a vehicle that we can use to travel to the store to purchase food.

Seventh, laundry? Reply, we will use laundromats unless we get the permission to use the washing machines in the dorms.

Eight, who will keep us accountable/check in with us? As adults, we hope that we will be able to keep ourselves and each other doing what is right, but we are willing to have an RD check in with us to make sure we are doing alright.

Nine, will not more people want to do this? I highly doubt it. Even though it is a lot cheaper than living in a dorm, it is not very comfortable unless one possesses the skills and equipment needed. Only those who are highly motivated to procure their education and gain experience will do so.

Finally, is it safe? Will Gordon College be liable if anything happens to us or our camp? In response I can say with some confidence that it is safer than the soccer games that are played on the quad, or rec IM activities (I can find the research article with findings from which I draw my conclusions if you wish). If we could enhance the probability that we would get approval for our enterprise by signing a waiver of liability for Gordon College, we will happily do so.

In conclusion, there are many reasons why we wish to spend the semester living in the woods. We desire to discover a new way of life, one that we may choose to never live again, but one that will influence how we live for the rest of our lives. If I have made any statements that you would like for me to clarify or any points to which you think I should respond more fully, please point them out and I will do my best.

Thank you,

Nathan

Whew that was long, it answers fully any questions that one may have concerning this endeavor.

Nathan

PS. Pictures coming shortly