Decision Making
I was puzzling the relationship between neocortex and instinct. Instinct comes from the reptile brain. Instinct appears to be little altered from our past existence as reptiles. The reptile brain is a full operating system for our entire body. The neocortex is a fault prone generator of nonsense. The neocortex does not control body functions. The neocortex may give instructions but the actions are managed by the reptile brain.
If I ask myself: “What shall I do tomorrow?”, my brain goes into some state close to panic. No answer readily appears. My neocortex sifts through memory to see if it can remember any items on a ‘to do’ list by asking: “Is there anything I need to do?” It jots these down in temporary memory with some hope that they will be retained for a few moments. The neocortex then tries to generate some ideas for activities for tomorrow. These are added to temporary storage. The neocortex is not able to compare two items directly. The neocortex appears to only think of one item at a time. The neocortex brings back each idea in turn. It waits a few moments for the subconscious to react and give a feeling for the idea. Each idea is brought back in turn and a feeling is attached to each idea. A little more logic is applied to throw out any impractical ideas. A little more logic is used to see if ideas can be combined. The final choice is held in the neocortex to see if the subconscious responds with an appropriate feeling.
Thus, I reason that my subconscious is taking a far bigger role in my decision making than I had previously thought. My subconscious appears to make the final decision depending on the feeling generated when an item is scanned. I cannot be sure that my decisions are rational. Your experience may be different.
Google AI arrives with this:
Your brain makes decisions through a complex, two-system process involving the prefrontal cortex (logic/planning) and the limbic system (emotion/memory). It acts like a committee that assesses options, weighs potential rewards against costs, and often, unconscious, automatic impulses take over before conscious, analytical reasoning kicks in.
This is suggesting that emotions are involved in the decision making process. Our decision making may not be completely rational. In the end we make a frivolous decision that gives us the best emotional kick. At this moment, I am in Prague. I have no onward tickets. I need to be back in Perth, Western Australia in about twelve days. I am in mental bedlam trying to choose a city to ‘waste’ time on my way back. My mind is considering Chisinau, Beirut, Bangkok, Jakarta, Denpasar. I think of each city and wait for an emotional response. I then try to reevaluate using better logic. Time is ticking. I must buy tickets today. I am in a quandary. I’ll have a hot chocolate in this Prague café. I crave sugar when I try to use my brain. Apparently, the brain uses a lot of sugar. I thought about the pro and con for each city, then I let feelings take over. I have chosen Chisinau and Jakarta and maybe a stop in Denpasar on the way to Perth.
Sam Dabir writes: “Additionally, the limbic system … influences decision making by processing emotions and memories. Emotions … can significantly impact our choices, sometimes leading to decisions that defy rationality.” He also writes: “Decisions involving risk and uncertainty often engage the brain’s reward system more intensely, whereas choices based on familiar routines rely on well-established neural pathways.” He also writes: ”
Our decisions may take note of a kaleidoscope of other factors which would include social norms, cultural issues, and environmental issues, and the expectations of friends and others.
Again, this chapter is designed to get you to think about how you make decisions. I don’t wish to tell you how you are making decisions. I can detect that I think about the first choice and puzzle perceived pros and cons. I do this for each possibility. I try to think of other possibilities. At a subsequent stage, I recall each possibility in turn and wait a few milliseconds to see what emotion is created and it’s associated feeling. I tend to make a decision based on the feeling. This may not give me the most rational result. I possibly check my choice to see if I am happy with the choice. I have just bought a ticket to Chisinau in Moldova, which I believe is the least visited country in Europe. Direct flights from Jakarta to Perth are expensive, so I may have two days in Denpasar, Bali.
I had an afterthought. It was about instantaneous decisions: “Do I swerve, or do I brake hard and hit the kangaroo?” In this type of decision typically involving safety there is insufficient time to analyze all the positives and negatives. The neocortex is far too slow to be of any use. I rely on instinct embedded in my reptile brain to make ultra fast decisions. We can assume these protective instincts arrived when we were born and are identical to the same instincts in our parents and grandparents. The instinct may be modified by experience such as a motorcycle sliding across a track. I assume my offspring would have the same instincts as my parents but not the added instinct concerning sliding across a track at speed.
With kangaroos, the standard instruction is not to swerve. The suggested procedure is to brake hard and hit the kangaroo. Swerving is noted for tipping a vehicle onto its roof. One cannot practice this. One has to think about the instruction not to swerve and imagine the situation. This seems to cement the instruction in a manner that is recalled in kangaroo situations. Kangaroos have an irritating habit of appearing out of nowhere and jumping straight into the path of oncoming cars. Many believe they are dazzled by the headlights of the car. I have had kangaroo instructions battered into me in many country driving discussions. On country roads at night, I reduce speed to less than eighty kilometres and hour, I observe the number of dead kangaroos on the roadside, and I also repeatedly instruct myself to brake not swerve. On numerous kangaroo incidents, I always braked with no swerving. On one occasion, the kangaroo bounced up and hit the windscreen right in front of me. The bulk of the impact was on the windscreen pillar. Myself and the car survived unscathed.
In motorcycle trials, we are taught to hold on to the bike in a whoopsie. The reasoning is that the bike may swing up and over and hit us. However, this is also what I do when I slide across the track at Supermoto. On occasions, it may be better to let go of the bike as they do in Road-Racing. In Speedway, I was taught to lay the bike down and dig the handlebar into the ground to slow down. At the same time, it is deemed necessary to swing the bike round whilst sliding so that the bike is between yourself and the oncoming riders. It is not as scary as it may seem as all riders are traveling at the same speed and thus their relative speed is zero. If one is to ‘kiss the fence’, it is recommended to do it at a graceful angle. My first trainer at Speedway, Bill Whitworth, would not let me proceed with training until I could lay a motorcycle down on demand whilst cornering at speed. You may see where my fascination with emotions and associated feelings originates. My younger years were a wild ride. I still enjoy taking my emotions to the limit.
Irrespective, try to follow your thinking processes at a some decision making instances.
