What is Digg?66 Comments
- cjpluta, on 06/28/2008, -1/+23"In all, they tested seven men and seven women from 21 to 30 years old."
Uhm, 14 people isn't much of a test pool.. and getting 70% of decisions right from only 14 people doesn't eliminate them just getting lucky...
Yet another useless study. - ellabee, on 06/28/2008, -0/+11I think you were overthinking your comment.
- sodade, on 06/28/2008, -1/+12"Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind..."
- vatx, on 06/28/2008, -3/+13Garbage! I refute this nonsense. Consider this....If the there is a 10 second lag in what I think about something or how I feel about something then there should have been a 10 second lag when I decided that this article was foolishness; there was no lag. I knew immediately, that is as I continued to read the article, that what I was reading was based on choices posed to persons involved in an experiment designed to provoke thought thereby influencing their choice, and causing lag in their choosing. We, as children, may look at some instance or object for a while and think about it but as adults we have already predetermined what we think about the majority of what we are exposed to. Science like this article makes me laugh. Now; when did you decide what you think about my comment? when I said Garbage! or when? How long did it take you? Did you have any predetermined opinion about my comment?
- cbartlett, on 06/28/2008, -1/+10Read Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.
- chr1syr, on 06/28/2008, -0/+7The subconscious does a lot more than we give it credit for i.e. driving your car or scanning faces for expressions that might indicate danger and then automatically prepping the fight/flight response. I suppose this is just an extension of this, but at a higher level of subconscious thinking.
- inactive, on 06/28/2008, -0/+4that explains why the best ideas and decisions seem to be effortless and why when we have to work too hard mentally we know intuitively that we are not coming up with the ideal results
- Detritus, on 06/28/2008, -2/+6The next part of that is equally important:
"Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
Withering my intuition, missing opportunities and I must
feed my will to feel my moment drawing way outside the lines."
This is an interesting case of Science proving a precept of Buddhism (which is also found in Kabbalah, Thelema, Rosicrucianism, etc. so pick your favorite and then throw out the dogma). - Naieve, on 06/28/2008, -1/+5Anyone who has ever had a significant advantage in sports could already tell you this is true.
Don't think about it, just do it. - LeonidasStokely, on 06/28/2008, -1/+5Read pretty much anything by Malcolm Gladwell.
- xerofilter, on 06/28/2008, -1/+4my brain is precognitive?
...wicked! - Bersy, on 06/28/2008, -0/+3It basically says this in the article. "Doesn't rule out free will but makes it implausible"
- forgeflow, on 06/28/2008, -1/+4Yes. Free will is just an illusion of conciousness.
- inactive, on 06/28/2008, -1/+4i don't think so your brain is just faster than your awareness
what you seem to be questioning is do we have to be aware consciously to have free will
not necessarily
your subconscious is already programmed with your preferences and your dislikes (because every time you think of these things you are 'training' your brain) - LeonidasStokely, on 06/28/2008, -0/+3I dugg it, and I thought about it before-hand. Does this mean i dugg it twice? But it only went up by one digg! Argh, science. Burn them!
- LeonidasStokely, on 06/28/2008, -1/+3is gay.
- ChrisshEnzo, on 06/29/2008, -0/+2this challenges everything that's ever been concluded about cognitive thought and self awareness and the psychological evolution of ***** sapiens. kind of bawlsy for such a small study don't you think?
- LeonidasStokely, on 06/28/2008, -0/+2The editing tool: my psychologicl weapon against the world. YOU'RE ALL SCREWED! MWAHAHAHA!
- nedy78, on 06/28/2008, -0/+2I was about comment on the size of the study, that can't say how a population will react with that size. Write another article when you continue to study this and the test pool is afew thousand.
- jeffh992, on 06/28/2008, -0/+2Malcolm Gladwell wrote Blink about this - Fantastic book! Especially the chapter on War Games where a vietnam vet led a Middle-Eastern force against the U.S., which utilized every resource imaginable in the simulation. The Vietnam vet (Van Riper) essentially won! Illustrates the value of "snap judgements" versus overanalyzing everything, which was the U.S.'s problem in the simulation.
- diggFM, on 06/28/2008, -0/+2Excellent point! The brain activity that preceded the physical movement may not have been the "choice" but an "internal stimulus" that the subjects were "listening" for. That is, they had "predecided" to respond in a specific way (i.e. pushing the button) when they felt an internal urge (i.e. the recorded brain activity) to do so. As they became aware of the internal stimulus they executed their predecision to respond to it with physical movement. The actual deciding could have happened elsewhere and at a different time.
- aviatrix79, on 06/28/2008, -0/+2Hodgepodge!!
The test only proved that there was a delayed reaction to push a button in that test environment. Most people in a test environment tend to over analyse a problem.
Imagine if our reflexes were always delayed by 10 seconds and we failed to break in time on the road. Or if we ran our hand over a flame and took 10 seconds to make the decision to move it away. - hiPpymIck, on 06/28/2008, -0/+2..your unconscious didnt..
- Slugo, on 06/28/2008, -1/+3Ready, Fire, Aim
- hiPpymIck, on 06/28/2008, -0/+2EDIT
***** - i replied when you said
"i dugg this without thinking about it"
which i thought was quite funny..
so i said
"..your unconscious didnt.."
now your comment is making different point..
am i imagining things or did you edit your post after i read and replied to it..
(ive noticed a comment get 2 Diggs before id finished editing it before)
pls confirm as im either
right
tired and need to go to bed
caught in some time vortex
or simply going mad
..i spose ill have to ask my brain - rinote, on 06/28/2008, -0/+2*nike swish*
- dravidian, on 06/28/2008, -0/+2These people are just sitting there till they "feel" like pressing either button. This is NOT decision making. This is more like sitting in front of a TV till your body tells you its time to grab another beer.
Considering that its not surprising something registered in their brains before they acted because they're 'listening' for that.
But come on 14 people? To push 2 buttons? My kid brother could have rounded up more people for a test like that. - inactive, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1So what does this say about taking multiple choice tests?
- ephrils1, on 06/28/2008, -2/+3It may help prove ESP actually.
- jessehadden, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1Yes, you knew immediately; but there was a ten-second lag to that immediacy. Don't think about it.
- nedy78, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1You just blew my mind.
- MattS, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogito_ergo_sum
- aceallways, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1What if the "activity" was when they decided NOT to press the button.
"Hmm, should I press the button...no I don't feel like it yet."
"QUICK! Start timing, when he presses the button will prove he thought into the FUTURE!!!!" - TracerMan, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1All decisions have at least some good in them, thus when we look back into the past we always think about what if the good that is present now doesn't exist? But we fail to realize that the other decision also have it's own merit, it's just that we're not experiencing it, and we can't imagine living without the good of the decision we're living in.
- ausrokit, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1So... I wonder if perhaps this research has been overthought... Or am I overthinking?
- hiPpymIck, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1its all a bit chicken and egg..
last paragraphs FTA
"All this work to deconstruct the mental machinery of choice may be the best evidence of conscious free will. By measuring the brain's physical processes, the mind seeks to know itself through its reflection in the mirror of science.
"We are trying to understand who we are," said Antonio Damasio, director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California, "by studying the organ that allows you to understand who you are." - jp12380, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1It ain't my fault, my brainz told me to commit the crime before I decided to.
- djphilos, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1Who takes 10 secs to make a decision? Thats why there a so many accidents on the road.
- 3Den, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1Sci Fi: Read "Second Person, Present Tense" by Daryl Gregory - for a short, entertaining take on this exact subject.
- Corte, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1Welcome to last month, WSJ.
- GoldenChaos, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1You guys should read Malcom Gladwell's "Blink" if you want more info about your subconscious mind's ability to make decisions before you do... great read. Some parts are mind-blowing; the way it demonstrates how easily we can be manipulated to act a certain way subconsciously is scary as heck.
- jshooter1377, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1So, if you were to put two people face to face in a decision making situation and one must have to act upon something within 10 seconds...the other person would know how to react 10 seconds beforehand, right? BUT, what if the acting person suddenly changes his/her mind about 5 seconds into the experiment and doesn't tell anyone about his/her new act? Does the other person suddenly change their ways of reacting without even responding to the first, original action yet?
- ajkrik, on 06/30/2008, -0/+1My subconscious made me stop reading the article long before 10 seconds. So, if I'm driving my car toward an intersection, and the light changes to yellow, my subconscious mind decided to put on the breaks 10 seconds before? Or will I have to wait 10 seconds to begin to stop? I can see wanting a sandwich before I'm conscious of it, but to suggest we need 10 seconds to decide something is a stretch.
- chaos7, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1i don't think free will exists. i think determinism is what's going on. everything that ever happens is "the perfect storm"
- brundlefly76, on 06/29/2008, -0/+1I do not see how in any way this experiment indicates we should not overthink decisions.
In the example, the decision being asked of the subject is known to be purely experimental and without any consequence whatsoever. There are no issues, people, or outcomes which require any consideration whatsoever.
This is never the case when you are making important decisions in which not only all of these three considerations must be evaluated, but there may also be time factors and unknown additional information, opinions, and emotions which must be explored to make a decision with the most favorable outcome. - davidhallstrom, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1I overthink everything. I just can't help it.
- H4n90fThur5D4y5, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1I think it's sort of like the oracle told Neo. "You've already made the decision, now you must understand it."
...though it was kind of trippy wondering when I decided to type that... - inactive, on 06/28/2008, -3/+3it is really i am therefore i think
- diyonisia, on 06/28/2008, -0/+0Whatever. This experiment doesn't say anything about making "right" decisions, just decisions about making an arbitrary action. There isn't a whole lot riding on a person randomly pushing a button. But if you "gut" tells you to, say, invade a Middle Eastern country on faulty evidence, you might want to take some extra time to think about it.
- Iztikeit, on 06/28/2008, -0/+0I bet certain Buddhist monks who practice being in the exact moment for several decades wouldn't exactly work the same way.
Give us a larger test pool. Give us little children, Buddhist monks, crazy Christians, old people and just about anything else you guys can think of. -
Show 51 - 66 of 66 discussions
Digg is coming to a city (and computer) near you! Check out all the details on our 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is