Before we proceed, we need to make a few distinctions about levels of informa-tion processing in the human brain. A great many of our thoughts and acinforma-tions are not decided consciously after careful consideration but are determined by parts of our brain that operate below our level of awareness. This fact and the processes that drive it have immense and profound implications for every-one who attempts to change human behavior. Figure 4.3 displays a very basic diagram that illustrates how this process, which is occurring in each of us all the time, operates. The sequence begins with stimuli that arrive at our sense organs. Our senses include vision, hearing, taste, smell, touch, and propriocep-tion (awareness of where our body parts are in relapropriocep-tion to one another) as well as stimuli from internal physiological states.
Once the stimuli are received, they are subjected to hardwired physiologi-cal processing (such as giving us the impression that one line is longer than the other in panel A of Figure 4.2). At that point, the processed sensory infor-mation is “in the system” and is used for decision making, even if we are not consciously aware of it. For example, think right now about how the back of your left calf feels. When you think of it consciously, you can feel it. But when you are not directly attending to it, the sensations from it are processed at a low level and ignored (not passed to higher levels) if nothing is happening to your calf that compels your automatic processor to notify the conscious you.
Figure 4.3 Conceptual diagram of the stages of human information processing.
Preconscious operations
“Me” processing
Sense organs Hardwired
physiological processing
“I” awareness
External stimuli Conscious
thought
The next step is what I call “preconscious processing” (many refer to this as unconscious processing, but I find that term too Freudian, as well as con-taminated by 60 years of pop psychology concepts). Preconscious processing is automatic processing of sensory data so that their importance and signifi-cance can be assessed. Preconscious processing uses a number of hardwired filters and systems that are programmed to help us respond more quickly and efficiently to the environment. Dozens of these filters and systems are working behind the scenes all the time. For example, when we’re not thinking about it or are asleep, our preconscious regulates our breathing.
If we are sleeping and somehow end up with a pillow or a blanket over our face and have difficulty getting enough oxygen, the preconscious rouses us a bit, without waking us, to get us to move. If that doesn’t do it, the preconscious wakes us up in order to get the conscious brain to take over. If we are hungry but don’t yet realize it, the preconscious will be on the lookout for the presence of food odors. If the preconscious detects strong enough odors, it will bring the information to conscious awareness (“Hey, I smell bread baking! I wonder where it’s coming from?”). If we are not hungry, our conscious mind may not be aware of those same faint odors, but there will be measurable brain activity showing that our brain perceives the odors at a preconscious level.
Walking down a flight of stairs in a dark hallway is an excellent example of preconscious processing that employs what we have learned about the world.
When we approach a darkened stairway that we have never used before, we are always a little careful with the first step or two, as we don’t know exactly how high they are. After the first step, we proceed down the steps with nary a thought as to the location of the next tread, just as we do with familiar stair-ways at home. This is preconscious processing doing what it was intended to do: taking over a known and predictable task (almost all stairways have step risers of equal heights) so that our conscious selves can do other things that may have more survival value.
Almost all of us have experienced a very complex (and very frightening, in retrospect) example of the ability of the preconscious to control very complex behavior. How often have you been driving a car and all of a sudden realize that you’re about to miss your customary, turn-off-there-all-the-time exit? Or you suddenly realize that you’ve “missed” the last 10 miles because you were daydreaming or listening to the radio? Who was driving the car? Your con-scious mind wasn’t driving, but somebody was because you didn’t have an accident (hopefully).
Once we are familiar with and skilled at driving, we can do it on “precon-scious pilot.” It’s not like the steering wheel was simply being held rigidly in
place to drive the car in a straight line; few roads, even in Oklahoma or Texas, are perfectly straight for any distance. This means that our preconscious can steer the car a bit, apply the brakes, and even change lanes while we are think-ing of other ththink-ings. When an impendthink-ing traffic event is different enough to require conscious attention, as when someone up ahead who has been on pre-conscious pilot suddenly cuts across four or five lanes to exit, we’re roused out of our reverie by our preconscious because the situation is critical enough to demand conscious attention.
An example of preconscious processing that operates over a longer time period involves trying to recollect something that is just out of reach, such as trying to recall an actor’s name from a show or movie. Often we can visual-ize the actor’s face and some characteristics of the name, but we can’t recall it. Failing to recall it, we stop trying and go about our day. All of a sudden, hours or even days later, while we’re listening to the car radio or talking with a colleague or just reading the paper, the name pops into our consciousness.
Where did it come from? How could you have “found” it when you weren’t consciously looking for it? When you couldn’t remember the name, the ques-tion was still being processed by preconscious mechanisms that are not well understood. When an answer was found that seemed to be important enough to register with some filter or awareness alarm, the preconscious pushed up the information to the conscious mind.
This conscious mind is the “I” awareness shown in Figure 4.3. “I” aware-ness is the conscious you; it is the you that has internal dialogs with itself and appears to make conscious decisions about where to eat and what to wear. It is what all of us think of as “me” even though the real “me” is composed of every segment of the processing chain. It is critical for leaders to realize that most of what seems to be their own and their employees’ “I” awareness is heavily influenced and shaped second to second by preconscious processing (the “me”
minus the “I”). When you are speaking with or interacting with employees, the overwhelming majority of both your and their reactions to what is happening is based on already-learned assumptions and expectations that are controlled by their preconscious, their “me.”
A startling piece of research demonstrates the inherent and hidden power of preconscious processing. Researchers had volunteers place their heads in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines. These machines show the exact spots of mental activity in the brain by identifying where blood is flowing.
Blood flow increases where energy is being expended by brain cells as they do their work; the more brain cell activity, the more the blood flow and the more the MRI “lights up.” With each subject, the researchers took a number of MRI
scans. They did scans while the subjects were instructed to think about the word pen, when they thought about the word cup, when they reached with one hand for an actual cup, when they reached with the other hand for an actual pen, when they got ready to say cup, when they got ready to say pen, when they got ready to think about each word, when they thought about each word, when they said each word, when they got ready to reach for each item, and so on. The intent was to map the patterns of brain activity for any planned, intended, or performed aspect of thinking about, saying, and/or reaching for either the pen or the cup.
When the actual experiment started, the researchers told each subject, whose head was in the MRI machine, to randomly decide whether to reach for the pen or the cup. Subjects were told that as soon as they decided which one to pick, they should say the word as quickly as possible and simulta-neously reach for the item as fast as possible. The resulting MRI pictures demonstrated that the motor area for moving the appropriate hand toward the selected object was activated before any of the higher brain areas involved in thinking about the object, getting ready to think about it, saying the object’s name, and getting ready to say the object’s name were activated. Think about this for a moment: Before the “I” consciousness of the subjects was aware that they would be reaching for the pen or the cup, a deeper level of process-ing had already made the selection and had started the process to reach for the appropriate item.
Other researchers have noticed this same type of phenomenon over the last 120 years using less advanced technology (e.g., electroencephalograms [EEGs] in the 1970s and metronomes in the 1890s). In every case, it seemed that before the “I” was aware of a decision, the “me” had already initiated action. The gap between the two is about ¼ to ¾ of a second. A common everyday instance of this can be recognized in patterns of typing errors. It has been known since the early days of the first typewriters that most typos do not result from simply hitting an incorrect key due to a motor skills error (at least after someone has learned to type at a basic level). The “me” of most people is typing ahead of their “I” as the “me” automatically predicts upcoming words and letters, sometimes incorrectly. You experience this yourself when your “I”
all of a sudden realizes that a word or a few letters are incorrect or are going to be incorrect even as they are being typed, but it is difficult to immediately stop typing them; it takes the “I” a fraction of a second to regain control. By the time the “I” gets control of your fingers, you’re halfway into the next word.
This is caused by incorrect estimates and approximations about content on the part of preconscious “me” processing. The “me” gets the fingers moving
These findings demonstrate that there’s more going on in our decision making and behaviors than simply conscious thought. What this implies is that preconscious processing works hand in hand with our conscious decision making in ways that are quite complex. The preconscious does a lot of the work and makes many decisions without the “I” awareness being informed (as with driving the car on “preconscious pilot”). Many of the conclusions we draw every minute are decided by the preconscious and announced to “I”
awareness after they have been made. To each of us, cognizant of only our “I”
awareness, it seems like we are consciously making decisions even though many of them are already foregone conclusions. The preconscious typically generates the action and an accompanying explanation/rationale that is based on past experience. This information is passed along to the “I” just as the action is performed, making it appear as though the “I” made a fast decision and acted immediately. It may be that people who are viewed as being very intuitive are simply more aware of what is going on in their preconscious and are perhaps able to shape its functioning in subtle ways.