 The
brain is a
learning organ which creates a mind within itself.
The
dictionary describes a mind as follows: Seat of consciousness, thought,
volition and feeling. Mind is the lens through which we perceive all
things, without it the input of sensory data would be an unintelligible
babble. Mind is our tool for thinking and understanding. We know a lot
about the various functions it performs but little about how it comes
to be. Are we born with a mind? Do we learn a mind? Does a mind just
grow? It seems likely that we are not born with a mind, as we have come
to understand it. The new born baby is very deficient in all the
abilities we associate with a mind: the ability to solve problems, the
ability to predict outcomes, the very processes of thought,
intelligence, consciousness and volition. All these are rudimentary or
non existent in the new born babe. Thus a mind must be something that
is learned or grows in a brain. Or rather it is here suggested that
learning is what enables growth to take place in every brain.
It
has been shown over and over in research that specific learning always
produces specific growth in appropriate brain areas. In fact, brain
growth is learning made visible or manifest.
 The mind is in part a
cognitive structure.
On this site's page about George
Kelly and his construct theory we have introduced the idea of a
cognitive structure. This is Kelly's name for the thing in people minds
made up of constructs that enables us to perceive and understand. It is
a reference map or model that we can use as a guide to what things are
and how we should react to them. This cognitive structure, in its adult
and integrated form, is a "Personal Map of Reality". When we are born
we do not have such a map or model of reality. We clearly have to learn
or grow this structure. We are born with some expectations of the world
that are sometimes called instincts. These expectations are rudimentary
and subsequent events will mostly disconfirm or refute them. They must
be revised or improved. The revision and improvement of these
expectations gradually builds up as a cognitive structure which after
going through many developmental stages finally becomes a Personal Map
of Reality. How this structure comes to be and how it works may be
pivotal for understanding learning and the actualization of potential.
 System
1 and system 2.
In
his book "Thinking, Fast and Slow" Daniel Kahneman proposes that the
brain has two thinking systems that work both independently and yet are
bound
inextricably together. System 1 is the unconscious system that
functions very rapidly and system 2 is the conscious system which
deliberates quite slowly. His description of system 1 is a perfect
description of building what this site has here been calling 'a
personal map of reality'. He describes it as follows:
"The
main function of System 1 is to maintain and update a model of your
personal world, which represents what is normal in it. The model is
constructed by associations that link ideas of circumstances, events,
actions, and outcomes that co-occur with some regularity, either at the
same time or within a relatively short interval. As these links are
formed and strengthened, the pattern of associated ideas comes to
represent the structure of events in your life, and it determines your
interpretation of the present as well as your expectations of the
future."
 Cognitive
structure a metaphor.
When
thinking about mind or cognitive structure development the Metaphor of
a jigsaw puzzle is helpful in trying grasp what it is and how it grows.
When we are born apart from inherited knowledge and potentialities our
brain is a bit like a blank slate. The pieces of the jigsaw can be
likened to incoming sensory data. Of course when we try to do a jigsaw
we usually have picture of what the end result should look like. This
is not true for the child trying to become familiar with reality. The
child has no handy picture to help him/her so the metaphor is only
useful if the picture is discarded. So the player (the child) has this
blank space and pieces of the jigsaw he can pick up and set into the
blank space. Also, the metaphor is deficient in another way, in that it
is not two dimensional but three dimensional and neurons have thousands
of connections not just four as in the jigsaw puzzle.
Just
as, at first, none of the jigsaw pieces make any sense, neither does
data in the cognitive structure. Jigsaw pieces contain bits of colors
and shapes, but they do not seem to relate to any of the other pieces.
At some point the player will discover two pieces which seem to be a
continuation of each other. He will pick these up put them together and
put them in the blank space. These two pieces coming together can be
likened to associations in the brain and a conjecture forming in the
mind. A conjecture is two bits of information associated or related
together.
There
are many ways the metaphor breaks down but you can see how bits clump
together and various parts of the puzzle grow independently until
recognizable bits start to emerge and eventually come together in a
single whole picture.
The
metaphor of the jigsaw puzzle breaks down even more as the puzzle
becomes complete. When a puzzle is complete there are usually two
possibilities one the puzzle if complete can be stuck on a back board
and frozen forever in that form or it an be disassembled so it could be
built again at some future date. Of course the personal map of reality
in some people is also seemingly frozen. Such people are inflexible and
rigid in their beliefs and unable to accept change. But there is a
possibility for people and their personal maps of reality that is not
available to the jigsaw puzzle builders. That is an acceptance that the
conjectures and structures are always open to further modification and
never truly
finished.
 Developmental
psychology.
George
Kelly did not give a great deal of thought as to how his
cognitive
structure might develop, and so, for some idea about this development,
we will have to look at other theories of developmental psychology.
Early contributors to this field were Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky.
Their work laid the foundations for appreciating just how radically
different children's perception and understanding of the world really
is, and how infants go about constructing this reference model of
reality, as they learn about the world.
 Social
evolution and child development.
Fairly
recently Stanley Greenspan and Stuart Shanker have produced a new
theory of child development which is embodied in their book
"The First Idea". One of the central ideas of their
theory is that child
development is a reflection of social evolution. The development of a
child, as they see it, is a highly compressed version of what has
evolved in human socialization over millions of years. The other
central tenant of their theory is that this socialization is repeated
in the development of each child and is passed on to the child
initially by caregivers by means of emotional signaling. However, it is
only when symbols are formed, out of the earlier mutual
emotional signaling with caregivers, teachers and culture that
real building blocks become available to build a personal model of
reality
as adults would recognize it.
Development is not determined.
It is important to
note that Greenspan and Shanker's development theory is not to be
understood as a schedule that all children should be expected to
follow. This development theory is presented here rather to show how
social and academic learning builds on itself. It is presented to show
how any learning task always depends on some previous learning.
Greenspan and Shanker's theory does include rough ages when
average western children are most likely to have reached particular
developmental stages, but these are to be understood as averages
specific for children in
western developed countries at this moment in time.
Normal development.
These
developmental stages are not to be taken in any way as normal
periods of child development. Indeed normal would be that all children
would go through some of these stages faster than average children
finishing those stages earlier than average, and go through other
stages slower than average children finishing those stages later than
average. In other words it's normal not to be average. Also these
stages of development are only averages for western highly developed
societies at this particular point in time. Greenspan and Shanker would
be first to agree that their stages of development could have turned
out quite differently if they had investigated them even just twenty
years ago. The stages out the way they did because of the
socialization and parenting techniques used in western countries at
this
point in time are roughly the same for all caregiver child
interactions. To the degree that socialization and parenting techniques
differ accounts for the outliers in the developmental
evidence.
Earlier
attempts to theorize about child development by Piaget, Vygotsky and others implied that successive
stages were genetically determined. But now we are almost sure such
stages are
entirely dependent on environmental influence. Some
facets of development have been shown to have a time limit potential so
that if the right environmental interactions do not occur that ability
will never develop. Language seems to be such an ability as shown by
children who have grown up in the wild or have lacked caregiver
interaction. Be this as it may it is clear that for later stages of
development, as long as the previous stage was implemented fully, the
next stage can be implemented with current socialization and parenting
techniques.
Constructing
a map of reality.
Greenspan and Shanker's developmental theory
provides a way of
understanding the development of an internal model of reality and thus
is used here as a template on which this development can be laid out.
The part of the developmental stages in Greenspan and Shanker's theory
that are significant, for a cognitive structure
building
toward becoming a personal map of reality, are the first
9 developmental stages alluded to in their book.
These are as
follows:
-
 Conjecture.
 At
the beginning of this stage the infant has no conception of
anything and has to become interested enough in the world to start to
speculate about it. This speculation is based on association and is the
beginning of constructs. They are not theories of even proper
expectations and thus may suitably be called conjectures. During this
stage the infant develops from something with no cognitive structure to
a creature with vague disconnected conjectures about the form of
reality.
-
 Convergence.
 At
this second stage the previously disconnected conjectures
begin to
be grouped together vaguely by means of association as they occur in
close proximity in the infant's life experience. Interest in
occurrences in the external world gradually metamorphoses into
interest in experiencing various emotional states. These in
turn
lead to perception of caregivers and interest in deciphering
emotional states in caregivers. This in turn leads to the beginnings of
separating the infant's self from others.
-
 Reality
Patterns.  At
this third stage the amorphous clumps of conjectures start coalesce
into recurring patterns which the infant starts to be able to perceive.
These patterns, by providing the infant with better predictive control
of external reality, bring into existence the possibility of intention,
where the infant may be motivated to act on the external world to
produce satisfaction of wants and needs. The patterns not only allow
anticipation but also allow the infant to manipulate reality to be more
to its liking. Patterns may be extended in duration, stopped and
initiated as a rudimentary conjecture about causality
forms. Much of this takes the form of back and forth emotional
signaling between infant and caregiver which in turn leads
to a
desire for deciphering facial expressions by the infant.
-
 Correlation.
 At
this fourth stage the infant starts experimenting using existing motor
plans derived from reality patterns in circumstances that are not the
original circumstances in which they work. In this way these old
patterns are transformed into new patterns as they are varied and used
to solve new problems. This is largely accomplished by means
of
increasingly long chains of emotional signaling that take place between
caregivers an the infant. These long chains of signals motivate the
infant to suppress or postpone both reflex actions and reflexive
(catastrophic) emotions. This is made possible by caregivers giving
immediate feedback to which the child may react to which the caregiver
may react etc. Problem solving of this improved sort leads to better
prediction especially of caregivers actions. The infant thus
is
motivated to intentionally work at gaining control of
reality. At
this stage conjectures and patterns further coalesce as they
thus
become linked together.
-
 Symbol
formation.  At
this fifth stage infants begin to realize that the noises adults make
can somehow substitute for or represent complex patterns or conjectures
which can then be used to communicate. The advantage of this compressed
specific communication over communication, that otherwise is
unspecific and only achieved by means of the long chains of
emotional signaling, becomes obvious. These new symbols arise
because actions can be postponed or blocked causing actions
to be
run as simulations that takes place only in the brain.
This allows
the infant to form the conjecture that ideas about
activity can exist independent of the action itself and may
possibly be represented by words for the purpose of communication. Of
course infants are busy building visual and motor symbols long before
this. But these new word and sentence patterns are
symbols for very efficient interaction and manipulation of
reality. The substituting of words for long chains of emotional
signaling is not only a more efficient form of communication but also
provides other benefits such as a means of connecting all the
conjectures and patterns in the map of reality together and imposing
some order on it. It also allows superior problem solving by allowing
internal simulation of possible solutions in this new compressed form
by means of internal
monologue.
-
 Reality
testing.  At
this sixth stage the connectivity and order imposed by the new word
symbols, and the beginnings of language, make possible a kind of
primitive logic. Although infants, at earlier
stages, tested
their conjectures, they did so only inadvertently as part of their
continuing motivation to service their needs and desires by attempting
to implement their expectations. At this stage, however, with the
acquisition of primitive logic, it becomes possible for infants to
intentionally test conjectures even as they are forming. This is done,
for the most part, not as part of on going attempts to implement
expectations, but rather, out of pure curiosity. This allows the child
to amass a large repertoire of solutions to problems that do not yet
exist. These solutions, though they have no immediate
use,
may become useful, for as yet unexperienced problems that may occur in
the future. This testing of reality allows infants to be prepared for
circumstances and problems not previously encountered. This
also
takes the map of reality to a whole new state where infants no longer
have to rely on accidents for the formation of conjectures and instead
actively attempt to construct conjectures. Also the testing elevates
the conjectures from being mere conjectures. For the first time the
infant can be said to have real theories about how the
world works.
-
 Multiple
causes thinking.  At
this seventh stage children become able by means of logic and
an
amassed library of conjectures/solutions to become cognizant of and
able to invest in alternative outcomes. This in turn enables
alternative and competing theories that can possibly deliver the same
outcome. Either of two different causes may produce exactly the same
effect. When this conjecture becomes fully formed in the child's mind
it becomes clear that not only might either of the two causes produce
the same effect but that any combination of the two might also
accomplish the same effect. To accomplish this state the child has to
become able to hold two or more alternative or competing theories
in his mind without being forced to declare a winner. This in
turn
forces the formation of ever more complex hypotheses in order to be
able to test increasingly complex theories about reality. In this way
the islands of knowledge in the child's cognitive structure
become
more flexible as the connections within them become both more numerous
and more tentative. As these structures become more tentative and more
flexible so does the entire cognitive structure become more tentative
and more flexible.
-
 Gray
area thinking.  At
this eighth stage the cognitive structure, and the child's testing of
his
now complex theories, bring graduated results. This gradation starts to
influence all aspects of the cognitive structure. Gradation slowly
becomes part of all thinking, theory and perception. The child no
longer
perceives that he is happy or sad but instead becomes aware of a
continuum where they are part of the same construct. Thus he can place
his happiness or sadness on this continuum estimating just how happy or
sad he is. With this eventuality the theories making up the
cognitive structure become like the constructs in George Kelly's
theory. Therefore the child can not only be aware of multiple
reasons determining certain outcomes but is able to weigh
their
probable influence in the outcome. He becomes able to entertain such
ideas as liking someone even when he is angry with them. This
grayness and lack of sharp boundaries enables the negotiation of
various social hierarchies involving power, dominance, submission, like
ability and various other social skills. This comes at a convenient
time as group culture becomes very important at this time.
Peer
relationships begin to become more important as caregiver relationships
become taken for granted. This grayness is a major change for the child
where the more they know the less sure of it they become. It is also a
difficult time as the previous simplistic certainty of knowing has to
be replaced with by complex probability estimation. This change can go
badly or slowly as children tend to cling to their previous certainty.
-
 Standardization.
 At
this the ninth stage the cognitive structure for the first time
gradually becomes a fully functioning personal map of reality. That is
to say it become capable of making accurate predictions about the world
and what is likely to happen based on the knowledge in the map.
Although the brain is never truly finished growing and changing at this
stage of life the brain goes through a final pruning of
neurons. As each section of the brain completes
development a
dying off of neurons that are not being used occurs. The last section
where this occurs is in the prefrontal lobes. This produces a
stable form of brain that should be able to
gradually
blossom over the rest of life. Unfortunately the new ability of the
brain to make accurate predictions tends to give young humans an
exaggerated confidence in its ability giving them a false sense of
certainty in all their knowledge. This, combined with the fear of not
being able to be certain, tends to cause these young adults to
cling to or back slide into a more black and white understanding of the
world some how loosing their gains in gray area thinking. Also this
more complete functioning brain tends to become much more capable of
taking in the theories of others whole without testing and this
combined with a lifetime of culture and school presenting ideas
(theories) as dogma that cannot be questioned
makes young adults cling even more determinedly
to supposed certainties in their maps of reality.
Peak experiences (part of the puzzle).
Abraham
Maslow was for much of his life was very much concerned with the
phenomenon of what he called peak experiences. These experiences were
profound and immensely pleasurable, where for a short time people
seemed to feel at one with the universe and be able to behold and
understand all things. These experiences happened to and were available
to all people but most often occurred in people Maslow considered to be
self actualized. It was found to be illuminating to consider this
phenomena in terms of personal maps of reality. Again the metaphor of
the jigsaw puzzle will help us understand how peak experiences work and
what their function is.
When
we are putting a jigsaw together it often happens we put pieces in
place because the colors match and the pieces seem to fit. The whole
section is just an abstract of colors and lines and we can not see it
as part of the picture we are trying to form. It may occur however that
by putting a single piece in place suddenly all the confused colors and
lines transform into a picture. Suddenly we see clearly what part of
the jigsaw is meant to be. It starts with the with our single new piece
and flows outward in all directions across the puzzle until all the
puzzle is reinterpreted in terms of our new piece. When this happens
any pieces we have put in place incorrectly become obvious mistakes and
we remove them. Also at this point many pieces which we have not put in
place can be imagined. If enough pieces are in place our imagination
may for a moment complete the puzzle in our minds.
Peak experiences.
It
is suggested that peak experiences act in a very similar way in our
personal maps of reality. Sometimes some knowledge comes to us that not
only illuminates and makes clear all the information in our mind
related to it, but it also continues to clarify all the
information
related to that information and so on. It is suggested that this
illumination spreads out across the whole of our personal map of
reality clarifying and reinterpreting it until we are able for a moment
to behold the whole map of reality, to experience it and understand it
as a whole. This may well be a peak experience which we are only able
to maintain for a short time and quickly fades. Our map of
reality would be
significantly changed by this experience, but our memory of the
experience fades quickly to a memory of just a pleasant experience. We
are unable to recall the experience itself but we are left with a
feeling that we have experienced something awesome. We feel that we
have been at one with the universe and that we knew all things. Of
course we were not in touch with the universe but rather in touch with
the model of the universe we have built up in our own minds, our
personal map of reality.
Our
personal map of reality is used and necessary for all acts of
cognition. Cognition in turn is all the actions the brain (mind)
performs in order to know something. It is, therefore, understanding,
problem solving, correction, decision making and recollection. Our
personal map of reality is our long term memory, but it is also much
more. Much of what we do with our minds has nothing to do with
recollection though it has everything to do with links, connections and
associations. These links connections and associations are what make
knowledge meaningful. Indeed it is their density, arrangement and what
they connect with, which infuses all knowledge with its meaning for
that person. Personal maps of reality are therefore all about
meaningfulness.
 Myths, the glue
like beliefs that hold our mental maps together.
Some
parts of our maps of reality have to be based on belief rather than
experimental testing. Unfortunately these parts of the map are
essential to the maps cohesion and stability. Click here to read about
the function of these untested beliefs.
 Consolidating
the map and forging ahead.
Despite
the numbers of books in bookstores and the amount of information on the
world wide web it can fairly easily be shown that most humans taper off
learning the moment they leave school. Not only do they stop delving
deeply into academic subjects, but the amount of general informational
reading drops alarmingly. People may say that as adults they become too
busy to read anything but the news because their time is taken up by
working, but this does not explain how a small minority of people
continue to learn and learn academically throughout their lives. These
people are not the ones continuing to read to keep up with the
knowledge of their profession. That is a different small group. This
site maintains that people stop learning when they leave school because
the very process of schooling has removed the joy of learning even as
it was providing the necessary information and a lot that was not
necessary. Humans
do not need to stop learning, they are not biologically impelled to
stop learning, they just do. If our maps of reality do not continue to
develop after we reach adulthood our minds can get stuck, frozen in
adolescence all our
lives. Adulthood is not the time to ease off learning but rather a time
for consolidating the map and forging ahead. Click here to read about
development in the adult brain.
Optimizing the map.
Clearly
once we understand that every person has a personal map of reality we
can start to think of ways this map could be optimized to work more
efficiently.
Our maps of reality emerge into existence through
the process of life long learning.
A
map of reality is created by learning and becomes the instrument
through which learning is constantly improved. This in turn improves
the map and since the map can never be complete, or an exact model of
reality, it is cleanly and meant to be improving every wakeful moment
we
are living. Therefore what we call our minds must also be
meant
to
be ever changing and improving. When we understand that our minds are
ever meant to be changing, the strange idea that we can or should stop
learning, is exposed as the dangerous fallacy that it is. It is clear
instead, that we should continue to learn in every way including
academically throughout our lives.
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