Sudoku is not just pleasure/pain, a morning wake-up or a diversion, but also an exercise in logic. When people make the same mistake in logic every time, what can the type of error reveal about the solver's brain?
D.E. Morant
error path, if behaviors are chained that lead to an ultimate reinforcer the "behavioral path" is going to get "embedded" as long as the error does not prevent the organism from acquiring the reinforcer.
That the brain has not evolved to maximize efficiency but to minimize effort within the context of resource availability and organismic goals?
When that mistake was "learned" it led to a reinforcer (in an neural context, reinforcer = neurotransmitter production involved in reward...dopamine?).
Unlearning is learning. It likely requires more effort to unlearn than it does to carry on making the same mistake that leads to that neurotransmitter release. It is, in other words, more efficient (in terms of resource use) to continue making the mistake.
Thoughts? D.E. Morant
i get your point, andrew. and i think anyone who has tried to change a long-term, semi-automatic behaviour knows how difficult it can be. perhaps that sort of behaviour is more nearly a reflex than a conscious choice?
example: i go downstairs. the upstairs light is on (switches on both floors). my hydro bill has gone up considerably so i want to minimize my usage. because i have, in twenty years, almost never turned off the light down there, i must remind myself to do so > learning a new behaviour.
it is considerably easier in the opposite direction, ie turning on the light before i go upstairs, because i also have a demonstrable clew or reminder to do so - the dark at the top of the stairs. going downstairs the light is behind me and i am much less likely to be reminded to turn it off.
question: does the fact that i now have to use a cane interfere with my reprogramming myself?
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