Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
instructed to spend time making lists of pros and cons will do significantly
worse than the group that is distracted halfway through and is asked
afterward to give a first impression (Aarts & Dijksterhuis, 2002).
Especially when the elements of each option are hard to compare (price
per unit surface, location, view, quality of kitchen), the conscious
approach scores below the nonconscious one. In other words, the non-
conscious originated from doing simple tasks but contributes now to even
very complex mental activities. The nonconscious is always active and
the conscious can be invited to participate. Connecting this statement to
safety, we can conclude that safety management is processed at a noncon-
scious level, and that the conscious part of our existence is sometimes
invited to contribute to this safety process.
The next question is what is needed to invite the consciousness. The
general procedure is that the brain first estimates whether a task can
be done automatically. If this is the case, there is no need for conscious
involvement and the task will be carried out fully nonconsciously. But
if the nonconscious is faced with an unknown situation or problem,
with no routines to guide the handling of the appropriate task, the con-
sciousness will become involved at that moment.
The consciousness is called upon when we face unknown situations or
tasks.
Case 2
In the example of driving a car, we can drive on the highway for
15 minutes without any consciousness (while listening to the radio) and
“
”
only because someone in front of us is doing an unexpected
maneuver to which special attention is needed.
wake up
Dijksterhuis (2007) uses an analogy to describe the relationship
between the conscious and the nonconscious. He compares conscious-
ness with a stage in a theater. While all the actors are very busy with
nonconscious tasks somewhere in the theater, a few of them are tempo-
rarily active on the stage and doing something special. Our attention is
drawn to those actors on the stage, and we neglect all the others.
Estimates about which percentage of our activity is conscious vary
from 0.1 percent to 0.00002 percent, depending on how many pro-
cesses are involved in the total sum of behavior.
