B:CP Chapter 12 Summary

CSGnet Archive CSG2013
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[David Goldstein (2013.09.29)] B:CP Summary of
Chapter 12 The Brain’s Model

“These signals constitute an analog model of the
external world.� Each level is a different model of the external world.

Intensity Level—the neural currents represent the intensity of sensory receptor
activity caused by whatever is stimulating the receptor. This is all we know
until further information processing takes place.

Sensation Level—The neural currents represent
functions of the first order neural currents. The neural currents created by
Sensation Level input functions may, or may not, correspond to something in the
external world. “…sensations seem to
correspondd to physical properties of the external world that are not uniquely
represented at any one sensory ending: a temperature sensation, for example.�
“…second-order perceptual signals are analogs of vvariable attributes of the
external world,…â€?>

Configuration Level—“…patterns…â€?

Transition Level—”“…change and motion…â€?

Events or Sequence Level—See Dr. Frans utube demos.

To get an idea of what a person would be like who
functioned at each level and didn’t have the higher levels, I found it helpful
to consult the Wonder
Weeks book. As an infant develops, and a new level
emerges, the infant is able to experience and function in a different way.

“The brains model of reality, as far as
consciousness is concerned, is reality—there is nothing else to perceive.â€?

My answers to the leading questions:

  1.  1.  No.

It does point out the subjectivity of all our perceptions. Before people were
on earth, before there was an earth, the model of reality provided by
astrophysics and astronomy, say that there was an external reality.

  1.  2.  If

we cannot experience something, like black holes, we will not study it.

  1.  3. “The

organism made a jumping movement.� The
observer is assuming it is an organism. It may be a robot of some kind. The
observer is assuming that if the observer made a movement like this, that it
would be a jumping event—like jumping over a puddlle. What if this is just the
way the organism moves all the time? The observer is using the configuration
level and the event level. The statement seems like a program level perception.

  1.  4. The

visitor will say 3.2. The meter is unlabeled.

  1.  5.  A

configuration when we read it. A sequence when we spell it. Maybe, reading
takes place at lower levels of perception than listening. Our eyes fixate, then jump and then fixate again. When they
fixate, we are taking in information. Our listening is more sequential, which
is a higher level.

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