This article was published as The Regulation of
Consciousness in Information Processing in "Journal of Indian
Psychology", Vol.15, Nos. 1 & 2, Vishakapatnam. 1997]. This Journal
is an international journal of classical ideas and current research.
ABSTRACT
A study was undertaken to investigate the efficacy of the operation of the whole mind in information processing. Twenty-two female students in the age range of 16 to 20 years were tested on two equivalent passages with 30 keywords each before and after the three-hour training program. The program borrowed the metamemory techniques and the objective was to enable the mind of an individual to act holistically as envisaged in Yoga psychology. The improvement in retention was found in all the subjects and the average increase was very significant. Several other studies, too, resulted in a significant increase in retention. Theoretically, the regulation of consciousness at an optimum level leads to high performance. Such an approach can bridge the void between the understanding of psychology, parapsychology, and spirituality. 🙏
Eastern psychology endows the mind with the capability to act holistically. The Bhagavad-Gita enumerates three forms of knowledge -- the sattvic, the rajasic, and the tamasic. Yoga psychology attributes the greatest importance to the sattvic kind of knowledge derived through the operation of the whole mind.
For anyone trained in the phenomenological understanding of behavior, the concept of the whole mind appears esoteric. Hilgard (1980) distinguishes between two models of consciousness that operate in information processing -- active and passive. The third dimension of consciousness apart from these two modes is unfathomable to a scientist especially because it lacks objectivity.
An attempt is made in the present study to regulate consciousness in a holistic mode. If the whole mind is capable of bringing about transcendental knowledge then it should be equally effective in information processing. "The mind has an inherent faculty and tendency to perceive the whole first and then to analyze the whole into parts" (Usharbudh Arya, 1977, p.108). It is to determine the veracity of this premise that the present study has been designed.
Students of the present times no longer have recourse to the Gurukula system. The current educational system is dependent upon the modern pedagogical techniques derived through the Western psychological principles of learning. Hence information is provided to the student part by part assuming that one would make use of these bits and pieces to organize them as a whole.
A major assumption for the present study is that the mind is inherently capable of acting as a whole. Such inherence is present in young children who have not been exposed to the modern system of education. Perhaps the statement that "strategic behavior increases with age" (Ceci & Howe, 1982, p.158) indicates the tendency of older children to learn gradually to process information part by part.
A three-hour training program was designed to test the hypothesis that the operation of the whole mind is more efficient in information processing than the usual methods of studying. Experiments in metamemory (Brown, 1978) have shown that information processing improved when the subjects were conscious of the memory processes involved in a given task. The present study has imbibed the metamemory techniques but the overall strategy of the training program is based primarily on the concept of the whole mind.
The program is divided into six stages where the participant is introduced to each stage in succession -- preparation, awakening, semantics, tracking, parallel processing, and reorganization. In the preparatory stage, the consciousness is regulated to receive information as a whole that is relevant to the topic under study. This, in turn, awakens the consciousness to see the general relationship that exists between the major highlights of the study material. Once the essence of what is contained in the literature is grasped, the semantics, or central idea, of the material becomes clearer through association and tagging. It is at the fourth stage that tracking for specific information part by part, is attended to and rehearsed. Such tracking is guided by the grand design of the whole idea. Parallel processing takes place in the fifth stage where each part is woven into the whole and is understood in the light of the general picture obtained in earlier stages. Finally, a reorganization of the material is undertaken by chunking parts into the existing whole.
The efficacy of such a program rests with the recipients. Two passages, each consisting of 30 keywords, were administered simultaneously to a group of 35 final year students -- 9 females and 26 males. This was necessary to establish the equivalence of the passages in terms of difficulty level. The passages were selected and modified from standard comprehension passages (Howe & Heapy, 1970). The mean number of words for 18 students who reproduced Passage A immediately after studying it for two minutes was 13.61 with a standard deviation of 5.20. Passage B elicited a mean of 14.06 words with a standard deviation of 5.44. The difference of -0.45 was not significant, t= -0.25(33), p=.805 (two-tailed). Sex differences, on Passage A or Passage B as well as for the whole sample, were not significant.
A group of 22 girls from one of the women’s colleges participated in the training program. They were in the age range of 16 to 20 years with an average of 18.55 years. They showed interest to learn new ways of studying. They were tested on Passage A before the three-hour program and on Passage B after the program. The instructions were similar during the two tests except that they were told to use the strategy they had learned during the program while studying Passage B. The improvement was found in all the subjects as indicated below.
Table 1: t-test for the scores on passages before and after the training program (N=22)
| Passage A | Passage B | |
Mean | 10.18 | 18.18 | r = .564, p = .006 |
S.D. | 4.93 | 4.24 | |
Max | 20 | 25 | t = -8.68, df = 21, p = .000 |
Min | 2 | 8 | |
Such a considerable increase in performance appears astounding. However, several other similar training programs revealed quite identical results in participants as young as 9 years or as old as 25 years.
Another series of programs was conducted to measure to extent of improvement among the semi-urban students. A total of 157 pre-University students -- 85 female and 72 male -- participated in the three programs in which they studied the two passages for three minutes. Almost all except eight were science students. The age range was 15 to 18 years with a mean age of 16.18 years. No changes were made in the strategy of the training program. The results of the three batches are as follows.
Table 2: t-tests for the scores on passages before and after the three training programs (N=157)
Batch I (N=55) | |||
Passages | A | B | r=.65,p=.000 t=-8.53(54), p=.000 |
Mean | 18.86 | 23.16 | |
S.D. | 4.74 | 4.05 | |
Max | 28 | 29 | |
Min | 9 | 16 | |
Batch II (N=54) | |||
Passages | A | B | r=.70,p=.000 t=-9.80(53), p=.000 |
Mean | 16.82 | 21.76 | |
S.D. | 4.75 | 4.85 | |
Max | 26 | 30 | |
Min | 8 | 8 | |
Batch III (N=48) | |||
Passages | A | B | r=.77,p=.000 t=-7.84(47), p=.000 |
Mean | 16.77 | 21.44 | |
S.D. | 6.30 | 5.77 | |
Max | 28 | 30 | |
Min | 2 | 10 | |
The mean differences of 4.31, 4.96, and 4.67 between Passage B and Passage A for the three batches were found to be highly significant. Females were better than males considerably in the pre-test, t=1.88(155), p=.061, and significantly in the post-test, t=2.55(155), p=.012. The greater mean in batch 1 is also due to the presence of more girls (67%) than boys (33%). This underlines the fact that girls are more oriented toward studies than boys. However, the effect of the program was quite similar to the two groups with an average difference of 0.39 being not significant. In 6.37% of the students, there was a decrease in performance and no change was found in 4.46% of the students. Among the rest 89.17%, though two students showed an increase of 15 words while recalling Passage B, the average increase from pre-test to post-test was 5.36 words.
If the program has been able to bring out the best in the participants, then it is imperative to look into several theoretical aspects of the program.
Studies in metamemory stress the importance of intending, attending, and intending to attend (Ceci & Howe, 1982). The present study is principally concerned with using the intention to attend to the given task in a manner so that there is a regulation of consciousness to receive and process information systematically. Keeping in mind the disadvantages of the passive mode of consciousness, memory experts advocate an active model of consciousness. However, the latter inhibits the individual to process information in its totality. Hence there is a need for a third model of consciousness as an alternative to these two. It is here that the idea of sattvic knowledge comes into operation. Sattva, as is usually understood, is not neutral in the sense that it is neither active nor passive. It is a state of the individual wherein both the active and passive modes are interspersed coherently to enable the organism toward effective performance. The following excerpt from Bhagavad-Gita highlights such an idea:
The unswerving firmness by which, through yoga, the functions of the mind, the Prana and the senses are regulated, that firmness, O Partha, is Sattvika (Swami Chidbhavananda, 1967, p.892).
Conceptually, on a continuum of consciousness ranging from extreme passivity to extreme activity, there is an optimal level of consciousness that is to be cultivated by the individual whenever there is a need. Such an optimum level of consciousness leads to effective performance, whether it is for waging a war or studying for the exams. The following diagram illustrates the above idea.
Such a heuristic approach toward the third model of consciousness has greater implications in bridging the void between the study of psychology, parapsychology, and spirituality.
One can use the whole mind to reach an object or event outside the physical body. The knowledge of such an object or event is possible by regulating consciousness through the senses. Psychology and physiology textbooks are replete with explanations of how sensory systems operate in the perceptual process (Morgan, 1965). However, demonstrations of subliminal perception (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977) and suggestopedia (Lozanov, 1969) emphasize the operation of the whole mind in information processing.
In conditions where the information is beyond the limits of the sense organs, regulating the consciousness extrasensorily enhances knowledge. However, a considerable amount of training is necessary for such control. Studies show that psi is enhanced by the internal attention states (Honorton, 1977). It is not out of place to consider in this context the Psi-conducive Syndrome suggested by Braud (1975) or the acquisition of Siddhis enumerated by Pathanjali (Sujendra Prakash, 1995). In the case of spontaneous psi events where no specific training is involved, the Psi-mediated Instrumental Response (PMIR) model proposed by Stanford (1977) can be used aptly to describe the operation of the whole mind.
With greater effort and vigorous training, the consciousness can be regulated within the organism to be aware of the unified state of being. Such a transcendental state of Kaivalya can be achieved, for instance, through the practice of yoga as outlined by Pathanjali (Taimini, 1986).
Here consciousness regulation does not act as a switch. Contrarily, it operates like a knob, by directing the attention outward or inward in varying degrees. The only effort needed for effective information processing is to learn the consciousness regulation judiciously keeping in view the operation of the whole mind.
REFERENCES
Braud, W. G. (1975). Psi-conducive states. Journal of Communication, 25, 142-152.
Brown, A. L. (1978). Knowing when, where, and how to remember: A problem of metacognition. In R. Glaser (Ed.). Advances in Instructional Psychology. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Ceci, S. J. & Howe, M. J. A. (1982). Metamemory and effects of intending, attending, and intending to attend. In G. Underwood (Ed.). Aspects of consciousness, Vol. III: awareness and self-awareness. London: Academic Press, 147-164.
Hilgard, E. (1980). Consciousness in psychology. Annual Review of Psychology, 1-26.
Honorton, C. (1977). Psi and internal attention states. In B. B. Wolman (Ed.). Handbook of Parapsychology. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. 435-472.
Howe, D. H. & Heapy, D. (1970). Guided comprehension and summary (Book 2). Hong Kong: Oxford University Press.
Lozanov, G. (1969). Suggestology and suggestopedia. Sophia: Institute of Suggestology.
Morgan, C. T. (1965). Physiological Psychology (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw Hill.
Nisbett, R. E. & Wilson, T. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231-279.
Stanford, R. G. (1977). Conceptual frameworks of contemporary psi research. In B. B. Wolman (Ed.). Handbook of Parapsychology. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. 823-858.
Sujendra Prakash, B. S. (1995). Parapsychological phenomena based on Pathanjali’s Yoga Sutras. In B. V. Subbarayappa (Ed.). Facets of Humanism. Madras: Affiliated East-West Press Pvt. Ltd. 375-392.
Swami Chidbhavananda (1967). The Bhagavad Gita. Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu: Tapovanam Publishing House.
Taimini, I. K. (1986). The science of yoga. Adyar, Madras: The Theosophical Publishing House.
Usharbudh Arya, Pandit (1977). The whole mind. In Swami Ajaya (Ed.). Foundations of Eastern and Western Psychology. Glenview, Illinois: The Himalayan Institute.
[The Regulation of Consciousness in Information Processing, Paper presented at the Conference on Two Faces of Consciousness at Andhra University, Vishakapatnam, 1996.
This article was edited and published as The Regulation of Consciousness in Information Processing in "Journal of Indian Psychology", Vol.15, Nos. 1 & 2, Vishakapatnam. 1997]. This Journal is an international journal of classical ideas and current research.]
Copyright: © (1996) B. S. Sujendra Prakash
It is what I was searching for is really informative. negotiation techniques training course online It is a significant and useful article for us. Thankful to you for sharing an article like this.
ReplyDeletePlease do not include any spam links in the comment box.