ken@aiva.edinburgh.ac.UK (Ken Johnson) (08/25/88)
From: Ken Johnson <ken%aiva.edinburgh.ac.uk@NSS.Cs.Ucl.AC.UK> Date: Tue, 23 Aug 88 06:42 EDT Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest Subject: Re: Can we human being think two different things in parallel? References: <19880820041414.6.NICK@HOWARD-JOHNSONS.LCS.MIT.EDU> Reply-To: "Ken Johnson,E32 SB x212E" <ken%aiva.edinburgh.ac.uk@NSS.Cs.Ucl.AC.UK> Organization: Dept. of AI, Univ. of Edinburgh, UK Apparently-To: ailist@stripe.sri.com In a previous article, Youngwhan Lee writes: >Date: Sun, 14 Aug 88 16:54 EDT >From: Youngwhan Lee <ywlee@p.cs.uiuc.edu> >To: ailist-request@stripe.sri.com >Subject: Can we human being think two different things in parallel? > >Can we human being think two different things in parallel? I think most people have had the experience of suddenly gaining insight into the solution of a problem they last deliberately chewed over a few hours or days previously. I'd say this was evidence for the brain's ability to work at two or more (?) high-order tasks at the same time. But I look forward to reading what Real Psychologists say. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Ken Johnson (Half Man Half Bicycle) Address: AI Applications Institute, The University, EDINBURGH Phone: 031-225 4464 ext 212 Email: k.johnson@ed.ac.uk
robinson@PRAVDA.GATECH.EDU (Steve Robinson) (08/25/88)
To: comp-ai-digest Path: gatech!pravda!robinson From: Steve Robinson <robinson@pravda.gatech.edu> Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest Subject: Re: Can we human being think two different things in parallel? Date: Tue, 23 Aug 88 13:41 EDT References: <19880820041508.3.NICK@HOWARD-JOHNSONS.LCS.MIT.EDU> Sender: news@gatech.edu Reply-To: Steve Robinson <robinson@pravda.gatech.edu> Organization: Georgia Tech AI Group Lines: 10 For those of you following Lee's, Hayes' and Norman's postings on "parallel thinking" there is a short paper in this year's Cognitive Science Society's Conference proceedings by Peter Norvig at UC-Berkeley entitled "Multiple Simultaneous Interpretations of Ambiguous Sentences" which you may find pertinent. The proceedings are published by LEA. Since the conference was last week, it may be a while until they are availble elsewhere. I heard Norvig's presentation and found it interesting. Regards, Stephen
hartung@NPRDC.ARPA (Jeff Hartung) (08/27/88)
To: comp-ai-digest@ucsd.edu Path: nprdc!hartung From: Jeff Hartung <hartung@nprdc.arpa> Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest Subject: Re: Can we human being think two different things in parallel? Date: Thu, 25 Aug 88 10:39 EDT References: <19880824193858.5.NICK@HOWARD-JOHNSONS.LCS.MIT.EDU> Sender: news@nprdc.arpa Reply-To: Jeff Hartung <hartung@nprdc.arpa> Organization: Navy Personnel R&D Center, San Diego Lines: 28 In a previous article, Ken Johnson writes: >>Can we human being think two different things in parallel? > >I think most people have had the experience of suddenly gaining insight >into the solution of a problem they last deliberately chewed over a few >hours or days previously. I'd say this was evidence for the brain's >ability to work at two or more (?) high-order tasks at the same time. >But I look forward to reading what Real Psychologists say. The above may demonstrate that the brain can "process" two jobs simultaneously, but is this what we mean by "think"? If so, this still doesn't demonstrate adequately that parallel processing is what is going on. It may be equally true that serial processing on several jobs is happening, only some processing is below the threshold of awareness. Or, there may be parallel processing, but with a limited number of processes at the level of awareness of the "thinker". On the other hand, if we take "thinking" to mean an activity which the "thinker" is aware of, at least in that it is going on, then there is strong evidence that there is only limited capacity to attand to multiple tasks simultaneously, but there is no final conclusion on this ability as far as I know. Many studies in the ability to attand to multiple tasks or perceptual stimuli simultaneously are still being done. --Jeff Hartung-- ARPA - hartung@nprdc.arpa hartung@sdics.ucsd.edu UUCP - !ucsd!nprdc!hartung !ucsd!sdics!hartung
tlohrbe@pacsbb.UUCP (trevor lohrbeer) (09/05/88)
To: Path: pacsbb!tlohrbe From: trevor lohrbeer <temvax!pacsbb!tlohrbe@bpa.bell-atl.com> Newsgroups: comp.ai.digest Subject: Re: Can we human being think two different things in parallel? Date: Wed, 31 Aug 88 22:31 EDT References: <19880827040817.6.NICK@HOWARD-JOHNSONS.LCS.MIT.EDU> Organization: PACS - Philadelphia Area Computer Society, Penna. Lines: 45 In another article, Ken Johnson says: >> Can we human being think two different things in parallel? > >I think most people have had the experience of suddenly gaining insight in >into the solution of a problem they last deliberately chewed over a few >hours or days previously. I'd say this was evidence for the brain's abili >ability to work at two or more (?) high-order tasks at the same time. >But I look forward to reading what Real Psychologists say. In response to this, Jeff Hartung writes: >The above may demonstrate that the brain can "process" two jobs >simultaneously, but is this what we mean by "think"? If so, this still >doesn't demonstrate adequately that parallel processing is what is >going on. It may be equally true that serial processing on several >jobs is happening, only some processing is below the threshold of >awareness. Or, there may be parallel processing , but with a limited >number of processes at the level of awareness of the "thinker". I think the problem does indeed lie in what we mean by "thinking". But if we define thinking in terms of working out a Xdefinit solvab problem,, such as working out a math problem (a large one consisting of say m multiplying two three digit numbers, not something that can be recalled fro memory), and also append the notion that one must be consiously thinking it for it to be "thinking", then the problem is solvable. To solve it, try to do the problem. Try for example multiplying 356 x 674 and 965 x 3124, at the same time. T A way to be pretty sure that you are figuring out the problem serially, is to see if you come out with the answers to both problems at the same time. Try to do it and you'll find that even for a mathematical wizard, it is impossible to work out the two problems simultaneously, if done at the consious level. At the unconcious level though, it is possible to think in parallel. Take an instance of walking and talking at the same time. The brain must send m messages to the legs, mouth, heart, and many other muscles, all at the same time. It must also intake the senses of touch (for balance), of vision (to see where your going), and sometimes smell. It then has to analyze it all while still keeping all the muscles moving and intaking more data. So at the unconcious level, the number of things able to be done in parallel become innumerable. Trevor Lohrbeer