IUBio

Single Thoughts

Jean Petree petrjean at cwis.isu.edu
Sun Dec 1 15:32:40 EST 1996


Stephen Black wrote

I suggest that oxygen 
consumption be measured under different conditions:
 
e.g.  (i) while flipping one's lower lip and saying "duh" (no thought)
      (ii) while counting forwards by ones (small thought)
     (iii) while counting backwards by sevens (big thought)
       iv) while trying to make sense of some politician's speech (your 
           choice-very big thought)
 
Then any differences in oxygen consumption can be attributed to 
differences in thought size. Would any be detectable (serious question)?

>Any of those might work except for the fact that your brain is constantly
>at work on other thoughts, even if you're not aware of them. So at one
>point while duh-ing, your brain may be turning over some trivialities,
>while at another duh-ing it may be very hard at work.

pjs


Maybe those background trivialities just sort of "subtract out"?  After
all, they occur *across* conditions ...
-- 
Jean Petree
petrjean at cwis.isu.edu




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