This seems pretty interesting, but it’s not very clear to me.
The last post in this sequence discussed different reinforcement of thought and action. Speech and thought make a natural category as opposed to action; both are fast and easy, and so less likely to be affected by time and effort discounting. Both are point actions as opposed to a long project like learning Swahili or quitting smoking. And both bring reinforcement not through normal sensory channels (saying a word doesn’t give pleasure in the same way smoking a cigarette might, nor pain in the same way having to study a boring grammar textbook might) but in what they say about you as a person and how they affect other people’s real (and perceived) opinion of you.
So even if there is no governor anywhere unifying all thoughts and words, they may come out in harmony because they were selected by the same processes for the same reasons. And actions may not end up so harmonious, because they suffer from differential reinforcement.
They make some intuitive sense, but I’m not sure how to understand the distinction you’re trying to make more technically. Can you elaborate? I think pictures of casual graphs might be useful here.
This seems pretty interesting, but it’s not very clear to me.
They make some intuitive sense, but I’m not sure how to understand the distinction you’re trying to make more technically. Can you elaborate? I think pictures of casual graphs might be useful here.