Free Will: a new study, with timed reaction (Introduction)

by dhw, Saturday, April 30, 2016, 10:14 (3129 days ago) @ David Turell

DAVID: I'm not sure the conclusions of this study are valid. My choosing a product in a store are not the same as trying to choose which circle will turn red:
-http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/mind-guest-blog/what-neuroscience-says-about-free-w...-David's comment: This study at guessing the red dot illustrates the authors' doubting comments more than something positive. I still think my choice of a cereal is not the same at guessing a red dot against time. The brain does have a reaction time deficit biologically and we know consciousness automatically fills in for the gaps in time. Tricking the brain is well known. I'm not sure what this proves, but it is interesting.-I share your scepticism. Though slightly different (here the "victim" dupes himself), this experiment seems to me to follow a similar principle to that of forcing a card. The conjurer fans out the cards and invites the dupe to pick any one he likes (= free will) - but he subtly pushes his own preselected card out so that the dupe takes it. Then after a long spiel, the conjuror magically identifies the card. Yes indeed, tricking the brain is well known, and I shall now apply for a million dollar grant to subsidize the extremely expensive, sophisticated, time-consuming, technological and psychological experiments I have devised for my sensational new thesis: 
FREE WILL: HOW TO MAKE PEOPLE THINK THEY HAVE IT WHEN IN FACT THEY MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE IT.