Anticipation.

[Nienna]

Re: Difference between expectation and anticipation?

Here is the link to the Cassiopedia explanation of anticipation and non-anticipation.

 

[shijing]

I'm currently reading a book called Deep Survival by Laurence Gonzales, which was suggested by someone in a reading discussion group I'm a part of. The psychology part of the book has been quite good so far, and I wanted to share the following excerpt which relates to anticipation:

Sometimes an idea can drive action as powerfully as an emotion. Plans are an integral part of survival. Plans are generated as one of the many outputs of the brain as it goes about its business of mapping the body and the environment, along with the events taking place in both, resulting in adaptation. Planning is a deep instinct. Animals plan, and a bird that hides seeds has a larger hippocampus than others, suggesting a larger capacity for spatial memory. But planning -- predicting the future -- may be even more fundamental than animal abilities suggest. In his book Complexity, M. Mitchell Waldrop points out that "All complex adaptive systems anticipate the future....Every living creature has an implicit prediction encoded in its genes...every complex adaptive system is constantly making predictions based on its various internal models of the world....In fact, you can think of internal models as the building blocks of behavior. And like any other building blocks, they can be tested, refined, and rearranged as the system gains experience."

The human brain is particularly well suited to making complex plans that have an emotional component to drive motivation and behavior. Plans are stored in memory just as past events are. To the brain, the future is as real as the past. The difficulty begins when reality doesn't match the plan.

Memories are not emotion, and emotion is not memory, but the two work together. Mental models, which are stored in memory, are not emotions either. But they can be engaged with emotion, motivation, cognition, and memory. And since memories can exist in either the past or the future, to the brain it's the same thing. You bookmark the future in order to get there. It's a magic trick: You can slide through time to a world that does not yet exist.

[...] we all make powerful models of the future. the world we imagine seems as real as the ones we've experienced. We suffuse the model with the emotional values of past realities. And in the thrall of that vision (call it "the plan," writ large), we go forth and take action. If things don't go according to the plan, revising such a robust model may be difficult. In an environment that has high objective hazards, the longer it takes to dislodge the imagined world in favor of the real one, the greater the risk. In nature, adaptation is important; the plan is not. It's a Zen thing. We must plan. But we must be able to let go of the plan, too.

 

[Buddy]

Difference between expectation and anticipation?


I was thinking about this question while lightening and thunderclouds were rolling in just a little while ago. Besides the fact that I was expecting rain tonight, there seems to be a part of me that was pre-attentively aware of an imminent sudden, loud crack of lightening or a thunderclap and so when it happened, it rolled right through me without interrupting what I was reading. I wasn't even consciously aware that I was about to hear any thunder or anything. I've been taken by surprise before though, so I already knew that it's important to stay relaxed.

At other times, I've been taken by surprise to the extent that I've jumped out of my chair at that moment and when I tried to anticipate the next burst so as to prevent harm to myself, all it did was increase my stress levels and fixate my attention. I would still be taken by surprise, though maybe not with quite so intense a reaction.

Could this be a useful experiential example of the difference?

 

[Mackenzie Farm]

Hi

This morning when I was doing homeworks I went into anticipation thinking about a situation that I'm living. In short time it had become a continuous inner chatting about the possible outcome with a consistent amount of emotional involved due to the mental energy I'm using in this project of mine. After few hours of this I was tired, drained so decided to try relax, let things go their way, and went on the forum.

It has been a good idea because I found this discussion and so began to read it; I think it was just what I needed.It made me understand that it's not wrong to ponder on the range of possibility in which a situation can manifest itself so that to be prepared when you will find yourself in it, but it's not good thing become attached and emotionally involved because you're no more impartial and expectations begin.Like in the quote of Shijing, adaptation is important, the plan is not; it's not important the situation but how we deal with it.

I feel much more serene now and I've realized that lately I've had a lot of expectations on things and people.

Thankyou all​

 

[shijing]

I was thinking about this question while lightening and thunderclouds were rolling in just a little while ago. Besides the fact that I was expecting rain tonight, there seems to be a part of me that was pre-attentively aware of an imminent sudden, loud crack of lightening or a thunderclap and so when it happened, it rolled right through me without interrupting what I was reading. I wasn't even consciously aware that I was about to hear any thunder or anything. I've been taken by surprise before though, so I already knew that it's important to stay relaxed.

At other times, I've been taken by surprise to the extent that I've jumped out of my chair at that moment and when I tried to anticipate the next burst so as to prevent harm to myself, all it did was increase my stress levels and fixate my attention. I would still be taken by surprise, though maybe not with quite so intense a reaction.

Could this be a useful experiential example of the difference?

I suppose it might -- the expectation you describe in the first case seems to be the reason for your different responses in both situations. Perhaps another question to ask would be what distinguished the two situations for you internally? For example, did the emotional component of the two situations differ as a result of your expectation or lack thereof?

Your example reminded me of another excerpt from the same book -- this comes at the end of a discussion about the interaction between the amygdala and the neocortex and our reactions to unexpected events in our environment:

While the pathways from the amygdala to the neocortex are stronger and faster than the ones going the other way, some ability may remain for the neocortex to do the following: First, to recognize that there is an emotional response underway. Second, to read reality and perceive circumstances correctly. Third, to override or modulate the automatic reaction if it is an inappropriate one; and fourth, to select a correct course of action.

Since emotions are designed to elicit behaviors in a split second, clearly, that is a tall order, and some people are much better at it than others. In addition, there is a wide variation in individual reactions. Some people startle easily. Others tend not to react at all. Some people function better under stress, such as professional golfers, fighter pilots, elite mountain climbers, motorcycle racers, and brain surgeons. And some emotional responses are more easily controlled than others.

(As an aside, I think the third point mentioned in the first paragraph above relates to a post which obyvatel made elsewhere in regard to the Alexander technique:)

The term "inhibition" which Alexander used has been shown to have far-reaching consequences from modern neuroscience research. At the functional/behavioral level, inhibition means saying "no" to some automatic impulse to respond arising in ourselves. This internal act of saying no is under voluntary control and uses the prefrontal cortex, which is the seat of selective attention and willpower.

We have two types of neurons - excitatory and inhibitory. Excitatory neurons at a basic level ensures neurons fire and propagate signals across large areas of the brain. Inhibitory neurons regulate the activation response. They stabilize the excitation through negative feedback (subtracting from the excitatory pathways) and through what is known as "lateral inhibition", they can segregate areas of activation thus narrowing and focusing the activation response through more restricted pathways. Weak neural inhibition is associated with temporal lobe epilepsy and brain zaps along with obsessive behavior. It seems weak neural inhibition leading to uncontrolled global activation patterns in the brain can correlate with what in Work terms is described as the wrong work of centers, with unwanted mixing of intellectual, emotional and instinctive responses.

We know that our brain responds to the sensory image presented to it by the external sense organs and the interoceptors (internal receptors) located in key areas like the gut, heart etc. So our "mind" learns from body sensations. What happens during voluntary inhibition in this context is interesting. Some research findings indicate that voluntary inhibition structures the subsequent processing of sensory input . Internally saying "no" at the right time can stop an overwhelming response like Peter Levine mentioned in "In An Unspoken Voice"). What Alexander found is that sometimes when the wrong thing is kept from happening by the act of saying no, the right thing happens automatically. At the level of body postures and accompanying instinctive emotions, inhibition helps prevent the wrong response and the right response can take over.

Anyway, the concept Gonzales mentioned that I quoted earlier about the brain treating memories and plans as the same -- plans being "memories of the future" in a sense (both based on mapping mental models to the outside world) -- might be useful in this context. We know that we have a strong tendency to make sense out of our past by imposing narratives on our memories that may or may not align with objective reality; the same could be true in the other direction, namely that anticipation can be the imposition of an unrealistic narrative onto an imagined future (see the link that Nienna posted above).

 

[Buddy]

...what distinguished the two situations for you internally? For example, did the emotional component of the two situations differ as a result of your expectation or lack thereof?

I think so. For the first example, I was consciously unaware of what was going on outside with the weather just prior to that exact moment. I was focused on my studying and was physically aware of my room and home environment also. IOW, I wasn't hyper-focused nor did I have a tunnel vision for the text I was reading although I had full comprehension and was not blocking any external sensory info. Emotionally, I was calm and feeling just the normal fluctuations that come with my understanding of what I'm reading. This is what I was thinking could be separated out as "expectation" i.e., being ready, but on a deeper level of awareness that doesn't intrude on a conscious pre-occupation.

For the second example, the context would be of a different experience - after I had been taken by surprise the first time. At that point, I would be bracing myself for the next occurrence and would be experiencing the state of tension described in the previous post. Emotionally, there would be a mix of fear, dread, awe at the sheer power of nature and of course a desire for avoidance of any unpleasant aspects of the experience - including the shock to the nervous system and the possibility that my body might react strongly enough to strain a muscle. This is what I was thinking could be separated out as "anticipation" but I wasn't sure.

I hope that's not too much unnecessary detail. I appreciate that thoughtful response which includes those quotes and I did read Nienna's Cassiopedia reference. Thanks.

 

[shijing]

This is what I was thinking could be separated out as "expectation" i.e., being ready, but on a deeper level of awareness that doesn't intrude on a conscious pre-occupation.

[...]

This is what I was thinking could be separated out as "anticipation" but I wasn't sure.

Well, what stands out to me is that in the latter instance you were caught off guard and had more of an amygdalic or "system 1" response, and in the former you had a more neocortical "system 2" response. That sudden emotional response when you were surprised created a mismatch between your perceived reality and objective reality (a threat that wasn't really there), so yes, in my understanding it probably was a form of anticipation.

 

[Anthony]

One trap that probably everyone will fall into is
worrying about whether or not you are practicing non anticipation.
And that simply means that you are anticipating the benefits of non anticipation.

Perhaps what to do is just to question your beliefs.
If you are anticipating some "good" outcome, question whether you will really benefit from such a thing.
For instance the lottery. Would you really benefit from lots of money? Study says most people end up miserable.

1. Think of a few possible “bad” effects of getting the outcome you want
2. Think of a few possible “good” effects from getting the outcome you don’t want
3. Do you know for sure that the circumstance is “bad” for your life and won’t have some “good” effects?
4. Would I consider this event to be “bad” on my universal scale, or is it only “bad” relative to my normal experience?
5. Do I know with absolute certainty that these future “bad” or “good” moments, events, or situations will happen?