Conscious Reinforcement

How do reinforcement triggers effect conscious thought?

By “conscious thought”, I'm referring to a thought process which is more awareful and detailed in thought, that the brain is involving during the process. For a more detailed explanation, including my hypothesis (yet obviously correct :) of the function of conscious thought, see a summary post from almost 2 yrs ago; Conscious Comprehension. Basically, conscious thought involves accessing more memories relevant to any given factor. At minimum, 1 factor, plus it’s interaction with another factor. 

By “reinforcement triggers”, I’m referring to neurochemical reactions in the brain, which causes an animal or person to avoid or pursue something. I hypothesized much more detail in how reinforcement triggers (retriggers for short) function as a component of the function of subconscious memory, in my last post; Reinforcement Mechanisms. Since retriggers seem to be a major component of subconscious memory, and directly influence most interactions of any animal throughout its life, how would this influence the, even more complex, workings of conscious thought?

It seems that subconscious memory processes are the initial driver of the direction of the beginning of any conscious thought, since subconscious works faster, and is active constantly at any time someone is awake. After conscious thought has begun, subconsciousness may lose its influence, but any time a conscious thought process finishes, or a new stimulant occurs in someone's environment, subconsciousness is likely the 1st to react (as I further explored in a post from 2 months ago; Mind Driver). Assuming this is true, this means initial direction of any conscious thought is steered by subconsciousness, and therefore, retriggers guide the start of conscious thought, in the same way that they drive subconsciousness. 

Basically, retriggers would influence someone to avoid or pursue any given circumstances, based on the strongest influencing retrigger connected to the factors involved (which is also in connection with recurrence of neural pathways which have been used). If there is more negative retriggers connected to the circumstances, it will cause the person to be influenced to avoid the situation and or think negatively of the situation, or with positive retriggers, it should influence pursuance, and or thinking positively. 

After this initial influence, if further conscious thought occurs, then more factors and interactions which are saved in memory, will likely cause varying degrees of influence. In the process of conscious thought accessing more accurate details of memory, this gives the potential for conscious thought to overrule the initial subconscious retriggers influence. In the complexities of continued conscious memory access, it seems that retriggers would still cause the direction of the outcome of the thought process. Each factor and interaction of factors, which is accessed in memory, would have some degree of retrigger connected to it. Out of all previous experiences for that person, with each factor and or interaction, there should be some degree of influence, caused by retriggers, which reinforce that factor positively or negatively (and all variances within). So when someone is consciously thinking about something, each memory of factor or interaction would likely contribute some degree of positive or negative influence for that person. Some degrees of influence may be very minimal, with either few significant experiences with that factor, or conflicting experiences. 

Another significant influence of continued conscious thought, would be repetition of use of neural pathway, from 1 memory of factor of interaction, to another. The more that any memory pathway is used, the more likely it is to be used again. This would be a significant cause of conscious memory access, leading from 1 factor, to another. But, in order for neural pathways (which lead to memories of factors) to become well used, retriggers are likely the influence which created that well used pathway in the 1st place. If a factor within an environment is beneficial for the individual to avoid or pursue, during the 1st experiences with that factor, some degree of retrigger will cause the person to then connect to a memory of that same factor, next time it is encountered. As long as the influence of the retrigger, repeatedly proves useful, subconsciousness will keep accessing that memory, and build a well used pathway. 

Besides the conscious memory access of detailed factors and interactions, there can be larger combinations of factors and interactions, which include concepts or idealisms. Concepts and ideas including more broad categories of many factors, or complicated interactions of many factors, can be saved as a large combination in memory, and have an additional positive or negative influence connected to them, from retriggers. 

Between; retriggers causing subconscious memory access to steer the direction of initial conscious thought, and further conscious memory access being influenced by connection of retriggers and each factor or interaction involved (as well as overarching concepts and idealisms), the effects of retriggers seem to have a complex, yet significant interconnection with; Conscious Reinforcement.