15 May 2022
Pattern Matching with Intensity and Repetition
Pattern Matching is a primary cognitive process used to make sense of the world, learn from experience, create positive and negative habits, and develop addictions or other chronic conditions.
When we are in growth mode we are information processors and meaning-makers. We strive to understand and making meaning of the events and situations we experience. We proactively think, consider, evaluate, contemplate options, and study.
This is how we learn. With repetition, we are embedding new neural networks into the neural matrix of our brain.
But when triggered into survival mode, we become automated and reactive - and that is as it should be. We have databases of information encoded in neural networks of past experience. The thinking brain is not involved because taking time to evaluate our options can get us injured or killed.
For example, when we trip and almost fall, we instinctively react in some way attempting to catch ourselves or break our fall. When the car in front of us slams on the brakes, we react by slamming on our own brakes - even before we have time to consider what just happened. This is our brain acting to save our lives.
Pattern Matching Mechanisms – Intensity and Repetition
Imagine a little over 100,000 years ago a lone hunter was making his way across the wetlands looking for food. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the skies were blue with white, puffy clouds and a gentle breeze was blowing.
The hunter noticed that off to the left, out of the corner of his eye, a bush moved… The next thing he knew he is being spider-palmed by a saber-toothed tiger!
For the sake of our story, somehow he managed to get away.
About 30 days later the same hunter was out in the wetlands again looking for food. But this time he brought several of his friends with him… They made sure to go 30 miles in the opposite direction of where the tiger was last time.
As the hunting party walked along it was a beautiful day… the sun was shining… the skies were blue with white, puffy clouds… and a gentle breeze was blowing. Then, off to the left, a bush moved… The hunter’s friends turned around just in time to see him kicking up dust about a hundred yards away… he was running hard in the opposite direction.
In just one very intense experience, the encounter with the tiger had been “burned into his neurology” as a warning system to avoid getting eaten. All the elements were there – the blue skies… the white puffy clouds… the gentle breeze… the beautiful day… the wetlands… the moving bush. All of these elements joined together in the proper sequence signaled the imminent probability of being eaten by the tiger.
His “Don’t Get Eaten” Survival System instantly and subconsciously received the fear signal (aka, trigger) resulting in a powerful need to find safety – right NOW! This is an example of reward-based pattern matching, also known as habit development. The survival-oriented region of the brain builds network databases to get more of what feels good, and get away from what feels bad.
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