1.1 Social cognition: meaning and beliefs  (Page 3/7)

Meaning-action, which is the meaning your mind uses when directing behavior, is more simple than meaning-generation, which is how your mind develops more rich, complex information and meaning. In meaning-action your mind can scan stored ideas that you have and use them in its behaviors, and it uses it for initial meaning. When meaning is generated, the same triad of scanning-reconstructing-matching processes is used, only it is more complex. With meaning-generation, new models are formed, with meaning-action, stored models are used (as this is faster). You generate new meaning when you have to think in new ways, compare different sets of ideas together, look at the information presented to you in a new light. Personal-subjective and metaphoric-symbolic meaning is also interpreted in the overall meaning (or comprehensive-meaning). There are much more advanced processes your mind can use when not directly trying to respond to stimulus as it does with behavior, when it thinks more deeply much more complex constructs are formed.

• Fourth, from the viewpoint of major directing factors, it should be stressed that the only focal object of meaning action is the exteroceptive and/or proprioceptive input. Meaning action is designed merely to furnish material for answering the question "What is it?" insofar as it refers to the input. The relation between the resulting answer or absence of answer, on the one hand, and the ensuing response, on the other hand, is regulated either by innate factors or by prior learning. In any case, the meaning values established through meaning action suffice to higher levels of elaboration. Whatever the result, there is clearly no need for assuming a "What-to-do?" question in addition to the basic "What-is-it?" question. In contrast, meaning generation is assumed to establish the comprehensive meaning of the input. This also includes the personal relevance of the input. Hence, meaning generation is regulated by two focal questions, "What does it mean?" and "What does it mean to me and for me?" Whereas the first question is an elaborate form of the central question "What is it?" that guides meaning action, the second question is new and specific to meaning generation. It raises the issues of personal relevance, but only insofar as action is concerned. For the sake of clarifying this question it seems advisable to present it also in some rephrased forms, such as, "Does it affect me at all?", "In what way does it affect me?", "Am I concerned in any way?", "Should I be concerned?", "Am I moved personally?", "Should I be involved?", "Is any action required on my part?", "Am I to act or not?" Foreshadowing concepts and processes explained and discussed later, we venture to introduce yet another more technical rephrasing of the same question: "In which sense(s) does it or may it affect (or concern) my goals, my norms, my beliefs about myself, and my beliefs about the environment or any of its aspects?" Evidently, the formulation "What odes ti mean to me or for me?" is merely a label summarizing these different variants of the question.