Free will and the power of veto:Convergent evidence from Decision-Making

Alex Linhareslinhares@clubofrome.org.br

The traditional view of Free Will

Compare & contrast choices

…is just like chess. However,

But is this of any quality?

Ron “Suki” King, a checkers world champion

385 opponents—simultaneously

He beat them all

2 seconds per move 12.30mins response

Capablanca’s remark

“I see only one move. The best one.”

José Raul Capablanca

Gary Klein’s work

Firefighters, nurses, jet pilots, radar operators, chess players, etc…

“I never make decisions. I can’t remember a single decision”

“It is always obvious what to do”

Recognition-primed decisions

• Experienced subjects unconsciously primed to act

• Simulation heuristic YES/NO response

Back to Free Will…Libet’s experimental settings

– Complexity clock– Readiness potential– Suprising timing of events

Libet’s experiment

Libet wanted to contrast the times between (i) movement of the fingers, (ii) the start of the readiness potential, and (iii) the instant in which the conscious decision is taken…– This instant can be measured with ‘Wundt’s

compexity clock’, a moving dot (like a second’s pointer), performing one full cycle at each 2.56 secs.

• Classic method in experimental psychology• Very accurate: one hour0.2 secs

The results are clear...

In Libet’s words:

• “the brain evidently ‘decides’ to initiate or, at least, to prepare to initiate an act before there is any reportable subjective awareness that such a decision has taken place”.

• “it is concluded that cerebral initiation even of a spontaneous voluntary act of the kind studied here can and usually does begin unconsciously”.

Brain 106 (1983) 623-42

Veto theory:

“Potentially available to the conscious function is the possibility of […] vetoing the final progress of the volitional process[…]”

“Conscious will might block or veto the process, so that no act occurs.”

Libet, B. (1999) Do we have free will? Journal of Consciousness Studies 6, 47—57.

If Klein is right, then what would the expected timing of neuro-events be like?

Gary Klein

• Subjects unconsciously primed to act; acts feel “obvious”; subjects cannot report on reasons; do not feel to be making decisions

• Simulation heuristic vetoes a primed urge

Benjamin Libet

• The brain initially prepares for an act, subjects only report conscious will to perform the act 250msec after onset of the RP

• There is 100msec for an act to be “vetoed”