Unconscious cognition

Sigmund Freud is perhaps the most well-known psychologist and his theories laid the foundation for the serious scientific investigation of the unconscious brain. Consciousness, according to Freud, was the center for perception whereas the unconscious was the storehouse of memories, desires, and needs. According to Freud past thoughts and memories which are deleted from conscious thought are stored by the unconscious and these thoughts help direct the thoughts and feelings of an individual and influence their decision making processes. Freud believed that the Unconscious' influence on thoughts can be accessed by training one’s mind through meditation, or by random association, dream analysis and paying attention to Freudian slips.

Carl Jung further expounded Freud’s view of the unconscious and categorized the unconscious into the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. He believed that the personal unconscious held memories and experiences specific to every individual and the collective unconscious held memories, predispositions and experiences of a species which are passed on from generation to generation and are shared among all the individuals of a species.

Jacques Lacan in his psychoanalytical theory compared the structuring of the unconscious to the way a language is structured. According to his theory there is no reference to self thus making the unconscious a dynamic structure. This suggests that unconscious influence on thought processes could be altered after traumatic brain injury. This theory could explain the cases of altered personality, like Phineas Gage, due to trauma or traumatic brain injury.

Vilayanur S. Ramachandran in his research proved that the unconscious brain not only screens certain data from the conscious brain, rendering visual data inaccurate, but also is responsible for filling in false data in place of missing data in certain circumstances. In his paper on "Perceptual filling in of artificially induced scotomas in human vision"[4] he records the effect of the unconscious brain filling in the blind spots in the human visual field.

Subliminal messages also use the phenomenon of the unconscious brain processing messages faster than the conscious brain and also noticing data in a visual or auditory field that remain below the threshold of the conscious brain. come in various forms. They can be quick clips inserted within another video or barely perceptible text inscribed in a picture. These messages flutter on the edge of perception and are almost impossible to notice unless and until one's conscious brain is called to pay attention to these minute details. Modern day ads, posters and even shows and movies which are broadcast around the world use subliminal messages to unconsciously attract an individual or manipulate an individual to unconsciously like a product or a show.[5]

Studies that test the way in which humans acquire language skills and learn how to apply the rules of grammar show that a large amount of language and grammar learning takes place unconsciously. Experiments were performed in which participants were asked to identify whether certain nonsensical and made up words belong to a group of words which they had been previously shown. Some participants were not informed that the word sets were based on rules.[6] An analysis of their responses showed that the participants were more likely to associate words which were not shown previously as a part of the group if they followed the preset grammatical rules. This shows that it might not be necessary to be consciously aware of grammatical rules to know proper grammar. This theory might explain the feeling we undergo when we feel that a certain sentence structure is awkward or wrong even though we might not be able to clearly define the reason why the sentence is incorrect.

Implicit egotism refers to the unconscious tendency of people to prefer things that resemble the self.[7] In studies performed to test the effect of implicit egotism it has been shown that implicit egotism does in fact play a significant role in processes that influence major life decisions. Studies show that inexplicably people choose partners whose name is phonetically or structurally similar to their own names. This effect of implicit egotism is not only limited to relationship decisions but can also be seen in decisions regarding place or city of residence and arguable in almost every other aspect of life.

The unconscious mind's tendency to make associations can have a significant effect on decision making processes. For example, we generally associate a green traffic light as a sign to keep proceeding while we associate a red traffic light as a sign to come to a halt. If in an experimental setting a person attuned to these associations was asked to come to a halt when shown a green light and keep moving when shown a red light, the individual would have to make a conscious effort to follow these new set of rules. The associations of the unconscious mind lead to the creation of implicit attitudes. An implicit attitude manifests itself as an action or judgment that is under the control of automatically activated evaluation, without the performer's awareness of that causation.[8] Implicit attitudes can have a profound effect on decision making when automatic implicit associations are made in socially significant ways.[9] Based on unconscious racial prejudice, sexist attitudes and nepotism might have a huge bearing in the real world as one might unconsciously show favoritism due to implicit attitudes.