Word: consciousnesses
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...expected to replicate the Dutch results in the experiment; that is, he thought the anagram-solving group would be more likely than the others to go with Flat B. When that didn't happen, he redesigned the experiment, giving an additional four minutes of decision-making time to the conscious and unconscious deliberators. But, once again, he got the same result - all the students were equally likely to choose the best apartment...
...which each varied on 12 attributes, such as gas mileage, handling and whether it had a sunroof. Again, one car of the bunch had an equally weighted list of pros and cons. This time unconscious thinkers actually did worse - they were less likely to pick the best car - than conscious thinkers...
...students to choose between only two cars, which were equally attractive. Both cars had pros and cons, but neither car was measurably better than the other; the key was the order in which students received the information. Students were again divided into three groups: the instant deciders, the conscious deliberators and the unconscious deliberators. These groups were then each subdivided into two groups. One received positive information about one car or the other first; one received the positive information last...
This time, researchers found a significant difference in who picked which car. Students in the unconscious deliberation group who heard positive attributes after the negative ones, tended to pick the car they heard about last. In the conscious deliberation group, however, the order in which information was presented had no effect on which car students chose. When people are distracted, they tend to forget what they've just been told, says Newell. When they try to recall the information, the thing they remember best is the last positive information they heard - a phenomenon that researchers call the "recency effect...
Newell admits that his own experiments have their limitations. Using hypothetical scenarios about fictional apartments and cars can tell researchers only so much. "People are not really engaging in these decisions," Newell says. Even so, researchers understand the pathways in which conscious decisions are made, but have no way of understanding the unconscious, so he says, "It's overly bold to recommend that as a way of making decisions...