Does the Unconscious Cognitive Affect Cognitive Activity - Research Paper Example

? Does the Unconscious Cognitive affect Cognitive Activity? Introduction It is a known fact that people perceive the world and behave in a particularway based on their emotions and intuitions (Bolte, Goschke & Kuhl, 2011). Usually, all people experience a situation when they are unhappy and depressed, in such circumstances attention of an individual is more focused on rigid and in narrow ways, while on the contrary when people are happy and enthusiastic, their thoughts and minds are far reaching with new ideas and sensibility. The term ‘unconscious cognitive’ refers to mental structures and processes that directly or indirectly influence people’s enduring experiences and thoughts outside the conscious cognitive. Many psychologists have proclaimed that the conscious perceptions are based on the unconscious inferences. In this context, it has also been postulated by many research studies that conscious mind is not the ultimate source of an individual’s behavior. At times, people respond without being aware to stimuli that are being generated automatically. Certain responses to stimuli affect the decision making and behaviour of people one or the other way. Often people perceive different things differently based on the past experiences in which information relating to certain choices or behaviors are processed unconsciously. Over the years, there have been many arguments prevailing on the existence of unconscious cognitive and its influence on the cognitive activity. Consequently, the research paper intends to critically verify the influence of unconscious cognitive over cognitive activity. Critical Evaluation Priming refers to effect of past information on the perception of subsequent information attainment without the dynamic participation of the perceiving subject. Priming does not involve conscious or explicit actualization but it responses to stimuli with the use of implicit memory (Filippova, 2011). Most of the decision making involved in an individual life is a result of unconscious mental activity. Whatever decision an individual makes is the outcome of unconscious activity experienced by an individual brain. In the past years, one of the most interesting and amazing ideas that has evolved in the field of neurological and psychological science is the power and nature of automatic thinking or unconscious response to certain cognitive activity. The unconsciousness of mind can be viewed as a shadow of conscious mind that interacts with the conscious mind without being known by an individual (Lau & Passingham, 2007). Every individual has unconscious mind, however, it does not comprise a part of brain like hypothalamus or any other part. Contextually, it undoubtedly functions in an individual’s life that affects the individual’s feeling, thoughts and decisions. There are millions of functions performed every day inside an individual body, such as controlling of heart beats, balancing blood pressure and regulating breathing among others. Conceptually, an individual does not consciously control such functions directly. In other words, such functions are controlled and monitored by unconscious state of mind. Moreover, the unconscious cognitive always guides an individual throughout his/her life. It plays a supportive role that allows people to carry out a variety of functions by supporting conscious state of mind. The processing of information occurs unconsciously that helps an individual to response quickly on certain stimulus. People can experience things without being known to their conscious brain and act on those unconscious feelings which they are not aware of. For instance, when a person insults or hurts another individual, the individual feels risk and responses quickly to it. It is because the individual’s unconscious state of mind has processed such act to be risky based on past experience or any other aspects quickly of which the individual is not aware of (Filippova, 2011). The implicit memory as considered by many experts’ states, it to be reservoir of thoughts, ideas, and feelings which are not known to an individual. These unconscious cognitive feelings are the sources of motivation and inspiration that guide people in emergencies and abnormal situations but are not aware to an individual. The unconscious mind is still awake when we are asleep and keeps on performing its functions without fatigue. It works for 24x7, of which an individual is hardly aware of. The power of unconscious cognitive is immense; it inspires an individual, guides from the store house of implicit memory. It is equally important to know that unconscious cognitive works day and night whether an individual acts upon or not. The unconscious processing of information results in formation of affective responses. Implicit memory is not affected by experimental variables. Unconscious cognitive has intense influence on the perception of things around an individual (Yoo, 2008). The several psychologists and other experts have provided facts that unconscious cognitive is capable of making selection and comparison, which are primarily performed for reasoning processes. The infinite intelligence within the unconscious cognitive can reveal an individual everything that one needs to know at any point of space and moment provided the individual is open-minded and receptive. One can be benefitted with new thoughts and ideas that enable an individual to bring forth new inventions. In addition to this, the infinite reservoir of knowledge in an individual’s unconscious state of mind paves the way for perfect expression and true place of life. Notably, unconscious cognitive is not only processed at semantic level but such cognitive has an influence on the conscious reactions (Haim, Lamy, & Pergamin, 2007). Unconscious cognitive provides an individual with basic theoretical framework which defines the individual perception, communication and social interaction largely unknowingly. The prime stimulus affecting the result of subsequent cognitive activity may be perceived at unconscious cognitive level. Apart from physical habit different individuals have differing habits of which they are unaware of; such habits may include mental and emotional habits. These habits are controlled by the unconscious mind rather than the conscious state of mind including self-esteem, confidence and motivation among others that are managed by unconscious cognitive (Kaufman, 2011). Social cognition is an approach to the understanding of an individual’s social behavior which involves the investigation of the mental processes of an individual who interacts with the other individuals. The social behaviour may vary from individual to individual and the major cause behind the variation is the exposure to certain different circumstances which their unconscious brain retains for long period of time and responses instantly when confronted by similar situation (Akgun, Lynn, & Yilmaz, 2006). The implicit memory rests on the concepts which are activated temporarily in the memory due to the prior exposure to similar circumstances. Furthermore, the implicit memory remains constant while explicit memory is affected by different levels of exposures. In addition to this, unconscious influence on the behaviour of an individual is pervasive. However, unconscious cognitive is not as deep as conscious cognitive. At times, many actions are initiated without consciousness as well as certain perception takes place without consciousness. Eventually, these unconscious processing of information tends to reflect more strong responses to stimuli than the conscious state of mind (Cleeremans, 2001). An unconscious cognitive occurs when an individual is unaware that stimulus in the environment had lead to changes in his/her feelings, perception attitudes and overall behavior. Unconscious cognitive and conscious cognitive are driven largely independently (Uhlmann, Pizarro, & Bloom, 2008). Research Proposal Research Question After critically evaluating several articles the question for the proposed research has been selected which include, “Does unconscious cognitive processes information better than the conscious cognitive?” From review of the available articles, it is essential for an individual to understand the ways in which unconscious cognitive functions and controls enormous activities. The proposed question aims to explain the capabilities of unconscious cognitive over the conscious cognitive. It is essential to analyze the aspect that whether unconscious cognitive is either implicit or explicit part of individual brain or something that seems to be existing but does not exist in reality. Experimental Design The design selected for the research is required to be appropriate in order to attain a valid answer to the proposed research question. With respect to the proposed research question, it will be more reliable to conduct a descriptive qualitative research design in order to exploit the best answer for the proposed question. The qualitative research is a methodical, subjective approach to describe life experiences and provide them meanings. The qualitative research approach will allow exploring behavior, feeling and perception in depth. While the quantitative research is a systematic approach that makes use of numerical and statistical data to draw a valid conclusion. It is therefore descriptive qualitative research design is chosen to reach a valid conclusion for the proposed question. Furthermore, the experimental design will be used to establish relationship between unconscious cognitive and conscious cognitive. Accordingly, the new study will be conducted which will be determined to recognize that whether unconscious cognitive processes information quickly and in a better way than the conscious cognitive or not. Purpose of the Study The study intends to extract all the possible relations that may exist between unconscious cognitive and conscious state of mind. Furthermore, the study will examine the existence of unconscious cognitive and will focus on the primary functions performed by unconscious cognitive. It will further assess the extent of controllability acquired by an individual relating to unconscious cognitive. At the same time, the study also aims to draw probable differences that tend to exist between unconscious cognitive and conscious mind as well as the study evaluates constructive and destructive issues relating to the proposed question. The inferences obtained from the study will be assessed carefully and utilized towards developing and practicing the best possible use of the implicit mind. Expected Results The study expects to depict major differences between unconscious cognitive and conscious cognitive. Secondary research suggests that there exists an unconscious state of mind that guides an individual throughout his/her life. The study expects to unveil the fact regarding the existence of unconscious cognitive and provide strong supportive frameworks that postulate unconscious cognitive can provide better solutions at emergency and abnormal situation. The study also aims to provide evidences that suggest unconscious cognitive phenomena are not beyond the control of an individual and it can be controlled if efforts are made by people with high determination. Eventually, it is necessary to reach an outcome which states the way in which unconscious cognitive functions before other expectation are met. However, it is not an easy task to reach the final outcome. It will require considerable efforts and study in order to achieve all the aims and the objectives of the study. The study would certainly be invaluable in order to recognize the critical dimension related to the concept of unconscious cognitive. It would also enable to comprehend the major determining factors related to the aspect and its influence on an individual. Conclusion People around the world behave differently in different circumstances based on their emotions and intuitions. Cognitive actions of an individual are often influenced by unconscious cognitive. Unconscious cognitive refers to mental structure and processes that directly or indirectly influences an individual‘s experiences and thoughts. Unconscious cognitive phenomena remain always active in performing various functions within an individual’s body without being known to the individual. Unconscious cognitive works day and night i.e. 24x7 in the monitoring and controlling an individual’s behavior and is also responsible for generating various perceptions, attitudes and casting particular behaviour in an individual. The possible influence of implicit or unconscious cognitive can be supported from the evidence that, when an individual is insulted or threatened by another individual, he/she feels risk or fear at the shortest possible time without being allowing the conscious mind to process the situation. In order to support the article review and analysis, a new research proposal has been designed with an aim to demonstrate the efficiency of unconscious cognitive over conscious cognitive. In addition to this, descriptive qualitative design has been chosen as an approach to achieve the aims and the objectives of the study. Under the descriptive qualitative approach, experimental design is chosen to draw a valid inference from the study to be conducted. It is expected from the study to validate that unconscious cognitive phenomena are instances, thoughts and attitudes that are generated without being known to an individual and are more capable of processing information than conscious cognitive. References Akgun, A. E., Lynn, G. S. & Yilmaz, C. (2006). Learning process in new product development teams and effects on product success: A socio-cognitive perspective. Industrial Marketing Management (35), pp. 210–224. Bolte, A., Goschke, T. & Kuhl, J. (2003). Emotion and intuition: Effects of positive and negative mood on implicit judgments of semantic coherence. Research Article, 14 (5). Cleeremans, A. (2001). Conscious and unconscious processes in cognition. Retrieved from http://srsc.ulb.ac.be/axcwww/papers/pdf/01-iesbs.pdf Filippova, M. G. (2011). Does unconscious information affect cognitive activity? : A Study using experimental priming. The Spanish Journal of Psychology, 14 (1), pp. 20-36. Haim, Y. B., Lamy, D. & Pergamin, L. (2007). Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: A meta-analytic study. Psychological Bulletin, 133 (1), pp. 1–24. Kaufman, S. B. (2011). Implicit Social Cognition. Intelligence and the Cognitive Unconscious, pp. 442-461. Lau, H. C. & Passingham, R. E. (2007). Unconscious Activation of the Cognitive Control System in the Human Prefrontal Cortex. The Journal of Neuroscience 27 (21), pp. 5805-5811. Uhlmann, E. L., Pizarro, D. A. & Bloom, P. (2008). Varieties of social cognition. 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