Cognitive Unconscious, by John F. Kihlstrom (1987) addresses the idea that many processes and mental structures that affect what happens in a person's conscious mind are actually processed in the unconscious mind. That would mean that a lot of the things people do, they are doing based on information they may be processing without realizing it (Kihlstrom, 1987). In other words, people take in information about the world around them all the time, but much of it is unconscious information they do not realize they are collecting. Even though they have not realized the collection of this information, they use the information to help them make decisions and to determine how they feel about things (Kihlstrom, 1987). There has been a great deal of past research that does indicate mental functions can be altered by information that was provided subliminally or even under hypnosis, as opposed to information the person...
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