Riley 1

Victoria Riley-Lomedico
Mrs. DeBock
English 4 Honors
February 20, 2015

Essential question: What influences everyday life?

Working thesis: How does the subconscious affect everyday life?
Refined thesis: The subconscious plays a crucial role in creativity, learning, memory, and
decision-making.

Annotated Bibliography
Bargh, John A. "Our Unconscious Mind." Scientific American 310.1 (2014): 30-37.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.
This article discusses how the unconscious thought affects life choices and
attitudes. The author discusses how the subconscious is stronger than the conscious
mind, saying it helps to not overwhelm the conscious. Bargh explains gut reactions and
reflexive actions, explaining how meeting people, making decisions, and stereotypes are
all part of the subconscious. It also explains how the subconscious cannot be controlled,
that cognition is embodied in the unconscious mind. The author clarifies how the physical
environment influences our psychological state of mind, and gives examples of
experiments and movements to prove it. Behaviors, impulsive decisions, and thinking
are all part of the unconscious mind. This article is relevant to the research because it
helps prove the point of how he subconscious mind can affect decision-making,
movements, and thinking.

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Douglas, Kate. "How Powerful Is The Subconscious? (Cover Story)." New Scientist 206.2754
(2010): 32. Science Reference Center. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.
Douglas describes how the relationship between the conscious and unconscious mind are
connected. The subconscious is the one in control, telling the conscious mind what to do,
why, and when. This article talks about three different experiments from the 1980s up to
now that conclude the existence of a lapse between our unconscious and conscious
thought process. The experiments now help us understand that different words can have
different effects on people and how fast they react to them. The author proved that the
unconscious is in charge of many aspects of human lives, disproving what people thought
in the 20th century. This article is relevant to the research because it helps prove that the
subconscious has a major role in creativity, memory, decision-making, learning, and
problem-solving.

Douglas, Kate. "Subconscious: The Other You." New Scientist 196.2632 (2007): 42. MasterFILE
Premier. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.
The author goes on to describe that it is impossible to look at an image of a brain and say
what kind of thought process is being used, but a divide between the two is possible to
view. The article states three experiments that prove the levels of thinking. The conscious
and awareness of the world is directed by the subconscious, which is followed by
experiments to prove the stated. The subconscious is directly responsible for our
inspiration and creativity, which can overspill into our consciousness. Even language is
affected by the subconscious. People learn a language more efficiently through the
unconscious versus the conscious. This article states how the subconscious effects

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learning a language, decision-making, creativity, and the conscious mind, which makes
this article relevant to the research.