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Hilary McGowan's picture

Unconscious vs. conscious

At first, I was simply lost for ideas in my experiment. My original paper was actually my ideas on what exactly the differences were between the conscious and the unconscious. But I think making a guideline of sorts for my expecting experiment was an important step for me. There are the usual distinctions in how the two (or more) parts of our mind work. We know it and we don't know it, simple as that, right? I feel that there is a part of us that overlaps these boundaries into a regioin that were unsure of.

Being so vacant for ideas for an experiment, the readings were certainly helpful. Why not use words? They are the building blocks for development, so why not allow words to guide me to the unconscious? The experiment that I want to conduct is a mixture between word association and generalization. I will put several item in front of people and they have to tell me what it is. Simple enough! Then I will ask them to say the first word that comes to their mind when they see another set of objects. The last part of the project I plan to ask them to describe the object to me in three words. In this way I will be getting the conscious forethought contrasted with the unconscious. I will also be studying how words are used in society by what words they tend to use to call and describe the objects.

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