Posted: Jan 14, 2017 7:24 pm
archibald wrote:Some interesting experiments and phenomena which might suggest one way the illusion of choice operates:
Taking just one of these http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797616641943
The experiments both relied on asking people to perform a task as rapidly as possible, and repeating this same task multiple times (280). The observation that choices were biased (for whatever reason) dominantly when the delay between the test began and the colour revealed was < 300ms.
The conclusion that the conscious choice had been made, but that the unconscious contributed to the decision - is valid, but hardly surprising. When we are performing automated tasks we rely heavily on our unconscious for apparently conscious decisions. Any rapid and repetitive task should elicit this precise response. What it provides no insight into is apparent 'deliberate' choice making with time to analyse. That would be the real experiment.