MatthaeusWeinhardt

Intuition in the Brain - Integration of Value

Background: Two systems

It is now broadly accepted that humans have two systems for making judgments and decisions: the explicit (or deliberative) system, which operates slowly and requires effortful consideration of all alternatives, and the implicit (or intuitive) system, which operates quickly and effortlessly.

Much research looking at implicit and explicit judgments has focused on documenting the existence of these two ways of thinking. One classic paradigm is the Stroop Task [1], in which participants are shown color words that are printed in an ink color that is different from the word itself -- for instance, the word "red" printed in blue ink. They are then asked either to read the word or to name the ink color. People have more difficulty and take longer to respond when asked to name the ink color than when asked to read the word, because reading words is a very automatic process for adults, while naming the ink color in this case requires conscious effort. For instance, if you read the word "red" printed in blue ink and have to quickly name the ink color, you have to suppress the automatic tendency to just read the word in order to consciously pay attention to the ink color and name just that. This task clearly demonstrates that people have two modes of thinking -- a faster and more automatic one, and a slower but possibly more accurate one.