<P> The Unconscious Thought Principle asserts the existence and nature of two kinds of thought: conscious and unconscious . Conscious thought is defined as "object - relevant or task - relevant cognitive or affective thought processes that occur while the object or task is the focus of one's unconscious attention," while unconscious thought simply occurs when the object or task is outside of attention . </P> <P> According to cognitive psychologist George Miller, one cannot hold more than seven items, plus or minus two, in conscious working memory; unconscious thought does not have this restriction . UTT's Capacity Principle assumes this seven plus - or - minus - two rule to be true . </P> <P> Given its low capacity, conscious thought must use a "top - down" style of processing that uses shortcuts or schemas to work efficiently . Because its capacity is unbounded, unconscious thought instead uses a "bottom - up" style of processing that avoids schemas, integrating information efficiently and avoiding the bias that schemas might bring to conscious thought . </P> <P> Research by Timothy Wilson and Jonathan Schooler demonstrated how deliberation between choice objects and introspecting on one's reasoning process results in poorer choice satisfaction than when one does not introspect . Combining this finding with Dijksterhuis' that people also apparently make better decisions when distracted than when deliberating, Dijksterhuis and Nordgren posited The Weighting Principle: that unconscious thought is better than conscious thought at appropriately weighting the relative importance of choice objects' attributes . </P>

When is conscious thought superior to letting distraction influence a decision