The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain

by Annie Murphy Paul

A study led by cognitive scientist Pawel Lewicki demonstrates this process in microcosm. Participants in Lewicki’s experiment were directed to watch a computer screen on which a cross-shaped target would appear, then disappear, then reappear in a new location; periodically they were asked to predict where the target would show up next. Over the course of several hours of exposure to the target’s movements, the participants’ predictions grew more and more accurate. They had figured out the pattern behind the target’s peregrinations. But they could not put this knowledge into words, even when the experimenters offered them money to do so. The subjects were not able to describe “anything even close to the real nature” of the pattern, Lewicki observes. The movements of the target operated according to a pattern too complex for the conscious mind to accommodate—but the capacious realm that lies below consciousness was more than roomy enough to contain it. “Nonconscious information acquisition,” as Lewicki calls it, along with the ensuing application of such information, is happening in our lives all the time. As we navigate a new situation, we’re scrolling through our mental archive of stored patterns from the past, checking for ones that apply to our current circumstances. We’re not aware that these searches are under way; as Lewicki observes, “The human cognitive system is not equipped to handle such tasks on the consciously controlled level.” He adds, “Our conscious thinking...