Don, Terry,and Keith thanks so much for your contributions. I'm really
glad to read all the conversation and discussion around the topic. It is
and exciting and stimulating for me to see the different postures around
the topic.
Since the beggining of my research I found that the terms unconscious,
subconscious, nonconscious, preconscious and consciousness were by nature
controversial (although they refer to different concepts). The existence of
"other mental processes" besides of those we are aware and intentional
about, has been in debate long time ago. From Descartes' body-mind
cartesian theory, to the Freudian unconscious, to Jung's collective
unconscious, and to the latest postures in psychology, neuroscience, and
economics -Wilson, Bargh, Damasio, Kahneman, etc-. there has been always
room to debate and contradiction in this realm. Nonetheless the
development of new technology like fMRI, the study of people with damaged
brains, and the development of empirical psychology have brought evidence
to the "theories" about the unconscious-conscious, I also agree that we
still have a lot to discover and study. And that is just fascinating!!
The intention of my thesis study is to explore the different approaches to
study "the unconscious" and look for oportunities for design. What I have
found so far is a lack of integration among the different
streams/approaches for capturing the elusive, (as I like to called it), but
there might be reasons for this lack of integration, and that is something
that I believe is worth some research.
One of my latest interviewees pointed out the ontological differences
between studying the individual and the thinking of the individual brain,
to what it is studying the culture and people in action. That is something
that seems obvious but can lead to the validation or refusal of what I'm
trying to achieve. But that would be another thesis!
Once again thanks for your reading, comments, and feedback.
Have a great day,
Best,
--
Priscila Mendoza
MFA Design Management Candidate
http://priscilamendoza.mx
In some cases authors were refering to the mental processes linked to the
workings of the brain, were as others (especially when refering to
consciouness) stated that there was something else there, (the soul maybe?)
2014-09-30 0:47 GMT-04:00 Don Norman <[log in to unmask]>:
> Excellent answer. Thank you.
>
> We should have a more private discussion about research methods for your
> dissertation. (Next time I am at SCAD?)
>
>
> And yeah, this is a public response, but I thought the discussion group
> should know that my overly cute remark about Priscila's research was
> promptly put down with her appropriate response. She isn't probing the
> unconscious by a survey: she is probing what people do about it. And for
> that, a survey is fine.
>
>
> Maybe all this is irrelevant anyway, for Terry just informed me that the
> unconscious is a myth, a theoretical entity that does not exist. Why? I
> suspect because we can't see it. I responded that the unconscious, like
> consciousness, is not a thing that can be seen: it is a state of mental
> processing. When people act or make decisions of which they are unaware,
> that is by definition being done unconsciously. Consciousness implies
> awareness.
>
> (Come to think of it, perhaps Terry is a theoretical entity, a mythical
> creature. After all, he can't be seen. Maybe those emails come from some
> sentient computer up there in the clouds pretending to be Terry. Has anyone
> actually seen Terry? (I have seen someone who claimed to be Terry, but I
> have no evidence that this is the same "thing" that authors those emails.)
>
>
>
> don
>
> On Mon, Sep 29, 2014 at 5:27 PM, Priscila Mendoza <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > The survey is not intended to probe unconscious knowledge. The objective
> > for this survey is to get a sense about current design research practices
> > when it comes to unarticulated and latent knowledge. That said, I totally
> > agree that If my intention were to probe the unconscious knowledge of
> > researchers a survey would have been a contradiction.
> >
>
>
>
> Don Norman
> Director, DesignLab, UC San Diego: Think Observe Make
> Prof. Emeritus Cognitive Science & Psychology, UCSD
> [log in to unmask] www.jnd.org <http://www.jnd.org/>
> http://designlab.ucsd.edu/
>
> (Finally, a website I am not ashamed of)
>
>
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--
Priscila Mendoza
MFA Design Management Candidate
http://priscilamendoza.mx
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