Abstract

This article discusses some strands of theory and research in cognitive psychology that offer new insights into the workings of nonconscious mental structures and processes. Contemporary research in cognitive psychology reveals the impact of nonconscious mental structures and processes on the individual's conscious experience, thought, and action. ACT model and PDP framework afford a much wider scope for the cognitive unconscious than did the classic statements. Research on automatic processes, subliminal perception, implicit memory, and hypnosis indicates that events can affect mental functions even though they cannot be consciously perceived or remembered. Perceptual-cognitive and motoric skills are automatized thorugh experience, and thus rendered unconscious. The results of these researchs leads to a provisional taxonomy of nonconscious mental structures and processes constituting the domain of the cognitive unconscious. It suggest a tripartite division of the cognitive unconscious into unconscious mental processes operating on knowledge structures that may themselves be preconscious or subconscious.