TWO SYSTEMS

Psychologists have been intensely interested for several decades in the two modes of thinking evoked by the picture of the angry woman and by the multiplication problem, and have offered many labels for them. I adopt terms originally proposed by the psychologists Keith Stanovich and Richard West, and will refer to two systems in the mind, System 1 and System 2.

• System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.
• System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice, and concentration.

The labels of System 1 and System 2 are widely used in psychology, but I go further than most in this book, which you can read as a psychodrama with two characters.

When we think of ourselves, we identify with System 2, the conscious, reasoning self that has beliefs, makes choices, and decides what to think about and what to do. Although System 2 believes itself to be where the action is, the automatic System 1 is the hero of the book. I describe System 1 as effortlessly originating impressions and feelings that are the main sources of the explicit beliefs and deliberate choices of System 2. The automatic operations of System 1 generate surprisingly complex patterns of ideas, but only the slower System 2 can construct thoughts in an orderly series of steps. I also describe circumstances in which System 2 takes over, overruling the freewheeling impulses and associations of System 1. You will be invited to think of the two systems as agents with their individual abilities, limitations, and functions.

In rough order of complexity, here are some examples of the automatic activities that are attributed to System 1:

• Detect that one object is more distant than another.
• Orient to the source of a sudden sound.
• Complete the phrase “bread and . . .”
• Make a “disgust face” when shown a horrible picture.
• Detect hostility in a voice.
• Answer to 2 + 2 = ?
• Read words on large billboards.
• Drive a car on an empty road.
• Find a strong move in chess (if you are a chess master).
• Understand simple sentences.
• Recognize that a “meek and tidy soul with a passion for detail” resembles an occupational stereotype.

All these mental events belong with the angry woman—they occur automatically and require little or no effort. The capabilities of System 1 include innate skills that we share with other animals. We are born prepared to perceive the world around us, recognize objects, orient attention, avoid losses, and fear spiders. Other mental activities become fast and automatic through prolonged practice. System 1 has learned associations between ideas (the capital of France?); it has also learned skills such as reading and under- standing nuances of social situations. Some skills, such as finding strong chess moves, are acquired only by specialized experts. Others are widely shared. Detecting the similarity of a personality sketch to an occupational stereotype requires broad knowledge of the language and the culture, which most of us possess. The knowledge is stored in memory and accessed with- out intention and without effort.

Several of the mental actions in the list are completely involuntary. You cannot refrain from understanding simple sentences in your own language or from orienting to a loud unexpected sound, nor can you prevent yourself from knowing that 2 + 2 = 4 or from thinking of Paris when the capital of France is mentioned. Other activities, such as chewing, are susceptible to voluntary control but normally run on automatic pilot. The control of attention is shared by the two systems. Orienting to a loud sound is normally an involuntary operation of System 1, which immediately mobilizes the voluntary attention of System 2. You may be able to resist turning toward the source of a loud and offensive comment at a crowded party, but even if your head does not move, your attention is initially directed to it, at least for a while. However, attention can be moved away from an unwanted focus, primarily by focusing intently on another target.

9 Comments

1. 1. Asteroid Miner 08:43 AM 6/16/12

   There is a problem with the figures. I see only a little blue square.

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2. 2. kered 09:30 AM 6/16/12

   Excellent article, but would be MUCH better if we could see the pictures. EDITOR... please reformat so we can read easily... Using system 1 for the pics!!!!!!

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3. 3. mike_midwest 02:33 PM 6/17/12

   17x24 = 17x3x8 = 51x8 = (50+1)x8 = 400+8 = 408.

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4. 4. HdeJong 04:30 PM 6/17/12

   (16+1)*25-17 = 425-17 = 408

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5. 5. kered 07:27 PM 6/17/12

   hard math... try this way
   17*24= 20*24-3*24 = 480-72=408
   I am out of practice, took me ~~30 mins to figure this out... Whatever way, System 2, as System 1 cannot do these!!! Great article

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6. 6. hugoal 06:31 AM 6/18/12

   Try this way:
   17*24=10*24+(10-3)*24=240+(240-72)=240+168=408
   or this one that's even easier:
   17*24=(10+10/2+2)*24=10*24+(10*24)/2+2*24=240+240/2+48=240+120+48=408
   Great article.

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7. 7. euroflycars 04:15 PM 6/18/12

   Try that way:
   
   17*2=34 --> 17*20=340
   17*4=68
   
   340+68=408
   
   It's opportunistic, but that's why clever calculators will do it almost intuitively with their system 1.

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8. 8. GeorgeOckel 05:24 PM 6/20/12

   Article seems interesting but without pictures loses appeal

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9. 9. craigc0 03:48 PM 8/7/12

   needs the pictures. This has been noted many times, but no response.
   

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