The essay I chose to analyze in my third paper was "Immune to Reality" by Gilbert, and I found it interesting enough that I chose from Gilbert's citations for this assignment. The source is titled "Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes," by Richard Nisbett and Timothy Wilson of the University of Michigan. It was published in the Psychological Review, which is a scientific journal housing articles concerning psychological theory. This article reviews evidence that concerns higher order cognition, and suggests that there may be no direct conscious and introspective access to higher cognitive processes. It is organized into three main sections which discuss (a) how people are unaware of stimuli that influence their responses, (b) how people are unaware of the existence of their own response, and (c) how people are unaware that the stimuli have in fact influenced their responses. By further dividing these sections into subsections, the authors succeed in discussing each detail of evidence and supporting their ultimate claim--that higher order cognition can not be held back by the limiting qualities of introspection.
The writing grabs the readers attention from the very beginning, as it is introduced with a concise and relatable hook. The tone is very deliberate and analytical--the authors succeed in breaking apart each of their own sources and piecing them back together little by little in order to better read the sources in this argument's context.
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~tdw/nisbett&wilson.pdf
Nisbett and Wilson, "Telling More Than We Can Know: Verbal Reports on Mental Processes," Psychological Review 84: 231-259 (1977)
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