ALT In a famous and often repeated lab test called the Iowa Gambling Task, subjects are asked to turn over cards from four packs, two red and two blue. Depending on the card, they will either win or lose money, and their goal is to maximise winnings. Effectively the red cards are disastrous—you can win well, but you can also make heavy losses; and the best strategy is to stick to the blue cards which give you regular, modest winnings. Although it takes subjects usually about 80 cards to be able to articulate what is going on, they are able to verbalise a preference for the blue cards after about 50. However, in one study, the subjects were hitched up to a polygraph (a 'lie-detector'), that measured how sweaty their palms were. 1/2

ALT What this revealed, astonishingly, was that after only 10 cards, long before the subjects were conscious that there was a difference, the polygraph registered that they were more anxious when their hands hovered over the red cards: and that already at this point, though again the subjects were not aware of it, they had actually started to change their behaviour to accommodate the new information. Long before the conscious mind reached its conclusions the body had perceived what was happening and was already responding to it. It should not surprise us to learn that lack of awareness of emotions negatively affects intuitive decision-making. By Iain McGilchrist from his book, 'The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World'. 2/2