### abstract ###
two experiments examined the benefits of unconscious thought on complex decisions  CITATION
experiment  NUMBER  attempted to replicate and extend past research by examining the effect of providing reasons prior to rating the options
results indicated no significant differences between the conditions
experiment  NUMBER  attempted to replicate the findings of dijksterhuis  bos  nordgren  and van baaren  CITATION  and determine if a memory aid could overcome the limitations of conscious thought on complex tasks
results revealed that a memory aid improved decisions compared to the conscious thought condition
participants in the unconscious thought condition did not perform significantly better than did participants in the conscious thought condition
### introduction ###
conventional wisdom indicates that we should think  hard  about our options when faced with a difficult decision
by devoting attention and conscious thought to a difficult decision  one can carefully consider and weigh the various options and choose the option that best matches one's goals
wilson and schooler  CITATION  challenged this assumption when they found that participants asked to think about their reasons for a decision made apparently worse decisions than participants who did not reflect on their reasons for a decision
recent work  CITATION  has cast further doubt on the benefits of consciously thinking about one's decisions by demonstrating that consciously thinking about complex tasks i e   tasks which consist of numerous attributes that participants must weigh in order to determine the best option can lead to poorer performance than unconscious thought
some recent attempts to replicate this effect have been unsuccessful  CITATION
this paper attempts to replicate the beneficial effects of unconscious thought on complex tasks found by dijksterhuis and colleagues and to examine some conditions that may limit the effect
