Attentional chauvinism,

In new work, researchers at Boston University and the University of Montreal unify two lines of research--our understanding of classical learning and a phenomenon known as the attentional blink--to achieve an important demonstration that high-level mental processing is required even for subliminal learning. (Published in Current Biology, Dr. Aaron Seitz and colleagues)

http://coglab.wadsworth.com/experiments/AttentionalBlink/

…there is a brief time after paying attention to one stimulus where attention cannot be focused on a subsequent stimulus. This duration is called an attentional blink because it is analogous to being unable to see objects during an eye blink.

Subliminal learning is a low-level perceptual learning process that can occur without awareness of what is learned…
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Low-level? It is so designated by the “high level” processes that plan research and write papers. Attentional chauvinism, I call it. I suppose people differ in the extent to which they use these non-verbal processes, but that may be just a matter of differences in cognitive practices. Personally, I don’t put much of a load on my attentional or verbal processes. If I try to write something and don’t know what to write, I just put that aside and expect that I will have a better idea later. That has always worked up to now.

I suppose that is subliminal thinking rather than subliminal learning, but it probably comes from the same brain subsystems. I think we use attention to put those brain systems to work on projects that the verbal (long-term planning) system cosidrs important. Don Dansereau calls this “seducing” the brain to work on a project. He also uses the model of the Trickster and speaks of tricking the subliminal systems into working on conscious projects. (This is why the coyote graphic appears in the Thinkerer.)

A straightforward view of this operation is in the page on the Startalittles.

http://www.thinkerer.org/Tools/ToolsStartaLittle.htm

The basic strategy is to spend a little time starting early. This gets those subliminal systems to work on the task you started. They keep working on it while your attention is directed at other jobs. The idea is much the same as in any organization: delegate responsibility and don try to micromanage.

And don’t think of those working under your direction as “low-level.” John Henry and his peers were just as important to railroads as was the president of Union Pacific . And John Henry got the song. Do you know who was the first president of Union Pacific