The Power of Subconcious

Two recent studies have suggested that most people are totally unaware of their reasons for behaving as they do.

In 1998 two Dutch psychologists asked half a group of volunteers to carry out a simple mental exercise that involved imagined a football hooligan. All then had to answer some general knowledge group got 14% more answers correct, despite the fact that there was barely any difference in their actual level of intelligence.

Focusing on the body rather than the mind, research at New York University asked one grip of volunteers to do a mental task involving words relating to old age, such as 'wrinkled' and 'grey'. A second group were shown words unrelated to old age. The researchers then said the experiment was over secretly recorded the time each participant took to walk down the long hallway to the exit. those with old age on their mind took significantly longer to walk down the corridor. 

So it seems that if people had marginally more time to think about what they had to do, it would help them perform either better (or worse!) than normal at both mental and physical tasks.