<p>Personal example: Hofstadter, in &quot;Fluid Concepts...&quot;, throws the anagram &quot;ucilgars&quot; at me. (Note I'm a German, I would probably solve a comparable riddle fast if in my mother tongue, and I would solve it systematically and conscious.) I try a bit, give up and read on. About ten pages later, without me thinking about it for minutes: &quot;surgical&quot;! It pops into my conscious without warning. Later, same book: &quot;tenjuk&quot;. No luck, even after a day.</p>
<p>The natural explanation, of course: Somewhere in my brain resides a dictionary of English and a permutation generator. (8! is not thaaat large a number.) It can easily find &quot;surgical&quot; but not &quot;junket&quot; as I never heard of the term before. (Even though this was the first term I googled, as it sounded like the most &quot;natural&quot; try.)</p>
<p>So, let's generalize to the title question: Has there been scientific work proving or disproving that the unconscious is capable of executing meaningful tasks, like the above example of browsing a directory? (I'm well aware that the methodological problems would be daunting.) This would also be relevant for the theme &quot;creativity&quot;.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-24T17:21:50.500Z
Looks like a duplicate of [How is it that taking a break from a problem sometimes allows you to figure out the answer?](https://psychology.stackexchange.com/q/1/7001)
Arnon Weinberg
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-25T16:20:17.473Z
Close enough! Not an exact duplicate, but enough food for thought to close my question.
Hauke Reddmann
<reference-request><unconscious>
Background and cron jobs running in the unconscious?
Hauke Reddmann
# Background and cron jobs running in the unconscious?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-04-24)

Personal example: Hofstadter, in "Fluid Concepts...", throws the anagram "ucilgars" at me. (Note I'm a German, I would probably solve a comparable riddle fast if in my mother tongue, and I would solve it systematically and conscious.) I try a bit, give up and read on. About ten pages later, without me thinking about it for minutes: "surgical"! It pops into my conscious without warning. Later, same book: "tenjuk". No luck, even after a day.

The natural explanation, of course: Somewhere in my brain resides a dictionary of English and a permutation generator. (8! is not thaaat large a number.) It can easily find "surgical" but not "junket" as I never heard of the term before. (Even though this was the first term I googled, as it sounded like the most "natural" try.)

So, let's generalize to the title question: Has there been scientific work proving or disproving that the unconscious is capable of executing meaningful tasks, like the above example of browsing a directory? (I'm well aware that the methodological problems would be daunting.) This would also be relevant for the theme "creativity".

**Tags:** reference-request, unconscious

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Looks like a duplicate of [How is it that taking a break from a problem sometimes allows you to figure out the answer?](https://psychology.stackexchange.com/q/1/7001)  
> **username_0**: Close enough! Not an exact duplicate, but enough food for thought to close my question.  

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## 0 answers

