In his bestselling book, Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2011) notes that our brains contain two systems of thought: System 1 which “… operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control” (Id. at 20) and System 2 which “…allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations….” (Id. at 21.)

Thus, while System 1 is quick, automatic and requires little or no effort, System 2 is deliberative, effortful and requires our attention and concentration. (Id. at 22-23.).  As a consequence, most of our cognitive errors and biases occur within System 1 since it operates unconsciously and cannot be turned off. System 2, on the other hand, because it requires a lot of effort and attention, will literally deplete our mental energy through our expenditure of glucose. When this occurs, we will fall back on System 1 for decision making and being tired, and hungry, will make poor decisions.

In short- System 1 is what we all “intuition”, our “sixth sense” or “gut feeling”.

While Professor Kahneman cautions against placing our complete trust in System 1 thinking, a recent study  appears to take  some issue with this. In an article published online in the April issue of the journal Psychological Science, researchers developed a technique that measures or actually quantifies intuition. (Measuring Intuition: Nonconscious Emotional Information Boosts Decision Accuracy and Confidence by Galang Lufityanto, Chris Dokin and Joel Pearson, Psychological Science, May 2016, pp. 622-634)

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