Current memory investigations often delve into what psychologists call the "cognitive unconscious"--mental processes that operate outside of awareness but nevertheless influence conscious thoughts and actions. Considerable inspiration for this approach comes from the work of psychologist William JamesNoun,who in 1890 contrasted the automatic nature of numerous habitual behaviors--driving a car, to use a modern example--with the consciously controlled use of reason.
Sigmund Freud's notion that our conscious mental lives reflect unconscious conflicts and emotions pitted against psychological defense mechanisms rarely accommodates controlled laboratory experiments, and thus gets little attention from explorers of the cognitive unconscious.