I have said for a while, in different places, that the books, "Incognito" by Eagleman and "Seven and a Half Lessons About Your Brain" by Barrett, are valuable and helpful. Both of those books make clear there are many processes going on in our brains besides what we normally think of as "thinking", that is, conscious cogitation as when you decide what to say in answer to a spoken question like "What do you think of the mayor?"
Incognito says how we cannot access more of the work our brains do for many important tasks for which our brains are especially suited:
Our most hardwired instincts have usually been left out of the spotlight of inquiry as psychologists have instead sought to understand uniquely human acts (such as higher cognition) or how things go wrong (such as mental disorders). But the most automatic, effortless acts—those that require the most specialized and complex neural circuitry—have been in front of us all along: sexual attraction, fearing the dark, empathizing, arguing, becoming jealous, seeking fairness, finding solutions, avoiding incest, recognizing facial expressions. The vast networks of neurons underpinning these acts are so well tuned that we fail to be aware of their normal operation. And just as it was for the chicken sexers, introspection is useless for accessing programs burned into the circuitry. Our conscious assessment of an activity as easy or natural can lead us to grossly underestimate the complexity of the circuits that make it possible. Easy things are hard: most of what we take for granted is neurally complex.
Cornell psychology professor Barrett is quite direct and to the point. The first chapter of her book is titled "Your brain is not for thinking." Both authors emphasize that the brain is always busy with complex, essential processes such as breathing and blood pressure regulation and that thinking is more or less tacked on as an also-ran. Eagleman likes to picture the brain as the CEO to whom only very balanced pro/con decisions are handed to be decided.
