How can you FORGET your child is in the car?

In psychology, the subconscious is the part of consciousness that is not currently in focal awareness.

The word "subconscious", was coined by the psychologist Pierre Janet (1859-1947), who argued that underneath the layers of critical-thought functions of the conscious mind lay a powerful awareness that he called the subconscious mind. {source: wikipedia.com}

Studies from as far back as the seventies show that our brains begin to prepare for action just over a third of a second before we consciously decide to act. In other words, even when we ‘think’ we are conscious, it is our unconscious mind which is actually making our decisions for us.

And it seems the unconscious mind is running us on its automatic pilot mode, 95% of the time! Neuroscientists have shown that the conscious mind provides 5% or less of our cognitive (conscious) activity during the day – and 5% they say is for the more aware people, many people operate at just 1% consciousness. {source: lifetrainings.com}

That leads us to "Forgotten Baby Syndrome". Forgotten Baby Syndrome is defined as the failure to remember that a child is in one's car. David Diamond, professor of psychology, molecular pharmacology and physiology at the University of South Florida, says that scientific studies of the brain prove that Forgotten Baby Syndrome does in fact exist.

Forgotten Baby Syndrome is where the parent completely loses awareness that the child is in the car. Our brain habit system allows us to do things without thinking about it and our different brain systems actually compete against each other. Diamond has been studying Forgotten Baby Syndrome since 2004 & based on his research, he's developed a hypothesis as to how hot car deaths happen.

Diamond explained that when there's competition between the brain’s "habit memory system" & its "prospective memory system" and the habit memory system takes over, then Forgotten Baby Syndrome can happen. {source: GMA, ABC News}

From this information and data, Baby OK was born. We want a way for parents, grandparents and care givers to be MORE conscious and MORE aware of the child in the backseat. It is imperative that we ACTIVELY make choices and be AWARE of what is going on.

Baby OK functions in a way to get people in the habit of acknowledging that the child is in the vehicle (or not in the vehicle). Baby OK relies on the awareness of the user to be effective. While still acting as a reminder tool, the Baby OK app is most effective when the user is making the CONSCIOUS choice to activate, engage and use the tool.

#babyok #subconsciousmind #awareness #conscious