Conscious and nonconscious processes: Implications for self-determination theory.

According to Bargh's Auto-Motive model (Bargh, 1990, 1997a, 1997b; Bargh & Chartrand, 1999), automatic motivational processes are those that are consistently and frequently engaged when environmental cues and contexts similar to that of the past arise. For example, achievement and affiliation have been primed and have been shown to affect behaviour and perceptions in ways similar to conscious activation (e.g., Lakin & Chartrand, 2003). Emerging evidence now suggest that motivational processes related to self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000), such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation can be nonconsciously primed and then influence perceptions and behaviours (e.g., Burton, Lydon, D'Alessandro, & Koestner, 2006; Levesque & Pelletier, 2003; Ratelle, Baldwin, & Vallerand, 2005). These nonconscious effects are shown to parallel the conscious effects of motivational processes. These findings challenge researchers interested in SDT and other humanistic theories to think about whether all behaviours and forms of regulation can be nonconsciously determined. In the present paper, the authors argue that automatic nonconscious processes are not always maladaptive and that autonomous (self-determined) as well as controlled forms of motivation can be automatically and nonconsciously activated. However, the authors also argue that conscious processes are essential to our daily experiences and necessary to modulate the manifestation and expression of nonconscious processes that are negative or detrimental to growth or well-being. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social cognition and family relationships: Comment.

Two goals are set in this commentary on the 3 articles (see records 84-15452, 15476, and 15475) included in this special section. The 1st is to place the articles within a larger context, bringing out their common features and the ways in which they fit within a variety of moves toward exploring the cognitive aspects of family life. The 2nd is to indicate several research possibilities that could extend the studies and the concepts contained in the 3 articles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the status of inhibitory mechanisms in cognition: Memory retrieval as a model case.

Theories of cognition frequently assume the existence of inhibitory mechanisms that deactivate mental representations. Justifying this assumption is difficult because cognitive effects thought to reflect inhibition can often be explained without recourse to inhibitory processes. This article addresses the uncertain status of cognitive inhibitory mechanisms, focusing on their function in memory retrieval. On the basis of a novel form of forgetting reported herein, it is shown that classical associative theories of interference are insufficient as accounts of forgetting and that inhibitory processes must be at work. It is argued that inhibitory processes are used to resolve computational problems of selection common to memory retrieval and selective attention and that retrieval is best regarded as conceptually focused selective attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the status of self in social prediction: Comment on Karniol (2003).

A challenge to mainstream notions on the status of the self in social prediction is welcome. The self-as-distinct model (R. Karniol, 2003) is thoughtful, provocative, and parsimonious, but it is also underspecified, undertested, and selective in its treatment of the evidence. More important, the model does not provide compelling answers to issues pertaining to the origins of prototypic social knowledge, the status of self-knowledge, the content of the self-representation, whether the use of self in social prediction is a logical contradiction, and whether the self's role in social prediction is amotivated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On consciousness in syntactic learning and judgment: A reply to Reber, Allen, and Regan.

Responds to comments by A. S. Reber et al (see record 1986-03030-001) on the present authors' (see record 1985-29949-001) analysis of consciousness and abstraction in the case of syntactical learning and judgment. The methodological criticism of Reber et al is rejected, and it is asserted that assessment at the moment of judgment rather than recall maximizes the validity of reports of rules in consciousness at many moments of judgment. Broader issues discussed include judgment after early learning and after automatization, correlated grammars and consciousness, the scope and mental abstractness of rules, conscious and unconscious control, and intuition. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the primacy of cognition.

Replies to an article by R. B. Zajonc (see record 1984-30610-001) in which Zajonc differed greatly from the present author in his conceptualization of emotion and its relations with cognition, as well as in his evaluation of the evidence. The boundaries of emotion as a phenomenon and whether sensory preferences can be regarded as emotions are discussed, and the evidence Zajonc regards as supporting his claims for the independence of cognition and emotion and the primacy of emotion are analyzed. Finally, the indeterminancy of the issue of cognitive vs emotional primacy is emphasized. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment: On Legislation.

Letter comments on Sheila Pfafflin's rebuttal in the American Psychologist, (see record 2005-11488-004), regarding legislation for psychologists. The author states that Pfafflin's analogy to physicists and economists is fallacious, and does not apply to professional psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Identifying component processes in text comprehension: Comment on Haberlandt and Graesser.

Argues that the results of K. F. Haberlandt and A. C. Graesser's (see record 1986-13625-001) study using a moving-window procedure depict the operation of the component processes only generally and that the moving-window procedure, when applied to individual words, appears to lead readers to adopt strategies that alter text comprehension processes, at least as compared with other procedures such as eye-fixation monitoring. It is contended that although Haberlandt and Graesser's results are consistent with current models of text comprehension, they do not provide a sufficiently fine-grained analysis to discriminate among alternative models. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relational processes in the DSM-V revision process: Comment on the special section.

With the aim of stimulating research in advance of the revision process of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, "A Research Agenda for DSM-V" (D. A. Kupfer, M. B. First, and D. A. Regier, 2002) was published, highlighting areas for further study. A white paper included in the research agenda (M. B. First et al., 2002) identified the limited provision for the diagnosis of relational disorders as one of the most important gaps in the current DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Specific recommendations in the research agenda included developing assessment modules, determining the clinical utility of relational disorders, determining the role of relational disorders in the etiology and maintenance of individual mental disorders, and considering aspects of relational disorders that might be modulated by individual mental disorders. In parallel with the 11 research planning conferences organized by the American Psychiatric Association from 2004 to 2007 under the title "The Future of Psychiatric Diagnosis: Refining the Research Agenda," a research planning conference sponsored by the Fetzer Institute was convened to promote research necessary for more empirically informed deliberations about the role of relational disorders in DSM-V. The current special section summarizes the conference proceedings and should serve as a valuable resource for the DSM-V revision process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On processing dominance: Comment on Pomerantz.

Comments that J. R. Pomerantz (1983) has made several important contributions to processing of visual forms, including demonstrating asymmetric interference between global and local levels of forms and generalizing the notion of asymmetric interference effects to motion stimuli. The present author (a) distinguishes hypotheses about the origin of such effects (e.g., global precedence) from empirical generalizations concerning the conditions under which the effects occur, (b) defines a concept of processing dominance and describes several possible types, and (c) indicates the relevance of A. Treisman's (see record 1982-07512-001) theory of feature integration for interpreting various types of processing dominance effects. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exhaustive and heuristic retrieval processes in person cognition: Further tests of the TRAP model.

The twofold retrieval by associative pathways (TRAP) model (L. Garcia-Marques & D. L. Hamilton, 1996) proposes that two distinct modes of retrieval typically underlie recall and frequency estimation. The model accounts for the simultaneous occurrence of greater recall of incongruent information and higher frequency estimation of congruent information. Three experiments provided further tests of the TRAP model. Experiment 1 manipulated cognitive load (at encoding and at retrieval) and the selectivity of the retrieval goal. Under either high load or a selective retrieval goal, incongruent items ceased to be better recalled. Experiment 2 manipulated the accessibility of expectancy-congruent, -incongruent, or -neutral episodes and found corresponding effects in frequency estimates. Finally, Experiment 3 showed that providing part-list retrieval cues inhibits recall but increases frequency estimates. The TRAP model predicted these results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive processes in dissociation: Comment on Giesbrecht et al. (2008).

In their recent review “Cognitive Processes in Dissociation: An Analysis of Core Theoretical Assumptions,” published in Psychological Bulletin, Giesbrecht, Lynn, Lilienfeld, and Merckelbach (see record 2008-11487-001) have challenged the widely accepted trauma theory of dissociation, which holds that dissociative symptoms are caused by traumatic stress. In doing so, the authors have outlined a series of links between various constructs—such as fantasy proneness, cognitive failures, absorption, suggestibility, altered information-processing, dissociation, and amnesia—claiming that these linkages lead to the false conclusion that trauma causes dissociation. A review of the literature, however, shows that these are not necessarily related constructs. Careful examination of their arguments reveals no basis for the conclusion that there is no association between trauma and dissociation. The current comment offers a critical review and rebuttal of Giesbrecht et al.’s argument that there is no relationship between trauma and dissociation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the Merits of Clinical Judgment: Comment.

Comments on the article by D. Westen and J. Weinberger (see record 2004-19091-002), which criticized academic clinical psychologists for being cynical about clinical judgment and clinical practice. In our view, it seems unlikely that more than a few academic clinical psychologists believe that they have little to learn from clinical practice or experience. In this comment, we examine the arguments about clinical judgment made by Westen and Weinberger (2004). Westen and Weinberger (2004) conflate the effect of training with the effect of experience. Westen and Weinberger (2004) do not mention that the value of training in psychology has been well-supported by research. While Westen and Weinberger (2004) make positive comments about the types of feedback that clinicians receive, for a number of reasons, including the Barnum effect, psychologists can be misled by feedback. Westen and Weinberger (2004) also argue that "psychotherapists tend to have much more direct and immediate feedback than most other medical practitioners, who may prescribe a medication or perform a procedure and not see the patient again for a year" (p. 603). But when psychologists make a diagnosis or describe a personality trait, they frequently do not receive "direct and immediate feedback" on whether they are right or wrong. In contrast, physicians often receive highly valid feedback. Finally, in discussing the value of ratings made by clinicians, Westen and Weinberger (2004) observe that "empirically, we have found surprisingly little evidence of theory-driven observational bias in using clinician-report methods" (p. 601). The issue is important because Westen and Weinberger argue in favor of using clinician ratings to construct diagnostic criteria. If clinicians' ratings are biased, then the criteria will be biased. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the primacy of the implicit: Comment on Perruchet and Pacteau.

The various issues that P. Perruchet and C. Pacteau (see record 1991-00329-001) raise in their article on synthetic grammar learning can be condensed into two categories of assertions. The first concerns matters of methodology and interpretation of the data base; the second concerns larger issues of knowledge acquisition and representation. In this comment I raise (a) methodological issues that suggest that the conclusions that Perruchet and Pacteau draw from their experiments may need softening and (b) arguments from several approaches to the study of the cognitive unconscious that question their "model of mind" and give support to an alternative view: the primacy of the implicit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the role of psychology in Greece: Comment on Bouhoutsos and Roe.

The present author agrees for the most part with J. C. Bouhoutsos and K. V. Roe's (see record 1984-26827-001) article concerning the current state of Greek psychology but clarifies the situation by commenting briefly on the political, economic, and educational environment in Greece. (1 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The dynamics of cognition and action: Mental processes inferred from speed-accuracy decomposition.

The interpretation of reaction time (RT) data requires strong assumptions about how Ss trade accuracy for speed of performance and about whether there is a discrete or continuous transmission of information from one component process to the next. Conventional RT and speed–accuracy trade-off procedures are not, by themselves, sufficiently powerful to test these assumptions. However, the deficiency can be remedied in part through a new speed–accuracy decomposition technique. The technique uses a hybrid mixture of (a) conventional RT trials in which Ss must process a given test stimulus with high accuracy and (b) peremptory response-signal trials in which Ss must make prompted guesses before stimulus processing has been finished. Data from this "titrated RT procedure" are then analyzed in terms of a parallel sophistication-guessing model, under which normal mental processes and guessing processes are assumed to race against each other in producing overt responses. With the model, the amount of partial information that Ss have accumulated about a test stimulus can be estimated at each intermediate moment during a reaction time trial. An application of speed–accuracy decomposition to 5 studies of word recognition illustrates the potential power of the technique. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Additivity of nonconscious affect: Combined effects of priming and exposure.

Affect deriving from 2 independent sources—repeated exposure and affective priming—was induced, and the combined effects were examined. In each of 4 studies, participants were first shown 72 Chinese ideographs in which the frequency of exposure was varied (0, 1, or 3). In the 2nd phase participants rated ideographs that were primed either positively, negatively, or not at all. The 4 studies were identical except that the exposure duration—suboptimal (4 msec) or optimal (1 sec)—of both the initial exposure phase and the subsequent priming phase was orthogonally varied. Additivity of affect was obtained only when affective priming was suboptimal, suggesting that nonconscious affect is diffuse. Affect whose source was apparent was more constrained. Interestingly, increases in liking generated through repeated exposures did not differ as a function of exposure duration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On becoming ready to pursue a goal you don't know you have: Effects of nonconscious goals on evaluative readiness.

Findings showed that the nonconscious activation of a goal in memory led to increased positive implicit attitudes toward stimuli that could facilitate the goal. This evaluative readiness to pursue the nonconscious goal emerged even when participants were consciously unaware of the goal-relevant stimuli. The effect emerged the most strongly for those with some skill at the goal and for those for whom the goal was most currently important. The effect of implicit goal activation on implicit attitudes emerged in both an immediate condition as well as a delay condition, suggesting that a goal rather than a nonmotivational construct was activated. Participants' implicit attitudes toward a nonconscious goal also predicted their goal-relevant behavior. These findings suggest that people can become evaluatively ready to pursue a goal whenever it has been activated--a readiness that apparently does not require conscious awareness or deliberation about either the goal or the goal-relevant stimuli. Theoretical implications of this type of implicit goal readiness are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fitting objects into holes: On the development of spatial cognition skills.

The authors examined 14- to 26-month-old infants' understanding of the spatial relationships between objects and apertures in an object manipulation task. The task was to insert objects with various cross-sections (circular, square, rectangular, ellipsoid, and triangular) into fitting apertures. A successful solution required the infant to mentally rotate the object to be fit into the aperture and use that information to plan the action. The object was presented standing up in half of the trials; in the other half, it was lying down. The results showed that infants solved the problem consistently from age 22 months and that a successful solution was associated with appropriate preadjustments before the hand arrived with the block to the aperture. No sex differences were found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)