| Abstract: | Reviews 17 publications (including some containing multiple studies) on spontaneous attribution activity. The paradigms include the coding of written material, recording of thoughts during or after task completion, and indirect inferences of attributional activity exhibited in other cognitive processes. There is unequivocal documentation of attributional activity, with unexpected events and nonattainment of a goal among the antecedent cues that elicit causal search. It is concluded that the topic under investigation, therefore, should not be the existence of attributional search, but rather the conditions under which it is most promoted. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
