Automatic Processes

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Automatic Processes Memory in Social Cognition
By The Anonymi
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(No Transcript)
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Implicit Recollection

• Implicit versus explicit memory
• Implicit Memory the ability to perform motor
  skills and procedures (e.g., typing, riding a
  bike) as well as certain cognitive skills (e.g.,
  completing word fragments, answering questions
  correctly with no awareness of how we knew the
  answer).
• Explicit Memory conscious awareness of the
  material that has been recalled, usually with a
  fair idea of how that knowledge was gained.

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Historical BackgroundImplicit Memory Research

• During 1880s, implicit memory was studied in the
  context of phenomena such as automatic writing
  and neurological amnesias.
• Ebbinghaus savings score
• Terms implicit and explicit memory coined in
  1924.
• Freud and Janet theories of psychopathology on
  the basis of implicit memory.
• However, implicit memory not that same as
  repressed memory.
• Once 1880s heyday had passed, nearly all research
  on human memory focused on explicit recollection.

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Implicit Memory ResearchAmnesics

• Edouard Claparede (1911)
• H.M.
• Ability to perform pursuit rotor and mirror
  tracing tests.
• Knows where the bathroom is at the laboratory he
  visits occasionally.
• Amnesics can
• Complete Tower of Hanoi puzzle
• Gollin figure test
• Cognitive mapping (see H.M.)

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Implicit Memory ResearchAmnesics cont.

• Amnesics remember
• Frequently practiced sports routines (e.g.,
  skiing)
• Learn fictitious information about people
• Produce bits and pieces of recently presented
  stories
• Acquire preferences for previously heard melodies
• Spot hidden figures more quickly after single
  exposure
• Procedural preservation also seen in people who
  experience alcohol-induced blackouts,
  drug-related amnesias, psychogenic amnesias, and
  DID.

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Implicit Memory ResearchNormal Individuals

• Research into implicit recollection came into the
  limelight via study of lexical access.
• Paradigms
• Perceptual identification
• Word fragment completion
• Stem completion
• Homophone spelling
• Lexical decision

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Implicit Memory ResearchNormal Individuals cont.

• Perceptual identification test
• 30 ms view of word fast enough so subjects can
  make out only dim flash of light
• When asked to guess from list of words, subjects
  can usually correctly guess when word was primed
• Word completion
• Study list of words (might include dimple)
• d _ _ p _ e
• Stem completion
• Similar to word completion (might include
  concept)
• con______

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Implicit Memory ResearchNormal Individuals cont.

• Homophone spelling
• Write down homophones (e.g., pare)
• Implicit memory displayed when spelling (pare,
  pair, pear) duplicates word originally studied.
• Lexical decision
• Determine very rapidly string of known and
  unknown words (e.g., barker or bekran)
• Response times faster for words that were primed.

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Implicit Memory ResearchNormal Individuals cont.

• Must be careful to rule out possibility that
  normal subjects might use explicit knowledge
  during an implicit test.
• Teasing implicit and explicit memory apart
• When debriefed, subjects say they did not
  strategize in any way.
• Subjects are often as surprised as the
  experimenter to learn that their guessing game
  performance was good.
• Results compatible w/ implicit memory persist
  when the opportunity to strategize is strictly
  controlled.
• Implicit and explicit memory tests produce
  statistically independent results within the same
  subjects for the same materials.

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Differences between Implicit and Explicit
Operations

• Explicit Memory
• Deep, elaborate forms of processing such as
  visual imagery, semantic conceptualization, and
  intricate application.
• Seldom affected by the sensory modality through
  which info. came.
• Decays rapidly over time when tested in certain
  ways.
• Best when stimuli are generated by subjects
  rather than presented in isolation.
• Hampered by alcohol.

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Differences between Implicit and Explicit
Operations

• Implicit Memory
• Not aided by deep or elaborate processing.
• Bound by modality.
• Perseveres with measurements that produce rapid
  decay of explicit memory.
• Interference has little effect.
• Isolated stimuli are best at priming themselves.
• Not hampered by alcohol.

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Theories of Implicit Remembrance

• Schacter
• Implicit memory is subserved by a special
  neurological system.
• Implicit memories are sustained despite the
  destruction of brain structures that are known to
  play a significant role in creating explicit
  memories.
• Implicit priming does not seem to fall within the
  procedural system.

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Theories of Implicit Remembrance

• Roediger
• Not necessary to postulate about an independent
  brain system for every dissociation know to exist
  in memory literature.
• Differences in cognitive processing, not brain
  structures, that cause dissociations to occur in
  tests of implicit and explicit memories.
• Bottom-up versus top-down processing.

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Body Memories

• Body remembers what the mind forgets.
• Some suggest that muscles, tendons, joints, and
  organs of the human body are capable of
  remembering information, especially traumatic
  information.
• Troubled individuals occasionally experience
  physical pain but that does not mean the muscles
  have memory.
• Individuals who experience somatic symptoms have
  indelible memories of the traumatic event.

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Definition (Shiffrin Schneider,
1977) Conscious Processes -With
awareness -Controllable -Effortful -With
intention
Automatic Processes (opposite) - -Uncontroll
able - -Without intention
Outside of awareness
Efficient
No longer fully accepted. (Gilbert Hixon, 1991)
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Historical examples of unawareness -Aronson and
Mills, 1959 -painful initiation rites -Nisbett
and Wilson, 1977 -product placements -subtle
cue (or clue) solves puzzle -Bargh, Chen, and
Burrows, 1996 -prime rudeness-gt interruption
Considered weak examples.
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Stricter methods-Implicit memory -Schacter,
1987, 1996 -amnesic patients -Tulving,
Schacter, and Stark, 1982 -word-stem completion
faster, recognition worse after week -Brown
and Murphy, 1989 -unintentional plagiarism
(source amnesia) -Jacoby et al.,
1989 -becoming famous after 24 hours (poor
source monitoring)
Subliminal?
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Stricter methods-Subliminal Perception -Debner
and Jacoby, 1994 -500 ms-successfully
suppressed word -50
ms-unsuccessful. Completed
word-stem. -Bargh and Pietromonaco,
1982 -hostile words leads to hostile
interpretations of ambiguous behaviors.
Further demonstrations?
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Stricter methods-Mere Exposure -Kunst-Wilson
and Zajonc, 1980 -ambiguous shapes -Bornstein
and DAgostino, 1992 -more likely to occur if
stimuli are presented subliminally -Bargh et
al., 1995 -individual differences sex and
power -Fazio et al., 1995 -African-American
faces.
What of efficiency?
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Stricter methods-Scarce Time/Resources -Neely,
1977 -birds and body parts -Fazio et al.,
1986 Bargh et al., 1996 -affect
priming -Gilbert et al., 1989 -Categorization,
characterization, and correction. -Wegner,
1994 -intentional distraction, automatic
search
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hill
hill
home
home
bus
bus
child
child
roof
roof
drive
drive
little
little
brick
brick
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Summary -Many aspects of our life are
automatically controlled. -But cultural
differences? (e.g., Choi Nisbett) -Automati
city is primarily studied under the contexts of
it being outside of our awareness (subliminal
priming) and during times when efficiency is
needed or cognitive resources are low. -How do
we acquire automatic or auto-motive (c.f.
Bargh) behaviors?