automatic processes

4 traits of an automatic process

• outside awareness

• unintentional

• involuntary

• efficient

full automaticity

complete automatic unintentional and fast-paced decision making

preconscious priming

where the prime registers on the stimulus but not in our conscious thought (such as subliminal messaging)

EX: subliminal messaging

post conscious priming

where you know you have seen something, but you are unaware you have been primed

individual differences in chronic accessibility

the long term primes that lead you to be more primed to one concept over another (ex: personality, culture, experience, etc.)

goal dependent automaticity

once you think of a goal and you begin it, you then turn the process automatic (such as riding a bike, we think about getting on the bike, but once we achieve this we do not think about pedaling)

intent

having options to chose/think in other ways and choosing one of them

conscious will

thought precedes, fits, and explain action. you think before you act

consciousness

stream of thoughts, executive decision making behaviour

jacoby et al. study testing awareness

part 1: people were asked to pronounce 40-non famous names.

part 2: they were presented with names and asked whether they were famous or not. some names were famous, some were previously shown in part 1, etc.

part 2 happened with either no delay or 24hr delay

results: there were fewer mistakes in non-famous names in the no delay. the 24hr delay had shown more mistakes for non-famous names

implications of jacoby et al. study

• implicit learning (emotions, habits) with people with amnesia. people can remember the emotions they feel, but not always the reason for those emotions

• subliminal priming,

• sleeper effects: you may remember information, but you do not remember whether you agreed/disagreed with it because you cannot remember the location of seeing it

Bargh, chen, burrows:

people were post-consciously primed with words related to either rude, or polite. then asked to find the researcher who was in the middle of a conversation

those primed with the concept of rude interrupted the conversations quicker versus those in the polite condition

Van knippinberg

participants were asked to either describe the lifestyle, behaviours, etc. of professors or soccer hooligans

then asked a trivia test !

those who described a professor performed better than those describing the soccer hooligans

direct expressions account 

when we are primed with a concept/stereotype, we act exactly like that concept/stereotype. see’s social behaviour as an automatic process, it has a passive/direct effect

• a concept is automatically triggered without further processing

motivated preparation to act

you think about the characteristics of the target/stereotype. you then think about how you feel about that target. your behaviour is then influenced by the context and how you could successfully interact with the target

• if you like the target, you will act in accordance

• if you do not like the target, you will not act in accordance

we needed to test the 2 theories to see which one was correct, so what did cesario, plaks and higgins do?

some were primed with straight or gay. then, done a test and the computer crashed and didn’t save their work

results: less hostile when primed with gay

more hostile to the gay prime, meaning people are intentionally meaning to be hostile towards gay men. this shows the motivated preparation to ask, because the stereotype was not that gay men are hostile (so its not like people are acting in accordance with the stereotype)