Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
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Item The search for moderation: does anxiety enhance the unconscious thought advantage?(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2017) Whillock, Summer Rain; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ian M. HandleyWhen people face a large amount of information on which to base a decision, common sense suggests that they should slowly and deliberatively think about that information. However, Unconscious Thought Theory (UTT) suggests that a slow yet unconscious mechanism can process complex information and output decisions that rival, and perhaps exceed, the quality of decisions that result from deliberative thought (Dijksterhuis & Nordgren, 2006). However, this idea is controversial and research into UTT reveals that an unconscious thought advantage (UTA) over conscious thinking is small and manifests unreliably (Nieuwenstein et al., 2015; Strick et al., 2011). The aim of this thesis was to identify and test a potential moderator of the UTA. Logically, situations that hinder conscious thought but leave unconscious thought relatively unaffected should enhance the UTA. The Attentional Control Theory (ACT) offers one such situation, that anxiety compromises conscious processes that rely upon attentional control and working memory (Eysenck, Derakshan, Santos, & Calvo, 2007). Because conscious thought relies heavily on working memory relative to unconscious thought, experiencing anxiety may lead the two thought processes to diverge. Specifically, anxiety should negatively influence conscious thought but not significantly influence unconscious thought. In the present study, participants viewed information about roommate candidates and made judgments after a period of either distraction or focused deliberation, while under calm or anxious conditions. Results did not support the hypothesis that the experience of anxiety would increase the UTA; participants performed comparably in the conscious thought and unconscious thought conditions. Further, participants in the conscious thought condition performed better under anxious compared to calm conditions. Exploratory analyses and future directions are discussed.Item Shifting goals for unconscious thinkers : using reevaluation to test between fuzzy intuition and an active unconscious(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2013) Rivers, Andrew Michael; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ian M. HandleyAccumulating evidence suggests that slow deliberative processes may actively integrate information even while conscious attention is distracted away from task-relevant activities (Dijksterhuis, 2004). In typical experiments supporting this idea, participants receive complex information about target objects and then report judgments on those targets immediately, after 3min in which to think, or after a 3min distraction task that arguably disrupts conscious thinking but not unconscious thinking. Typical results demonstrate that individuals form better judgments in the latter condition relative to participants in other conditions, a finding dubbed the Deliberation-Without-Attention effect. This effect is predicted and well explained by Unconscious Thought Theory. However, an alternative explanation derived from the Fuzzy-Trace Theory of memory may account for observed patterns of results without assuming an active, sophisticated unconscious thought process. To date, no published research directly tests these two potential alternatives. The current experiment intends to conclusively test between Unconscious Thought Theory and Fuzzy-Trace Theory as alternative explanations for the effect by shifting the goal for successful judgments after the information is presented. According to Unconscious Thought Theory, an active unconscious thought process should be able to reevaluate information according to an updated goal. A passive memory process, on the other hand, is by definition unable to engage in this type of active reevaluation. Data show both memory and unconscious thought processes are at work. As predicted by Fuzzy-Trace Theory, decisions tend to generally reflect overall evaluations rather than updated goals. However, participants who are comfortable with ambiguity do reevaluate information during a distraction period when they have the goal to do so. This finding cannot be rectified with Fuzzy-Trace Theory, strongly suggesting that Fuzzy-Trace Theory is not a viable comprehensive explanation for the Deliberation- Without-Attention effect.Item Evidence for unconscious thought in complex decisions : the result of a methodological artifact or of an active thought process(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2009) Runnion, Brett Matthew; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ian M. HandleyPrevious research has suggested that a period of unconscious thought can result in judgments that are equal or superior to those of conscious thought (Dijksterhuis, 2004). The existence of unconscious thought as a decision-making process is controversial. In fact, it has been suggested that unconscious thought is not a process rather the evidence supporting it is the result of a methodological artifact (Lassiter et al., in press) that only occurs when participants can retrieve online judgments. This thesis attempts to resolve this controversy. Participants received information describing 4 cars (acquisition stage) that were described by twelve dichotomous attributes (e.g., good/poor mileage). The best car possessed mostly positive characteristics and the worst car had mostly negative characteristics. Participants were told before or after the information was presented, that they would be forming an impression of the four cars. They were then allowed to think about the cars consciously for 4 minutes, were distracted for 4 minutes (unconscious thought), or were asked to make an immediate decision without thinking. When the instructions to form an impression were received before acquiring the information, the participants could form online judgments during acquisition. These could later be retrieved when participants reported their attitudes. When the instructions to form an impression were received after participants acquired the information, they could not form online judgments, but could form only memory-based judgments after the information was presented. Without online judgments, participants are forced to rely on memory-based judgments. Thus, if participants in the unconscious-thought condition formed more favorable attitudes toward the best car relative to the attitudes formed by the participants in the other two conditions, a thought process must be occurring. Additionally, these attitudes should transfer to choosing the best car as well. However, the results of this thesis failed to replicate previous research (Lassiter et al., in press) as the dependent measures failed to reach significance.Item Testing the existence of unconscious thought through a memory perspective(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2012) Yosai, Erin Rachelle; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ian M. HandleyResearch indicates that engaging in unconscious thought processes may aid individuals in making optimal decisions (e.g. Bos et al., 2008, Bos et al., 2011, Dijksterhuis, 2004; Dijksterhuis & Nordgren, 2006) when conscious processing capabilities are limited. Experiments within this domain have dubbed the result of optimal complex decision making after delay in which conscious thought is distracted, relative to no conscious distraction the 'Unconscious Thought Effect' (Strick et al., 2011). However, skeptics of unconscious thought processes assert that the 'unconscious thought effect' may be an artifact of conscious or memorial-based processing (e.g. Lassiter et al., 2009; Reyna, 2003). The current experiment hypothesized that measuring individuals' working memory capacity (Unsworth et al., 2005), or attentional control, would clarify whether controlled memorial processes or unconscious thinking produces this effect. Namely, the control and effortful direction of attention influences conscious processes, but unconscious thought processes do not require attention (Dijksterhuis & Nordgren, 2006). Specifically, it was hypothesized that individual WMC would moderate decisions within conditions where conscious thought processes and attention were necessary to car evaluations. This thesis' specific interest is the 'unconscious thought condition.' Results indicating that individual WMC moderates car evaluation following a distraction period would support a memorial-based explanation for unconscious thought effects. Conversely, results indicated no effect of individual WMC on object evaluations following a distraction period would support the existence of independent, sophisticated unconscious thought processes (e.g. Dijksterhuis & Nordgren, 2006). Although this experiment failed to clearly support either hypothesis regarding WMC, several possible explanations of the null and inconsistent results were identified. Attending to experimental issues and theoretical inconsistencies in future research may improve the understanding of the existence and boundarit.es of unconscious thought.