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Unintentional processing of motivational valence
Agnes Moors1, Jan De Houwer, Dirk Hermans
1Department of Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. agnes.moors@Ugent.be
Summary
Motivational valence priming effects occur even when participants try to ignore primes or have minimal time to process them. These findings suggest that motivational valence can be processed unconsciously.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Motivational affective priming studies demonstrate that primes indicating success or failure influence subsequent target responses.
- Previous research suggests these effects might depend on consciously intentional processing of prime valence.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate whether motivational affective priming effects are contingent on consciously intentional processing of the prime's motivational valence.
- To examine if these priming effects persist under conditions designed to minimize conscious intentional processing.
Main Methods:
- Experiment 1: Primes (success/failure outcomes) were presented before and after target responses to encourage ignoring the prime.
- Experiment 2: Participants responded to targets within 600 ms to limit opportunities for intentional prime processing.
Main Results:
- Both experiments yielded significant affective priming effects.
- These effects were observed despite attempts to discourage intentional processing and limited processing time.
Conclusions:
- Motivational valence can be processed automatically, without conscious intention.
- These findings support the notion of non-conscious processing of motivational information.