Lost in dissociation: The main paradigms in unconscious cognition

Contemporary studies in unconscious cognition are essentially founded on dissociation, i.e., on how it dissociates with respect to conscious mental processes and representations. This is claimed to be in so many and diverse ways that one is often lost in dissociation. In order to reduce this state of confusion we here carry out two major tasks: based on the central distinction between cognitive processes and representations, we identify and isolate the main dissociation paradigms; we then critically analyze their key tenets and reported findings.     

Conscious control over the content of unconscious cognition

Visual stimuli (primes) presented too briefly to be consciously identified can nevertheless affect responses to subsequent stimuli - an instance of unconscious cognition. There is a lively debate as to whether such priming effects originate from unconscious semantic processing of the primes or from reactivation of learned motor responses that conscious stimuli afford during preceding practice. In four experiments we demonstrate that unconscious stimuli owe their impact neither to automatic semantic categorization nor to memory traces of preceding stimulus-response episodes, but to their match with pre-specified cognitive action-trigger conditions. The intentional creation of such triggers allows actors to control the way unconscious stimuli bias their behaviour.     

Fechner as a pioneering theorist of unconscious cognition

Fechner remains virtually unknown for his psychological research on the unconscious. However, he was one of the most prominent theorists of unconscious cognition of the 19th century, in the context of the rise of scientific investigations on the unconscious in German psychology. In line with the models previously developed by Leibniz and Herbart, Fechner proposes an explanative system of unconscious phenomena based on a modular conception of the mind and on the idea of a functional dissociation between representational and attentional activity. For Fechner, the unconscious is a state of consciousness resulting from the isolation of representational activity from the rest of psychical life. Unconscious mental phenomena are unattended mental states that behave autonomously while remaining able to act on consciousness. This paper aims to revisit Fechner's contribution to the history of the unconscious, but also the theoretical significance of the Fechnerian unconscious vis-à-vis current research on the cognitive unconscious.     

Process dissociation procedure reveals age differences in unconscious influences on memory for possible and impossible objects

Abstract

Forty-eight younger and 48 older adults performed inclusion and exclusion tasks for line drawings of possible and impossible objects that were encoded semantically or globally. Participants' performance was transformed into estimates of conscious and unconscious influences on memory via the Process Dissociation Procedure (PDP). Five major findings were obtained. First, developmental differences were observed in the relative strength of conscious and unconscious influences on memory such that conscious influences were stronger for younger than older adults, whereas unconscious influences were stronger for older than younger adults. Second, unconscious influences on memory were demonstrated for possible and impossible objects. Third, unconscious influences on memory were obtained for objects that were encoded in both a global and a semantic fashion. Fourth, age-related differences in conscious and unconscious influences on memory were unaffected by object type. Fifth, estimates of conscious and unconscious influences on memory were unrelated to scores on psychometric measures of visual-spatial ability: Primary Mental Ability-Space (PMA-Space) and Benton Facial Recognition Task (BFRT). Collectively, these findings have implications for our understanding of the relative strength of conscious and unconscious memory processes in younger and older adults as well as the different types of unconscious memory processes that are recruited by the PDP in comparison to the traditional priming methodology.     

Processes of conscious and unconscious memory: evidence from current research on dissociation of memories within a test

The processes of conscious memory (CM) and unconscious memory (UM) are explored, based on the results of the current and previous studies in which the 2 forms of memory within a test were separated by either the process dissociation or metacognition-based dissociation procedure. The results assessing influences of shallow and deep processing, association, and self-generation on CM in explicit and implicit tests are taken as evidence that CM in a test is driven not only conceptually but also by the driving nature of the test, and CM benefits from an encoding condition to the extent that information processing for CM recapitulates that engaged in the encoding condition.Those influences on UM in explicit and implicit tests are taken to support the view that UM in a test is driven by the nature of the test itself, and UM benefits from an encoding condition to the extent that the cognitive environments at test and at study match to activate the same type of information (e.g., visual, lexical, or semantic) about memory items or the same content of a preexisting association or categorical structure.     

Substantive unconscious and adjective unconscious: the contribution of Wilfred Bion

The author first provides her readers with a brief summary of some of Freud's ideas, as found throughout his work, on the notion of 'unconscious'. The notion of unconscious as noun is contrasted to the idea of unconscious as adjective, this latter being proposed as a quality, or a state, ever temporary, dynamic, and subject to the constant changes going on in the individual's internal psychic world, as well as to external conditions. After presenting some considerations, the author then contrasts the Kleinian model of the mind to the Freudian, and Wilfred Bion's contribution is discussed at some length. Within Bion's conception of psychic functioning, the model of 'dream' is highlighted and, in this regard, clarifications are sought regarding Bion's view of the unconscious. To conclude, a brief and superficial approximation to the work of Carl Jung is touched upon, although the author admits to knowing little of Jung's positions.     

An integrative review of process dissociation and related models in social cognition

This chapter reviews the use of formal dual process models in social psychology, with a focus on the process dissociation model and related multinomial models. The utility of the models is illustrated using studies of social and affective influences on memory, judgement and decision making, and social attitudes and stereotypes. We then compare and contrast the process dissociation model with other approaches, including implicit and explicit tests, signal detection theory, and multinomial models. Finally we show how several recently proposed multinomial models can be integrated into a single family of models, of which process dissociation is a specific instance. We describe how these process models can be used as both theoretical and measurement tools to answer questions about the role of automatic and controlled processes in social behaviour.     

Classification and identification thresholds for three types of verbal materials

The first two experiments found thresholds for classification into one of three categories of Erlglish words, Turkish words, and letter alternations to be significantly lower than thresholds for the identification of the specific items; parallel results were found with the two methods of measurement employed. Both thresholds were lowest for English words, and classification thresholds were lower for Turkish words than for letter alternations, but the identification thresholds of these two kinds of materials showed a reversal. The third experiment found classification thresholds for the same three types of materials to be higher than either of two three-choice identification thresholds, one a choice among three same-type items and the other, a choice among one English word, one Turkish word, and one letter alternation.     

Classification and identification thresholds for three types of verbal materials

The first two experiments found thresholds for classification into one of three categories of English words, Turkish words, and letter alternations to be significantly lower than thresholds for the identification of the specific items; parallel results were found with the two methods of measurement employed. Both thresholds were lowest for English words, and classification thresholds were lower for Turkish words than for letter alternations, but the identification thresholds of these two kinds of materials showed a reversal. The third experiment found classification thresholds for the same three types of materials to be higher than either of two three-choice identification thresholds, one a choice among three sametype items and the other, a choice among one English word, one Turkish word, and one letter alternation.     

Anxiety, signal anxiety, and unconscious anticipation: neuroscientific evidence for an unconscious signal function in humans

A central tenet of psychoanalysis, and arguably of any comprehensive theory of mind, is the existence of a psychological unconscious. Years of clinical investigation into the nature of unconscious processes have facilitated the development of psychoanalysis as a clinical method. Empirical investigations of unconscious mental processes, however, have lagged behind clinical inquiry. With few exceptions, attempts to understand unconscious processes using rigorous experimental controls have remained sequestered in scientific domains other than psychoanalysis, where they have proliferated recently. In view of this recent upsurge of research on unconscious processes outside of psychoanalysis, efforts to integrate such knowledge into general theories of psychopathology and clinical investigation are critical. In this paper, an interdisciplinary approach is taken to the study of one aspect of unconscious mental functioning--what Freud originally termed signal anxiety. Signal anxiety is examined using information from cognitive psychology and learning theory, psychophysiology, behavioral neuroscience, and psychoanalytic theory. Though the original concept of signal anxiety is supported by recent research, it is concluded that signal anxiety is probably best thought of not as the affect of anxiety but as a subset of unconscious mental processes that have a signal function of anticipating danger. Such unconscious anticipatory processes are a general feature of the mind that includes responses to both real and imagined (neurotic) appraisals of a situation. The neurophysiological structures and processes associated with unconscious anticipation in humans are just beginning to be understood.