Thinking about product attributes: Investigating the role of unconscious valence processing in attribute framing

In the present investigation we conducted three studies to examine how unconscious valence processing influences participants' quality judgments in an attribute-framing task. In Studies 1 and 2 we observed how individuals who had depleted cognitive resources, through distraction (Study 2) and time constraint (Study 3), differed in their responses to an attribute-framing task. In Study 3 we subliminally primed participants with attribute frames and then presented them with a frameless decision task. Our results revealed that attribute framing arises from unconscious valence processing and conscious processing may only play a role when the frame is especially salient.     

Conscious and unconscious influences on remembering information from the near and distant past: A developmental analysis

We examined adults' memory for the actors and actresses who won Academy Awards for their performances in specific motion pictures between 1992 to 1937. Fifty-six individuals between 41 to 81 years of age completed inclusion and exclusion versions of aMovie Memory Questionnaire in which they were required to identify actors and actresses who were paired with the names of movies they actually appeared in (e.g., Cher—Moonstruck) or they never appeared in (e.g., Robert DeNiro—Annie Hall), respectively. Estimates of the independent contributions of conscious and unconscious influences on recollection were obtained by analyzing subjects' performance on the inclusion and exclusion tasks via Jacoby's (1991)Process Dissociation Procedure. Results indicated that conscious recollection for motion picture information exhibited a typical retention function, whereas unconscious contributions to recollection remained relatively constant over the entire time range that was sampled. When age differences were considered, it was found that young-old participants displayed a higher level of conscious recollection than did middle-age and old-old adults. The role played by unconscious processes in recollection, however, did not vary by age group.     

无意识研究新进展:无意识思维理论述评

无意识思维理论(UTT)是近期对无意识思维研究的最新成果。该文主要从无意识思维原理、容量原理、自下而上对自上而下加工原理、权重原理、规则原理、聚合对发散原理等6个方面对UTT进行了详细阐述。在此基础上,简评了UTT的理论特点及存在问题,并进一步从信息编码、目标和无意识思维加工机制等三个方面提出了今后的研究方向。     

Mainstream body‐character breach films and subjectivization

The authors analyze a unique cinematic corpus – ‘body‐character breach films’ (one character, initially played by a certain actor, occupies the body of another character) – demonstrating Lacan's notion of traversing the fantasy, both on the level of the films’ diegesis and that of spectatorship. Breaching the alliance between actors and their characters perturbs the viewer's fantasy of wholeness enabled by this very alliance. Consequently, a change in subject/spectatorial position in relation to the lack in the Other is induced, enhanced through the visualization of various scenarios of unconscious fantasies (mostly incest). These are meant to unsettle the spectator into an awareness of how a conscious fantasy conceals another unconscious fundamental fantasy, thereby encouraging a change in spectatorial position (from ‘perverse’/fetishistic to ‘neurotic’). Conflating this change with Lacan's notion of traversing the fantasy, the authors contend that mainstream cinema has the capacity to induce a process of subjectivization (assuming responsibility for one's own desire). This process is contingent on four conditions: identification with the protagonist's fantasy to conceal the lack in the Other; dissolution of this fantasy, initiated by the body‐character breach; rhetorical strategies (the coding of unconscious scenarios cinematically); and an ethical dimension (encouraging the subject/spectator to follow her/his desire).     

无意视盲的认知神经机制

无意视盲现象是指即使某些刺激物出现在视野中, 观察者也并没有觉察到这些刺激物的存在。这种现象在我们的现实生活中普遍存在, 它是许多交通和医疗事故的罪魁祸首。回顾前人的研究结果我们发现, 从认知行为角度出发, 无意视盲主要由两方面原因引起, 即“资源有限”与“注意定势”。一般情况下, “资源有限”与“注意定势”会共同导致无意视盲; 但有时候, “注意定势”也会独立于“资源有限”直接导致无意视盲。另外, 从大脑神经机制的角度来看, “资源有限”与“注意定势”作用于大脑加工的中后期, 即使产生无意视盲, 意识加工脑区对非预期刺激也进行了一定的认知加工, 但是否能进入到意识层面, 一方面取决于刺激呈现后中期枕顶部位的意识输入, 另一方面取决于与刺激驱动相关的颞顶联合区的激活程度以及与记忆负荷相关的顶内沟的抑制程度。     

Conscious knowledge influences decision‐making differently in substance abusers with and without co‐morbid antisocial personality disorder

Decision‐making impairment, as measured by the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), is a consistent finding among individuals with substance use disorder (SUD). We studied how this impairment is influenced by co‐morbid antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and conscious knowledge of the task. Three groups were investigated: SUD individuals without co‐morbid ASPD (n = 30), SUD individuals with co‐morbid ASPD (n = 16), and healthy controls (n = 17). Both SUD and SUD+ASPD participants had poor overall IGT performance. A block‐by‐block analysis revealed that SUD participants exhibited slow but steady improvement across the IGT, whereas SUD+ASPD participants exhibited initial normal improvement, but dropped off during the last 40 trials. Conscious knowledge of the task was significantly correlated to performance for controls and SUD participants, but not for SUD+ASPD participants. Our findings suggest that decision‐making proceeds differently in SUD and SUD+ASPD individuals due to differences in acquisition and application of conscious knowledge.     

冲突适应独立于意识：来自行为和ERP的证据

尽管已有研究发现诸如抑制控制和任务转换等认知控制功能独立于意识, 但是对冲突适应是否需要意识的参与目前还存在激烈的争论。为了进一步探讨此问题, 本研究记录了18名被试在完成箭头偏对比掩蔽任务(meta-contrast masking task)时的行为和脑电数据。结果显示, 在有意识和无意识条件下在反应时和额中N2和中顶P3波幅上均表现出了显著的冲突适应效应。这不仅表明冲突控制独立于意识, 而且也表明先前无意识经验对人类信息加工系统的适应性调节作用。本研究对认识认知控制和意识的本质具有重要意义, 也为建构认知控制与意识关系的理论提供了启示。     

Knowledge and experience of time in primitive mental states2

The author proposes that time be considered an object of working through during the psychoanalysis of patients whose mental functioning reveals distinct primitive aspects. These so‐called ‘difficult patients’ are particularly intolerant of the temporal limits of analytic sessions and often attempt to undermine the analytic setting. He presents some hypotheses about time and the mind's depth levels. A series of clinical vignettes taken from the analysis of adolescent, borderline and psychotic patients shows several ways in which the analysand's perception of and relation to time surfaces and is worked through in the course of analysis. Analyzing the relationship with time and the conflict between denial and acceptance of temporality proved a significant catalyst in the development of cases that had tenaciously impeded progress. It thus became possible to bring about important changes in the ways such patients experienced affect in the analytic relationship and in object relations, not by acting directly upon these relationships but by working instead on the formal parameters that organize the mind–and primarily on its spatio‐temporal organization.     

Enlightenment and individuation: syncretism,synchronicity and beyond

This paper opens with a personal introduction to the topic of syncretism within the context of a comparison of enlightenment associated with Eastern religious traditions and individuation as experienced through Jungian analysis. A brief exploration of the recent scholarly revival of interest in syncretism follows. Some close parallels with Jungian theory are highlighted, especially in the work of Timothy Light. Applications to the syncretic trends in Tang culture along the Silk Road(s) suggest deeper patterns of interconnectedness lie at the heart of these trends. A complex systems view highlights similarities between syncretic connections and non‐local aspects of synchronistic field events. The final section attempts to extend this approach to innovation in general terms through the recently articulated concept of the ‘adjacent possible’ from the writing of Stuart Kauffman. From this, the notion of a collective pre‐conscious dimension to the psyche is extrapolated. The unifying thread of acausal emergent forms provides a potential synthetic network for these phenomena.