Unintentional influences and opposition: A reply to graf

Abstract

People's behaviour is often influenced by processes of which they are not aware or that they do not intend. However, behaviour is also, at least partially, under intentional control. Most task performance is co-determined by these two classes of processes. Placing intentional control in opposition to unintentional influences is useful for understanding the nature of the two forms of processing. However, opposition alone cannot provide a pure measure of automatic influences because, as in most tasks, intentional processes also affect the overall level of performance. The goal of the process dissociation procedure is to disentangle the effects of these two forms of processing on behaviour. It approaches this goal by taking advantage of a unique property of intentionally controlled processes their ability to either oppose or act in concert with automatic processes. The goal of separating the two forms of processing is imperative for both theoretical and applied purposes.