Conscious Thought and Rational Norms.

认知心理学家记录的明显非理性行为的系统模式通常被认为是自动的、无意识的过程造成的。然而，最近的一些实验表明，在复杂的选择情况下，刻意的有意识思维实际上会导致更糟糕的决定。本研究的目的是了解哪些条件会导致自动/慎重决策产生优异的绩效，以及这些绩效优势的来源。两组实验将从两个相反的方向来考察这些问题。几项研究将检验最近关于“潜意识思维”过程有效性的实验证据。这些实验问：(1)在最近的实验中发现的明显的无意识思维优势在常态和心理上是真实的吗？如果是这样的话，(2)这种无意识思维优势背后的认知机制是什么？(3)这种优势是否延伸到涉及跨时间权衡和道德维度的选择情景？第二组实验从有意识判断中观察到的偏见开始，并询问信息处理中类似的偏见是否会影响潜意识图像参与的自动过程。当参与者接触到蒙面图像时，这些图像呈现得如此短暂，以至于他们无法达到有意识的状态，但这些图像仍然可以对随后清晰可见的图像做出反应--即促进或干扰--。通过修改潜意识意象的内容和任务的结构，可以问到不适当地偏向外显意识判断的因素是否对潜意识意象的内隐无意识启动也有类似的影响。这项研究有望加深我们对意识的功能、直觉的机制以及意识和理性之间的一般关系的理解。它应该有助于我们更好地理解有意识和无意识的思维过程导致改进决策的条件和机制。

Automatic, unconscious processes are frequently assumed to be responsible for the systematic patterns of apparently irrational behavior documented by cognitive psychologists. However, some recent experiments suggest that deliberate conscious thought actually lead to poorer decisions in complex choice situations. The purpose of this research is to understand what conditions result in automatic / deliberative decision making resulting in superior performance and the sources of these performance advantages.Two sets of experiments will investigate these questions from two opposite directions. Several studies will examine recent experimental evidence for the efficacy of "unconscious thought" processes. These experiments ask: (1) is the apparent unconscious thought advantage found in these recent experiments normatively and psychologically real? And, if so, (2) what are the cognitive mechanisms underlying this unconscious thought advantage; and (3) does this advantage extend to choice situations involving inter-temporal trade-offs and moral dimensions?A second set of experiments starts with biases observed in conscious judgment, and asks whether similar biases in information processing influence the automatic processes engaged by subliminal images. When participants are exposed to masked images, presented so briefly that they fail to reach conscious awareness, these images nonetheless can "prime" - i.e., facilitate or interfere with - responses to subsequent clearly visible images. By modifying the content of the subliminal images and the structure of the task, it is possible to ask whether factors that inappropriately bias explicit conscious judgments have similar effects on implicit unconscious priming from subliminal images.This research promises to deepen our understanding of the functions of consciousness, the mechanisms of intuition, and the general relationship between consciousness and rationality. It should help us to better understand the conditions under which, and the mechanisms by which, conscious and unconscious thought processes lead to improved decisions.