The Effect of a Working Memory Load on the Intention-Superiority Effect: Examining Three Features of Automaticity

✍ Scribed by Suzanna L. Penningroth; Peter Graf; Jennifer M. Gray

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2012
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 153 KB
• Volume: 26
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0888-4080
• DOI: 10.1002/acp.2817

✦ Synopsis

Summary

The intention‐superiority effect refers to the finding that intentions are more accessible than other memory contents. Our primary goal was to test for automatic processing in this effect, testing three features of automaticity: unintentionality, effortlessness, and lack of awareness. We used a postponed‐intention paradigm with short action scripts. The intention‐superiority effect was defined as greater accessibility in a lexical decision task (LDT) for words from to‐be‐performed scripts than to‐be‐remembered scripts. Working memory load was experimentally manipulated to assess automatic processing. A general intention‐superiority effect was found, demonstrating the automatic feature of unintentionality, and it was not diminished by a high load, demonstrating the automatic feature of effortlessness. Also, participants who reported that they lacked awareness of the link between the LDT and encoded scripts showed a larger intention‐superiority effect than participants who were aware. Therefore, this study demonstrated an implicit intention‐superiority effect, which was actually larger than the explicit effect. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.