Implicit Motivation and Adaptationof Goals and Experiences

Henk AartsDepartment of Psychology

Utrecht University

1. Our goal pursuits can originate in the unconsciousGoal priming; executive processes …??

• Conscious experiences of willful goal pursuit exist:Sense of agency

2. From nonconscious goals to experiences of willful goal pursuit (agency assessment) …??

The issue under investigation

Goals need to be desired to operate as motivational forces

Nonconscious willImplicit intentionImplicit volitionUnconscious self

If positive affect follows representation of behavior/outcome: May operate as a nonconscious goal

Two possible roles for positive affect (valence):- co-activation of goal representation and positive affect- established association between goal and positive affect

Goal priming:Positive affect as implicit motivator

Method: separate experiments paradigm

• Dot detection: pos. affect linked or not (puzzle goal)

• Instructions for next experiment (mouse-click task)

• Puzzle task (if sufficient time left)

• One group (no linking) conscious goal

• DV: speed on mouse-click task (more effort – being faster – is instrumental to engage in doing a puzzle)

Study (Effort)

Study (Effort)

blank

500 ms

500 ms

30 ms

150 ms

150 ms

30 ms

30 ms

pgudehnk

pruvket/puzzle

pgudehnk

although/pleasant

.

time

fixation point

premask

non-word/state word

postmask

neutral/positive word

dot or not?

Study (Effort)

32

34

36

38

tim

e in

sec

on

ds

No goal

Nonconscious goal

Conscious goal

Speed as a function of goal type

(Custers, & Aarts, JPSP, 2005)

More support:

- More wanting- More behavioral effort- Accentuated size perception- Active maintenance

Effects conditional on priming and link with positive affect

Nonconscious goal pursuit: emergent property of interaction of goal representation and positive

affect

Goal priming:Positive affect as implicit motivator

Control models: Agency arises from match between expected/actual action-effect

Normal: intention to cause effect by action

Wegner: Not always the case. It may be illusory

Priming (consistent) thought before action/effect enhances sense of agency - Unconscious authorship processing

Several demo’s (e.g., Wegner & Wheatley; Aarts, Custers, & Wegner)

Experienced willfulness of goal pursuit

Aarts, Custers, & Wegner, C&C, 2005

Aarts, Custers, & Wegner, C&C, 2005

- Subliminal primes

Agency rating (10 point scale)

3

3,5

4

4,5

5

5,5

6

no primeprime

However, it only seems to work when thought is primed just before action (e.g., stop) and observed result (e.g., position)

Pure perceptual/cognitive …??

What about nonconscious goal pursuit: What happens when the thought turns into a motive or desired goal

Experienced willfulness of goal pursuit

Three experiments:

- Task that requires an action producing a potential

effect (color spectrum task)

- Effect could be caused by participant or computer

- Priming effect information, and playing around with

timing and affect

- Agency ratings

From nonconscious goals to the conscious experience of willful goal pursuit

• Design: priming color (no vs. yes) x timing of priming before action (1 sec. vs 20 sec.)

• Priming event: prime (30 ms) mask (150 ms)

• Primes were “XXXXX” or a “colorword” and masks were random letter strings; the priming event occurred 3 times

• DV: agency rating on 9 point scale.

Study (priming and timing)

Task

Key-press Effect

(color)

Agency

rating

Prime event

(20 sec.)

Prime event

(1 sec.)

(the hidden color spectrum task)

( a random string of letters)

Agency as a function of priming and timing

Study (Priming and timing)

3,5

4

4,5

5

agen

cy r

atin

g

1 sec. 20 sec.

Timing

no prime

prime

• Only at 20 sec. before key-press

• Design: prime, pos. affect or prime+pos. affect (within participants)

• Prime: prime, mask, xxx, mask, xxx, mask (7 x). • Pos. affect: xxx, mask, affect, mask, xxx, mask (7 x)• Prime/pos.affect: prime, mask, affect, mask, xxx, mask (7x)

• Affective words: e.g., nice, fun (also 30 ms)

• DV: agency rating

Study (priming and positive Affect)

Task

Key-press Effect

(color)

Agency

rating

Prime event

(20 sec.)

(the hidden color spectrum task)

( a random string of letters)

Agency as a function of priming and affect

Study (priming and positive Affect)

3,5

4

4,5

5

ag

en

cy r

ati

ng

prime

positive

Prime+positive

• More agency because effect more positive or because operates as goal in guiding behavior

• Test: prime+pos. affect after key-press and effect information

• Always before agency rating

• Design: no prime, prime before, or prime+pos. affect after (within participants)

Study (priming and positive Affect: After)

• No prime: before: xxx, mask, xxx, mask, xxx, mask (7x) after: xxx, mask, affect, mask, xxx, mask (7x)

• Prime: before: prime, mask, xxx, mask, xxx, mask (7x)after: xxx, mask, affect, mask, xxx, mask (7x)

• Prime/pos. affect:before: xxx, mask, xxx, mask, xxx, mask (7x)after: prime, mask, affect, mask, xxx, mask (7x)

Study (priming and positive Affect: After)

Task

Key-press Effect

(color)

Agency

rating

Prime event

(pos.affect)

Prime event

(the hidden color spectrum task)

( a random string of letters)

Agency as a function of prime-time and pos. affect

Study (priming and positive Affect: After)

3

3,5

4

4,5

5

ag

en

cy r

ati

ng no prime

prime before

prime+pos.Affect after

1. Linking goal to positive affect turns into motive

2. Instigates nonconscious goal operation processes

3. Match between accessible goal information (potential effect) and observed effect: agency

4. Guiding/experiencing goal pursuit relies on similar mechanism: nonconscious executive processes emerging from interactions of goal representation and positive affect

Summary