The DOI matches its Crossref record; 15 of the 15 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Unconscious goal activation and the hijacking of the executive function.
Abstract
Building on research on unconscious human goal pursuit and the dynamic nature of our mental and physical world, this study examined the idea that an unconsciously activated goal hijacks executive control for its own attainment. This "hijacking" of the executive function by an unconscious goal should be evidenced by impaired performance on an unrelated task relying on executive control. The results of 6 experiments show that subliminal activation of a socializing goal, or an idiosyncratic personal goal, or an academic goal, harmed participants' performance on an executive function task, such as inhibition of prepotent responses and detection of text errors during reading. These effects were unique to executive control, were similar when the goal was activated consciously, and were independent of task motivation and perceived inter-goal relatedness between the primed goal and task goal. Furthermore, an unconscious goal occupied executive control to advance itself more strongly when the goal had personal value. Implications for theory and research on unconscious goal pursuit and the executive function are discussed.
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Cites
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Cited by
Nigg, J. T. (2017) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/jcpp.12675 · Cited by 1,518
Facebook and texting made me do it: Media-induced task-switching while studying
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Automaticity in social-cognitive processes
Bargh, J. A., Schwader, K. L., Hailey, S. E., Dyer, R. L., & Boothby, E. J. (2012) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2012.10.002 · Cited by 375
Metadata
- Authors
- Marien, H., Custers, R., Hassin, R. R., & Aarts, H.
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2012
- Volume
- 103
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 399-415
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W2116168703
- Cited by
- 173
- References
- 15
- FWCI
- 6.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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