Implicit Motivation and Adaptation of Goals and Experiences Henk Aarts Department of Psychology Utrecht University

1. Our goal pursuits can originate in the unconscious  Goal 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 will Implicit intention Implicit volition Unconscious 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)

blank 500 ms 30 ms 150 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) 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

- Subliminal primes Agency rating (10 point scale)

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-pressEffect (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)

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-pressEffect (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)

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-pressEffect (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)

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