The Activation of Unrelated and Canceled Intentions

Abstract

The intention superiority effect is the finding that intentions to perform an activity are stored in a heightened state of activation. The effect has also been generalized to the finding that once an intention is fulfilled, it is inhibited relative to more neutral material about which no intentionality has been formed. In two experiments, we tested some ecological and naturally occurring situations taken from the literature on prospective memory and demonstrated that they have consistent consequences for the activation level of an intention. In Experiment 1, a constellation of unrelated activities displayed heightened activation prior to completion and displayed inhibition after completion. In Experiment 2, canceling the intention resulted in inhibition just as completing the intention does in this paradigm. The results are discussed in terms of their practical and theoretical importance to theories of prospective memory.

Department(s)

English and Technical Communication

Keywords and Phrases

article; cognition; decision making; human; human experiment; memory; motivation; normal human; response time; task performance; theory; verbal memory; Humans; Memory; Vocabulary

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0090-502X

Electronic OCLC #

559243601

Print OCLC #

1788000

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 1999 Psychonomic Society, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 1999

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