The Impact Of Unconscious Thought Motivation On Unconscious Thought Effect

Recently, Dijksterhuis and his colleagues propound a new theory which called UnconsciousThought Theory(UTT). According to the unconscious thought theory, there are two modes ofthought: conscious thought and unconscious thought. They are suitable for different circumstances.Conscious thought is suitable for simple problem, and unconscious thought is suitable for complexproblem. When we have to deal with complex problem, unconscious thought can help us makegood result. Researchers called this effect unconscious thought effect(UTE) or deliberation-without-attention effect. But, unconscious thought effect is not stable. Although unconsciousthought effect depend on the goal which tell people to "do what", some researches have indicatethat only goal is not enough. There maybe other important factors to ensure our unconsciousthought can playing a role in complex situation. The factor is unconscious thought motivation thatpeople want to use unconscious thought solving trouble. That is to say, people with unconsciousthought motivation confirm "how to do ". When people know "what to do (goal)" and "how to do(unconscious thought motivation)", the effect of unconscious thought is best. Our study willexamine this point.The present study integrating with unconscious thought paradigm and using mobile phone,roommate as stimulus materials, examine the stability of unconscious thought effect; arousingunconscious thought motivation with knowledge learning, examine the influence of unconsciousthought motivation on unconscious thought effect. We conclude as follows:First, unconscious thought effect is not stable. Specifically,(1) in the mobile phone choicetask, the effect of three thought modes (unconscious thought, conscious thought, immediatethought)is not significant, in other words, there is no unconscious thought effect;(2) in theroommate choice task, the effect of three thought modes (unconscious thought, conscious thought,immediate thought)is significant, in other words, unconscious thought effect occurs.Second, unconscious thought motivation can efficiently promote unconscious thought effect.Specifically, in the mobile phone choice task and roommate choice task, participants with highmotivation performed better than participants with low motivation, participants with unconsciousthought and participants with conscious thought, the latter three did not differ significantly.Third, unconscious thought motivation has a time effect on unconscious thought effect.Specifically,(1) unconscious thought motivation has a characteristic of continuity;(2)although the influence of whole motivation on unconscious thought effect is continuous, high level motivationand low level motivation has different impact;(3)as time goes by, the influence of different levelmotivation on unconscious thought effect would be convergence.