Where there’s a will—there’s no intuition. The unintentional basis of semantic coherence judgments

Abstract

It is broadly agreed that the processing of a word triad with a common remote associate (coherent triad) leads to its partial activation, which is the process underlying intuitive coherence judgments. The present studies demonstrate that this process not only is independent of the intention to find the common associate (CA), but rather may be impaired by it. In Experiment 1, incidentally reading a triad did automatically activate the CA without participants being aware of the underlying semantic structure of triads. However, intentionally searching for the CA did not. Memorizing the triad even inhibited the activation of the CA. Also, it was found that coherent triads are memorized better than incoherent triads, irrespective of mindset. Experiment 2 ruled out task-switching costs and anxiety as alternative explanations. In Experiment 3, intentionally searching for the CA decreased the accuracy of intuitive coherence judgments compared to merely reading the triad.