People are more likely to choose an option when it is preselected. Such default effects are traditionally assumed to be stronger when people invest little cognitive effort; however, empirical findings supporting this assumption are mixed. We propose that this apparent insensitivity arises because default effects are based on both passive processes (e.g., inaction due to convenience) and active processes (e.g., deliberate inferences about the default’s purpose), which may respond differently to cognitive effort. Across five experiments (N = 1,598), we estimated the relative contribution of these processes with a novel process dissociation procedure. Contrary to our predictions, neither passive nor active components systematically varied with cognitive load or Need for Cognition. Exploratory analyses suggested that passive, but not active, components were stronger for faster decisions. Our results support previous theorizing that default effects arise from different processes, but show no evidence that these processes systematically depend on people’s cognitive effort.

This article focuses on the last 25 years of the 20th century when Larry Jacoby had an extraordinary influence in the areas of attention and memory. During a short 3-year period between 1977 and 1980, four benchmark papers in cognitive psychology documented qualitative distinctions between automatic and attention demanding processes. These studies reflected the zeitgeist for Jacoby's early work extending this distinction to memory. Jacoby developed ingenious experimental paradigms to distinguish automatic and attentional processes and boldly explored unconscious influences, when most experimental psychologists were avoiding using such an introspective term. Although this work was powerful, it did not afford a way of quantifying conscious and unconscious contributions to performance, which ultimately led to Jacoby's process dissociation procedure (PDP). Strong assumptions (such as independence of the two processes) were necessary and these have generated controversy in the field. Although there are limitations, the PDP has been remarkably generative in not only understanding the relation between attention and memory but also has been widely extended to other domains within psychology. The present article attempts to capture the energy and enthusiasm in the field during this period in history, which continues to serve as foundational for work in cognitive science and neuroscience.

BackgroundAdolescence is a critical period for moral development, and depression significantly impacts this process by altering cognitive and emotional processing, affecting the resolution of moral dilemmas. Rumination, closely linked to depression, also influences emotional and cognitive processing during moral judgments.MethodsStudy 1 examined 34 depressed adolescents and 36 healthy controls who completed the Beck Depression Inventory-Short Form and Beck Anxiety Inventory, followed by 20 moral dilemmas from the Process Dissociation (PD) procedure. Study 2 (n = 568) explored subclinical depressive symptoms and their antecedent role of rumination on moral judgments. The SCL-90 scale measured depression, paranoid ideation, and hostility, while the Positive and Negative Rumination scales assessed rumination levels.ResultsClinically depressed adolescents showed significantly reduced reliance on both utilitarian [t(65) = −3.90, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.95, 95%CI(−0.18, −0.06)] and deontological tendencies [t(65) = −3.03, p = 0.004, Cohen’s d = 0.74, 95%CI (−0.25, −0.05)], compared to control group. Subclinical depressive symptoms predicted lower deontological tendencies [β = −0.13, t(566) = −3.09, p = 0.02, 95%CI (−0.05, −0.01)]. Sequential mediation analyses revealed: (a) Negative rumination → depression → paranoid ideation → deontological decline [Indirect effect: b = −0.003, 95%CI (−0.005, −0.001)]; (b) Negative rumination → depression → hostility → deontological decline [Indirect effect: b = −0.003, 95%CI (−0.005, −0.0004)]. Negative rumination exacerbated depressive symptoms, which sequentially increased paranoid ideation and hostility, ultimately lowering deontological judgments.ConclusionClinical depression decreases deontological and utilitarian moral reasoning, while negative rumination exacerbated depressive symptoms, which sequentially increased paranoid ideation and hostility, ultimately lowering deontological judgments. These findings highlight depression’s nuanced impact on adolescent moral development and underscore transdiagnostic mechanisms requiring targeted intervention.

Memorializes Larry L. Jacoby (1944-2024), a pioneering cognitive psychologist, who passed away in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on March 15, 2024. Jacoby earned his undergraduate degree at Washburn University, where he took pride in being a football lineman and met his lifelong partner, Carole. He pursued graduate studies at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, earning both his MA and PhD under the supervision of Robert Radtke (in 1970). Larry began his academic career at Iowa State before spending nearly 25 years at McMaster University. He later held positions at the University of Utah and New York University, and he served as the David Wechsler chair at the University of Texas at Austin. He concluded his career at Washington University in St. Louis, where he was a faculty member for nearly 2 decades before retiring. Larry was best known for his innovative research on unconscious influences on memory, memory attributions, and the effects of cognitive aging on memory. In the late 1980s, he introduced the "logic of opposition," an innovative method for examining unconscious, automatic processes. This research culminated in the development of the "process dissociation procedure" in 1991, a highly influential method that quantifies the separate contributions of conscious recollection and familiarity-based responses during task performance. His impact extended broadly to fields such as cognitive neuroscience and social, personality, and developmental psychology. Larry's contributions were recognized with numerous accolades, including the William James Fellow Award from the Association for Psychological Science and the Norman Anderson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Experimental Psychologists. His impact on the field continues through the work of his many close colleagues and a generation of researchers he thoughtfully mentored. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Previous research has extensively examined the impact of money on morality, yet limited attention has been given to how the mere contemplation of money influences moral reasoning and decision-making. The present study aims to address this gap by exploring how both the concept of money and the love of money shape deontological and utilitarian inclinations in moral judgments. In Study 1 (N = 102), we investigated the effect of money concept priming on moral thinking. Participants were primed with either the concept of money or a neutral concept through a scrambled-sentences task, and subsequently made moral decisions in 20 dilemmas adapted from Conway and Gawronski. These dilemmas required participants to decide whether to harm others in order to achieve a greater outcome. To assess participants' utilitarian and deontological tendencies, we employed the process-dissociation procedure. In Study 2 (N = 488), we further examined the relationship between the love of money-a long-term trait-and moral judgments. Specifically, we investigated whether four moral orientations (deliberation, rule, sentiment, and integration) mediate the relationship between the love of money and deontological/utilitarian inclinations. Participants completed the love of money scale and the moral orientation scale before reading the same 20 dilemmas from Study 1. Our findings revealed that priming the concept of money enhanced utilitarian tendencies but did not significantly affect deontological tendencies. Furthermore, the love of money was negatively correlated with deontological tendencies and positively correlated with utilitarian tendencies. Deliberation fully mediated the effect of the love of money on utilitarian tendencies and partially mediated its effect on deontological tendencies.

In this mini-review, the methods used to investigate interactions between procedural and declarative systems in category learning are considered. Methods that were originally used to establish dissociations between memory systems may be biased toward demonstrating competition between them. In contrast, a modification of Jacoby's Process Dissociation Procedure allows researchers to consider the relative contributions of multiple processes involved in task completion. The original PDP was designed to consider the contributions of recall and familiarity to recognition, but the logic of the PDP can be applied to the contributions of procedural and declarative processes in category learning. Suggestions for improving the possibility of detecting cooperation between systems using the PDP are given.

Across two experiments (N = 303), we examined the effect of physical fatigue on moral decision-making. Participants were subjected to acute physical exercise. Half of the participants were presented with moral dilemmas before the physical exercise and the other half after the exercise. We measured moral judgement using a shortened version of the Process Dissociation procedure, allowing us to investigate (1) decisions in the traditional sacrificial dilemmas and (2) deontological and utilitarian moral inclinations. The results showed no significant differences in moral judgments between fatigued and nonfatigued participants in nine out of 10 statistical tests. This suggests a unique resilience of moral judgments to physical fatigue, in contrast to what is known about cognitive fatigue.

ABSTRACT The ultimatum game is a classic paradigm for measuring fairness preferences. Dual-system theories indicate that people's preferences in the ultimatum game are a result of the interaction between automatic System 1 and controlled System 2. In this study, we recruited 137 and 164 college students for two experiments. Experiment 1 used the process dissociation paradigm to examine how cognitive load influences System 1 processing. Experiment 2 used rational belief to engage System 2 processing. Results revealed that (1) high cognitive load enhanced the contribution of System 1 but did not affect the contribution of System 2 and (2) priming rational belief enhanced the contribution of System 2 but did not affect the contribution of System 1. These findings suggest that the mechanisms behind fairness preferences by indicating that the ultimatum game is driven by two separate systems.

The Production Effect refers to a memory advantage for items learned by reading aloud relative to items learned by silent reading. The effect is commonly attributed to encoding distinctiveness; the act of production makes aloud items distinct from the silent items. Distinctiveness is considered useful only on conscious memory tests but is irrelevant on implicit tests. Indeed, hitherto, the production effect was observed only on explicit tests of memory but not on the implicit test of speeded reading. In the current study, in two experiments, participants learned words by aloud or silent reading and performed different implicit memory tests. In the first experiment, a modified recognition test using the process dissociation procedure was employed, revealing a robust production effect in the inclusion (conscious) - but not the exclusion (automatic) - condition. In the second experiment, no production effect was found in a simple implicit task (lexical decision) but was documented in two complex implicit tasks (word stem completion and category exemplar generation). These results show that vocal production can enhance some forms of implicit memory. This may result from mechanisms other than distinctiveness contributing to the production effect or the involvement of explicit memory processes (intrusions) in (some) implicit memory tests.

Wearable devices are increasingly integral to our daily lives but raise significant concerns about the security of personal data. In contrast, users often skip reading privacy policies when installing apps on wearable devices. This gap between the concerns and behaviors has spurred disputes regarding business ethics between app providers and users when private information is leaked. While much research has explored the reasons underlying users’ skipping behaviors on mobile phones or tablets, there has been limited attention given to wearable devices despite their prevalence. Unlike mobile phones or tablets, wearable devices often have limited capabilities, necessitating users to install essential apps and perceive a strong sense of necessity. This research, using both eye tracking and self-report methods, investigates how this perceived necessity affects users’ attention to privacy policies on wearable devices during app installations and how it interacts with the presence of threat clues – a key factor that influences behaviors toward privacy policies. In Study 1, eye tracking technology is applied to observe the variation in users’ attention toward privacy policies. Results indicate that when users perceive a high (vs. low) necessity for an app, they pay less attention to its privacy policy. This effect is amplified when there are strong threat clues present. In Study 2, based on the process-dissociation procedure (PDP), the cognitive mechanisms underlying user reading behavior are uncovered. The findings show that users with high perceived necessity are less inclined to engage in analytical processing when reading privacy policies, and this tendency is further strengthened by strong threat clues. This research supplements the existing literature on users’ behaviors toward privacy policies on wearable devices, and it also provides practical insights for prompting users to pay more attention to privacy policies and enjoy a secure digital experience.

The contribution of uncontrolled processes to evaluative learning has been examined in evaluative conditioning procedures by comparing evaluations of conditioned stimuli between tasks or within tasks but between learning instruction conditions. In the present research, we introduced a new procedure that keeps both tasks and instructions constant. In addition, we introduced ambivalence measures to address this uncontrollability question. The new procedure involves forming an impression of conditioned stimuli based on their pairing with one unconditioned stimulus while attending but discarding the influence of another unconditioned stimulus holding the same (congruent trials) versus a different (incongruent trials) valence. When the to-be-used and to-be-discarded unconditioned stimuli share the same (vs. a different) valence, controlled and uncontrolled processes should support the same (vs. opposite) responses. We used this approach in two preregistered experiments (Ntotal = 467) using dichotomous evaluative classifications (Experiments 1 and 2), evaluative ratings, and two measures of attitudinal ambivalence: mouse trajectories and felt ambivalence (Experiment 2). While we failed to find evidence for uncontrolled processes in evaluative classification frequencies separately in Experiments 1 and 2, analyses of aggregated classification frequencies across Experiments 1 and 2 suggested a small contribution of uncontrolled processes. In addition, we found larger felt ambivalence for incongruent than congruent trials. Overall, the present findings are mixed but support the possibility of a contribution of uncontrolled processes to evaluative learning, even when control is applied to a focal stimulus and additional influences come from a to-be-disregarded stimulus.

Memory formation during remimazolam anaesthesia, where a bispectral index (BIS) is sometimes not maintained at less than 60 despite the maximal dose, is worthy of evaluation. Investigate the formation of explicit and implicit memories using the process dissociation procedure during remimazolam anaesthesia at a BIS of 60 to 80. A prospective cohort study. A tertiary medical centre in Seoul, South Korea, between March 2022 and July 2022. One hundred patients undergoing general anaesthesia using remimazolam. The BIS was maintained at 60 to 80 during anaesthesia induction with remimazolam. Words were spoken to patients via headphones for 15 min. The primary outcome was the probability of explicit or implicit memory formation as calculated using the original and extended models, within 24 h after word presentation. Conscious recall memory was assessed using a short-structured interview within 1 and 24 h after surgery. Memory formation was inferred to be absent if 0 was included in the 95% confidence interval (CI) of the probability. The main results showed no evidence of explicit or implicit memory. The 95% CI of the probability of explicit memory formation included 0 for both models, -0.01 (-0.04 to 0.02) and -0.04 (-0.10 to 0.01), respectively. The 95% CI of the probability of implicit memory formation did not include 0 when evaluated using the original model, 0.08 (0.06 to 0.10), but included 0 when evaluated using the extended model, 0.00 (-0.03 to 0.03). The modified Brice interview revealed no evidence of awareness. There was no evidence of explicit or implicit memory formation during remimazolam anaesthesia (BIS 60 to 80). Further research is warranted to establish whether explicit and implicit memories are still absent even in the presence of surgical stimulation. KCT0006752 ( http://cris.nih.go.kr ).

People occasionally encounter information of which the structure bears divergent evaluative implications. For instance, when reading that a sunscreen protects against skin cancer, the relational meaning of the information (i.e., "protects against skin cancer") has positive evaluative implications for the sunscreen, whereas the co-occurrence (of "sunscreen" with "skin cancer") is negative. An important theoretical (and practical) issue is whether the co-occurrence information influences people's evaluations beyond the relational meaning of the information. This question has been recently investigated using task comparison procedures (comparing evaluative outcomes on different tasks) and process dissociation procedures (estimating relational and co-occurrence parameters within a given task). In this article, we report four experiments that examined this question by reducing interpretational ambiguities inherent in the two preceding approaches. This was achieved by using self-reported and mouse-tracking measures of ambivalence. We reasoned that when co-occurrence and relational information have divergent (rather than convergent) evaluative implications, more ambivalence should be found. We tested this prediction in experiential (Experiments 1 to 3) and instructed (Experiment 4) procedures. Higher self-reported ambivalence was found in divergent compared to convergent conditions in all experiments. Ambivalence, as estimated with mouse-tracking measures, was higher in divergent than in convergent conditions in the experiential experiments but not in the instructed experiment. Results are discussed with reference to single-process (propositional and episodic) and dual-process attitude learning models. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The weapon identification task (WIT) is a sequential priming paradigm designed to assess effects of racial priming on visual discrimination between weapons (guns) and innocuous objects (tools). We compare four process models that differ in their assumptions on the nature and interplay of cognitive processes underlying prime-related weapon-bias effects in the WIT. All four models are variants of the process dissociation procedure, a widely used measurement model to disentangle effects of controlled and automatic processes. We formalized these models as response time-extended multinomial processing tree models and applied them to eight data sets. Overall, the default interventionist model (DIM) and the preemptive conflict-resolution model (PCRM) provided good model fit. Both assume fast automatic and slow controlled process routes. Additional comparisons favored the former model. In line with the DIM, we thus conclude that automatically evoked stereotype associations interfere with correct object identification from the outset of each WIT trial.

Recollection contributes to children’s reading comprehension: Using the process dissociation procedure in a working memory updating task

According to the dual-system theories, the decisions in an ultimatum game (UG) are governed by the automatic System 1 and the controlled System 2. The former drives the preference for fairness, whereas the latter drives the self-interest motive. However, the association between the contributions of the two systems in UG and the cognitive process needs more direct evidence. In the present study, we used the process dissociation procedure to estimate the contributions of the two systems and recorded participants eye movements to examine the cognitive processes underlying UG decisions. Results showed that the estimated contributions of the two systems are uncorrelated and that they demonstrate a dissociated pattern of associations with third variables, such as reaction time (RT) and mean fixation duration (MFD). Furthermore, the relative time advantage (RTA) and the transitions between the two payoffs can predict the final UG decisions. Our findings provide evidence for the independent contributions of preference for fairness (System 1) and self-interest maximizing (System 2) inclinations to UG and shed light on the underlying processes.

Serial reaction time tasks, in which subjects have to match a target to a cue, are used to explore whether non-human animals have multiple memory systems. Predictable sub-sequences embedded in the sequence of cues are responded to faster, demonstrating incidental learning, often considered implicit. Here, we used the serial implicit learning task (SILT) to determine whether rats' memory shows similar effects. In SILT, subjects must nose-poke into a sequence of two lit apertures, S1 and S2. Some S1 are always followed by the same S2, creating predictable sequences (PS). Across groups, we varied the proportion of PS trials, from 10 to 80%, and show that rats with more PS experience do better on them than on unpredictable sequences, and better than rats with less experience. We then introduced test trials in which no S2 was cued. Rats with more PS experience did better on test trials. Finally, we reversed some sequences (from predictable to unpredictable and vice versa) and changed others. We find that rats with more PS experience perseverate on old (now incorrect) responses more than those with less PS experience. Overall, we find a discontinuity in performance as the proportion of PS increases, suggesting a switch in behavioral strategies or memory systems, which we confirm using a Process Dissociation Procedure analysis. Our data suggest that rats have at least two distinct memory systems, one of which appears to be analogous to human implicit memory and is differentially activated by varying the proportion of PS in our task.

Words representing living beings are better remembered than words representing nonliving objects, a robust finding called the animacy effect. Considering the postulated evolutionary-adaptive significance of this effect, the animate words’ memory advantage should not only affect the quantity but also the quality of remembering. To test this assumption, we compared the quality of recognition memory between animate and inanimate words. The remember-know-guess paradigm (Experiment 1) and the process-dissociation procedure (Experiment 2) were used to assess both subjective and objective aspects of remembering. Based on proximate accounts of the animacy effect that focus on elaborative encoding and attention, animacy is expected to selectively enhance detailed recollection but not the acontextual feeling of familiarity. Multinomial processing-tree models were applied to disentangle recollection, familiarity, and different types of guessing processes. Results obtained from the remember-know-guess paradigm and the process-dissociation procedure convergently show that animacy selectively enhances recollection but does not affect familiarity. In both experiments, guessing processes were unaffected by the words’ animacy status. Animacy thus not only enhances the quantity but also affects the quality of remembering: The effect is primarily driven by recollection. The results support the richness-of-encoding account and the attentional account of the animacy effect on memory.

Challenging depressive beliefs: Habitual and recollective components of stability or change

Assessing explicit processes does not influence the magnitude of implicit processes