Immediate and delayed effects of causal uncertainty inductions on uncertainty accessibility

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Abstract

Previous research has focused on enhanced processing as a response to causal uncertainty (CU), but relatively little empirical attention has been given to how CU is activated and the temporal unfolding of this activation. The current research investigates the counterintuitive idea that people inhibit causal uncertainty immediately after its activation. We find that this inhibition weakens over time. Study 1 demonstrates this inhibition effect with self-report uncertainty. Study 2 demonstrates this effect with an implicit accessibility measure. Temporary inhibition of uncertainty may be a general response when uncertainty is activated.

Section snippets

Study 1

In Study 1, we investigated the possibility that causal judgment uncertainty would increase only after a delay task interspersed between a causal uncertainty prime and uncertainty measurement. Both the prime (a scrambled sentence task; cf. Srull & Wyer, 1980) and the dependent measure (Weary & Jacobson, 1997) were based closely on previous CU research. Our prime–delay procedure was a straightforward adaptation of paradigms used in previous general uncertainty research (e.g., McGregor and

Study 2

In Study 2, in addition to our above goals, we also were interested in possible effects of chronic CU on any inhibition process, as would be predicted by the CU model (Weary & Edwards, 1996). Previous research has shown some evidence for individual difference effects on responses to general uncertainty in a paradigm using a delay task (e.g., Van den Bos et al., 2006), but the role of CU has not been investigated. We believe that differential chronic accessibility of causal uncertainty may

General discussion

The present research provides evidence that uncertainty activation varies over time and as a function of task demands (cf. Foerster & Liberman, 2001). Study 1 showed that when causal uncertainty was activated with a SST, participants showed increased uncertainty after a delay, but no increased uncertainty immediately after the CU prime. Study 2 used an implicit accessibility task to provide additional evidence for an inhibition process. Inhibition appears to be a reliable response to

Conclusion

Needs for prediction and control are central to human existence, and CU is one of the prototypical metacognitions indicating that these needs have not been met. As such, it stands to reason that people have developed a variety of coping strategies to survive in the face of attributional uncertainty. It appears that when CU situationally is activated, it first is inhibited. Although the delays used in previous uncertainty research made possible the current scientific record of some of

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