School of Psychology, James Cook University.
Psychological Sciences, University of California, Merced.
Perspect Psychol Sci. 2020 May;15(3):778-793. doi: 10.1177/1745691619898795. Epub 2020 Apr 14.
The ironic effect of thought suppression refers to the phenomenon in which individuals trying to rid their mind of a target thought ironically experience greater levels of occurrence and accessibility of the thought compared with individuals who deliberately concentrate on the thought (Wegner, 1994, doi:10.1037/0033-295X.101.1.34). Ironic effects occurring after thought suppression, also known as rebound effects, were consistently detected by previous meta-analyses. However, ironic effects that occur during thought suppression, also known as immediate enhancement effects, were found to be largely absent. In this meta-analysis, we test Wegner's original proposition that detection of immediate enhancement effects depends on the cognitive load experienced by individuals when enacting thought suppression. Given that thought suppression is an effortful cognitive process, we propose that the introduction of additional cognitive load would compete for the allocation of existing cognitive resources and impair capacity for thought suppression. Studies ( = 31) consistent with Wegner's original thought-suppression paradigm were analyzed. Consistent with our predictions, rebound effects were observed regardless of cognitive load, whereas immediate enhancement effects were observed only in the presence of cognitive load. We discuss implications in light of ironic-process theory and suggest future thought-suppression research.
与故意专注于某个想法的个体相比，试图以讽刺的方式摆脱目标想法的个体，反而会经历更高水平的想法出现和可及性（Wegner，1994，doi:10.1037/0033-295X.101.1.34）。先前的元分析一致检测到思维抑制后的讽刺效应，也称为反弹效应。然而，在思维抑制期间发生的讽刺效应，也称为即时增强效应，却基本不存在。在这项元分析中，我们检验了 Wegner 的原始假设，即即时增强效应的检测取决于个体在执行思维抑制时所经历的认知负荷。鉴于思维抑制是一种费力的认知过程，我们提出，引入额外的认知负荷会与现有认知资源的分配竞争，并损害思维抑制的能力。分析了符合 Wegner 原始思维抑制范式的 31 项研究。与我们的预测一致，无论认知负荷如何，都观察到了反弹效应，而只有在存在认知负荷的情况下才观察到即时增强效应。我们根据讽刺过程理论讨论了其含义，并提出了未来的思维抑制研究建议。
