Daniel M. Wegner (1994) Pink Elephant Tramples White Bear: the Evasion of Suppression
. Psycoloquy: 5(40) Paradoxical Cognition (2)
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Psycoloquy 5(40): Pink Elephant Tramples White Bear: the Evasion of Suppression
PINK ELEPHANT TRAMPLES WHITE BEAR: THE EVASION OF SUPPRESSION
Commentary on Navon on Paradoxical Cognition
Daniel M. Wegner
Department of Psychology, Gilmer Hall
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22903
dwegner@virginia.edu
Abstract
It is interesting to see what happens when one assumes
that all psychological paradoxes are related. Navon (1994) has swept
through several areas of psychology with this idea in mind, but
with no coherent theory to allow such integration. The theory of
ironic processes of mental control (Wegner, 1994) provides this
coherence for a subset of these paradoxical effects, but Navon
rejects it for unclear reasons.
Keywords
attention, automatic processes, consciousness, controlled
processing, incidental learning, motor set, pain, panic attacks,
paradoxical effects, positive feedback, psychosomatic disorders,
recall failures
References
- Navon, D. (1994) From Pink Elephants to Psychosomatic Disorders: Paradoxical Effects in Cognition. PSYCOLOQUY 5(36) paradoxical-cognition.1.navon.
- Wegner, D.M. (1989) White bears and other unwanted thoughts: suppression, obsession, and the psychology of mental control. New York: Viking/Penguin.
- Wegner, D.M. (1992) You can't always think what you want: problems in the suppression of unwanted thoughts. In M. Zanna (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 25, pp. 193-225). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
- Wegner, D.M. (1994) Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 101, 34-52.
- Wegner, D.M. & Erber, R. (1992) The hyperaccessibility of suppressed thoughts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 903-912.
- Wegner, D.M., Erber, R. & Zanakos, S. (1993) Ironic processes in the mental control of mood and mood-related thought. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 1093-1104.
- Wegner, D.M., Schneider, D.J., Carter, S., III & White, L. (1987) Paradoxical effects of thought suppression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 409-418.
- Wegner, D.M. & Pennebaker, J.W. (Eds.) (1993) Handbook of mental control. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.