David Navon (1994) Paradoxical Effects and Occam's Razor
. Psycoloquy: 5(41) Paradoxical Cognition (3)
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Psycoloquy 5(41): Paradoxical Effects and Occam's Razor
PARADOXICAL EFFECTS AND OCCAM'S RAZOR
Reply to Wegner on Paradoxical Cognition
David Navon
Department of Psychology
The University of Haifa
Haifa, Israel
RSPS311@UVM.HAIFA.AC.IL
Abstract
For four reasons, I do not find Wegner's theory a
coherent explanation of paradoxical effects: (1) the theory is
less general than he claims it is; (2) what it purports to explain
can be alternatively explained in terms of general, widely accepted
concepts; (3) it makes an assumption that is functionally
implausible; and (4) its distinctive assumption has not been
empirically substantiated.
Keywords
attention, automatic processes, consciousness, controlled
processing, incidental learning, motor set, pain, panic attacks,
paradoxical effects, positive feedback, psychosomatic disorders,
recall failures
References
- James, W. (1981) The principles of psychology (Vol. 1). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press. (Originally published in 1890).
- Navon, D. (1981) The forest revisited: More on global precedence. Psychological Research, 43, 1-32.
- Navon, D. (1984) Resources - a theoretical soup stone? Psychological Review, 91, 216-234.
- Navon, D. (1994) From Pink Elephants to Psychosomatic Disorders: Paradoxical Effects in Cognition. PSYCOLOQUY 5(36) paradoxical-cognition.1.navon.
- Sekida, K. (1975) Zen Training: Method and Philosophy. New York: Weatherhill.
- Thompson, S. (1966) Motif-index of folk-literature (2nd ed.). Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press.
- Toporovsky, Y. (1949) Once there was a Bedouine. Davar Le'yeladim, 20, 4, 68 (In Hebrew).
- Wegner, D.M. (1994) Pink Elephant Tramples White Bear: The Evasion of Suppression. PSYCOLOQUY 5(40) paradoxical-cogniton.2.wegner.