Pawel Lewicki

Unconscious Acquisition of Complex Procedural Knowledge

This research demonstrates a process of acquisition of information about a complex pattern of stimuli and the facilitating influence of this knowledge on subjects subsequent performance. In two experiments, subjects were exposed for 12 hr to a sequence of frames containing a target, and their task was to search for the target in each frame. The sequence was divided into logical blocks of seven trials each. Locations of the target in the seventh trial of each block were predictable on the basis of the specific sequences of target locations in four out of the previous six trials. Pilot studies and extensive postexperimental interviews indicated that none of the subjects noticed anything even close to the real nature of the manipulation (i.e., the pattern). However, the predicted patterns of latency of their responses to the critical trials indicate that they had, in fact, acquired some intuitive (unconscious) knowledge about how the pattern of prior trials was related to the critical trial. The phenomenon is discussed as a ubiquitous unconscious process involved in the development of both elementary and high-level cognitive skills.

Processing Information About Covariations That Cannot Be Articulated

Processing of covariation (among features) present in stimulus material was investigated. Subjects were unable to articulate the manipulated covariation between verbally described psychological characteristics and appearance of a set of stimulus persons. Based on the two-stage question answering model (Glucksberg & McCloskey, 1981), it was hypothesized that if the information related to the manipulated covariation was processed and registered, it would result in an increase of processing time for the questions that might be considered relevant to the covariation. The pattern of response latencies obtained in each of 3 experiments conformed exactly to the predictions. In 2 of these experiments, effects of the stimulus material on subjects subsequent judgments were found, consistent with the model. Subjects behaved as if they had learned the rule (implied by the covariation) and followed it in their subsequent judgments. The demonstrated phenomenon pertains to an important and presumably ubiquitous aspect of processing categorical information.

Trait Relationships The Nonconscious Generalization of Social Experience

This study investigated the relation between social experience and trait relationships. Subjects were exposed to information that was contrary to their assumptions about trait relationships. They then rated stimulus persons on a number of trait dimensions. There were significant changes in how subjects rated these stimulus persons, although these changes were not consciously recognized by the subjects. The results indicate that certain social experiences may influence the relationships among trait ratings of both fictitious and real persons. In addition, these results suggest that there may be differences between conscious beliefs about trait relationships and trait relationships derived from actual ratings.

Social Psychology as Viewed by its Practitioners Survey of SESP Members' Opinions

This article explores the attitudes of social psychologists toward some general problems in their research. A questionnaire was sent to all members of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology. The findings reported and discussed here included their opinions about the current state of social psychology, desired changes, and their predictions about the future of the discipline.

Non-Markovian fluctuation limits of infinite particle systems

S′-valued Gaussian processes of a certain class are shown to have the semimartingale decomposition similar to that one given by the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck equation. There is given a simple sufficient condition for the family of fluctuations to be tight.The non–Markov property for this class of processes is investigated