Abstract

The notion of accessibility of mental representations has been invaluable in explaining and predicting human thought and action. Focusing on social cognition, we review the large corpus of data that has accumulated since the first models of mental activation dynamics were outlined. We then outline a framework that we call Relevance of a Representation (or ROAR for short), the main tenant of which is that not all stimulated representations are in fact activated (i.e., influence thought and action processes). More specifically, we propose that the degree to which a representation is available to processes of thought and action is a function of that representation’s motivational relevance. We end by demonstrating how the framework enables re-addressing the notions of accessibility, automaticity, and selective attention.

Citation

Eitam, Baruch, and E. Tory Higgins. "Motivation in Mental Accessibility: Relevance of a Representation (ROAR) as a New Framework." Social and Personality Psychology Compass 4, no. 10 (October 2010): 951-967.

Each author name for a Columbia Business School faculty member is linked to a faculty research page, which lists additional publications by that faculty member.

Each topic is linked to an index of publications on that topic.