Intencionalidad y memoriael mantenimiento y protección de las intenciones pospuestas ante la aparición de obstáculos a la acción

Abstract

In this work we approach the study of volitional or self-regulatory processes that a person uses to deal with obstacles showed up in the course of the action. In the current study, subjects were asked to choose between two candidates of the opposite sex (presented with a summary description of their personality traits) the one which they subsequently would have a conversation about «intimate matters». We analysed how they proceed when faced with an obstacle (additional information which contradicts the initial information associated with the chosen o rejected conversation candidates). This obstacle impedes the course of action, and leads them to postpone the intention which is going on. Specifically, we are interested in studying what intentional contents stored in memory are activated (and, therefore, are more quickly recognized afterwards), or deactivated (and, therefore, are more slowly recognized later) in this situation. The achieved results: 1) support the special status that intentional information has in memory; 2) confirm the beneficial effects of obstacles on execution when intention is postponed; 3) although to different degrees they show the existence of a generic volitional behaviour. That is, subjects conduct themselves in the same way both when the principal action tendency is inhibited, as when the competing tendencies are activated. Furthermore, the obstacles seem to act through the activation of information relative to that intention in memory, and not through the disactivation of the competing tendencies.