Does unconsciously activated goal conserve mental resources

Objective: This study examined whether an unconsciously activated goal conserved mental resources for its attainment. Activated goals compete for limited mental resources. In such circumstances, people conserve their mental resources for an attainment of a subsequent goal. Alhough previous studies showed that an unconscious activation of a competing goal inhibits focal goal pursuit, there is no clear evidence that unconscious competing goal promote its attainment as a result of conserving mental resources. We tested the hypothesis that unconsciously activated competing goal conserved mental resources for its attainment, that is focal goal pursuit was inhibited and competing goal pursuit was promoted. Methods: Forty-six students participated (two were excluded). Participants were randomly assigned to priming condition or control condition. All participants were instructed that they completed two separate tasks, the first of which was anagram task (focal goal) and the second of which was story task (competing goal). In anagram task, participants were told to find as many words as possible using ten letters. In story task, participants were told to describe one creative story from a presented picture. Priming manipulations were conducted during anagram task. In priming condition, before each anagram was presented, participants were primed with the picture used in story task for 17 ms. In control condition, they were primed with a control picture for 17 ms. After anagram task, they completed story task. No participants were aware of the priming manipulation. Results: In anagram task, participants in priming condition found fewer words per 1 minute than participants in control condition, thus supporting the hypothesis that an unconsciously activated competing goal inhibited focal goal pursuit. However, both conditions did not differ in the log-transformed persistence on story task, thus not supporting the hypothesis that the competing goal was promoted as a result of antecedent unconscious conservation of mental resources.