The role of gist and verbatim memory in complex decision making: Explaining the unconscious-thought effect
Résumé
Previous research showed that the unconscious-thought effect, which refers to an improvement incomplex decision making following a distraction period, was moderated by the presentation format ofpieces of information about different options. The aim of the current study was to replicate this findingand further examine the memory representations underlying decision making following a distraction ora deliberation period. Results showed that, when the information was presented blocked per option,participants were better able to differentiate the best option from the others after a distraction period thanimmediately after the information presentation or after a deliberation period. In addition, distractedparticipants retrieved more gist representations of the options when the information was presented peroption. By contrast, participants were better able to differentiate the best option from the others after adeliberation period when the information was presented per attribute. Participants who deliberated alsoretrieved more verbatim representations when the information was presented per attribute. Finally,mediation analyses indicated that the accuracy of the evaluations of the options depends on gist memorywhen distracted but on verbatim memory when deliberating. These findings suggest that the effectivenessof distraction or deliberation depends on the memory representations of the different options.