The Implicit Volition Model: On the Preconscious Regulation of Temporarily Adopted Goals

Abstract

This chapter focuses on preconscious triggering and pursuit of temporarily adopted goals. It introduces seeming paradoxes of preconscious control, such as the notions of unintended intentions and uncontrolled control, and examines the theory and evidence that provides the rationale and support for the preconscious regulation of temporary goals. There are three theoretical points that provide the basis for implicit volition model: goals are knowledge structures that can be triggered by relevant cues in the environment without the person's awareness that any given knowledge structure has attained a state of heightened fluency or accessibility; goal can come to be automatically activated through frequent and habitual pairing of specific goals with specific features of the environment; and an aversive state is experienced when a goal has not been met. The chapter determines that a goal can be consciously selected but trigger implicit processes regulating movement toward successfully attaining the goal. The goal itself can be implicitly triggered and lead to both explicit and implicit operations aimed at goal attainment.