Library Struggles

This past week, I was in the library attempting to read the Wegner article (the one about ironic processing). The theory of ironic processing states that sometimes, the harder you try not to think about a thought, feeling, or behavior, the less likely you will be able to ignore it (Wegner, 1994). I was there with my roommate and a potential romantic interest… of course I was distracted. It was the most ironic thing, sitting there reading about trying to force yourself to focus when there is absolutely no hope. I believe the article was only about a page and a half long, but it took me an hour and a half to read it. A little pathetic.

But it wasn’t my fault! According to Wegner (1999), every effort we make at maintaining focus is accompanied by a concern about failing to do so. There is an intentional operating process, which is our conscious effort about not thinking about something. Then there is the ironic monitoring process which checks whether or not we are succeeding at blocking out that thought. This ironic monitoring process is an automatic process going on in the background. Our cognitive load determines which process wins out. If we are feeling stressed, tired, or distracted, the process that takes conscious effort (intentional operating process) will fade out and the unwanted thought will keep popping up, since the ironic monitoring process is still searching to see if the thought is being suppressed.

Therefore, as you can imagine, my situation in the library was a losing battle. No matter how hard I tried not to get distracted by the guy sitting next to me, he just kept popping back up in my head. Finally after about an hour and a half, I managed to skim through the shortest article ever assigned to me in all of Southwestern reading history. I had to go back and re-read the article later anyway. My advice to you is this: if you’re tired, distracted, hungry, or whatever, that thought WILL win out. And you’ll probably waste half of your night trying to fight it. So give up and try again later!!

References:

Wegner, D. M. (1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 101, 34-52.

Wegner, D. M. (1999). The Seed of Our Undoing. Psychological Science Agenda, 10-11.

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