POLLUTING THE STREAM-OF-CONSCIOUSNESS - THE EFFECT OF THOUGHT SUPPRESSION ON THE MINDS ENVIRONMENT

When a person tries to suppress a thought, environmental features are often used as distracters. This research examined whether such distracters later become reminders of the unwanted thought when suppression is discontinued - and so incline the individual who remains in the suppression environment to experience a rebound of preoccupation with the unwanted thought. Subjects were asked to think aloud and to signal with a bell ring any thoughts of white bears. They were directed either to think or not to think of white bears in one context (a slide show). When they were then invited to think about white bears in a different slide-show context, no appreciable rebound of white bear thoughts was found in the subjects who had initially suppressed. However, when they were issued the same invitation on return to the initial context, those who had initially suppressed showed a rebound of preoccupation. © 1991 Plenum Publishing Corporation.