The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man Paradox: Ironic Processing

Learning By Doing

Let's play a simple game. There's only one rule: Don't think about white bears. I will give you a minute.

Okay, so how did you do? Did you think about white bears? If you didn't think about white bears, what did you think about instead? What was your strategy? Maybe you should teach your strategy to Dr. Ray Stantz from the movie Ghostbusters (1984).

"I couldn't help it. It just popped in there." --Dr. Ray Stantz

Why, oh why, did Dr. Raymond Stantz conjure up the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man? All he had to do was clear his mind! WHY!? It's easy. He fell victim to a rather pernicious feature of the human mind. Sometimes, when you actively try to suppress thinking about something, your mind goes ahead and thinks about it. If you ever had the experience of not being able to stop laughing in church, then you've experienced ironic processing. Ironic Processing is the cognitive phenomenon of your mind betraying you and doing exactly the opposite of what you tell it. 

The game company Hasbro cleverly figured out a way to monetize ironic processing. They designed a board game aptly called Taboo. If you haven't had the frustrating experience of playing this game, the rules are as follows. You are given a word, and your goal is to get your partner to say that word. But here's the catch. You aren't allowed to use certain words as clues. For example, suppose I want you to say the word "Sweet." I am not allowed to use the words: Sugary, Tea, Nice, Sour, Sixteen. How evil is that? I'm terrible at this game because as soon as I read the list of verboten words, I immediately want to say them. Why? Ironic processing.

"Isn't it ironic...dontcha think?" --Alanis Morissette 

So what is going on? Why doesn't your brain do what it's told? According to one theory, the mind draws upon two separate processes to direct our behavior [1]. The first is an action-oriented process. It has a goal, and it motivates us to take steps toward that goal. Let's call this the "Operate" process. The second process needs to evaluate whether the goal has been achieved. Let's call this the "Test" process. The Operate and Test processes work in tandem to achieve a goal.

The problem arises when the Test process is checking Operate's progress before the Operate process has completely finished. In other words, Test is the annoying kid in the back seat asking, "Are we there yet?" Thus, if you are actively trying to suppress a thought, and the Test process kicks in to evaluate, then it ends up causing a violation of the thought suppression. By testing if you aren't thinking about white bears, you are now in violation of the rule. The Test process puts the "irony" in ironic processing.

The S.T.E.M. Connection

What is the connection to education? Put yourself in the shoes of a student who has test anxiety. It might be tempting to advise that student to not think about his or her anxiety. You could tell him or her to avoid negative thoughts about failure or the implications of failing. I'm sure you can see the problem with that advice. It would be analogous to telling the student not to think about "white bears." The problem is, if the student is thinking about failing, then they clearly aren't thinking about the material on the test. As we have seen in previous posts, working memory and attention are severely limited resources. If they are focused on the wrong information, then there will be fewer resources available to do well on the test.

What advice should we give instead? We might take a cue from high-pressure sports where the athlete faces negative thoughts (e.g., "Don't screw up. Don't screw up"). The advice for them is to focus on something (e.g., a word or concept) that is related to the task a hand [2]. In other words, if the student is worried about failing, then give that student something to think about instead.

It's not easy to do, obviously. But knowing how ironic processing works might help students understand how their mind betrays them. More importantly, knowing about the Operate and Test processes might also help students formulate their own strategies for handling situations when processing turns ironic. Once they have those strategies in hand, perhaps they can teach them to Dr. Stantz so he doesn't "accidentally" destroy downtown New York.

Share and Enjoy! 

Dr. Bob

Going Beyond the Information Given

[1] Wegner, D. M. (1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review, 101(1), 34.

[2] Dugdale, J. R., & Eklund, R. C. (2002). Do not pay any attention to the umpires: Thought suppression and task-relevant focusing strategies. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 24(3), 306-319.