THE SLIP-TECHNIQUE, THE PROCESS DISSOCIAT ION MODEL AND MULTINOMIAL MODELING - NEW TOOLS TO EXPERIMENTALLY PROVE FREUDIAN SLIPS

The study reported here was conducted as a test of the so-called ''wea k Freudian hypothesis'', which claims that unconscious thoughts are re levant for the generation of speech errors. Spoonerisms were induced e xperimentally using the so-called SLIP technique. Motley and Baars (19 76) demonstrated an increase in speech error rates when spoonerisms we re primed semantically. The extensively discussed problems of ''unawar eness'' of briefly presented stimuli were circumvented by using a modi fied version of Jacoby's process dissociation technique which allows a model-based estimation of conscious and unconscious processes within a task. The two reported experiments combined a wordstem completion ta sk for estimating probabilities of perceptual processes and a SLIP tas k under identical perceptual conditions. A joint multinomial model was constructed for data analysis. The SLIP technique was succesfully app lied using German stimuli, adequate experimental variations raised the error rate from 7% in experiment 1 to 19% in experiment 2. Neither th e replication of Motley and Baars' results nor unconscious priming of speech errors were statistically confirmed. Despite this negative resu lt, the descriptive pattern of parameter estimates is psychologically meaningful: primes that remained unconscious resulted in a higher spee ch error probability than primes that were perceived consciously. Cons cious perception might trigger control processes that act in oppositio n of speech errors. Statistical problems of the particular multinomial model and possible solutions in future research are discussed.