Dual-Process Models in Social and Cognitive Psychology: Conceptual Integration and Links to Underlying Memory Systems

Models postulating 2 distinct processing modes have been proposed in several topic areas within social and cognitive psychology. We advance a new conceptual model ofthe 2 processing modes. The structural basis ofthe new model is the idea, supported by psychological and neuropsychological evidence, that humans possess 2 memory systems. One system slowly learns general regularities, whereas the other can quicklyform representations ofunique or novel events. Associative retrieval orpattern completion in the slow-learning system elicited by a salient cue constitutes the effortless processing mode. The secondprocessing mode is more conscious and effortful; it involves the intentional retrieval ofexplicit, symbolically represented rulesfrom either memory system and their use to guide processing. After presenting our model, we review existing dual-process models in several areas, emphasizing their similar assumptions of a quick, effortless processing mode that rests on well-learned prior associations and a second, more effortful processing mode that involves rule-based inferences and is employed only when people have both cognitive capacity and motivation. New insights and implications of the model for several topic areas are outlined. When people perform tasks as diverse as solving logical problems, evaluating persuasive arguments, and forming impressions of other persons, they can make use ofdifferent processing strategies. People can (and in everyday life often do) use a sort of "quick-and-dirty" approach, arriving at usually reasonable answers efficiently and effortlessly. For example, they may agree with an argument because a quick glance reveals that it is presented by an expert source and contains statistical data. People also, when adequately motivated and given enough time and freedom from distraction, can try hard to think deeply about these tasks, sometimes arriving at qualitatively different answers. The expert's arguments , on close examination, may prove specious, the statistics biased. In recent years, researchers working in numerous areas of social and cognitive psychology have developed models that follow these general lines: dual-process models, as we label them here (Chaiken & Trope, 1999). Such models contain three major components. They provide accounts of how people process in quick-and-dirty fashion, how they process when willing and able to engage in extensive thought, and what conditions encourage such effortful processing. In this article, we provide a new integrative model that promises to account for much of the existing evidence in diverse content domains. Our new conceptual model also links the two processing modes to theory and research on memory systems. After presenting the new model, we …