When a Lot of Knowledge Is a Dangerous Thing: The Debilitating Effects of Plan Complexity on Verbal Fluency.

Three experiments examined the relationships among plan complexity, access to planned actions, and verbal fluency while pursuing a persuasion goal. Consistent with theoretical expectations, complex planners were less fluent than less complex planners under high access conditions. Persons whose access was raised were less fluent than those whose access was not raised. A second experiment showed that reduced fluency was not induced by lowering of self-confidence. The third experiment replicated the findings of the second experiment and demonstrated that the questioning procedure used to raise access in the first two experiments produced increases in plan complexity as suggested by theory. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the study of strategic communication.

[1]  G. N. Georgacarakos,et al.  A model of properties of compliance‐gaining strategies , 1982 .

[2]  Charles R. Berger,et al.  Plans and the Initiation of Social Relationships , 1988 .

[3]  Earl David Sacerdoti,et al.  A Structure for Plans and Behavior , 1977 .

[4]  Barbara Hayes-Roth,et al.  A Cognitive Model of Planning , 1979, Cogn. Sci..

[5]  G. Miller,et al.  The effect of variations in Nonfluency on audience ratings of source credibility , 1964 .

[6]  Ellen J. Langer,et al.  When Thinking Disrupts Intellectual Performance , 1981 .

[7]  John B. Black,et al.  Types of inferences generated during reading , 1985 .

[8]  R. Wilensky.  Planning and Understanding: A Computational Approach to Human Reasoning , 1983 .

[9]  David R. Seibold,et al.  Compliance‐gaining message strategies: A typology and some findings concerning effects of situational differences , 1977 .

[10]  John B. Black,et al.  Episodes as chunks in narrative memory. , 1979 .

[11]  Maria Nowakowska,et al.  Language of motivation and language of actions , 1973 .

[12]  L. Baxter.  Strategies for ending relationships: Two studies , 1982 .

[13]  L. Baxter,et al.  “Secret Tests”Social Strategies for Acquiring Information About the State of the Relationship , 1984 .

[14]  G. Miller,et al.  Plans and the structure of behavior , 1960 .

[15]  John O. Greene.  SPEECH PREPARATION PROCESSES AND VERBAL FLUENCY , 1984 .

[16]  T. Falbo.  Multidimensional scaling of power strategies. , 1977 .

[17]  John B. Black,et al.  The “soap opera” effect in story recall , 1979 .

[18]  Michael E. Bratman,et al.  Intention, Plans, and Practical Reason , 1991 .

[19]  William F. Brewer,et al.  Memory for goal-directed events , 1980, Cognitive Psychology.

[20]  B. G. Rule,et al.  Anatomy of a persuasion schema: Targets, goals, and strategies. , 1985 .

[21]  Roger C. Schank,et al.  SCRIPTS, PLANS, GOALS, AND UNDERSTANDING , 1988 .

[22]  John B. Black,et al.  STORY UNDERSTANDING AS PROBLEM-SOLVING * , 1980 .

[23]  John A. Daly,et al.  The affinity-seeking function of communication , 1984 .

[24]  William J. Jordan,et al.  A multidimensional scaling of three sets of compliance‐gaining strategies , 1980 .

[25]  F. Boster,et al.  COMPLIANCE‐GAINING MESSAGE SELECTION BEHAVIOR , 1984 .