Influence of direct and negated directives on attention directing

The paper presents research into the effects of the use of negations in directives commands, suggestions and requests). Described are three experiments that tested effects of variously formulated instructions: direct (pay attention to) and negated (don't pay attention to) commands on directing of attention. Two indicators of attention direction were used: time needed to name the colors of stimulus words, and the level of recollection of these words after completion of the color naming task. In consecutive experiments, the numbers of key words, colors and experimental groups were changed. The strong conclusion drawn from the research is that a direct command influences all indicators of attention directing. However, a negated command increases the level of key word recollection, too. Both the automatic process that generates paradoxical effects of negated commands and the controlled process of reasoning may be responsible for the results of the memory task. peerReviewed publishedVersion