Practicing brief mindfulness exercises in daily life reduces momentary rumination and negative affect, but does not alter how these two experiences dynamically reinforce each other over time. In a 10-day smartphone study with 91 participants prompted eight times per day, those randomly assigned to a short mindfulness intervention reported lower rumination and negative affect immediately afterward compared to an active-control task. However, the mindfulness exercises did not reliably change the reciprocal relationship between rumination and negative affect. Cultivating mindfulness may help decrease these negative states in the moment without disrupting their underlying dynamic cycle.
The role of consciousness in motivation is examined, questioning whether unconscious incentives can drive goal pursuit. A critical review of empirical and theoretical works supporting unconscious motivation contrasts them with a valence-centered account. Recent methodological advances in unconscious processing raise concerns about accurately assessing perceptual awareness in previous cognitive neuroscience experiments that proposed alternative processing routes for unconscious external reward cues. A conflation of automatic behavior responses with intentional, motivated behavior is discussed. The subjective experience of valence, a fundamental aspect of phenomenal consciousness, is argued to be the core organizing principle of human intentional behavior, supported by findings that affective evaluation is integral to perceptual experience.