UC Santa Barbara

Feelings of awe are associated with experiences that are meaningful and sometimes life-changing. Awe is elicited by complex, information-rich stimuli that may challenge one's understanding of the world, leading to a process of accommodation in which cognitive schemas are updated. However, it is unclear whether awe plays a causal role in accommodation, and by what mechanisms this may occur. These studies investigate whether awe leads to reduced reliance on existing cognitive structures (schemas) and increased exploration, in the context of attention, memory, and problem-solving tasks. It was hypothesized that awe will be associated with reduced schema-driven and increased stimulus-driven visual attention (Studies 1 and 2); reduced false memory for schema-consistent information and enhanced recognition of schema-inconsistent information in visual scenes (Study 2); and abandonment of a learned but inefficient problem-solving strategy (Study 3). Awe was shown to increase bottom-up (stimulus-driven) visual attention, although no reduction in schema-driven attention was found. Awe also led to reduced false recognition on a visual memory task, although this was not specific to schema-consistent items as predicted. Finally, feelings of awe predicted reduced persistence with an inefficient strategy on a problem-solving task. These results provide some support for the hypothesis that awe increases stimulus-driven attention. Although further research is needed to clarify the roles of schema-driven and stimulus-driven attentional processes in accommodation, these studies are consistent with a role for awe in accommodative processes of attention, memory, and problem-solving.