Mental Calibration: The Synchronization of Mind and Action

Abstract

The relation between mental and behavior process has provided an enduring focus in psychology since the field’s genesis, with an impressive number of theories advanced to explain and predict this relationship. To a large extent, these theories part ways in the primacy they attach to the operation of mind versus the conduct of action. Some emphasize the intuitive notion that mind guides action. In this view, people plan what they are going to do, make mental adjustments if necessary as the action unfolds, and go on to new mental simulations of action when the current action is completed. Other theories emphasize instead the mental realignment that occurs in response to action. Thus, people rethink the point or value of what they have done or they change their attitude to match their overt behavior if it did not reflect what they originally had in mind.