Referential competence is associated with motivational congruence

Schultheiss, 2001 and Schultheiss, 2008 hypothesized that referential competence (RC) – stable individual differences in the ability to quickly name nonverbally represented information – should predict congruence between implicit and explicit motives. We tested this hypothesis using a color-naming task to assess RC, picture-story measures of implicit motives, and self-report measures of participants’ motivational values and goals. Study 1 showed that the RC measure captures a stable individual difference by test–retest and internal consistency criteria. Studies 2 and 3 provided correlational evidence for the hypothesized association between RC and measures of between- and within-individual motivational congruence. Study 4 showed that in the absence of situationally induced referential processing, RC predicts preferences for motive-congruent goals.