ARTICLE NO. 0016 Can We Resolve Contradictions between Process Dissociation Models?

Wainwright and Reingold (1996) presented equations for various versions of the process dissociation procedure that has been used to separate conscious and unconscious memory processes. In the present reply it is suggested that these equations, though helpful, may not capture some of the key theoretical possibilities that could help to resolve apparent contradictions and paradoxes in the empirical literature. Specifically, there could be an independence of processes that might be estimated to a sufficient degree of accuracy for some theoretical purposes despite a violation of the assumption of stochastic indepen-dence. 1996 Academic Press, Inc. Wainwright and Reingold (1996) have done an important service by providing an expanded set of equations for variations of the process dissociation model. I will leave to others the question of whether the multinomial approach actually has the limitations that they say it does, as well as the question of whether all of the models that they examined actually remain viable. What I want to focus on instead is the continued need to judge models on all relevant theoretical grounds and not just on mathematical grounds. We must avoid adopting an approach in which the aim is t