ABSTRACT
The job of a discussant is similar to the child’s game in which you have to guess why a group of objects go together. The discussant’s job, however, is often more difficult than determining that a suit of armor, stone tool, and quill pen are relics of antiquity, or that a hula hoop, yo-yo, and frisbee are all faddish toys. The common themes of chapters in one volume are not always so evident. Clearly the research programs described by Johnson and Reeder (chap. 13, this volume) and Wegner (chap. 14, this volume) are neither relics nor passing fads, but vibrant, enduring approaches to classic problems. On a first reading, however, their common themes may not be readily apparent in that they seem to be addressing rather different psychological problems.
