It is at this intersection of unconscious goals or plans and habituated responding that the interplay of mindfulness is illuminated. If particular plans and schemata are activated in an overlearned and automated fashion, it is possible for them to become so routinized that they escape periodic reevaluation of their effectiveness and so become mindless response patterns. By contrast, if automatic judgments, activated by nonverbal visual and vocal cues, free cognitive resources to process complex verbal messages (Gilbert, Pelham, & Krull, 1988; Patterson, 1998), such automaticity may enable greater attentiveness and mindfulness to matters of consequence. Moreover, undue attentiveness to scripted or automated communicative actions ironically may undermine effectiveness (Motley, 1992; Patterson, 1998) in part because self-regulation utilizes more cognitive resources (Gilbert, Krull, & Pelham, 1988). Too much attention to them may actually interfere with their smooth functioning. T!
             hus, a distinction must be made between mindless enactment of scripts or schemata that may have detrimental results versus low levels of automaticity that may be beneficial for effective cognitive functioning. Although persistent routinization of responses may eventuate in uncritical, rigidified thought and behavior, communication routines running off at low consciousness levels need not be mindless and in fact may enable greater mindfulness to other matters.
             Features of Communication That Elicit Mindfulness
             The preponderance of communication literature related to mindfulness fits into the category of communication-as-cause-of mindfulness. In considering the role of mindfulness in addressing social issues, then, we need to specify which features of the communication situation, the communicators themselves, or their messages may naturally prompt greater mindfulness. Langer's early work (1978) and subsequent analyses by others (e.g., J. K. Burgoon & Langer...