Light and transient causes
The self-control consequences of political ideology
Joshua Clarkson et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
Evidence from three studies reveals a critical difference in self-control as a function of political ideology. Specifically, greater endorsement of political conservatism (versus liberalism) was associated with greater attention regulation and task persistence. Moreover, this relationship is shown to stem from varying beliefs in freewill; specifically, the association between political ideology and self-control is mediated by differences in the extent to which belief in freewill is endorsed, is independent of task performance or motivation, and is reversed when freewill is perceived to impede (rather than enhance) self-control. Collectively, these findings offer insight into the self-control consequences of political ideology by detailing conditions under which conservatives and liberals are better suited to engage in self-control and outlining the role of freewill beliefs in determining these conditions.
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The Attentional Cost of Receiving a Cell Phone Notification
Cary Stothart, Ainsley Mitchum & Courtney Yehnert
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, forthcoming
Abstract:
It is well documented that interacting with a mobile phone is associated with poorer performance on concurrently performed tasks because limited attentional resources must be shared between tasks. However, mobile phones generate auditory or tactile notifications to alert users of incoming calls and messages. Although these notifications are generally short in duration, they can prompt task-irrelevant thoughts, or mind wandering, which has been shown to damage task performance. We found that cellular phone notifications alone significantly disrupted performance on an attention-demanding task, even when participants did not directly interact with a mobile device during the task. The magnitude of observed distraction effects was comparable in magnitude to those seen when users actively used a mobile phone, either for voice calls or text messaging.
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Evan Carter et al.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, forthcoming
Abstract:
Failures of self-control are thought to underlie various important behaviors (e.g., addiction, violence, obesity, poor academic achievement). The modern conceptualization of self-control failure has been heavily influenced by the idea that self-control functions as if it relied upon a limited physiological or cognitive resource. This view of self-control has inspired hundreds of experiments designed to test the prediction that acts of self-control are more likely to fail when they follow previous acts of self-control (the depletion effect). Here, we evaluated the empirical evidence for this effect with a series of focused, meta-analytic tests that address the limitations in prior appraisals of the evidence. We find very little evidence that the depletion effect is a real phenomenon, at least when assessed with the methods most frequently used in the laboratory. Our results strongly challenge the idea that self-control functions as if it relies on a limited psychological or physical resource.
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Veronika Job et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Past research indicates that peoples' implicit theories about the nature of willpower moderate the ego-depletion effect. Only people who believe or were led to believe that willpower is a limited resource (limited-resource theory) showed lower self-control performance after an initial demanding task. As of yet, the underlying processes explaining this moderating effect by theories about willpower remain unknown. Here, we propose that the exertion of self-control activates the goal to preserve and replenish mental resources (rest goal) in people with a limited-resource theory. Five studies tested this hypothesis. In Study 1, individual differences in implicit theories about willpower predicted increased accessibility of a rest goal after self-control exertion. Furthermore, measured (Study 2) and manipulated (Study 3) willpower theories predicted an increased preference for rest-conducive objects. Finally, Studies 4 and 5 provide evidence that theories about willpower predict actual resting behavior: In Study 4, participants who held a limited-resource theory took a longer break following self-control exertion than participants with a nonlimited-resource theory. Longer resting time predicted decreased rest goal accessibility afterward. In Study 5, participants with an induced limited-resource theory sat longer on chairs in an ostensible product-testing task when they had engaged in a task requiring self-control beforehand. This research provides consistent support for a motivational shift toward rest after self-control exertion in people holding a limited-resource theory about willpower.
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Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Medication Use Among Teens and Young Adults
Michael Johansen, Kathleen Matic & Ann Scheck McAlearney
Journal of Adolescent Health, forthcoming
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine rates of stimulant/atomoxetine use among teens (aged 12-17 years) and young adults (aged 18-23 years) and to investigate associations in medication use before and after the transition from teen to young adult.
Methods: Repeated cross-sectional analyses using the nationally representative Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. The sample included all teens and young adults between 2003 and 2012. Within this group, a staggered sample of individuals between 2006 and 2012 born during a 5-year range was used to minimize false positive findings due to temporal trends. The primary outcome was attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication use (two or more prescriptions and ?60 tablets). A multivariable logistic regression was utilized to determine associations between ADHD medication use and race/ethnicity and other sociodemographic factors.
Results: A total of 62,699 individuals were included between 2003 and 2012. Rates of ADHD medication use increased for both teens (4.2%-6.0%) and young adults (1.2%-2.6%) between 2003-2004 and 2011-2012. In adjusted analysis, blacks, Hispanics, and Asians had lower rates of use compared with whites. The decrease in use among young adults was more pronounced among blacks compared with whites. A usual source of care and health insurance were less common among young adults, and both were associated with ADHD medication use.
Conclusions: Although there has been an increase in the use of ADHD medications in both teens and young adults, we found a drop-off in levels of ADHD treatment among young adults when compared with teens. A portion of this decrease appears to be related to race/ethnicity, usual source of care, and health insurance status.
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Napping to modulate frustration and impulsivity: A pilot study
Jennifer Goldschmied et al.
Personality and Individual Differences, November 2015, Pages 164-167
Abstract:
Recent research has shown that napping can increase positive mood, and improve immune functioning, demonstrating the additional benefits of naps beyond reducing sleepiness and fatigue. Because prolonged wakefulness is becoming more common, it is becoming increasingly important to identify effective approaches to decrease resultant cognitive deficiencies. The present study aimed to examine the impact of a brief, midday nap on an aspect of executive functioning, emotional control. 40 subjects were randomized into a nap or no-nap condition, and emotional control was measured with a self-report impulsivity measure and frustration tolerance task. Results revealed that nappers showed a decrease in self-reported impulsivity and increased tolerance for frustration, while those in the no-nap condition showed the opposite pattern. These results indicate that emotional control may become impaired from wakefulness that builds across the day, and that napping may be an effective countermeasure.
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Time pressure reverses risk preferences
Najam Saqib & Eugene Chan
Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, September 2015, Pages 58-68
Abstract:
In this research, we offer the hypothesis that time pressure reverses risk preferences. That is, people are typically risk-averse over gains and risk-seeking over losses, as predicted by prospect theory, but we propose that people under time pressure are risk-seeking over gains and risk-averse over losses. This is because people under time pressure perceive the maximal possible outcome - that is, the best possible gain over gains and the worst possible loss over losses - to be more likely to occur, such that they use it as their reference point and not the status quo to evaluate all other outcomes. As such, they perceive intermediary gains relative to the best possible gain as relative losses, which results in risk-seeking, and they perceive intermediary losses relative to the worst possible loss as relative gains, which results in risk-aversion. We conclude by situating our research among prior work generally and with prospect theory specifically.
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Effect of Casino-Related Sound, Red Light and Pairs on Decision-Making During the Iowa Gambling Task
Damien Brevers et al.
Journal of Gambling Studies, June 2015, Pages 409-421
Abstract:
Casino venues are often characterized by "warm" colors, reward-related sounds, and the presence of others. These factors have always been identified as a key factor in energizing gambling. However, few empirical studies have examined their impact on gambling behaviors. Here, we aimed to explore the impact of combined red light and casino-related sounds, with or without the presence of another participant, on gambling-related behaviors. Gambling behavior was estimated with the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Eighty non-gamblers participants took part in one of four experimental conditions (20 participants in each condition); (1) IGT without casino-related sound and under normal (white) light (control), (2) IGT with combined casino-related sound and red light (casino alone), (3) IGT with combined casino-related sound, red light and in front of another participant (casino competition - implicit), and (4) IGT with combined casino-related sound, red light and against another participant (casino competition - explicit). Results showed that, in contrast to the control condition, participants in the three "casino" conditions did not exhibit slower deck selection reaction time after losses than after rewards. Moreover, participants in the two "competition" conditions displayed lowered deck selection reaction time after losses and rewards, as compared with the control and the "casino alone" conditions. These findings suggest that casino environment may diminish the time used for reflecting and thinking before acting after losses. These findings are discussed along with the methodological limitations, potential directions for future studies, as well as implications to enhance prevention strategies of abnormal gambling.
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Justin Storbeck & Raeya Maswood
Cognition & Emotion, forthcoming
Abstract:
The effects of emotion on working memory and executive control are often studied in isolation. Positive mood enhances verbal and impairs spatial working memory, whereas negative mood enhances spatial and impairs verbal working memory. Moreover, positive mood enhances executive control, whereas negative mood has little influence. We examined how emotion influences verbal and spatial working memory capacity, which requires executive control to coordinate between holding information in working memory and completing a secondary task. We predicted that positive mood would improve both verbal and spatial working memory capacity because of its influence on executive control. Positive, negative and neutral moods were induced followed by completing a verbal (Experiment 1) or spatial (Experiment 2) working memory operation span task to assess working memory capacity. Positive mood enhanced working memory capacity irrespective of the working memory domain, whereas negative mood had no influence on performance. Thus, positive mood was more successful holding information in working memory while processing task-irrelevant information, suggesting that the influence mood has on executive control supersedes the independent effects mood has on domain-specific working memory.
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Risk taking, behavioral biases and genes: Results from 149 active investors
Anders Anderson, Anna Dreber & Roine Vestman
Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, June 2015, Pages 93-100
Abstract:
Recent evidence suggests that there is genetic basis for economic behaviors, including preferences for risk taking. We correlate variation in risk taking and behavioral biases with two genetic polymorphisms related to the uptake of dopamine and serotonin (7R+ DRD4 and s/s 5-HTTLPR), hypothesizing that they are positively (negatively) related to risk taking. We use a small but detailed sample of active investors where we combine survey data with DNA samples and data from Swedish tax records that give us objective information about actual economic choices. We find a positive (negative) relationship between the dopamine (serotonin) gene and life expectancy bias, but no other significant correlations between the two genes and behaviors, including risk taking and measures of equity holdings. We acknowledge that our tests suffer from low power originating from the small sample size, which warrants some caution when interpreting these results.