Cognitive control and the non-conscious regulation of health behavior

A commentary on 'Cognitive control in the self-regulation of physical activity and sedentary behavior' by Buckley, J., Cohen, J. D., Kramer, A. F., McAuley, E., and Mullen, S. P. (2014). Front. Hum. Neurosci. 8:747. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.0074

Comparing motivational, self-regulatory and habitual processes in a computer-tailored physical activity intervention in hospital employees - Protocol for the PATHS randomised controlled trial

Background: Most people do not engage in sufficient physical activity to confer health benefits and to reduce risk of chronic disease. Healthcare professionals frequently provide guidance on physical activity, but often do not meet guideline levels of physical activity themselves. The main objective of this study is to develop and test the efficacy of a tailored intervention to increase healthcare professionals' physical activity participation and quality of life, and to reduce work-related stress and absenteeism. This is the first study to compare the additive effects of three forms of a tailored intervention using different techniques from behavioural theory, which differ according to their focus on motivational, self-regulatory and/or habitual processes. Methods/Design: Healthcare professionals (N = 192) will be recruited from four hospitals in Perth, Western Australia, via email lists, leaflets, and posters to participate in the four group randomised controlled trial. Participants will be randomised to one of four conditions: (1) education only (non-tailored information only), (2) education plus intervention components to enhance motivation, (3) education plus components to enhance motivation and self-regulation, and (4) education plus components to enhance motivation, self-regulation and habit formation. All intervention groups will receive a computer-tailored intervention administered via a web-based platform and will receive supporting text-messages containing tailored information, prompts and feedback relevant to each condition. All outcomes will be assessed at baseline, and at 3-month follow-up. The primary outcome assessed in this study is physical activity measured using activity monitors. Secondary outcomes include: quality of life, stress, anxiety, sleep, and absenteeism. Website engagement, retention, preferences and intervention fidelity will also be evaluated as well as potential mediators and moderators of intervention effect. Discussion: This is the first study to examine a tailored, technology-supported intervention aiming to increase physical activity in healthcare professionals. The study will evaluate whether including additional theory-based behaviour change techniques aimed at promoting motivation, self-regulation and habit will lead to increased physical activity participation relative to information alone. The online platform developed in this study has potential to deliver efficient, scalable and personally-relevant intervention that can be translated to other occupational settings. Trial registration: Australian New-Zealand Clinical Trial Registry: ACTRN12616000462482, submitted 29/03/2016, prospectively registered 8/04/2016

Using the EZ-diffusion model to score a single-category implicit association test of physical activity

© 2014 Elsevier Ltd. Objective: The Single-Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT) has been used as a method for assessing automatic evaluations of physical activity, but measurement artifact or consciously-held attitudes could be confounding the outcome scores of these measures. The objective of these two studies was to address these measurement concerns by testing the validity of a novel SC-IAT scoring technique. Design: Study 1 was a cross-sectional study, and study 2 was a prospective study. Method: In study 1, undergraduate students (. N=104) completed SC-IATs for physical activity, flowers, and sedentary behavior. In study 2, undergraduate students (. N=91) completed a SC-IAT for physical activity, self-reported affective and instrumental attitudes toward physical activity, physical activity intentions, and wore an accelerometer for two weeks. The EZ-diffusion model was used to decompose the SC-IAT into three process component scores including the information processing efficiency score. Results: In study 1, a series of structural equation model comparisons revealed that the information processing score did not share variability across distinct SC-IATs, suggesting it does not represent systematic measurement artifact. In study 2, the information processing efficiency score was shown to be unrelated to self-reported affective and instrumental attitudes toward physical activity, and positively related to physical activity behavior, above and beyond the traditional D-score of the SC-IAT. Conclusions: The information processing efficiency score is a valid measure of automatic evaluations of physical activity

Highly cited leaders and the performance of research universities

There is a large literature on the productivity of universities. Little is known, however, about how different types of leader affect a university's later performance. To address this, I blend quantitative and qualitative evidence. By constructing a new longitudinal dataset, I find that on average the research quality of a university improves some years after it appoints a president(vice chancellor) who is an accomplished scholar. To try to explain why scholar-leaders might improve the research performance of their institutions, I draw from interview data with 26 heads in universities in the United States and United Kingdom. The findings have policy implications for governments, universities, and a range of research and knowledge-intensive organizations. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V