When the going gets tough.. : How action versus state orientation moderates the impact of situational demands on cognition, affect, and behavior

High demands are a pervasive condition in many people’s professional, academic, and social lives. High demands occur, for instance, when people have many pressing affairs simultaneously on their mind. Because high demands can make people less successful at reaching their goals, it is important to understand how people can cope effectively with high demands. The present dissertation examines coping with high demands from an action control perspective (Kuhl, 1984, 2000). Action control refers to the mental processes that are involved in the formation, maintenance, and implementation of (or disengagement from) an intention. Such processes rely on a high-level working memory system that is partly located in the prefrontal cortex. In the present dissertation, high demands refer to conditions that are characterized by sustained use of working memory. Sustained use of working memory can lead to a transient decline of its effectiveness. Because working memory effectiveness is a key function of action control, strong action control skills may be an important factor in coping with high demands. Accordingly, the present dissertation tested the hypothesis that individuals who are highly skilled at action control, or action-oriented individuals, cope more effectively with high demands than individuals who are less skilled at action control, or state-oriented individuals. In three series of studies, I experimentally induced high versus low levels of demands or I measured participants’ level of demand in their real lives. Coping effectiveness among action- versus state-oriented individuals was measured across three major psychological domains including cognition, affect, and behavior. In a first line of research (Chapter 2), action- compared to state-oriented individuals were found to be better able at cognitive shielding as reflected by the efficiency with which people can make use of their working memory capacity under high demands. Specifically, action-oriented individuals displayed more efficient use of their working memory capacity in an “operation span task” (Study 2.1) and a “postponed intention task” (Study 2.2) under high compared to low demands. Among state-oriented individuals, I found the reversed pattern such that high demands led to less efficient use of working memory than low demands. A second line of research (Chapter 3) revealed that action- oriented individuals are also better able at affective shielding as reflected by their positive affective reactions in response to subliminally primed negative affect in comparison with state-oriented individuals’ reactions (Study 3.1). In a third and final line of research, action- compared to state-oriented individuals were also found to be better able at behavioral shielding (Chapter 4) as reflected by the ability to implement a difficult intention. Specifically, in a series of “Stroop color evaluation tasks”, action-oriented individuals were found to be better able to override a strong but inappropriate response tendency (Studies 4.1 – 4.4). Across all three lines of research, improved performance among action- compared to state-oriented individuals was found only under high but not under low demanding conditions indicating that action compared to state orientation reflects better coping abilities rather than better overall mental skills across conditions. To integrate the findings, the present dissertation proposes the “updating model” of action control and coping with high demands (Chapter 5). Based on recent neuro-cognitive theories of working memory regulation (Braver & Cohen, 2000; Kuhl, 2000), the updating model suggests that high demands inhibit the neuro-cognitive pathway between working memory and behavioral output systems thereby rendering an updating of information between these two systems difficult. When updating fails, working memory utilization becomes less efficient, and intentions become less available to guide behavioral output. Furthermore, pathway inhibition is linked to decreased dopaminergic activity and reduced positive affect. Taken together, failure to update working memory is la likely reason for detrimental effects of high demands on different psychological domains including cognition, affect, and behavior. The updating model further suggests that action compared to state orientation facilitates the updating function of working memory. A likely way how action orientation restores the updating function is by upregulating positive affect (cf. Koole & Jostmann, 2004). The empirical test of this assumption provides an important task for future research on effective coping with high demands. Chapter 5 provides some ideas about how this task may be accomplished. In sum, the updating model integrates the findings of the present dissertation with contemporary theories of working memory regulation, and provides some promising perspectives for further research.Semin, G.R. [Promotor]Koole, S.L. [Copromotor

Lacking power impairs executive functions

Contains fulltext : 73018.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Four experiments explored whether lacking power impairs executive functioning, testing the hypothesis that the cognitive presses of powerlessness increase vulnerability to performance decrements during complex executive tasks. In the first three experiments, low power impaired performance on executive-function tasks: The powerless were less effective than the powerful at updating (Experiment 1), inhibiting (Experiment 2), and planning (Experiment 3). Existing research suggests that the powerless have difficulty distinguishing between what is goal relevant and what is goal irrelevant in the environment. A fourth experiment established that the executive-function impairment associated with low power is driven by goal neglect. The current research implies that the cognitive alterations arising from powerlessness may help foster stable social hierarchies and that empowering employees may reduce costly organizational errors.7 p

Explore or reset? Pupil diameter transiently increases in self-chosen switches between cognitive labor and leisure in either direction

Item does not contain fulltextWhen people invest effort in cognitive work, they often keep an eye open for rewarding alternative activities. Previous research suggests that the norepinephrine (NE) system regulates such trade-offs between exploitation (of the current task) and exploration (of alternative possibilities). Here we examine the possibility that the NE-system is involved in a related trade-off, i.e., the trade-off between cognitive labor and leisure. We conducted two pre-registered studies (total N = 62) in which participants freely chose to perform either a paid 2-back task (labor) vs. a fun non-paid task (leisure), while we tracked their pupil diameter--which is an indicator of the state of the NE system. In both studies, consistent with prior work, we found (a) increases in pupil baseline and (b) decreases in pupil dilation when participants switched from labor to leisure. Unexpectedly, we found the same pattern when participants switched from leisure back to labor. Furthermore, exploratory analyses showed that participants with a stronger action orientation in everyday life showed stronger decreases in pupil dilation in switches towards labor, but weaker decreases in switches towards leisure. Collectively, these results are more consistent with Network Reset Theory, which suggests that NE plays a role in reorienting attention, than with Adaptive Gain Theory, which suggests that NE plays a role in motivation.16 p

Emotion repair and the direction of attention in aversive contexts: Evidence from an attention-demanding task

Two studies (total N = 145) examined the novel idea that individual differences in emotion repair may relate to the attention deployment stage of emotion regulation. More specifically, it was hypothesized that high repair individuals would be able to maintain focus on an attention-demanding task in an aversive context, but that low repair individuals would not, in both cases relative to a control condition. This sort of interactive hypothesis was supported in Study 1, which manipulated aversive events through the use of concurrent auditory stimulation and conceptual replication was found in Study 2. Together, the two studies offer suggestive evidence for the role of attention direction in emotion repair

Do Demanding Conditions Help or Hurt Self-Regulation?

Although everyday life is often demanding, it remains unclear how demanding conditions impact self-regulation. Some theories suggest that demanding conditions impair self-regulation, by undermining autonomy, interfering with skilled performance and working memory, and depleting energy resources. Other theories, however, suggest that demanding conditions improve self-regulation by mobilizing super-ordinate control processes. The present article integrates both kinds of theories by proposing that the self-regulatory impact of demanding conditions depends on how people adapt to such conditions. When people are action-oriented, demanding conditions may lead to improved self-regulation. When people are state-oriented, demanding conditions may lead to impaired self-regulation. Consistent with this idea, action versus state orientation strongly moderates the influence of demands on self-regulatory performance. The impact of demanding conditions on self-regulation is thus not fixed, but modifiable by psychological processes. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd

Willing and able: action-state orientation and the relation between procedural justice and employee cooperation

Existing justice theory explains why fair procedures motivate employees to adopt cooperative goals, but it fails to explain how employees strive towards these goals. We study self-regulatory abilities that underlie goal striving; abilities that should thus affect employees’ display of cooperative behavior in response to procedural justice. Building on action control theory, we argue that employees who display effective self-regulatory strategies (action oriented employees) display relatively strong cooperative behavioral responses to fair procedures. A multisource field study and a laboratory experiment support this prediction. A subsequent experiment addresses the process underlying this effect by explicitly showing that action orientation facilitates attainment of the cooperative goals that people adopt in response to fair procedures, thus facilitating the display of actual cooperative behavior. This goal striving approach better integrates research on the relationship between procedural justice and employee cooperation in the self-regulation and the work motivation literature. It also offers organizations a new perspective on making procedural justice effective in stimulating employee cooperation by suggesting factors that help employees reach their adopted goals

Getting a grip on your feelings: Effects of action orientation and external demands on intuitive affect regulation

The authors propose that volitional action is supported by intuitive affect regulation, defined as flexible, efficient, and nonrepressive control of own affective states. Intuitive affect regulation should be most apparent among action-oriented individuals under demanding conditions. Consistent with this, a demanding context led action-oriented individuals to down-regulate negative affect in self-reports (Study 1), in an affective Simon task (Study 2), and in a face discrimination task (Study 3). In line with the idea that intuitive affect regulation is guided by top-down self-regulation processes, intuitive affect regulation in a face discrimination task was mediated by increases in self-accessibility (Study 3). No parallel effects emerged among action-oriented participants in a nondemanding context or among state-oriented participants