Stepping back while staying engaged: On the cognitive effects of obstacles

Wat gebeurt er op cognitief niveau op het moment dat we ons bijvoorbeeld realiseren dat we een belangrijk ingrediënt voor een romantische diner vergeten zijn? Uit het onderzoek van Janina Marguc-Steck blijkt dat mensen zich bij het tegenkomen van obstakels meer richten op het grote geheel in plaats van op de details. Ze doen als het ware mentaal een stapje terug. Daardoor presteren mensen beter op taken die het verbinden van schijnbaar ongerelateerde concepten vereisen. Ook zijn ze in staat om creatievere manieren te bedenken om het oorspronkelijke doel te bereiken. Deze effecten worden gevonden als mensen betrokken zijn bij wat ze doen en wanneer het gaat om een obstakel dat in de weg staat van een persoonlijk doel. De resultaten zijn daardoor onder andere relevant voor mensen die moeilijk met obstakels om kunnen gaan en hebben toepasbare implicaties voor het bedrijfsleven

Novelty Categorization Theory

Novelty Categorization Theory (NCT) attempts to predict when people perceive events as novel and how they process novel events across different domains. It is predicted that broad mental categories reduce the perception of an event being novel via inclusion processes, whereas narrow categories increase it via exclusion processes. Furthermore, based on a ‘motive to know’, when preparing for novel events, people broaden both perception and mental categories, because to understand novel information, it is essential to integrate it into pre-existing knowledge structures that are sufficiently broad. Over time, a ‘when-novel-then-process-globally’ routine develops that is automatically elicited when novelty is encountered. Self-protective motives can, however, counteract such processing styles so that threatening novelty leads to local processing. Relations to construal level theory and action identification theory and implications for future research are discussed

Stepping back to see the big picture: when obstacles elicit global processing

Can obstacles prompt people to look at the "big picture" and open up their minds? Do the cognitive effects of obstacles extend beyond the tasks with which they interfere? These questions were addressed in 6 studies involving both physical and nonphysical obstacles and different measures of global versus local processing styles. Perceptual scope increased after participants solved anagrams in the presence, rather than the absence, of an auditory obstacle (random words played in the background; Study 1), particularly among individuals low in volatility (i.e., those who are inclined to stay engaged and finish what they do; Study 4). It also increased immediately after participants encountered a physical obstacle while navigating a maze (Study 3A) and when compared with doing nothing (Study 3B). Conceptual scope increased after participants solved anagrams while hearing random numbers framed as an "obstacle to overcome" rather than a "distraction to ignore" (Study 2) and after participants navigated a maze with a physical obstacle, compared with a maze without a physical obstacle, but only when trait (Study 5) or state (Study 6) volatility was low. Results suggest that obstacles trigger an "if obstacle, then start global processing" response, primarily when people are inclined to stay engaged and finish ongoing activities. Implications for dealing with life's obstacles and related research are discussed