Foraging in internal and external environments: developing behavioural assays for boredom proneness.

Previous research has shown that boredom proneness is associated with failures of self-regulation. As yet few studies have directly explored the behavioural consequences of this relationship. The goal of this study was to examine the behavioural constituents of boredom proneness and various self-regulatory traits. Foraging represents a common goal directed behaviour that emphasises exploration and attainment of valued outcomes. As such, foraging tasks were used as behavioural assays of self-regulatory behaviour. Foraging can be thought of as either internal or external: an internal forging task, emphasizes exploration of problem spaces with a goal of determining as many solutions as possible. The Boggle game, in which participants made as many words as possible from a grid of 9 letters, was used as an internal foraging task. An external foraging task, on the other hand, emphasizes exploration of physical or virtual environments, with a goal of maximizing provisions. A spatial foraging task, in which participants explored a virtual environment collecting as many red “berries” as possible, served as an external foraging task. Results suggest that although each self-regulatory trait was associated with a specific set of behaviors, self-regulatory traits seem to be better characterized as behavioral preferences. When individuals behaved contrary to what would be preferred under a given self-regulatory trait, it reflects a recurrent lack of regulatory fit. Instances of non-fit in the current study were associated with increased trait boredom proneness. These findings suggest that how goals are pursued may be an important determinant of boredom proneness

An Exploration of the Correlates and Causes of Boredom

Boredom has been defined as self-regulatory signal which tells us that whatever we are currently doing is failing to keep us engaged, pushing us to seek out more satisfying alternatives. It is a negatively valenced experience associated with a wide range of negative consequences ranging from problem gambling to depression and poor academic performance. The pervasiveness of boredom points to the need to better understand the various contingencies that lead to it. As such, the goal of this thesis was to explore some of the lesser studied correlates and causes of boredom. Chapter 2 explored the relationship between boredom and willingness to engage in various tasks. Results showed that the less willing one is to engage in a task, the more bored they are likely to be. Chapter 3 investigated the relationship between boredom and effort regulation with results indicating that those who are less willing to expend effort are more likely to be bored. Chapter 4 examined the role of autonomy on boredom and demonstrated that control by itself does not differentiate between different levels of state boredom when tasks are boring. Finally, Chapter 5 explored whether having control over the challenge level of a task influenced boredom. Here too, results showed that the different manipulations of control over challenge did not influence boredom. The challenge of isolating individual factors that lead to boredom, highlighted across all the studies presented here, suggests that boredom arises from complex interactions of multiple variables. The last chapter discusses the possible interactions that can give rise to boredom

Can Boredom in the Classroom Enhance the Learning Experience?

There is a lack of evidence for the claim that experiencing boredom (in the classroom) negatively impacts attention and academic performance. The authors of this chapter argue that boredom can enrich the learning experience in three ways. Firstly, students’ boredom serves as a signal to teachers that learning is no longer occurring. Thus, this signal prompts teachers to modify elements of the learning environment so that students can successfully re-engage with course content. Secondly, since boredom is an aversive state, individuals are motivated to reduce their boredom by focusing their attention on an activity or subject matter. It is in this manner that boredom may enable an individual to become interested in a topic they have never explored. Thirdly, boredom can motivate students to re-engage with course content if they respond adaptively to the boredom signal. For example, students can utilize cognitive approach strategies in which they alter their perception of boring material to make it more appealing to them.Knowledge Mobilization at York - York University’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit provides services for faculty, graduate students, community and government seeking to maximize the impact of academic research and expertise on public policy, social programming, and professional practice. This summary has been supported by the Office of the Vice-President Research and Innovation at York and project funding from SSHRC and CIHR. [email protected] www.researchimpact.c

A Failure to Launch: Regulatory Modes and Boredom Proneness

Boredom is a ubiquitous human experience characterized as a state of wanting but failing to engage with the world. Individuals prone to the experience of boredom demonstrate lower levels of self-control which may be at the heart of their failures to engage in goal-directed, meaningful behaviors. Here we develop the hypothesis that distinct self-regulatory profiles, which in turn differentially influence modes of goal pursuit, are at the heart of boredom proneness. Two specific regulatory modes are addressed: Locomotion, the desire to ‘just do it,’ an action oriented mode of goal-pursuit, and Assessment, the desire to ‘do the right thing,’ an evaluative orientation toward goal pursuit. We present data from a series of seven large samples of undergraduates showing that boredom proneness is negatively correlated with Locomotion, as though getting on with things acts as a prophylactic against boredom. This ‘failure to launch’ that we suggest is prevalent in the highly boredom prone individual, could be due to an inability to appropriately discriminate value (i.e., everything is tarred with the same gray brush), an unwillingness to put in the required effort to engage, or simply a failure to get started. In contrast, boredom proneness was consistently positively correlated with the Assessment mode of self-regulation. We suggest that this association reflects a kind of rumination that hampers satisfying goal pursuit

Self-regulation and the foraging gene (PRKG1) in humans

We would like to thank Dr. Sara Mostafavi (University of British Columbia) for directing us to the CMC website regarding gene expression for rs13499 and for statistical advice. This work was supported by NSERC Discovery funds to JD and a Canadian Institute for Advanced Research award to MS.Peer reviewedPostprin

Boredom Proneness and Self-Control as Unique Risk Factors in Achievement Settings

The state of boredom arises when we have the desire to be engaged in goal pursuit, but for whatever reason we cannot fulfil that desire. Boredom proneness is characterized by both frequent and intense feelings of boredom and is an enduring individual difference trait associated with a raft of negative outcomes. There has been some work in educational settings, but relatively little is known about the consequences of boredom proneness for learning. Here we explored the unique contributions of boredom proneness, self-control and self-esteem to undergraduate self-reported higher grade point average (GPA). Within educational settings, prior research has shown self-control and self-esteem to be associated with better academic performance. In contrast, boredom proneness is associated with lower levels of self-control and self-esteem. Our analyses replicate those previous findings showing that self-control acts as a positive predictor of GPA. Importantly, we further demonstrated, for the first time, that boredom proneness has a unique contribution to GPA over and above the contribution of self-control, such that as boredom proneness increases, GPA decreases. We discuss potential mechanisms through which boredom proneness may influence academic performance

Adapting the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire for a Writing and Communication Program

Integrating educational assessment tools such as the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) into university classrooms can help students and faculty gain insight into areas of strength and challenge for students. The present study adapted and integrated the MSLQ into a set of first-year communication courses for Faculty of Arts students at the University of Waterloo. This adaptation allowed us to better situate the scale within the writing and communication course context. Through exploratory and confirmatory analysis, a shortened questionnaire (MSLQ-AF) with 6 subscales (motivation, academic self-confidence, performance anxiety, critical thinking, planning for optimal learning, and peer learning) was created. MSLQ-AF proved to have stable factor structure, adequate and stable internal consistency, and construct validity (correlation with grades), when assessed across four samples spanning four university terms. We discuss the role of this new scale in helping students transition into university

Creativity, Boredom Proneness and Well-Being in the Pandemic

Throughout the course of the pandemic, it has become clear that the strictures of social isolation and various levels of lockdown constraints have impacted people’s well-being. Here, our aim was to explore relations between trait dispositions associated with boredom proneness, self-regulation and well-being using data collected early in the pandemic. Specifically, we explored whether the tendency to engage in everyday creative pursuits (e.g., making your own greeting cards) would act as a prophylactic against poor well-being. Results showed that well-being was higher for those individuals who increased engagement with creative pursuits during the early stages of the pandemic. That is, people who engaged more in everyday creative activities also reported higher levels of self-esteem, optimism, and positive affect. In contrast, those who pursued fewer creative outlets had higher levels of depression and anxiety, were higher in boredom proneness, and reported experiencing more negative affect. As we emerge from the pandemic, these data provide a clue as to how people might plan to cope adaptively with the restrictive circumstances this extreme world event engendered. More generally, these data provide support for the notion that everyday creativity (and not necessarily creative expertise) has positive associations for well-being