scholarly journals Need for Cognition Is Positively Related to Promotion Focus and Negatively Related to Prevention Focus

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley H. Oiknine ◽  
Kimberly A. Pollard ◽  
Peter Khooshabeh ◽  
Benjamin T. Files

Need for cognition (NFC) and regulatory focus (RF) are important variables with individual differences relevant to motivation and goal pursuit. These constructs are widely used in the literature, often separately; no work has simultaneously examined the need for cognition scale (NCS) and Lockwood’s general regulatory focus measure (GRFM). Here, we explore shared theoretical underpinnings of the two constructs and assess whether they may be driven by common underlying factors. Considering purported overlaps between these scales and other constructs (e.g., personality and cognitive processes), we take a strong inference approach to test hypothesized bridges between the two measures. In a large (N = 853) sample, we found NCS to be related positively to GRFM promotion and negatively to GRFM prevention scores, suggesting mutual ties with behavioral inhibition system/behavioral activation system, intrinsic motivation, openness, and creativity. A generalized approach motivation, as well as intrinsic motivation, may thus drive both NFC and RF.

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ling Wang ◽  
Yue Cui ◽  
Xinjing Wang ◽  
Jin Wang ◽  
Kaiye Du ◽  
...  

Due to the close relationship among intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, regulatory focus, and creativity revealed by previous literature, intrinsic/extrinsic motivation may play a mediating role between regulatory focus and creativity. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship between regulatory focus and creativity by combining intrinsic/extrinsic motivation. In this study, senior high school students (n = 418) completed the Regulatory Focus Questionnaire, the Working Preference Inventory, the Williams Creativity Assessment Packet, and the Kirton Adaption–Innovation Inventory. The correlation analysis showed that both promotion and prevention focus positively correlated with intrinsic motivation; intrinsic motivation and promotion focus positively correlated with creativity personality and innovative-adaptive cognitive style; and extrinsic motivation and prevention focus negatively correlated with innovative–adaptive cognitive style. Furthermore, a path model showed that promotion focus positively predicted creativity through the mediation of intrinsic motivation. In general, our study suggests that intrinsic motivation plays a mediating role between promotion focus and creativity. Our results complement those of previous studies and serve as inspiration for the cultivation of creativity in classroom or enterprise settings.


2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oscar H. Hernández ◽  
Muriel Vogel-Sprott

A missing stimulus task requires an immediate response to the omission of a regular recurrent stimulus. The task evokes a subclass of event-related potential known as omitted stimulus potential (OSP), which reflects some cognitive processes such as expectancy. The behavioral response to a missing stimulus is referred to as omitted stimulus reaction time (RT). This total RT measure is known to include cognitive and motor components. The cognitive component (premotor RT) is measured by the time from the missing stimulus until the onset of motor action. The motor RT component is measured by the time from the onset of muscle action until the completion of the response. Previous research showed that RT is faster to auditory than to visual stimuli, and that the premotor of RT to a missing auditory stimulus is correlated with the duration of an OSP. Although this observation suggests that similar cognitive processes might underlie these two measures, no research has tested this possibility. If similar cognitive processes are involved in the premotor RT and OSP duration, these two measures should be correlated in visual and somatosensory modalities, and the premotor RT to missing auditory stimuli should be fastest. This hypothesis was tested in 17 young male volunteers who performed a missing stimulus task, who were presented with trains of auditory, visual, and somatosensory stimuli and the OSP and RT measures were recorded. The results showed that premotor RT and OSP duration were consistently related, and that both measures were shorter with respect to auditory stimuli than to visual or somatosensory stimuli. This provides the first evidence that the premotor RT is related to an attribute of the OSP in all three sensory modalities.


2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 239-249
Author(s):  
Xuezhu Ren ◽  
Tengfei Wang ◽  
Karl Schweizer ◽  
Jing Guo

Abstract. Although attention control accounts for a unique portion of the variance in working memory capacity (WMC), the way in which attention control contributes to WMC has not been thoroughly specified. The current work focused on fractionating attention control into distinctly different executive processes and examined to what extent key processes of attention control including updating, shifting, and prepotent response inhibition were related to WMC and whether these relations were different. A number of 216 university students completed experimental tasks of attention control and two measures of WMC. Latent variable analyses were employed for separating and modeling each process and their effects on WMC. The results showed that both the accuracy of updating and shifting were substantially related to WMC while the link from the accuracy of inhibition to WMC was insignificant; on the other hand, only the speed of shifting had a moderate effect on WMC while neither the speed of updating nor the speed of inhibition showed significant effect on WMC. The results suggest that these key processes of attention control exhibit differential effects on individual differences in WMC. The approach that combined experimental manipulations and statistical modeling constitutes a promising way of investigating cognitive processes.


Author(s):  
Antonio Aquino ◽  
Laura Picconi ◽  
Francesca Romana Alparone

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leigh Ann Vaughn ◽  
Patricia Burkins ◽  
Janak Judd

Exploration and effortful self-control are promotion and prevention-focused experiences. This research examined how exploration and self-control differ in support for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and it compared them to experiences of pursuing hopes and duties, which are common ways to define promotion and prevention focus. It randomly assigned participants (N = 704) to describe a personal experience of exploration or self-control and rate their need support. Analyses compared need support between exploration and self-control conditions, and with the hopes, duties, and “your day yesterday” conditions (N = 867) of previously published data. Need support generally was higher in exploration than self-control. Relationships with the “yesterday” condition were similar to earlier findings on hopes versus duties. The differences in each type of need support between exploration and hopes, and between self-control and duties, were small. This research shows what could be typical need-support differences in episodes of promotion and prevention focus.


Author(s):  
Xiaomei Wang ◽  
Lin Zhang ◽  
Xiaoyu Jiang ◽  
Jia Wang

This study aimed to examine the effects of regulatory focus and emotions on water-saving information dissemination. The findings revealed that when water-saving information is framed with a prevention focus, sad emotion fosters more active willingness to engage with the information dissemination than cheerful emotion. However, a promotion focus coupled with cheerfulness is slightly more persuasive than a promotion focus coupled with sadness. Furthermore, compared to the individuals in the nonfit group of emotions who had a regulatory focus, the individuals in the fit group formed a more favorable water-saving attitude and demonstrated a slightly higher willingness to disseminate water-saving information. This article is the first to contribute to exploring the dissemination of water-saving information from the perspective of the interactive effect of individual cognitive motivation and emotion.


2018 ◽  
Vol 75 (6) ◽  
pp. 1199-1205
Author(s):  
Fanny Vallet ◽  
Nathalie Mella ◽  
Andreas Ihle ◽  
Marine Beaudoin ◽  
Delphine Fagot ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives Interindividual differences in cognitive aging may be explained by differences in cognitive reserve (CR) that are built up across the life span. A plausible but underresearched mechanism for these differences is that CR helps compensating cognitive decline by enhancing motivation to cope with challenging cognitive situations. Theories of motivation on cognition suggest that perceived capacity and intrinsic motivation may be key mediators in this respect. Method In 506 older adults, we assessed CR proxies (education, occupation, leisure activities), motivation (perceived capacity, intrinsic motivation), and a global measure of cognitive functioning. Results Perceived capacity, but not intrinsic motivation, significantly mediated the relation between CR and cognitive performance. Discussion Complementary with neurobiological and cognitive processes, our results suggest a more comprehensive view of the role of motivational aspects built up across the life span in determining differences in cognitive performance in old age.


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