Deliberative and implemental mind-sets: Cognitive tuning toward congruous thoughts and information.

Abstract

Study 1 established either deliberative mind-set by having Ss contemplate personal change decision or implemental mind-set by having Ss plan execution of intended personal project. Ss were subsequently requested to continue beginnings of 3 fairy tales, each describing a main character with a decisional conflict. Analysis revealed that deliberative mind-set Ss ascribed more deliberative and less implementational efforts to main characters than implemental mind-set Ss. In Study 2, Ss were asked to choose between different test materials. Either before or after making their decision, Ss were given information on deliberative and implementational thoughts unrelated to their task at hand. When asked to recall these thoughts, predecisional Ss recalled more deliberative and less implementational thoughts, whereas for postdecisional Ss the reverse was true. These findings suggest that deliberative and implemental mind-sets tune thought production and information processing. A course of action may be conceived rather narrowly as extending from its initiation (starting point) to its termination (end point). Alternatively, one may adopt a broader perspective that embraces the motivational origins of an action as the actual starting point and the individual's evaluative thoughts about the achieved action outcome as the final end point. In the present article, we take this broader perspective and segment the course of action into four distinct, sequential phases (Heckhausen, 1986). The first segment is the predecisional phase, where potential action goals entailed by a person's many wants and wishes are deliberated. When a decision to pursue one of these goals is made, a transition to the postdecisional (preactional) phase takes place, where the individual becomes concerned with implementing the chosen goal. However, this phase ends and the actional phase starts when actions geared toward achieving the chosen goal are initiated. Once these actions have resulted in a particular outcome, the postactional phase is entered and the individual proceeds to evaluate the achieved outcome. We postulate that each of these phases is accompanied by a distinct mind-set (Gollwitzer, 1990). Following the lead of the WUrzburg School (Kiilpe, 1904; Marbe, 1901; Watt, 1905; for reviews, see Boring, 1950, pp. 401-406; Gibson, 1941; and Humphrey, 1951, pp. 30-131), we assume that the characteristics of each of these mind-sets are determined by the unique qualities of the different tasks to be solved within each phase. That is, the different mind-sets tailor a person's cognitive appa