Abstract
Uncontrollability has been often associated with impaired or rigid cognitive processing. However, perceived stability of uncontrollable events modulated some of these detrimental effects on cognition. We investigated whether the experience of sequential control loss and restoration can enhance cognitive flexibility. We manipulated uncontrollability using a concept formation procedure that entailed either only unsolvable tasks (control deprivation condition), unsolvable tasks followed by solvable ones (control restoration condition) or only solvable tasks (control condition). To assess cognitive flexibility, we used a task-switching procedure that incorporated social categories. In Experiment 1 participants categorized people based on gender or age, and in Experiment 2 and 3 based on gender or social roles. Participants showed more flexibility in control restoration than in control deprivation condition. Additionally, in Experiments 2 and 3 this effect was mainly pronounced in the condition where the task evoked more cognitive conflict. We discuss the motivational underpinnings of unstable experiences of control loss and restoration.
Highlights
MethodsParticipantsBased on previous research that involved similar experimental procedures we sought to recruit 75 participants (Marzecova et al 2013; Bukowski et al 2015)
Planned comparisons using Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons revealed that perceived control was higher in the control restoration group, compared with the control deprivation condition (p < .001, d = 2.68), and they both scored lower compared to the control condition (p = .002, d = − 0.97; p < .001, d = − 3.56, respectively), which proved that the uncontrollability manipulation worked well
Perceived accuracy ratings were higher for the control restoration condition than for the control deprivation condition (p < .001, d = 2.67) and both differed significantly from the control condition (p < .001, d = − 1.78; p < .001, d = − 4.36, respectively)
Summary
ParticipantsBased on previous research that involved similar experimental procedures we sought to recruit 75 participants (Marzecova et al 2013; Bukowski et al 2015). Seventy-six participants (undergraduate students) took part in the experiment in exchange for course credits. Data of two participants could not be recorded due to technical problems and had to be excluded from the sample (randomly assigned to the control and control deprivation conditions). Two participants failed to follow the instructions in the social category switching task and obtained an accuracy rate close to chance (52% of accurate responses) and were excluded (randomly assigned to the control restoration condition). In the final analyses, seventy-two people were included (59 women and 13 men, Mage 20.0; SD = 1.49), twenty-five participants in the control condition, twenty-three in the control deprivation condition and twenty-four in the control restoration condition. A priori power analyses were not performed.
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