Action Control Theory Research Articles

Action-orientation shields against primed cognitive conflict effects on effort-related cardiac response.

This article presents a quasi-experiment (N = 79 university students) testing whether individual differences in action-state orientation moderate primed cognitive conflict's effects on sympathetically mediated cardiac response during task performance reflecting effort. Action control theory posits that action-oriented individuals are less receptive to distracting affective stimuli during goal pursuit than state-oriented individuals because action-orientation is related to higher volitional skills. Therefore, we expected that action-oriented individuals should be shielded against conflict primes' effect on effort-related responses in the cardiovascular system. By contrast, state-oriented individuals should be more sensitive to irrelevant negative affective stimulation and therefore mobilize higher resources under such conditions. Responses of the cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) during a moderately difficult short-term memory task corroborated these predictions. The present findings provide the first evidence that individual differences in action-state orientation indeed moderate previously demonstrated cognitive conflict priming effects on effort-related cardiac response and extend recent findings on action shielding.

Religion and cognitive control: An event-coding approach

Religion is playing an important role in our lives, be it from a personal perspective as member of a particular congregation or as an agnostic living among believers. What impact has religion on our decision-making and action? Two kinds of impact have been considered: religious goals are likely to constrain and color our behavior, but religion may also strengthen cognitive control in a more generic sense. While evidence supports both considerations, it remains a mystery how that works, that is, which mechanisms underlie the impact of religion on our decisions and action control. Here I suggest a preliminary mechanistic model accounting for this impact. It is based on the Theory of Event Coding (TEC), a general theory of human perception, attention, and action control, and the assumptions that goals are represented in a distributed fashion (as selection criteria) and that their impact is moderated by metacontrol, the current control style that varies between persistence and flexibility. The model is parsimonious (i.e., not religion-specific) and mechanistically transparent, and thus provides a solid basis for more systematic experimentation and theorizing.

Characterizing habit learning in the human brain at the individual and group levels: A multi-modal MRI study

The dual-process theory of action control postulates that there are two competitive and complementary mechanisms that control our behavior: a goal-directed system that executes deliberate actions, explicitly aimed toward a particular outcome, and a habitual system that autonomously execute well-learned actions, typically following an encounter with a previously associated cue. In line with the dual-process theory, animal studies have provided convincing evidence for dissociable neural mechanisms, mainly manifested in cortico-striatal regions, involved in goal-directed and habitual action control. While substantial progress has been made in characterizing the neural mechanism underlying habit learning in animals, we still lack knowledge on how habits are formed and maintained in the human brain. Thus far only one study, conducted more than a decade ago by Tricomi et al. (2009), has been able to induce habitual behavior in humans via extensive training. This study also implicated the posterior putamen in the process, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). However, recent attempts to replicate the behavioral results of this study were not successful. This leaves the research of human habits, and particularly the research of their formation through extensive repetition, as well as their neural basis, limited and far behind the animal research in the field. This motivated us to (1) attempt to replicate the behavioral and imaging main findings of Tricomi et al., (2) identify further functional and microstructural neural modifications associated with habit formation and manifestation, and (3) investigate the relationships between functional and structural plasticity and individual differences in habit expression. To this end, in this registered report we used Tricomi et al.’s free-operant task along with multi-modal MRI methods in a well-powered sample (n=123). In this task participants’ sensitivity to outcome devaluation (an index of goal-directed/habitual action control) is tested following either short or extensive training. In contrast to our hypothesis, we were not able to demonstrate habit formation as a function of training duration nor were we able to relate any functional or microstructural plasticity in the putamen with individual habit expression. We found that a pattern of increased activations in the left head of caudate that reoccurred across each day's training was associated with goal directed behavior and that increased processing of devalued cues in low-level visual regions was indicative of goal-directed behavior. In a follow-up exploratory analysis comparing habitual and goal-directed subgroups within each experimental group, we found that elevated activations in frontoparietal regions during early stages of training, as well as increased reactivity towards still-valued cues in somatosensory and superior parietal regions, were found in individuals that were more inclined to perform goal-directed behavior (compared with more habitual individuals). Taken together, regions commonly implicated in goal-directed behavior were most predictive of individual habit expression. Finally, we also found that differential patterns of training-related microstructural plasticity, as measured with diffusion MRI, in midbrain dopaminergic regions were associated with habit expression. This work provides new insights into the neural dynamics involved in individual habit formation/expression and encourages the development and testing of new, more sensitive, procedures for experimental habit induction in humans.

Individual differences in action-state orientation moderate task difficulty effects on effort-related cardiac response.

A quasi experiment (N=100 university students) tested whether individual differences in action-state orientation moderate task difficulty effects on resource mobilization assessed as cardiovascular response. According to action control theory, action-oriented individuals have higher self-regulation capacities in demanding situations than state-oriented persons. Action-orientated individuals should also self-generate positive affect in face of obstacles. Therefore, drawing on Wright's (1998) ability extension of motivational intensity theory and research on affective influences on effort-related cardiovascular response, we expected that action-orientation should lead to stronger effort-related cardiovascular responses in a difficult task, while state-orientation should do so in an easy task. Reactivity of cardiac pre-ejection period (PEP) during performance on a short-term memory task corroborated this hypothesis. The present findings provide the first evidence of a link between action-state orientation and effort-related responses in the cardiovascular system.

Overcoming Procrastination: Time Pressure and Positive Affect as Compensatory Routes to Action

The current work seeks to identify factors that support action initiation from the theoretical lens of self-regulation. Specifically, we focus on factors that reduce procrastination, the delay of the initiation or completion of activities. We draw from action control theory and propose that positive affect operates as a personal and time pressure as a situational factor that unblock routes to action. High positive affect makes people less prone to procrastination because positive affect reduces behavioral inhibition and facilitates the enactment of intentions. By contrast, when positive affect is low, people depend on time pressure as an action facilitating stimulus. We present results of a daily diary study with 108 participants that support our hypotheses. We replicate the findings in the context of work in a second daily diary study with 154 employees. We discuss benefits and drawbacks of the enactment of intentions under time pressure and implications of the results for how to reduce procrastination.

Extending the technology acceptance model of college learners' mobile‐assisted language learning by incorporating psychological constructs

AbstractFew studies have investigated the extension of the technology acceptance model (TAM) of mobile‐assisted language learning (MALL) by incorporating psychological influence factors. We aimed to determine the factors affecting the continued adoption of MALL by college‐age students of English as a foreign language (EFL). We extended the TAM by adding psychological constructs from action control theory and the concept of intrinsic motivation. Data from a large‐scale survey of 557 Taiwanese college EFL students recruited through online convenience sampling were analysed through structural equation modelling. The results revealed that the significant predictors of behavioural intention were its antecedents. Three crucial psychological factors, namely nonpreoccupation, nonhesitation, and nonvolatility, significantly predicted behavioural intention. Perceived ubiquity value, tasks, and mobile self‐efficacy were strong predictors of intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation significantly predicted behavioural intention through perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Finally, perceived ease of use had a moderate effect on behavioural intention through perceived usefulness. The satisfactory explanatory power of the extended model was indicated by the explained variance (R2) of 80% for behavioural intention. This extended TAM may contribute to the long‐term development of MALL. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Mobile technology has been widely adopted to enhance language learning. However, few studies have investigated individuals' adoption of mobile‐assisted language learning (MALL). Factors affecting users' behavioural intention to accept an information system have been researched extensively. The technology acceptance model (TAM) has been extensively used to investigate users' acceptance of different technology in various contexts. What this paper adds This study extended the TAM by incorporating psychological factors to predict the behavioural intention of learners to continue using mobile technology in language learning. The three action‐oriented psychological antecedents (nonpreoccupation, nonhesitation, and nonvolatility) used in the model significantly predicted EFL college learners' behavioural intention to continue using mobile devices for language learning. One major factor (intrinsic motivation) significantly affected continued behavioural intention to engage in MALL through perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Implications for practice and/or policy Teachers should incorporate various warm‐ups, collaborative activities, and positive feedback from others to MALL tasks to reduce feelings of negativity for state‐oriented learners and increase willingness to accept MALL for action‐oriented learners. Teachers and developers of MALL systems can promote its acceptance by prioritising usable interfaces and enjoyable, challenging tasks in the design of MALL systems to increase learners' intrinsic motivation and perceptions of usefulness and ease of use. Technical guidance, clear and brief operation orientation sessions, and immediate support should be offered to assist learners in engaging in MALL tasks.

The Me-File: An Event-Coding Approach to Self-Representation.

Numerous authors have taken it for granted that people represent themselves or even have something like “a self”, but the underlying mechanisms remain a mystery. How do people represent themselves? Here I propose that they do so not any differently from how they represent other individuals, events, and objects: by binding codes representing the sensory consequences of being oneself into a Me-File, that is, into an event file integrating all the codes resulting from the behaving me. This amounts to a Humean bundle-self theory of selfhood, and I will explain how recent extensions of the Theory of Event Coding, a general theory of human perception and action control, provide all the necessary ingredients for specifying the mechanisms underlying such a theory. The Me-File concept is likely to provide a useful mechanistic basis for more specific and more theoretically productive experimentation, as well as for the construction of artificial agents with human-like selves.

Sexual Attentional Bias in Young Adult Heterosexual Men: Attention Allocation Following Self-Regulation.

Being sexually aroused can lead to a stronger propensity to engage in sexual risk-taking and sexually coercive behaviors possibly by narrowing attentional focus toward immediate gratification rather than long-term consequences. The goal of this paper was to investigate the attentional processes implicated in sexual self-regulation failure and its moderating factors, namely having a stronger sensitivity to sexual cues (dual control model) or being less able to implement behavioral intentions (action control theory) following a first effortful task. A total of 82 young adult heterosexual men completed a Dot Probe task to assess their attentional bias toward sexual stimuli. Effortful control was manipulated using a Stroop task. Regardless of conditions, higher sexual excitability was predictive of a stronger attentional bias toward sexual cues, while higher inhibition due to threat of performance failure was predictive of a lower bias for such cues. In the experimental condition, action-oriented individuals were able to negate this attentional bias by staying more focused on the task, while state-oriented participants showed higher orientation toward the sexual cues and thus a higher bias. These results suggest that both higher-order processes, like intention implementation, and lower-order processes, like sexual inhibition and excitation systems, are the key to regulation failure.

Volition in Sports

Abstract. Volition is an essential component of sport and exercise. It comprises self-regulation processes complementing motivation to facilitate successful action. Therefore, sport psychological interventions or psychological skills training largely involve volition. Essentially, three theoretical approaches to volition have stimulated sport psychological research: the theory of action control, the Rubicon model of action phases, and the resource depletion model. These three models will be outlined and evaluated with regard to their contribution to sport psychological research. Despite their contributions, research on the exact mechanisms underlying volition is still in its infancy. Based on new developments involving affective neuroscience and self-control success, potential mechanisms are suggested. Subsequently, we discuss how these developments can advance the aforementioned well-established theories.

Diagnostic Assessment of L2 Academic Writing Product, Process and Self-regulatory Strategy Use with a Comparative Dimension

ABSTRACT This research conducted diagnostic assessment of problems in first-year undergraduates’ English academic papers and tracked potential sources of the problems to the writing process and strategy use. Data collected include 339 term papers and interviews with 17 students. The samples were manually error tagged and marked against a detailed diagnostic checklist. The resultant textual features were then compared between two subgroups of Chinese students in the sample, namely, those graduating from local schools in Hong Kong (LS) and those coming from the mainland and sojourning in Hong Kong (MS). The analyses found both groups had the poorest performance in source integration and vocabulary use. LS used simpler words and made more grammatical errors, whereas MS attempted sophisticated vocabulary more successfully and used a wider variety of words and sentence structures. The difficulties they experienced, however, were rather similar, residing mainly at the researching, planning and formulating stages. Action control theory was introduced to interpret the self-regulatory strategies they adopted to cope with perceived difficulties during the writing process. Strategies to control goals, control resources, and control cognitive load were found to be the most typical. While these strategies could reduce their difficulties, only some seemed also to help with performance. A conceptual framework is proposed at the end to link writing products, process and self-regulatory control strategies as evidenced in the study. Four diagnoses are drawn with suggestions for practice and further research.

Endurance and avoidance response patterns in pain patients: Application of action control theory in pain research.

BackgroundIdentifying pain-related response patterns and understanding functional mechanisms of symptom formation and recovery are important for improving treatment.ObjectivesWe aimed to replicate pain-related avoidance-endurance response patterns associated with the Fear-Avoidance Model, and its extension, the Avoidance-Endurance Model, and examined their differences in secondary measures of stress, action control (i.e., dispositional action vs. state orientation), coping, and health.MethodsLatent profile analysis (LPA) was conducted on self-report data from 536 patients with chronic non-specific low back pain at the beginning of an inpatient rehabilitation program. Measures of stress (i.e., pain, life stress) and action control were analyzed as covariates regarding their influence on the formation of different pain response profiles. Measures of coping and health were examined as dependent variables.ResultsPartially in line with our assumptions, we found three pain response profiles of distress-avoidance, eustress-endurance, and low-endurance responses that are depending on the level of perceived stress and action control. Distress-avoidance responders emerged as the most burdened, dysfunctional patient group concerning measures of stress, action control, maladaptive coping, and health. Eustress-endurance responders showed one of the highest levels of action versus state orientation, as well as the highest levels of adaptive coping and physical activity. Low-endurance responders reported lower levels of stress as well as equal levels of action versus state orientation, maladaptive coping, and health compared to eustress-endurance responders; however, equally low levels of adaptive coping and physical activity compared to distress-avoidance responders.ConclusionsApart from the partially supported assumptions of the Fear-Avoidance and Avoidance-Endurance Model, perceived stress and dispositional action versus state orientation may play a crucial role in the formation of pain-related avoidance-endurance response patterns that vary in degree of adaptiveness. Results suggest tailoring interventions based on behavioral and functional analysis of pain responses in order to more effectively improve patients quality of life.

The Construction of College Students’ Habit Guidance System based on Action Control Theory

In modern society with rich information, the behavior of college students born after the year 2000 shows new characteristics. In the face of temptations, as well as the significant differences in learning methods between universities and high schools, freshmen are prone to be confused and shaken in their self-control, which brings pressure of academic difficulties. In order to help freshmen quickly adapt to the university learning methods and develop good learning habits, based on the theory of behavior control, this paper constructs the habit guidance system of freshmen from three aspects: Students’ network behavior, work and rest habits, and reading interest. We achieved satisfactory results through two years’ practice in Beihang University.

Reaching goals through different means: will and cognition in the action of people with low and high action control

BackgroundWhen observing how people strive to achieve their goals, we can discern two main styles. Some people accomplish their goals mainly through strong will while others may need additional and compound plans to rely on. Two different modes of implemen-tation of intentional behavior are explored.Participants and procedureTwo correlational studies on young Polish adults (N = 227 and N = 516) were performed. Structural equations and modeling techniques using the partial least squares (PLS) method were used to verify the predictions.ResultsThe first investigation revealed that the intention of saving money is achieved through the mechanism of implementation inten-tion. It was found that people with a low level of action control (state-orientation) and people with a high level of action control (action-orientation) implement a similar level of saving behavior. However, they do so in different ways. Action-oriented partic-ipants also seemed to make plans, and these plans supported goal attainment, though this process did not affect behavior to the same degree as for state-oriented participants. The results are discussed, drawing on the Julius Kuhl Action Control Theory as well as its explication which is the Theory of Personality Systems Interactions.ConclusionsThe present research indicates that cognitive mechanisms may compensate for volitional deficits (planning behavior) in people with low action control, whereas in the case of people with a high level of action control their will (intensification of intentions) plays a crucial role.

Convergent Validity of the Self-Determination Inventory: Student Report

This study examined the convergent validity of scores on the Self-Determination Inventory: Student Report, a newly developed assessment of self-determination aligned with Causal Agency Theory with related assessments associated with hope theory (Children’s Hope Scale; CHS), self-determination theory (Perceived Choice and Awareness of Self Scale; PCASS, formerly the Self-Determination Scale), and action-control theory (Control and Means-End Interview; CAMI) in adolescents with and without disabilities of varying race/ethnicities. Measurement invariance was established across the groups, but differences in the patterns of correlations across disability and racial/ethnic groups were found. Generally, as hypothesized, the relationships between the assessments were moderate to high, except for the perceived choice subscale of the PCASS. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Taking Action or Thinking About It? State Orientation and Rumination Are Correlated in Athletes.

Athletic performance in competitive sports relies heavily on the ability to cope effectively with stressful situations. In contrast, some athletes report that their thoughts revolve around the future or past and not around the actual demands during competitions. In those specific stressful situations, the lack of focus like an unintended fixation on repetitive cognitions can have fatal consequences with regard to the performance. Especially when competitors are close in their athletic capabilities, differences in effectively coping with stress and mental stability may decide about winning and losing. One established factor of performing effectively under pressure is the individual tendency to either focus on taking action (i.e., action orientation) or on focusing on the own emotions (i.e., state orientation). It is widely acknowledged that state-oriented athletes have disadvantages in performing under stress. Moreover, the action control theory claims that state orientation is related to ruminative cognitions, which itself is assumed to impair performance in the long term. We tested this hypothesis in 157 competitive athletes from different sports (including individual and team sports). Regression analysis demonstrates a substantial correlation of failure-related action orientation (i.e., state orientation) with different measures of rumination (including general, clinically relevant, and competition-related rumination). In addition, general (i.e., content independent) rumination also correlated substantially with a rumination scale adapted specifically to sports-related competition. These results suggest (1) that a sports and competition-related ruminative mechanism exists and (2) that ruminative cognitions are related to the cognitive basis of state orientation. While our study does not allow for a causal interpretation, it provides an additional approach to investigate mental factors underlying inter-individual differences in athletic performance under stress and pressure.

The Structural and Functional Signature of Action Control

Individuals differ in their ability to initiate self- and emotional-control mechanisms. These differences have been explicitly described in Kuhl’s action-control theory. Although interindividual differences in action control make a major contribution to our everyday life, their neural foundation remains unknown. Here, we measured action control in a sample of 264 healthy adults and related interindividual differences in action control to variations in brain structure and resting-state connectivity. Our results demonstrate a significant negative correlation between decision-related action orientation (AOD) and amygdala volume. Further, we showed that the functional resting-state connectivity between the amygdala and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex was significantly associated with AOD. Specifically, stronger functional connectivity was associated with higher AOD scores. These findings are the first to show that interindividual differences in action control, namely AOD, are based on the anatomical architecture and functional network of the amygdala.

Giving in when feeling less good: Procrastination, action control, and social temptations.

Emotion-regulation perspectives on procrastination highlighting the primacy of short-term mood regulation focus mainly on negative affect. Positive affect, however, has received much less attention and has not been considered with respect to social temptations. To address this issue, we examined how trait procrastination was linked to positive and negative affect in the context of social temptations across two prospective studies. Action Control Theory, Personality Systems Interactions Theory, and a mood regulation theory of procrastination served as guiding conceptual frameworks. In Study 1, moderated mediation analyses revealed that low positive affect explained the link between trait procrastination and time spent procrastinating on academic tasks over a 48-hr period in a student sample (N=142), and this effect was moderated by the presence of social temptations. Parallel results for goal enjoyment assessed at Time 2 were found in Study 2 with a community sample (N=94) attempting to make intended health behaviour changes over a 6-month period. Our findings indicate that procrastinators are at risk for disengaging from intended tasks when social temptations are present and positive task-related affect is low.

Stress Moderates the Association between Action Orientation and Goal Internalization

The purpose of this study is to examine whether stress moderates the association between action-state orientation and goal internalization. People estimated how autonomous (vs. controlled) they would feel if they pursued goals of either an extrinsic or an intrinsic type. Measures of action orientation and stressful life events were also taken. Results showed that autonomy of goal motive for action orientation was moderated by stress (failure-related and demanding) situation. Action-oriented people have less internalized goal than state-oriented people in stress situation. Implication for self-determination theory and action-control theory is discussed.

Action control, L2 motivational self system, and motivated learning behavior in a foreign language learning context

Theoretical developments in second or foreign language motivation research have led to a better understanding of the convoluted nature of motivation in the process of language acquisition. Among these theories, action control theory has recently shown a good deal of explanatory power in second language learning contexts and in the presence of other motivation models. Despite this, the potential of this theory has not been seriously examined in foreign language contexts and its relevance to more recent motivation models has not been tested. Having this in mind, an effort was made in this study to evaluate a proposed model including three components of action control theory (hesitation, preoccupation, and volatility), three constituents of L2 motivational self system (ideal L2 self, ought-to L2 self, and learning experience) and learners’ motivated behavior in an Iranian context. Five hundred ten Iranian high school students who studied English as a foreign language in three language institutes completed two questionnaires containing items on the dimensions of actions control theory (ACS-90), the components of L2 motivational self system and also learners’ motivated behavior. The final model demonstrated some negative impacts of hesitation, preoccupation, and volatility on learners’ motivated behavior and their L2 learning experience. Iranian learners’ ideal L2 self and L2 learning experience were found as the main motivators stimulating learners’ motivated behavior. Their ideal L2 self and volatility positively correlated with each other and there was a negative relationship between learners’ ought-to L2 self and hesitation. The study concludes with certain pedagogical implications.

Translation and adaptation of the action control scale aimed at nursing care

The study aimed to describe the of translation and adaptation phases of the questionnaire HAKEMP 90 to the Brazilian version. Derived from the Action Control Theory, the questionnaire consists of 36 items that identify the orientation towards action or state. The Spanish version was translated into Portuguese, back-translated into Spanish, reassessed by bilingual translators and tested in five nursing students. In the Brazilian version, the questionnaire kept the original format and nine items underwent replacement of terms for semantic equivalence. The fundamental concepts to investigate the action or state were kept in all stages. The cross-cultural adaptation to Portuguese language resulted in an appropriate tool, with understanding and agreement between the items. The adapted questionnaire represented a valuable resource for the student's success as a diagnostic tool, by enabling the early detection of risk factors for poor performance in specific situations.