TY  - JOUR
AU  - Steinborn, Michael B.
AU  - Langner, Robert
AU  - Huestegge, Lynn
TI  - Mobilizing cognition for speeded action: try-harder instructions promote motivated readiness in the constant-foreperiod paradigm
JO  - Psychological research
VL  - 81
IS  - 6
SN  - 1430-2772
CY  - Berlin
PB  - Springer
M1  - FZJ-2017-08480
SP  - 1135 - 1151
PY  - 2017
AB  - We examined the effect of motivational readiness on cognitive performance. An important but still not sufficiently elaborated question is whether individuals can voluntarily increase cognitive efficiency for an impending target event, given sufficient preparation time. Within the framework of the constant-foreperiod design (comparing reaction time performance in blocks of short and long foreperiod intervals, FPs), we examined the effect of an instruction to try harder (instructional cue: standard vs. effort) in a choice-reaction task on performance speed and variability. Proceeding from previous theoretical considerations, we expected the instruction to speed-up processing irrespective of FP length, while error rate should be increased in the short-FP but decreased in the long-FP condition. Overall, the results confirmed this prediction. Importantly, the distributional (ex-Gaussian and delta plot) analysis revealed that the instruction to try harder decreased distributional skewness (i.e., longer percentiles were more affected), indicating that mobilization ensured temporal performance stability (persistence).
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:27650820
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000413032800004
DO  - DOI:10.1007/s00426-016-0810-1
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/841405
ER  -