Blind Typing and Reaction 1

Description

Previous work (Baumeister & Vohs , 2016) has suggested that actions that require willpower depend on a limited resource. This has been explored vastly using a dual-task paradigm. The paradigm studies whether people who do a more willpower-demanding version of Task 1 perform worse in a subsequent Task 2 relative to the people who do a less demanding version of Task 1 (the ego-depletion effect). This implies that both tasks require self-control and draw from the same pool of resources. But, many studies have made no effort to relate Task 1 and Task 2 to be similar. However, recent multi-lab efforts have either not found ego-depletion effect or found it to be weaker than anticipated (Lurquin et al., 2016; Hagger et al., 2016).

In the current study, we wish to examine how giving feedback to the participants will influence their self-control fatigue (ego-depletion). Therefore, we'll present participants with two tasks that require the inhibition of an habitual response. First, a blind typing task that inhibits the tendency to type words as they are written (2 groups: easy, difficult). Second, a Simon effect task (pressing a key on cue) that inhibits a lateralized response. During the second task, participants will be assigned to different feedback conditions pertaining their performance (3 groups: no feedback, low performance, high performance).

We believe that people who receive feedback implying they had a great performance will perform better and persist longer than those who receive feedback implying they had a poor performance, showcasing the importance of motivation. We also believe that the similar nature of the tasks will facilitate the ego-depletion effect, such that participants who received the more difficult instructions in the initial blind-typing task will perform worse in the Simon effect task.

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