What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You: Uncertainty Impairs Executive Function

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Jessica L. Alquist¹  Roy F. Baumeister²  Dianne M. Tice³  Tammy J. Core¹ 

[1] Psychological Sciences, Texas Tech University, United States;Department of Psychology, The University of Queensland;Department of Psychology, Brigham Young University, United States

关键词: uncertainty;    executive function;    self-regulation;    self-control;    ego depletion;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.576001

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Three studies demonstrated that situational uncertainty impairs executive function on subsequent unrelated tasks. Participants were randomly assigned to either uncertain situations (not knowing whether they would have to give a speech later, Studies 1-2; uncertain about how to complete a task, Study 3) or control conditions. Uncertainty caused poor performance on tasks requiring executive function that were unrelated to the uncertainty manipulation. Uncertainty impaired performance even more than certainty of negative outcomes (might vs. definitely will have to make a speech). A meta-analysis of the experimental studies in this package found that the effect is small and reliable. One potential explanation for this effect of uncertainty on executive function is that uncertainty is a cue for conserving effort.

【 授权许可】

CC BY