Regulatory match effects on a modified Wisconsin Card Sort Task.
The Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST; Heaton, 1980) is commonly used to assess concept formation and set shifting. Cognitive research suggests that set shifting performance is enhanced by a match between a person's regulatory focus (promotion focus: attempting to earn an entry into a cash drawing; prevention focus: attempting to avoid losing an entry into the drawing) and the task reward structure (gains: attempting to maximize points gained; losses: attempting to minimize points lost). A regulatory match results when attempting to earn an entry by maximizing points or attempting to avoid losing an entry by minimizing losses. We test the hypothesis that performance on a modified WCST is accentuated in younger, healthy participants when there is a match between the global performance incentive and the local task reward structure. As predicted, participants in a match showed better set shifting but equivalent initial concept formation when compared with participants in a mismatch. Furthermore, relative to a baseline control group, mismatch participants were significantly worse at set shifting than were participants in a regulatory match. These results suggest that set shifting performance might be impacted by incentive and task reward factors in ways that have not been considered previously.
Maddox
W Todd
WT
Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. maddox@psy.utexas.edu
Filoteo
J Vincent
JV
Glass
Brian D
BD
Markman
Arthur B
AB
D000368:Aged; D003071:Cognition; D003210:Concept Formation; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011678:Punishment; D012201:Reward