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.
Department of Psychology, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. maddox@psy.utexas.edu
W Todd
WT
Maddox
J Vincent
JV
Filoteo
Brian D
BD
Glass
Arthur B
AB
Markman
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