title: Adapting to an initial self-regulatory task cancels the ego depletion effect.
abstract: The resource-based model of self-regulation provides a pessimistic view of self-regulation that people are destined to lose their self-control after having engaged in any act of self-regulation because these acts deplete the limited resource that people need for successful self-regulation. The cognitive control theory, however, offers an alternative explanation and suggests that the depletion effect reflects switch costs between different cognitive control processes recruited to deal with demanding tasks. This account implies that the depletion effect will not occur once people have had the opportunity to adapt to the self-regulatory task initially engaged in. Consistent with this idea, the present study showed that engaging in a demanding task led to performance deficits on a subsequent self-regulatory task (i.e. the depletion effect) only when the initial demanding task was relatively short but not when it was long enough for participants to adapt. Our results were unrelated to self-efficacy, mood, and motivation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Peking University, China. Electronic address: dangjunhua@pku.org.cn.
authors.forename: Junhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dang
authors.forename: Siegfried
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dewitte
authors.forename: Lihua
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mao
authors.forename: Shanshan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Yucai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shi
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D004532:Ego; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012649:Self Concept; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Adaptation; Cognitive control; Ego depletion; Self-regulation