title: Fake feedback on pain tolerance impacts proactive versus reactive control strategies.
abstract: It is well-known that beliefs about one's own ability to execute a task influence task performance. Here, we tested the hypothesis that beliefs about a specific self-control capacity, namely pain tolerance, modulate basic cognitive control processes. Participants received fake comparative social feedback that their ability to tolerate painful stimulations was either very poor or outstanding after which they performed an unrelated go/no-go task. Participants receiving low-tolerance feedback, relative to high-tolerance feedback, were less successful at inhibiting their responses and more influenced by previous trial conditions, as indicated by an increased slowdown following errors and more failed inhibitions following go-trials. These observations demonstrate a shift from a more proactive to a more reactive control mode. This study shows that providing feedback about one's own capacity to control impulsive reactions to painful stimulations directly influences low-level cognitive control dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. Electronic address: davide.rigoni@ugent.be.
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rigoni
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Senne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Braem
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
authors.forename: Gilles
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pourtois
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium; Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brass
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D008192:Deception; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D030141:Feedback, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D058748:Pain Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Belief; Cognitive control; Pain tolerance; Post-error slowing; Proactive; Reactive; Self-control