Impulsive decision-making and impulse control (CheckmyControl)

Background

The wider literature almost exclusively describes impulsivity in terms of either stable trait or variable state. Trait-level impulsivity refers to a general propensity to be impulsive and is typically assessed using self-report surveys in personality/social psychology. Variable state impulsivity, by contrast, is usually measured in cognitive psychology laboratories via a range of computerised behavioural tasks (such as the temporal discounting and stop-signal tasks) and is thought to provide a snapshot of how someone might behave in response to a given stimulus or manipulation. Generally, there is little to no correlation between self-report surveys of trait impulsivity and computerised task measures of behavioural state impulsivity. The literature to date postulates several interrelated reasons for this. Self-report measures are subjective. They rely on individuals having adequate self-awareness of their own emotions, thoughts, and behaviours. They have high face validity – questions clearly look like they are probing aspects of impulsivity – but this can also be a weakness, as participants may be motivated to be dishonest when responding to questions. Self-report measures require individuals to consider their average level of impulsivity. As such, they provide insight into a general tendency to be impulsive but are limited in their ability to predict this behaviour in specific situations. On the other hand, behavioural tasks are considered more objective. They do not require self-awareness, and it is difficult for participants to misrepresent their level of impulsivity. These tasks are thought to capture state, or situational, impulsivity. In principle, this means they enable us to consider variations in impulsivity that might arise in response to specific stimuli/situations. Relying on one-time laboratory-based measures of impulsivity to inform our understanding of impulsive behaviour might not be ecologically valid, however, as performance in the laboratory might not generalise to real-world settings. Arousal – that is, heightened positive or negative emotion – may be the missing link between trait and state measures of impulsivity. It is possible that people with high trait-level impulsivity – assessed via self-report surveys – may only exhibit heightened behavioural state-level impulsivity – captured via computerised tasks – when sufficiently aroused. This would mean people with a tendency toward impulsive decision-making might only exhibit difficulties with impulse control when experiencing heightened emotions. Recently, Johnson and colleagues (2016) began investigating this proposition by subjecting participants to manipulations designed to induce positive emotion. They found reduced inhibitory control (or impulse control) – assessed via a behavioural anti-saccade task – emerged only when participants who reported high (but not low) trait-level impulsivity were exposed to the manipulations. Our work seeks to replicate and expand on Johnson's work.

Research Questions / Hypotheses

It is anticipated that individuals with self-reported high trait-level impulsivity will show heightened behavioural task impulsivity when subjected to negative and positive – but not neutral – mood inductions, whereas those individuals with low trait-level impulsivity will show no change in behavioural impulsivity across negative, positive or neutral mood induction conditions.

Participants

N = 211 19 did not complete baseline 33 did not complete Time 2 n = 159 (before cognitive task exclusions)

Methods

  1. Complete baseline online surveys and game-like computerised cognitive tasks at home on own computer or laptop (NOT tablet or smartphone).
  2. Attend the laboratory where participants might be subject to a mood induction (using music, pictures, videos or narratives to try and change mood), asked about current mood, and required to repeat the game-like computerised cognitive tasks.

Results

Data collection is ongoing but a mixed repeated measures ANOVA will likely be implemented to determine whether participants with high trait-level impulsivity (in the form positive urgency) showed high state level impulsivity (in the form choice impulsivity or response inhibition) following positive arousal (and not following control/neutral arousal).

Implications

Data collection is ongoing but preliminary results may be presented at the ACNS 2025 conference and will be foundational to grant applications.