Study 1 demonstrated that as individuals' promotion-related ideal strength increases, performance on an anagram task is greater for a monetary task incentive framed in terms of gains and nongains (i.e., promotion framed) than one framed in terms of losses and nonlosses (i.e., prevention framed), whereas the reverse is true as individuals' prevention-related ought strength increases. Study 2 further demonstrated that with promotion-framed task incentives, individuals' ideal' strength increases motivation for promotion-related goal attainment means (gaining points), whereas with prevention-framed task incentives, individuals' ought strength increases motivation for prevention-related means (avoiding losing points). These results suggest that motivation and performance are greater when the regulatory focus of task incentives and means match (vs. mismatch) the chronic regulatory focus of the performers.

Perception and personality : a symposium

Performance incentives and means: How regulatory focus influences goal attainment.

The study investigated selective processing of emotional information in anxiety and depression using a modified Stroop color naming task. Anxious (n = 19), depressed (n = 18), and normal control (n = 18) subjects were required to name the background colors of anxiety-related, depression-related, positive, categorized, and uncategorized neutral words. Half of the words were presented supraliminally, half subliminally. Anxious subjects, compared with depressed and normal subjects, showed relatively slower color naming for both supraliminal and subliminal negative words. The results suggest a preattentive processing bias for negative information in anxiety. According to Beck's schema model, anxiety and depression are each characterized by mood-congruent biases that operate throughout all aspects of processing, such as attention, reasoning, and memory (Beck, 1976; Beck, Emery, & Greenberg, 1986; Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979). Anxiety and depression are presumed to differ in terms of the content of the processing bias. According to this content-specificity hypothesis, anxious individuals selectively process anxiety-relevant information, whereas depressed individuals selectively process depression-relevant information. The evidence for Beck's theory has been mixed. For example, several studies have suggested that anxiety is primarily associated with a bias in early aspects of processing such as attention (see Mathews, 1990, for a review), whereas depression is primarily associated with a bias in later stages of processing such as memory (for reviews, see Dalgleish & Watts, 1990; MacLeod,

/pdf/subliminal-processing-of-emotional-information-in-anxiety-22lwsrpxvr.pdf

Subliminal processing of emotional information in anxiety and depression

Theories of perception and the concept of structure : a review and critical analysis with an introduction to a dynamic-structural theory of behavior

Motivation and cognition were treated as separate concepts throughout most of twentieth-century psychology. However, in recent years researchers have begun viewing the two as inextricably intertwined: not only does what we want affect how we think, but how we think affects what we want. In this innovative study, Beswick presents a new general theory of cognitive motivation, synthesizing decades of existing research in social, cognitive and personality psychology. New basic concepts are applied to a wide range of purposive behaviour. Part I of the volume reviews different forms of cognitive motivation, such as curiosity, cognitive dissonance, achievement motivation, and the search for purpose and meaning, while Part II examines the basic processes that underlie it, such as working memory, attention and emotion. The central concept is the incomplete gestalt, in which motivation is generated by a universal striving to integrate information and make sense at all levels of cognitive organization.

Cognitive Motivation: From Curiosity to Identity, Purpose and Meaning

/pdf/a-theoretical-design-of-rational-autonomy-integrating-26scuqmz29.pdf

A theoretical design of rational autonomy : integrating elementary and early childhood teacher education through a contemporary derivation from Maria Montessori's social cognitive field paradigm

Perception and personality : a symposium

Citations

Performance incentives and means: How regulatory focus influences goal attainment.

Subliminal processing of emotional information in anxiety and depression

Theories of perception and the concept of structure : a review and critical analysis with an introduction to a dynamic-structural theory of behavior

Cognitive Motivation: From Curiosity to Identity, Purpose and Meaning

A theoretical design of rational autonomy : integrating elementary and early childhood teacher education through a contemporary derivation from Maria Montessori's social cognitive field paradigm

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