7 - effort, planning, and habits

Question 1

define habits

Answer 1

memory based actions activated by a specific cue, formed by the repetition of cue-specific behaviours in stable contexts

Question 2

goal setting predictivity

Answer 2

LOW; the intention-behaviour gap is significant, making goals a weak predictor of actual behaviour

Question 3

mental contrasting technique of goal setting

Answer 3

indulging involves imagining the positive/desirable outcome
dwelling is identifying legitimate obstacles
comparing these undermines present reality and makes the obstacles seem easy to overcome

Question 4

mindset theory of action phases [goals]

Answer 4

predecisional = deliberation
preactional = planning implementation
actional = execution
postactional = evaluation

Question 5

implementation intentions [goals]

Answer 5

Forming if-when plans creates a cognitive representation of the task and the necessary steps
The ‘if’ becomes a cue and the ‘when’ becomes a learned response activated by the cue
= easily accessed habits

Question 6

effort - resource conservation principle

Answer 6

course of action will be selected based on minimising the actions/effort and conserving energy expenditure
overarching goal of all bioenergetic systems

Question 7

effort capacity

Answer 7

limited and finite - in simultaneous tasks, energy is a problem and tasks must be prioritised

Question 8

effort as a measure of opportunity costs

Answer 8

akin to mental fatigue/boredom; output of effort alerts us to when we must conserve energy or reprioritise

Question 9

cardiovascular measure of effort

Answer 9

cardiovascular = reactivity during the pre-ejection period [PEP] signals effort

Question 10

reactivity measure of effort

Answer 10

task difficulty reactions = when task difficulty increases, reactivity also increases
& impossible tasks / low perception of own ability lowered reactivity
high incentives can make up for low ability and increase reactivity [/effort]

Question 11

motivational intensity theory [effort]

Answer 11

the intensity of effort applied to a task is dependent on the potential motivation
-input of resources and effort is weighed up against predicted outcome
-as task difficulty increases, the outcome is outweighed by the amount of effort expended
-when the task has unknown difficulty, amount of effort is drawn directly from the height of potential motivation