Trends in Cognitive Sciences
OpinionWhy self-control seems (but may not be) limited
Section snippets
Why self-control seems (but may not be) limited
Self-control refers to the mental processes that allow people to override their thoughts, emotions, and behaviors to keep them in line with overarching goals [1]. Whereas cognitive control relies on at least three separate (yet related) executive functions [2] – task switching, working-memory, and inhibition – at its heart, self-control is most clearly related to inhibitory cognitive control, whereby people restrain or inhibit dominant response tendencies, thereby allowing other more
Problems with the resource model of self-control
Nearly 30 years ago, David Navon tried to dispatch the concept of resources as it was then used in the psychology of attention [21]. He called resources ‘theoretical soup stones’, which are theoretical constructs that seem essential to understanding a phenomenon, but are actually unnecessary and provide little to no explanatory power (similar to how the stone was not needed to make soup in the fable of the hungry travelers). According to Navon, resources are seductive concepts that are easy to
The process model of self-control depletion
Extending and elaborating our earlier work on the topic [40], the process model integrates ideas from multiple lines of research and theory, including the opportunity cost model of performance [39], labor/leisure tradeoffs in cognitive control [20], and the psychology of fatigue [41]. What is noteworthy about our elaborated process model is that it addresses the apparent limits of control at multiple levels of analysis [42] (Figure 1). When asking why engaging in self-control at Time 1
Cognitive control without resources
Although not as immediately appealing as the resource model, our account is biologically plausible and consistent with current understanding of how the brain works. Although many pressing questions remain (Box 3), our model can accommodate most of the findings that are incompatible with the resource account [40]. For example, it suggests that watching TV, smoking cigarettes, and affirming core values all undermine depletion because they act as rewards that counteract the decreasing marginal
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by grants from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to M.I. We thank Jennifer Gutsell, Joseph Forgas, Eddie Harmon-Jones, Alexa Tullett, and Naomi Sarah Ball for insights and help along the way.
Glossary
- Ego depletion
- a state in which people are temporarily less successful at self-control. Although ego depletion is typically attributed to a short-term loss of mental energy due to previous efforts at control, we propose that ego depletion may instead be driven by effort-induced shifts in motivation, attention, and emotion.
- Glucose
- an important carbohydrate or sugar that is absorbed directly into the bloodstream during digestion. Glucose is widely used by many organisms as a cellular source of
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