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Updated: May 23, 2026

Multimodal Protocol for Assessing Metacognition and Self-Regulation in Adults with Learning Difficulties
Published on: September 27, 2020
Prioritizing association strength versus value: the influence of self-regulatory modes on means evaluation in single
Edward Orehek1, Romina Mauro, Arie W Kruglanski
1Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands. eorehek@psyc.umd.edu
Abstract:
Means of goal attainment are said to be multifinal when they are capable of attaining more than 1 goal at the same time. Such means have an advantage over unifinal means because they have the potential to attain greater overall value. However, they have the disadvantage (relative to unifinal means) of diluting the association between the means and each of the goals (Zhang, Fishbach, & Kruglanski, 2007). In turn,diluted association strength is often interpreted as reduced means’ instrumentality. Given these tradeoffs between value (favoring a multifinal option) and instrumentality (favoring the unifinal option), the question is under what conditions 1 or the other would be selected. Based on regulatory mode theory(Higgins, Kruglanski, & Pierro, 2003; Kruglanski et al., 2000), we predicted and found in 5 experiments that individuals operating in a locomotion self-regulatory mode prefer a unifinal to multifinal means,whereas individuals operating in an assessment mode prefer multifinal to unifinal means. Implications of these findings for self-regulatory phenomena are discussed.
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