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The role of supportive messages and distracting thoughts on everyday problem-solving performance
Kristopher J Kimbler1, Jennifer A Margrett, Tara L Johnson
1Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers, FL 33965-6565, USA. kkimbler@fgcu.edu
Unlabelled:
BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: An increasing number of studies have examined factors related to everyday problem-solving performance across adulthood. The current study examined the role of experimentally provided supportive messages intended to provide practical or emotional support on everyday problem-solving performance. Other factors such as participant age and distracting thoughts experienced during task completion were also investigated.
Methods:
Everyday problem-solving performance, verbal ability performance, inductive reasoning performance, and self-reports of distracting thoughts were obtained from 54 middle-aged and 48 older adults. Participants were also exposed to practically supportive messages, emotionally supportive messages, or no supportive messages prior to completing the everyday problem-solving task.
Results:
Exposure to emotionally supportive messages increased task performance and lowered levels of distracting thoughts. Distracting thoughts mediated the relation between exposure to emotionally supportive messages and everyday problem-solving performance. Distracting thoughts also mediated the relation between age and everyday problem-solving performance.
Conclusion:
Study findings indicate that emotionally supportive messages may increase everyday problem-solving performance by decreasing the amount of distracting thoughts experienced by participants. This finding suggests that consistent administration of emotionally supportive messages could result in more optimal everyday problem-solving performance among middle-aged and older adults.
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