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The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies
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Pre-crastination across physical and cognitive tasks.

Adi David1, Justyne Ingwu1, Nicole Meselsohn1

  • 1Psychology Program, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, USA.

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)
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People tend to start tasks early, a behavior called pre-crastination, even if it means more work. This tendency to pre-crastinate is consistent across different types of tasks, suggesting it

Keywords:
Cognitive loadpre-crastinationtask ordering

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Behavioral Science

Background:

  • Pre-crastination is the tendency to initiate tasks prematurely, often incurring extra effort.
  • Previous research observed pre-crastination in physical tasks where individuals chose closer objects, increasing carrying distance.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if the tendency to pre-crastinate is a stable individual characteristic across different task types.
  • To examine pre-crastination behavior in both physical and cognitive load tasks.

Main Methods:

  • Participants engaged in a physical load task involving carrying buckets to a target.
  • The same participants performed a cognitive load task requiring mental carrying of number strings.
  • Pre-crastination tendencies were measured in both task conditions.

Main Results:

  • Participants exhibited pre-crastination in both physical and cognitive tasks.
  • The tendency to pre-crastinate decreased as task difficulty increased.
  • A significant correlation was found between pre-crastination in physical and cognitive tasks.

Conclusions:

  • An individual's tendency to pre-crastinate is consistent across different task domains.
  • Pre-crastination appears to be a stable trait influencing task initiation and ordering.