On the Waxing and Waning of Working Memory: Action Orientation Moderates the Impact of Demanding Relationship Primes on Working Memory Capacity

The present research examined how actionversus state-oriented individuals (Kuhl & Beckmann, 1994) utilize their working memory capacity under varying situational demands. Participants visualized either a demanding or an accepting person, after which their working memory capacity was assessed. Am...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality & social psychology bulletin 2006-12, Vol.32 (12), p.1716-1728
Main Authors: Jostmann, Nils B., Koole, Sander L.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Action orientation
Adult
Attention
Female
Humans
Individuality
Intention
Internal-External Control
Male
Memory
Memory, Short-Term
Middle Aged
Motivation
Personality traits
Problem Solving
Psychology
Schemas
Self Concept
Verbal Learning
Visualization
Working memory
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Summary:The present research examined how actionversus state-oriented individuals (Kuhl & Beckmann, 1994) utilize their working memory capacity under varying situational demands. Participants visualized either a demanding or an accepting person, after which their working memory capacity was assessed. Among action-oriented participants, visualizing a demanding person led to greater operation spans (Study 1) and superior memory for intention-related information (Study 2) than visualizing an accepting person. State-oriented participants displayed the opposite pattern, such that visualizing an accepting person led to greater operation spans (Study 1) and superior memory for intentions (Study 2) than visualizing a demanding person. These findings indicate that action versus state orientation moderates the impact of situational demands on working memory capacity.
ISSN:0146-1672
1552-7433
DOI:10.1177/0146167206292595