Does cognitive control predict everyday emotions and control strategies? An ecological momentary assessment study

Abstract

Background: This study aims to examine the associations of cognitive control with positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA), and control strategies (Heckhausen, 1998) in everyday life. It is hypothesized that cognitive control is associated with higher PA, lower NA, higher primary control strategies, and lower secondary control strategies. Methods: A total of 108 younger and older adults were recruited and administered the Simon Task for assessing cognitive control. Following the baseline assessment, the participants reported their PA, NA, and four control strategies, namely primary selective, primary compensatory, secondary selective, and secondary compensatory control, five times a day over seven days. Multilevel modeling was used to test the study hypothesis. All models consisted of two levels, sessions (Level 1) and individuals (Level 2). Level 1 included PA, NA, and the four control strategies (dependent variables), whereas Level 2 included the scores on cognitive control (independent variable). Findings: Cognitive control significantly predicted primary selective control (β=0.02, SE=0.01, p=0.02), but not PA (β=0.02, SE=0.01, p=0.11), NA (β=-0.00, SE=0.01, p=0.90), primary compensatory control (β=0.01, SE=0.01, p=0.23), secondary selective control (β=0.02, SE=0.01, p=0.15), and secondary compensatory control (β=0.02, SE=0.01, p=0.13). Discussion: Participants who have higher cognitive control might invest more cognitive resources for primary selective control strategies, which facilitate attainment of important personal goals. Age-related differences in cognitive control and their associations with everyday emotions and control strategies will be discussed.