• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Sandra Sünram-Lea

Nutrition and Cognition Research

  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Publications
  • News
  • Contact Me

A temporary deficiency in self-control: can heightened motivation overcome this effect?

Kelly, C., Crawford, T. J., Gowen, E., Richardson, K., & Sünram-Lea, S. I. (2017). A temporary deficiency in self-control: can heightened motivation overcome this effect? Psychophysiology, 54(5), 773-779.

May 17, 2017 By Prof. Sandra Sünram-Lea

Self-control is important for everyday life and involves behavioral regulation. Self-control requires effort, and when completing two successive self-control tasks, there is typically a temporary drop in performance in the second task. High self-reported motivation and being made self-aware somewhat counteract this effect-with the result that performance in the second task is enhanced. The current study explored the relationship between self-awareness and motivation on sequential self-control task performance. Before employing self-control in an antisaccade task, participants initially applied self-control in an incongruent Stroop task or completed a control task. After the Stroop task, participants unscrambled sentences that primed self-awareness (each started with the word “I”) or unscrambled neutral sentences. Motivation was measured after the antisaccade task. Findings revealed that, after exerting self-control in the incongruent Stroop task, motivation predicted erroneous responses in the antisaccade task for those that unscrambled neutral sentences, and high motivation led to fewer errors. Those primed with self-awareness were somewhat more motivated overall, but motivation did not significantly predict antisaccade performance. Supporting the resource allocation account, if one was motivated-intrinsically or via the manipulation of self-awareness-resources were allocated to both tasks leading to the successful completion of two sequential self-control tasks.

If you find this article useful, please share so others can read it.

Share on E-mailShare on X (Twitter)Share on FacebookShare on LinkedIn

Filed Under: Featured, Journal Articles, Publications

Related Articles

  • Sugar rush or sugar crash?: A meta-analysis of carbohydrate effects on mood
  • Last in, first out: brain economy in times of limited resources

About Prof. Sandra Sünram-Lea

My research background is in biological psychology and neuroscience, and I am interested in biological factors and mechanisms which affect human cognition and behaviour across the lifespan. Much of my research has focused on the effects of glucose administration and glucose regulatory mechanisms on human cognition.

Primary Sidebar

Nutrition and Cognition research

My research background is in biological psychology and neuroscience, and I am interested in biological factors and mechanisms which affect human cognition and behaviour across the lifespan. Much of my research has focused on the effects of glucose administration and glucose regulatory mechanisms on human cognition.

My Profiles

  • ResearchGate
  • Academia
  • Google Scholar

Recent Publications

Sugar rush or sugar crash?: A meta-analysis of carbohydrate effects on mood

The effect of carbohydrate (CHO) consumption on mood is at the center of a long-standing debate, with researchers reporting both mood improvements and decrements following CHO ingestion. As global consumption of sugar-sweetened products has sharply increased in recent years, … Continue Reading about Sugar rush or sugar crash?: A meta-analysis of carbohydrate effects on mood

Last in, first out: brain economy in times of limited resources

It has been argued that cognitive abilities that developed last ontogenetically are likely the first to become impaired when cognitive and/or physiological resources are compromised. In phylogeny as in ontogeny, the prefrontal cortex is a late developing region of the cortex. … Continue Reading about Last in, first out: brain economy in times of limited resources

A temporary deficiency in self-control: can heightened motivation overcome this effect?

Self-control is important for everyday life and involves behavioral regulation. Self-control requires effort, and when completing two successive self-control tasks, there is typically a temporary drop in performance in the second task. High self-reported motivation and being made … Continue Reading about A temporary deficiency in self-control: can heightened motivation overcome this effect?

Browse All My Publications ->

Copyright © 2025 Sandra Sünram-Lea · Built by AcademicWebDesign.com