One factor that makes cognitive psychology such a difficult
topic to study is that people have many ways of approaching the same
problem. A student trying to solve a
geometry problem might attempt to remember a formula related to that problem or
to think of another problem similar to the one being solved at that moment or
to draw a diagram. To make matters more
difficult, the same person may try many different strategies when solving a set
of problems (or even within a single problem).
But, this flexibility is also interesting. What processes enable us to switch between
strategies? Clearly, there are benefits
to being able to use many strategies to solve problems. Are there costs as well?
A paper by Ryan Hamilton, Kathleen Vohs, Anne-Laure Sellier,
and Tom Meyvis in the May, 2011 issue of Organizational
Behavior and Human Decision Processes explores the costs of switching
strategies.
These authors point out that we have many broad mindsets
that we can use to solve problems. For
example, in other blog entries, I have talked about construal level. Sometimes
we solve problems by thinking about them abstractly, while at other times we
solve problems by thinking about them concretely. They argue switching between abstract and
specific ways of thinking about problems requires self-control resources.
Research on ego
depletion by Roy Baumeister, Kathleen Vohs, and their colleagues suggests
that when you exert a lot of self control at one time, it can make it more
difficult to exert self-control again later.
The idea is that self-control is a limited resource that takes time to
rebuild.
So, to explore whether switching problem solving mindsets
involves self-control resources, Hamilton,
Vohs, Sellier, and Meyvis put people in a situation in which they had to switch
strategies and then looked to see whether that affected later situations that
would require self-control.
One study used construal level as a mindset. Some people were asked to answer a series of
questions about why they would carry
out a series of actions. Research by
Antonio Freitas, Peter Gollwitzer, and Yaacov Trope shows that answering why
questions makes people think abstractly about the reasons and goals related to
actions. Other people were asked to
answer a series of questions about how
they would carry out a series of actions.
These how questions make people think specifically about what is
required to achieve a goal. A third
group answered a group of why
questions and a group of how
questions, and so they had to switch mindsets during the study.
After answering questions, people did what they thought was
an unrelated study that was focused on testing a bitter but healthy drink that
participants were told is popular in Japan. People earned a nickel for each small cup of
the drink they finished. Because the
drink had an unpleasant taste, it took some self-control to drink it. The participants who answered only how or why
questions drank about three times as much of the drink as those who had to
switch between how and why questions.
This result suggests that switching mindsets required self-control.
An impressive aspect of this research paper is that the
experimenters present five studies. Each
one uses a different type of mindset.
For example, another study had bilingual participants either answer
questions in one language or switch between languages. A third experiment had people try to perform
a task by maximizing the number of points they gained, minimizing the number of
points they lost or switching between maximizing points gained and minimizing
points lost.
The measures of self-control used later involved things like
maintaining physical exertion, or keeping a straight face while watching a
funny video. In each study, people who had
to switch between mindsets led to worse performance on the later self-control
task compared those who could maintain a single mindset.
This work suggests that there is a mental consequence to
hard thinking. When you spend a day
working on hard problems you are likely to have to switch the strategies you
use many times. Each of those switches
carries a cost with it. You are taxing a
resource that may be limited. Over time,
your ability to switch strategies itself may be affected, because you will have
tapped out that resource.
If you have been working on hard problems all day, and you
find yourself stuck, it may be a good idea to walk away from the problem for a
while. There are many good reasons to
let a problem rest when you reach an impasse.
This research suggests that giving yourself a break may help you to
recoup the self-control resources that you spent on earlier thinking.
Finally, remember that after a long day of hard thinking you
should try to avoid other stressful situations.
When your self-control is depleted, there is lots of evidence that you
may react more aggressively towards others than you might if your self-control
is intact. So, be aware that after a
long hard day of thought you might be grouchier than normal.
