Abstract

Recently, DeCaro and Van Stockum have suggested that ego depletion following intensive self-control can improve insight problem-solving; this finding was interpreted in terms of insight relying on decreased control over attention and memory. However, DeCaro and Van Stockum used three variants of the single matchstick arithmetic problem. Experiment 1 involved low sample and non-standard problem application, while the more powered Experiment 2 yielded a surprisingly low solution rate. These facts made both studies problematic and called for their replication. In the two present studies, the DeCaro and Van Stockum ego-depletion manipulation and their matchstick problems were administered to a total of 316 people. Furthermore, various other insight problems, subjective ratings of insight experience, analytical problems and executive control tests were applied. The key result was that no reliable effect of ego depletion could be found for any of these measures.

摘要

最近，德卡罗（DeCaro）和范斯托克姆（Van Stockum）提出，加强自我控制后的自我耗竭可以改善洞察力。这项发现是根据洞察力来解释的，洞察力依赖于对注意力和记忆力的减少控制。但是，DeCaro和Van Stockum使用了单个火柴棍算术问题的三个变体。实验1涉及低样本量和非标准问题的应用，而功能更强大的实验2产生了令人惊讶的低解决率。这些事实使这两项研究都成为问题，并呼吁对其进行重复研究。在目前的两项研究中，共对316人进行了DeCaro和Van Stockum自我耗竭操作及其火柴杆问题的研究。此外，还有其他各种见解问题，对见解经验的主观评价，分析性问题和执行控制测试得到了应用。关键结果是，对于这些措施中的任何一项，都没有发现自我耗竭的可靠影响。