拖延行为的发展认知机制及神经基础

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1042.2021.00586

摘要/Abstract

摘要：

拖延是指尽管预见到拖延会带来不利后果, 人们仍自愿推迟开始或完成某一计划好的任务。研究表明, 不同文化背景下有15%~20%的成年人存在慢性拖延, 超过70%的学生承认自己存在学业拖延, 部分学生还会形成特质性拖延。严重的拖延不仅影响人们的学业、工作和生活, 甚至还会危害到人们的身心健康。鉴于目前对于拖延产生的核心机制、形成的关键期以及发展认知神经机制还不是很清楚, 本项目拟从拖延的时间决策理论出发, 首先系统探明拖延决策的核心机制, 尤其是远期价值评估、延迟折扣和自我控制能力等在拖延决策过程中的认知加工机制和神经基础; 其次结合行为-环境变量-脑的多模态数据, 从发展角度探究拖延形成的关键期(敏感期)、影响因素以及发展认知神经机制; 最后从行为干预和脑的可塑性角度出发, 试图制定各关键年龄阶段拖延预防与干预的临床方案。本研究的开展对于把握拖延形成的认知机制、神经基础及其发展规律具有重要的科学价值, 对于拖延行为的预防和干预也具有直接的现实意义。

关键词: 拖延行为, 决策, 时间折扣, 神经基础, 干预

Abstract:

Procrastination, as Steel (2007) reviewed, is the phenomenon that individuals voluntarily delay to start or complete an intended course of action despite expecting to be worse off for the delay. The previous studies have indicated that chronic procrastination exists in different cultural backgrounds, with about 15% ~ 20% of adults troubled. Academically, more than 40% of students admit to academic procrastination, and some may even suffer from chronic tendencies. With the rapid development of modern society, the problem of procrastination is more serious and prominent. Obviously, putting off the task irrationally not only does harm to individuals’ study, work, emotion, but also endangers mental health. However, little is known about procrastination concerning the core mechanism of origin, the critical period of its formation, and its corresponding underlying neural substrates. To fill this gap, the current study investigates the core mechanism of procrastinated decision - making which rely on the Temporal Decision Model (TDM) we outlined, and explores the developmental cognitive neural mechanism of procrastination form a behavior - environment - brain perspective, and also sheds light on how to prevent or intervene the procrastination in these critical periods. First of all, the behavioral development measurement of the study aims to use a cross-sectional design to explore the occurrence and developmental characteristics of procrastination, the critical period (sensitive period) and the relevant influence factors (including various environmental and educational variables) of procrastination formation in children with three age groups (6 ~ 8 years, 10 ~ 12 years, and 12 ~ 15 years). And we also investigates the effects or underlying mechanisms of the cognitive abilities such as self-control, long-term value evaluation, time discounting, and emotion regulation on procrastination at each age stage. Meanwhile, the time decision model of procrastination is tested and refined in the study form a developmental perspective. Secondly, on the basis of neural level, procrastination is related to functional deficits in the frontal lobe, limbic system (e.g., amygdala, hippocampus) and other brain regions. Thus, the brain development measurement of the study aims to examine the development of brain structure and brain function in children aged 6 ~ 15 years using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) multimodal imaging techniques (including task, resting, voxel-based morphometry (VBM), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)), and functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) techniques. Based on the correlation analysis among brain structural data, functional data and behavior data, the study systematically investigates the developmental cognitive mechanisms of procrastination that are influenced by relevant influence factors, such as long-term value evaluation, delay discounting, self-control, emotion regulation and episodic future thinking. In addition, the study intends to build a behavioral - environmental - brain multilevel model for predicting the formation of procrastination in children. By integrating multimodal data on behavior, environment, and brain variables, the influence of environmental variables on procrastination through the malleability of brain structure and function is examined using the mediation analysis and structural equation model. What’s more, considering behavioral intervention for procrastination and malleability of the brain development, the study also sheds light on develop a clinical proposal for the prevention and intervention of procrastination at each critical periods according to the developmental characteristics of each age (including childhood, adolescence, and adult), mainly using intervention training methods, such as episodic future thinking, time management, and emotion regulation, and so on. To sum up, on the one hand, the current study can reap enormous scientific contributions to clarify the neurocognitive mechanism and the rules of development of procrastination; on the other hand, the study further obtain the practical significance for the prevention and intervention against procrastination behavior with exploring the effectiveness of intervention from the perspective of brain malleability.

Key words: procrastination, decision-making, time discounting, neural basis, intervention

中图分类号:

B848

冯廷勇, 王雪珂, 苏缇. (2021). 拖延行为的发展认知机制及神经基础. 心理科学进展 , 29(4), 586-596.

FENG Tingyong, WANG Xueke, SU Ti. (2021). Developmental cognitive mechanism and neural basis of procrastination. Advances in Psychological Science, 29(4), 586-596.

图/表 2

图1 拖延的时间决策模型(资料来源：Zhang & Feng, 2019; S. Zhang et al. 2019) 注：被试在接收任务的同时会产生实时任务厌恶(real-time task aversivness), 和实时任务结果效用(real-time outcome utility)。通常, 被试不会立即执行任务, 而是会预期任务厌恶(Task-delay aversiveness)会在随着时间流逝在未来某段时间内有所下降, 但预期的任务过程效用(Task-delay outcome utility)的评估权重由于离任务截止日期较远会被逐渐折扣。此时, 被试会有一个预期的, 较短的拖延时间(the expected delay)。然而, 事实上, 实时的任务厌恶(real-time task aversivness)并不会呈持续下降的变化趋势, 就像今天和一个星期后的考试, 个体所感知的实际痛苦或厌恶程度可能相等, 因此, 实时的任务厌恶程度可能呈水平趋势变化。而实时的任务结果效用(real-time outcome utility)则随着任务截止日期的临近, 缓慢增长。当在某一时间点上, 实时的任务结果效用接近任务厌恶的评估权重时, 由刚开始接收任务到这个时间点的时间才是被试实际拖延的时间(the actual delay)。

图2 项目的研究框架与技术路线图

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