Abstract:

Procrastination often prevents individuals, businesses, and governments from completing set tasks on time, hindering people's work, studies, and disease prevention and treatment. Self-control is the main ability to autonomously reduce procrastination, but it is a relatively limited cognitive resource. Uncovering how self-control works can help reduce procrastination more effectively. This project intends to investigate the mechanism and neural basis of self-control based on the decision mechanism of “do it now or do it later” in the temporal decision model. The temporal decision model holds that decision to procrastinate depends on the individual's trade-off between the process utility and outcome utility of task. When considering implementing a task immediately, the present-self will feel a high negative process utility but a low positive outcome utility. Therefore, the present-self is unwilling to execute it immediately. When anticipating to do a task in the future, the present self expects that the future self has a higher outcome utility, forming a feeling of “I will definitely do it in the future”. According to the temporal decision model and the mode of action of self-control, there may be three ways for self-control to reduce procrastination in decision-making. First, regulate negative emotions and thus reduce procrastination by reducing the utility of negative processes. Second, focus on task’s positive outcome and reduce procrastination by enhancing positive outcome utility. Third, regulate the allocation of attention, and reduce procrastination by paying less attention to negative processes or more attention to positive outcomes when making decisions. Based on the three ways, Study 1a will construct the corresponding three types of models, and compare the goodness of fit of these models to determine the efficient mode of self-control. Subsequently, Study 1b will use the experience sampling method to track the procrastination-reducing effect of different self-control ways, so as to test the stability of its effect. Study 2a will develop a brain imaging experimental paradigm capable of ecologically modeling task evaluation (process utility and outcome utility) and decisions to procrastinate, based on the temporal decision model. Specifically, the study will set up difficult target tasks with monetary rewards, and easy distractor tasks without monetary rewards. When the subjects choose the target task, it can be considered that they have chosen “execute immediately”; when they choose the interference task, it can be considered that they have chosen to delay the target task. Study 2b will use neurostimulation technology to enhance the excitability of neurons in the self-control brain area on the basis of study 2a, and investigate the effect and mechanism. In general, this project will systematically investigate “how self-control reduces procrastination” from two aspects of cognitive mechanism and neural basis based on the decision-making mechanism of “do now or later” in the temporal decision model. In terms of theory, this project was able to incorporate the failure of self-control to explain procrastination behavior into the theoretical framework of the temporal decision model. On the practical side, this project can provide theoretical and practical guidance for designing new procrastination intervention programs. Among them, the research results of cognitive mechanisms can help design behavior training programs based on self-control strategies, while the research results of neural foundations can provide more precise and personalized targets for interventions such as neural stimulation and neurofeedback training.

Key words: self-control, procrastination, delay discounting, cognitive mechanism, neural substrates