When Interrogative Self-talk Improves Task Performance: The Role of Answers to Self-posed Questions
Corresponding Author
Małgorzata M. Puchalska-Wasyl
Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland
Correspondence to: Małgorzata M. Puchalska-Wasyl, Department of Personality Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Racławickie 14, 20–950 Lublin, Poland.
E-mail: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorCorresponding Author
Małgorzata M. Puchalska-Wasyl
Institute of Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland
Correspondence to: Małgorzata M. Puchalska-Wasyl, Department of Personality Psychology, The John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Al. Racławickie 14, 20–950 Lublin, Poland.
E-mail: [email protected]
Search for more papers by this authorSummary
Nearly all the self-talk cues studied so far have been self-statements. However, the findings of Senay, Albarracin, and Noguchi suggest that interrogative self-talk produces better task performance than declarative one. Two of the experiments reported here were meant to replicate that study, but the expected differences were not confirmed. Experiment 3 showed that if a self-posed question about future behavior was answered positively, task performance was better than in groups exposed either to the self-statement ‘I will do it’ or to a negative answer following the question. However, these differences occurred only in those who self-reported the awareness of the impact of self-talk on their thought processes. This effect and the possible reasons why between-group differences were not found in Experiments 1 and 2 are discussed. An alternative explanation for the results of Experiment 3 is also proposed beside that stressing the impact of internal answer. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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