Do prevention-focused orientations conserve cognitive resources?

Abstract

Correlations between the type of regulatory focus orientation and performance levels were investigated from the perspective of conserving cognitive resources. University students (N = 64) participated in the experiment. They were induced to have a promotion- or prevention-focused orientation and were required to conduct a lower priority task followed by a higher priority task. Results indicated that when the prevention-focused orientation was activated, participants did not spend much effort to achieve lower priority tasks and the performance level was lower compared to when the promotion-focused orientation was activated. It was considered that the intention for conserving cognitive resources increased because the prevention-focused participants knew that they would be engaging in a higher priority task in the future. Conversely, these same participants demonstrated higher performance in higher priority tasks implemented later, compared to when the promotion-focused orientation was activated. The above results suggest that cognitive resources are allocated intentionally under prevention-focused conditions.