The Influence of Ego-depletion on Implicit Aggression and Cognitive Performance

NCT04879719 | Unknown

• 1 other identifier: Ego-depletion study
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 60
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The aim of the planned online study is twofold. First, it opts to deliver further evidence for the existence of the construct ego-depletion. Second, it tries to further validate the German version of the word-stem completion task as a measure of implicit aggression. The psychological assessment of aggression is not a trivial aspect, however. In general, explicit measures of aggression have a higher face validity than their implicit counterparts. However, even implicit measures, such as the implicit association test for aggression, have a certain amount of face validity, since participants might be able to infer that the task is related to aggression. Another implicit aggression measure is the word-stem completion task, which asks participants to complement word-stems in order to build words. Lately, we have developed a German version of this task and found some promising first results, i.e., a factor analysis indicated that the word-stem completion task explained unique variance in aggression. The present study aims to further validate the German version of the word-stem completion task by experimentally manipulating aggression through an ego-depletion paradigm, in which cognitive resources are depleted. It is expected that participants in the ego-depletion condition build more aggressive solutions on the word-stem completion task than participants in the control group.

Conditions

Aggression

Keywords

ego-depletion; implicit aggression; word-stem completion task; implicit association task

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• Word-stem completion task

  In the word-stem completion task participants are presented with up to 100 word-stems in random order. The participants' task is to build as many words as possible within sic minutes by complementing the word-stems. Solution words can be either aggressive, partially aggressive or non-aggressive. Sum scores for all aggressive and partially aggressive solutions are built as a first index of implicit aggression. First results from the German version of the word-stem completion task, however, indicate that a score taking into account the number of total solutions, as well as the word frequencies in the German language is better suited to measure implicit aggression than the conventional sum score method. Therefore, the new weighted score will be used as main outcome variable.

  All measures will be taken on a single occasion in a sequential-task paradigm, which is standard in ego-depletion research. Completion of all tasks takes 6 minutes

• Implicit Association Test (IAT) for aggression

  The IAT is a speeded classification task, which seeks to measure the inner strength of associations between certain concepts. During the IAT words are presented at the center of the screen and participants are asked to categorize stimuli either to the left or to the right based on the instructions of the respective block. IAT scores are obtained by comparing reaction times between blocks in which participants have to press the same button in response to aggressive as well as self-referential words with reaction times from blocks in which peaceful and self-referential words require the same response. If participants respond faster on trials in which aggressive and self-referential words require the same response this is thought to reflect higher levels of implicit aggression.

  All measures will be taken on a single occasion in a sequential-task paradigm, which is standard in ego-depletion research. Completion of this task takes about 5 minutes.

• Multi-source interference task (MSIT)

  The MSIT is thought to measure cognitive control and cognitive performance in general. On each trial three items are presented next to each other at the center of the screen, with two of them being identical and one deviating from the others. Participants are asked to identify the number that differs from the other two presented items (mostly numbers) and to press the corresponding key on the keyboard. The position and the actual number can either be the same, e.g. the number 2 presented in between two other numbers or letters (so-called flankers), in which we speak of congruency or number and position can be incongruent, for instance the number 2 presented left to

  All measures will be taken on a single occasion in a sequential-task paradigm, which is standard in ego-depletion research. Completion of this task takes about 5 minutes.

Study Arms (2)

Ego-depletion group

EXPERIMENTAL

Participants in this condition are asked to suppress their emotion while watching an emotional video of a surgery. Suppressing the natural emotional reaction to such a video demands cognitive resources and thus can induce a state of ego-depletion.

Behavioral: Ego-depletion

Control group

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Participants in the control group are asked to watch the same emotional video. However, they are required to simply watch the video without suppressing any emotions.

Behavioral: Control

Interventions

Ego-depletion BEHAVIORAL

The surgery video lasts for 9 minutes and participants are asked to suppress their emotions. After the intervention several implicit aggression tests, as well as a task, measuring cognitive performance in general are assessed.

Ego-depletion group

Control BEHAVIORAL

The surgery video lasts for 9 minutes and participants in the control group are asked to watch the surgery video without the need to suppress their emotions. Several implicit aggression tests, as well as a task, measuring cognitive performance in general are assessed after the 9 minute video sequence.

Control group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years - 55 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• being mentally healthy
• German as native language
• being between 18-55 years in age

You may not qualify if:

• working in a medical profession

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf: lead

Study Sites (1)

University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf

Hamburg, 20246, Germany

RECRUITING

Related Publications (4)

• Baumeister RF, Bratslavsky E, Muraven M, Tice DM. Ego depletion: is the active self a limited resource? J Pers Soc Psychol. 1998 May;74(5):1252-65. doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.74.5.1252.

  PMID: 9599441 BACKGROUND

• Dang J. An updated meta-analysis of the ego depletion effect. Psychol Res. 2018 Jul;82(4):645-651. doi: 10.1007/s00426-017-0862-x. Epub 2017 Apr 8.

  PMID: 28391367 BACKGROUND

• Hagger MS, Wood C, Stiff C, Chatzisarantis NL. Ego depletion and the strength model of self-control: a meta-analysis. Psychol Bull. 2010 Jul;136(4):495-525. doi: 10.1037/a0019486.

  PMID: 20565167 BACKGROUND

• Strack F, Deutsch R. Reflective and impulsive determinants of social behavior. Pers Soc Psychol Rev. 2004;8(3):220-47. doi: 10.1207/s15327957pspr0803_1.

  PMID: 15454347 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Aggression

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Aberrant Motor Behavior in Dementia; Behavioral Symptoms; Behavior; Social Behavior

Study Officials

• Simone Kühn, Prof. Dr.

  Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Dimitrij Kugler, M.Sc.

CONTACT

040 741024113; d.kugler@uke.de

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: SINGLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT
• Masking Details: Participants do not know that there exists more than one condition.
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Model Details: Participants are randomly assigned to either a ego-depletion- or a control group.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 3, 2021
• First Posted: May 10, 2021
• Study Start: February 17, 2021
• Primary Completion: May 17, 2021
• Study Completion: May 17, 2021
• Last Updated: May 10, 2021

Record last verified: 2021-05

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

DE (1)