Working Memory Capacity And Self-Control:Relationship And The Underlying Mechanism

Self-control refers to the capacity of altering one’s own responses and it depends on a limited resource that can be deplcted temporarily. Working memory capacity (WMC) refers to the individual differences in central executive functioning. The present investigation examined the nature and mechanism of this relationship with a series of studies.Study1revises the Self-control Scale and investigates the relationship between the trait self-control and the other traits such as anxiety and impulsivity. The new scale shows a good internal consistency and retest reliability. Further study shows that trait self-control has a positive correlation with better characteristics such as extravert and life satisfaction, but a negative correlation with some worse characteristics such as impulsivity, anxiety and neuroticism.Study2examined the relationship between individual differences in WMC and the sell-regulation of emotional expression. Participants completed a test of working memory capacity and then watched an emotional film clip under instructions to suppress all expressions of emotion as they watched. Compared to participants lower in working memory capacity, participants higher in capacity expressed less emotion in response to the film clip.Study3investigates the relationship between BAS/BIS and the moderating role of working memory capacity. Correlational study shows that trait self control was significantly and negatively correlated with BIS, but unrelated with BAS. In a further study, it is found that the WMC play a moderate role between the BAS and self control.Study4assesses the relation between working memory capacity and Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) Performance and the impact of planning on this relation. All the participants were assigned to two independent groups and complete different IGT: the standard IGT (sIGT) and the modified IGT (mIGT). The results showed that WMC is unrelated with sIGT performance, but significant related with mIGT performance. These results indicate that the working memory might involve in the decision making process in IGT.Study5investigate the mechanism undermine the relation between self-control and WMC. Correlational study founds no relations between working memory capacity and trait self control. Further experiment search an answer for this by investigated whether self-control depletion would vary with individual differences in WMC. The results suggest that having higher WMC can tax self control resource further, thus undermining the ability to sustain self-control efforts. The results suggest that WMC do not index the amount of self-control resources a person has, but rather his or her tendency to consume them.Study6investigates the influence of working memory capacity and trait self control on the academic performance of college students. Results show that the WMC is unrelated with the GPA, but the trait self control is positively related with the GPA.The present work contributes to a further understanding of the relationship between WMC and self-control. It indicates that WMC is not just simply correlated with self-control. Future work on the relationship between WMC and self control represents a fruitful area for exploration.