From thought to action: On the relevance of including situational cues in thought about intended actions

Abstract

Successful everyday self-regulation often hinges on implementing intended responses at a later time-often in specific situations. We address this self-regulation challenge by examining the role of individuals' thought about intended actions-and specifically whether it does or does not include situational cues. We hypothesized that including situational cues when thinking about intended actions enables stimulus-response learning, thereby increasing the likelihood of implementing the intended actions. Consequently, we pre-registered and found (N = 392, age range 18-94) a positive relationship between the self-reported habitual inclusion of situational cues in thought about intended actions and everyday self-regulation success (assessed by self-reported self-efficacy and self-control beliefs). In addition, we provide exploratory evidence that the inclusion of situational cues in thought about intended actions mediates the relationship between conscientiousness and self-regulation success. We discuss the results and the theoretical perspective in relation to how self-control outcomes can be explained by associative learning.