The Impact of an Ego Depletion Manipulation on Performance-Based and Self-Report Assessment Measures

Abstract

We investigated the impact of ego depletion on selected Rorschach cognitive processing variables and self-reported affect states. Research indicates acts of effortful self-regulation transiently deplete a finite pool of cognitive resources, impairing performance on subsequent tasks requiring self-regulation. We predicted that relative to controls, ego-depleted participants' Rorschach protocols would have more spontaneous reactivity to color, less cognitive sophistication, and more frequent logical lapses in visualization, whereas self-reports would reflect greater fatigue and less attentiveness. The hypotheses were partially supported; despite a surprising absence of self-reported differences, ego-depleted participants had Rorschach protocols with lower scores on two variables indicative of sophisticated combinatory thinking, as well as higher levels of color receptivity; they also had lower scores on a composite variable computed across all hypothesized markers of complexity. In addition, self-reported achievement striving moderated the effect of the experimental manipulation on color receptivity, and in the Depletion condition it was associated with greater attentiveness to the tasks, more color reactivity, and less global synthetic processing. Results are discussed with an emphasis on the response process, methodological limitations and strengths, implications for calculating refined Rorschach scores, and the value of using multiple methods in research and experimental paradigms to validate assessment measures.

Correspondence of Maximum and Typical Performance Measures of Cognitive Processing

“…The Rorschach was administered the same as in Charek et al (2016), using an examiner-led, script-based, computer-facilitated methodology (Horn, Meyer, & Mihura, 2009; Hsiao, Meyer, Mihura, & Horn, 2011) that follows standard guidelines (Meyer et al, 2011) as closely as possible. Participants had their own set of inkblots, and they examined each card sequentially.…”

“…The experimental group completed a version of the letter cancelation task used by Baumeister, Bratslavsky, Muraven, and Tice (1998; Study 4) and Charek et al (2016). Using four pages of text from a scientific journal article on fibromyalgia, participants drew a line through every instance of the letter “e,” with four caveats.…”

“…Ego depletion posits that as self-control resources become depleted, subsequent task performance suffers (Baumeister, Vohs, & Tice, 2007). Charek et al (2016) found that ego depletion did not affect self-reported fatigue or attentiveness. However, it did affect Rorschach variables that require regulated cognitive processing (i.e., decreased Synthetic Whole Responses, Space Integration, and a composite marker of overall complexity, and increased perceptual receptivity to color in the stimuli), while having no impact on variables theoretically unrelated to cognitive processing (i.e., Human Content, Personal Knowledge Justification, and Popular).…”

“…We designed this study with two goals: (1) to examine the correspondence of Rorschach variables associated with cognitive sophistication and maximum performance neuropsychological measures and (2) to replicate and extend Charek, Meyer, and Mihura’s (2016) findings showing the cognitively impairing effects of ego depletion. We initially grounded the latter aim in Hagger, Wood, Stiff, and Chatzisarantis’s (2010) meta-analysis supporting the robustness of the ego depletion paradigm.…”

“…The ego depletion aspect of the current study is a modified replication of Charek et al (2016). We excluded several Rorschach variables with low base rates or nonsignificant findings and substituted what we believed were better alternatives.…”