The Role of Self-Transcendence and Cognitive Processes in the Response Expectancy Effect

Abstract

Neuropsychological assessment is known to be influenced by expectancy effects, which can either enhance (placebo) or diminish (nocebo) cognitive performance. Research suggests that the response expectancy effect is influenced by various individual and situational factors and that the placebo effect results in an increase in monitoring processes as measured indirectly. However, the impact on monitoring processes has not yet been studied by direct measures such as Judgement Of Learning (JOL). This study aimed to investigate the response expectancy effect on various neuropsychological tasks, including a task that directly assesses monitoring capacities (JOL). In addition to determining which cognitive functions are influenced by the expectancy effect, this study examined the moderating role of the self-transcendence dimension of personality. Eighty healthy subjects were exposed to three bogus conditions presented as allegedly having a positive, negative, or no impact on cognitive capacities. Then they completed, in random order, three blocks of tasks (executive, attentional, and memory), one in each condition. Results showed an effect of negative instructions on flexibility (poorer performance) and memory (better performance) scores. Furthermore, positive instructions led to better explicit monitoring capacities (JOL) than the neutral condition. These effects were moderated by self-transcendence, as only participants with moderate or high self-transcendence exhibited these effects. Overall, our results showed that the response expectancy effect emerges from a combination of individual and cognitive factors.

Placebo Brain Stimulation Affects Subjective but Not Neurocognitive Measures of Error Processing

“…High absorption participants also rated the efficacy of the brain stimulation as higher in the nocebo condition. This is in line with another study, showing that participants scoring high on selftranscendence-a trait that is strongly related to absorptionwere most responsive to the alleged effects of different types of lighting on cognitive performance (Fresson et al 2017). We note that the effects of absorption on perceived efficacy could partly reflect demand characteristics, as high absorption participants may have an implicit motivated tendency to answer in a socially desirable way (Lifshitz et al 2019).…”

Expectancy effects of placebo neurofeedback in ADHD treatment seekers: A neuropsychological investigation.

“…There is also some evidence of expectancy effects on neuropsychological test performance (Fresson, Dardenne, Geurten, Anzaldi, & Meulemans, 2017; Kvavilashvili & Ellis, 1999; Magalhães De Saldanha da Gama, Slama, Caspar, Gevers, & Cleeremans, 2013; Smith & Sullivan, 2003). A review by Suhr and Wei (2013) reported average between-groups effect sizes of 0.39 for attention tasks, 0.31 for memory tests, 0.32 for motor speed tasks, and 0.68 for intellectual and executive functioning tasks across studies that examined the effect of expectancy-related cognitions on neuropsychological performance in various psychological conditions.…”