Perfectionism, Decision-Making, and Post-error Slowing
Institution: | The Ohio State University |
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Department: | Psychology |
Degree: | PhD |
Year: | 2015 |
Keywords: | Quantitative Psychology; perfectionism; mathematical modeling; Simon task; post-error slowing; response times |
Record ID: | 2062552 |
Full text PDF: | http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1418307845 |
The construct of perfectionism is an important topic of research due to its influence on a large number of psychopathologies. Recently researchers have sought to better understand the cognitive mechanisms associated with perfectionism using forced-choice two-alternative tasks. In particular, perfectionist characteristics were expected to predict the behavioral measure of post-error slowing. However, research has found little association between inventory scores of perfectionism and post-error slowing. I developed a quantitative model for the Simon task, and tested several hypotheses regarding the mechanisms underlying post-error slowing and their association with perfectionism. I controlled for several confounding effects such as fatigue, motivation, learning, and multiple types of post-error adjustments. Critically, a core assumption past researchers have made regarding the interpretation of post-error slowing was found not to hold, leading to important implications regarding the study of the cognitive mechanisms underlying perfectionism.