The Cognitive Mechanism And Neural Basis Of Achievement Motivation Affecting Procrastination

Procrastination refers to the voluntary delay in starting or completing a planned task despite the foreseeable adverse consequences（Steel,2007）.A large number of studies have shown that procrastination is not only a time management problem,but also a complex process involving emotional,cognitive and behavioral components（Fee&Tangney,2000）.The temporal decision model of procrastination believes that there are two factors that have a crucial impact on whether an individual is procrastinating,namely,the negative engagement utility and the positive outcome utility of the task（Zhang et al.,2019）.The former refers to the negative experience brought by the process of carrying out the task,and the latter refers to the subjective value brought by the result of completing the task.The balance between the two will determine whether the individual delays.For future procrastination tasks,people can only evaluate their utility through episodic future thinking（Berns et al.,2006）,so episodic future thinking plays an important role in the process of procrastination decision-making.Achievement motivation,as a relatively stable tendency to pursue achievement or success（Atkinson,1957）,may have an important impact on task evaluation and execution.Previous studies have shown that the lower the individual’s achievement motivation,the easier it is to delay（Chi et al.,2012）.However,he cognitive neural mechanism of achievement motivation affecting procrastination is still unclear.Based on this,this study mainly discusses the following two questions:（1）Study 1 used the laboratory episodic future thinking paradigm and experience sampling method to explore the cognitive mechanism of achievement motivation affecting procrastination behavior from the perspective of task process and task result evaluation;（2）Study 2:From the perspective of neuroimaging,voxel-based morphology（VBM）analysis and resting-state functional connectivity（RSFC）were used to explore the effect of achievement motivation on procrastination.In order to explore the cognitive mechanism of achievement motivation affecting procrastination,study 1 used laboratory episodic future thinking paradigm and experience sampling method to collect behavioral data of subjects.Firstly,the correlation between achievement motivation（including motivation to achieve success and motivation to avoid failure）and procrastination was analyzed,and stepwise regression analysis was used to explore the relationship between motivation to achieve success and motivation to avoid failure and procrastination（N=699）.The preliminary data analysis found that the motivation to achieve success mainly affects procrastination.Therefore,according to the individual’s motivation to achieve success,27%of the scores were selected as high and low achievement motivation groups(N_high=58,N_low=50),and then the two groups were compared whether there is a difference in the subjective value and emotional experiencein in the task episodic future thinking stage and the real execution stage;finally,mediation analysis was used to explore the role of individual’s subjective outcome value and emotional experience in the impact of achievement motivation on procrastination.The results show that:（1）Although the motivation to achieve success and the motivation to avoid failure are significantly correlated with procrastination,stepwise regression analysis shows that only the motivation to achieve success can enter the regression model,while the motivation to avoid failure is excluded;（2）Whether in the episodic future thinking situation or in the process of real task execution,the subjective outcome value and emotional experience of the high achievement motivation group were significantly higher than those of the low achievement motivation group,and the willingness and actual completion of the task were also significantly higher than those of the low achievement motivation group;（3）Whether in the laboratory episodic future thinking situation or in the process of real task execution,the subjective outcome value of the task can mediate the influence of the achievement motivation on the procrastination（that is,the willingness to perform the task and the final completion）,while the emotional experience can not play a mediating role between the two.Therefore,the results of study 1 show that the motivation to achieve success can significantly negatively predict procrastination;individuals with high achievement motivation enhance the subjective value of the result of task,thereby improving execution,which may be the potential cognitive mechanism of achievement motivation affecting procrastination.In Study 2,in order to explore the neural basis of achievement motivation affecting procrastination,the VBM analysis method was used to analyze the brain structure image data of the subjects（N=106）to clarify the neural structure basis of achievement motivation.Then,the RSFC method was used to analyze the resting state data of the brain to explore the functional connectivity patterns that can characterize achievement motivation.Finally,the neural pathway of achievement motivation affecting procrastination was explored through mediation analysis.The results showed that:（1）VBM results showed that achievement motivation was positively correlated with the gray matter volume of right parahippocampal gyrus（r PHG）,left parahippocampal gyrus（l PHG）and right middle temporal gyrus（r MTG）.（2）RSFC results showed that there was a significant positive correlation between achievement motivation and functional connectivity between right parahippocampal gyrus and right posterior cingulate gyrus（r PCC）.（3）The results of mediation analysis showed that the functional connection between r PHG-r PCC could mediate the effect of achievement motivation on procrastination.Therefore,the results of Study 2 show that achievement motivation mainly affects procrastination through neural pathways responsible for episodic future thinking and value assessment.This result further verifies the conclusion of Study1 from the neural basis level.In conclusion,this study found that:（1）achievement motivation mainly affects procrastination through the individual subjective value assessment of task outcomes,which to some extent reveals the cognitive mechanism of its role;and（2）brain structures（such as r PHG,l PHG,r MTG）and functional connectivity（such as r PHG-r PCC）related to episodic future thinking and value assessment,which is the neural basis of achievement motivation affecting procrastination.In this study,the cognitive mechanism and neural basis of achievement motivation affecting procrastination were explored by laboratory episodic future thinking paradigm,experience sampling method and brain imaging technology,which had high theoretical value.At the same time,it also provides a new direction for the intervention of procrastination from the perspective of the personality trait of achievement motivation,including the improvement of achievement motivation and the episodic future thinking of improving the value of task results.