Florida State University Psychology Department Abstract Why are people cognitive misers? Cognitive miserliness saves costs of self-regulation. Ego depletion reduced cognitive reflection, but drinking sugary lemonade attenuated this effect. Cognitive miserliness also reduced ego depletion. Participants randomly assigned to solve word problems using controlled thought (vs. intuition) subsequently performed worse on a Stroop task. 1. Frederick, S. (2005). Cognitive reflection and decision making. Journal of Economic perspectives, Schmeichel, B. J. (2007). Attention control, memory updating, and emotion regulation temporarily reduce the capacity for executive control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136, 241– Gailliot, M. T., Baumeister, R. F., DeWall, C. N., Maner, J. K., Plant, E. A., Tice, D. M.,... & Schmeichel, B. J. (2007). Self- control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: willpower is more than a metaphor. Journal of personality and social psychology, 92, Masicampo, E. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (2008). Toward a physiology of dual-process reasoning and judgment: Lemonade, willpower, and expensive rule-based analysis. Psychological Science, 19, McMahon, A. J., & Scheel, M. H. (2010). Glucose promotes controlled processing: Matching, maximizing, and root beer. Judgment and Decision Making, 5, Stroop, J. R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of experimental psychology, 18, Gigerenzer, G., & Todd, P. M. (1999). Fast and frugal heuristics: The adaptive toolbox. New York, NY, US: Oxford University Press. References Ego Depletion Impairs Cognitive Reflection and Cognitive Reflection Impairs Self-Regulation Andrew J. Vonasch & Roy Baumeister Florida State University Study 1 Study 1 tested whether depleted (compared to non-depleted) participants would be less likely to cognitively reflect on word problems. Participants were first randomly assigned to complete a depletion task previously used in the literature (crossing out a difficult pattern of es) or a similar task not expected to cause depletion (crossing out every e). Then, participants completed word problems designed to test whether participants engaged in effortful cognitive reflection or not, i.e., the Cognitive Reflection Test (Frederick, 2005). We hypothesized that depletion would impair performance on the Cognitive Reflection Test. Furthermore, we hypothesized that depleted participants would be especially likely to respond to the CRT using the intuitive (incorrect) answers. Study 2 Study 2 tested whether administering glucose to participants would eliminate the effect of depletion on cognitive reflection. Participants were randomly assigned to complete a different depletion task from Schmeichel (2007): writing paragraphs without using the letters a or n, or a similar non-depletion task: writing paragraphs without using the letters x or z. Participants were randomly assigned to drink lemonade sweetened with sugar (i.e., glucose) or a zero-calorie sweetener (Galliot, et al., 2007; Masicampo & Baumeister, 2008; McMahon & Scheel, 2010). We hypothesized that among participants who drank zero calories, depletion would impair performance on the CRT and increase the use of intuition, but that among participants who ingested glucose there would be no effect of depletion. Study 1 Study 2 Study 3 Study 3 tested the hypothesis that cognitive reflection is effortful and depleting. The CRT was used at the independent variable rather than the dependent variable. Participants were randomly assigned to solve a 10-item version of the CRT (Frederick, personal communication, 2012) using either intuition or cognitive reflection. Then, participants completed a classic measure of executive function: the Stroop task (Stroop, 1935). We hypothesized that participants who cognitively reflected on the word problems would be impaired on the incongruent Stroop items. Study 3 Conclusion Studies 1 and 2 showed that participants were less likely to cognitively reflect on problems when their self-control resources had been depleted. Why? Study 3 tested the hypothesis that participants avoid cognitive reflection to preserve the self-control resource for future tasks. Participants who used controlled thinking (compared to participants who used intuition) to solve the CRT performed worse on a subsequent measure of self-regulation: reaction times to incongruent Stroop trials. These results support a novel explanation for cognitive miserliness. Being cognitively miserly by avoiding cognitive reflection may serve two important functions: making decisions quickly and making decisions effortlessly so as to preserve self-regulatory resources. Past theorizing has argued that cognitive miserliness is an optimal strategy when time is scarce and decisions must be made quickly (Gigerenzer & Todd, 1999). However, the present research offers a complementary explanation. Cognitive miserliness in using cognitive reflection helps preserve self-regulatory resources for other tasks.