Publications
1. Ameden, W. C., Tricomi, E., & Heintzelman, S. J. (2024). The role of planfulness for well-being, stress, and goal disruption during COVID-19. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1224451. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1224451
Abstract: Planfulness refers to an individual’s tendency to be future oriented, mentally flexible, and cognitively strategic when engaging with goals, and has been shown to predict goal completion. We investigated the relationships among planfulness, goal disruption, stress, and psychological well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, which served as a unique setback context. We measured these constructs using the planfulness scale, an ad-hocsurvey item probing goal disruption in the pandemic, the perceived stress scale, and the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, respectively. Participants were university students (N = 174; mean age 23.03, SD: 4.37; 77% female). Higher planfulness predicted lower goal-disruption, lower stress, and higher well-being during the pandemic, extending its benefits beyond the goal domain. High levels of planfulness did not protect against goal disruption among those participants in which the self-reported personal impact of the pandemic was highest. Differences in goal disruption across levels of planfulness were constrained to lower reported pandemic impact. However, the differences in psychological well-being and stress by levels of planfulness were retained even when self-reported perceptions of personal pandemic impact were high. More planful students maintained lower stress and higher psychological well-being than their less planful peers across levels of adversity. These findings suggest that even in extremely difficult contexts in which planfulness does not protect against goal disruption, it still confers personal benefits in terms of psychological health.
1. Ameden, W.C., & Tricomi, E., (2024). Historical and Modern Perspectives on the Neuroscience of Habits. In Habits: Their Definition, Neurobiology, and Role in Addiction. Springer Nature.
Abstract: Habits are a crucial part of our daily lives. When they are aligned with our goals, they allow us to conserve cognitive resources so that we can perform routine behaviors without thinking, but when they are goal-misaligned, they can be counterproductive and prevent us from responding adaptively. This chapter provides a brief overview of historical and modern perspectives on habit and the role of neuroscientific methods in helping to uncover the neural systems that drive habitual behavior. While results have been mixed regarding the neural correlates of goal- directed versus habitual behavior, there is evidence that points to potential networks that are involved in each of these processes. A caudate-prefrontal circuit appears to drive goal-directed behavior, while a putamen-motor loop appears to support habitual control, and this latter system may be particularly important due to its role in cue sensitivity. Overall, dual-system theories of habitual behavior are shifting toward a more integrated framework where multiple systems work together to guide behavior. Consistencies and discrepancies in neural findings are discussed, as well as important directions for future work.
Habits
Goal Pursuit, Well-being
Learning
1. Thrailkill, E. A., Ameden, W. C., & Bouton, M. E., (2019). Resurgence in humans: Reducing relapse by increasing generalization between treatment and testing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 45(3), 338-349, 10.1037/xan0000209
Abstract: Resurgence is the increase in performance of an extinguished instrumental (operant) response that accompanies the extinction of a response that has been reinforced to replace it. Resurgence may involve processes that are relevant for understanding relapse in applied and clinical settings. While resurgence is known to be a robust phenomenon in human operant extinction, the processes that control it remain unclear. Here we asked whether human resurgence is controlled by processes that are similar to those that have been identified in animals by asking whether two methods that reduce resurgence in animals also reduce it in humans. Participants first learned to make an operant response (R1) for a tangible food reinforcer (O1). In a second phase (Phase 2), R1 was extinguished while a second response (R2) was introduced and reinforced with a virtual monetary reward (USD $0.10 coins; O2). In a test phase, extinction was then introduced for R2 and resurgence of R1 was assessed. In Experiment 1, resurgence that occurred after the treatment just described was attenuated if there had been periodic exposure to R2 extinction during the treatment phase (Phase 2). In Experiment 2, resurgence was prevented when O2, but not O1, was presented noncontingently during the test. The results are among the first to suggest a mechanism underlying resurgence in humans, namely, renewal caused by contextual change. They also provide initial evidence to suggest that resurgence may be the result of common processes in animals and humans.
News/Media Publications
1. Ameden, W.C., & Tricomi, E., (2022). Pandemic decision-making is difficult and exhausting – here’s the psychology that explains why. The Conversation. Reprinted in multiple news outlets including The Washington Post. https://theconversation.com/pandemic-decision-making-is-difficult-and-exhausting-heres-the-psychology-that-explains-why-176968
Making decisions was more difficult during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this article we presented a few reasons for this, including decision fatigue, risk vs. uncertainty, and cognitive biases like the availability heuristic.