Ithaca College

On January 19, 2013, Leigh Ann Vaughn presented research done with her Social Judgment Research Team at the annual convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology in New Orleans, LA. Her coauthors on this poster were Abigail Dubovi ('11) and N. Paul Niño ('11).  The title of this presentation was "'Mindfulness Moderates the Effect of Processing Fluency on Continuing Tasks for Enjoyment."

Two studies examined whether trait mindfulness (a tendency to be aware and attentive to current experience) moderates the effect of manipulated processing fluency on how long people continue tasks for the sake of enjoyment. Processing fluency is more enjoyable than processing dysfluency, and it can promote continuing tasks for enjoyment. We predicted that participants higher in mindfulness would show a stronger positive effect for processing fluency on task continuation. Two studies assessed trait mindfulness, manipulated variables shown to affect processing fluency (Study 1, presenting maxims phrased to rhyme vs. not rhyme; Study 2, requesting participants to list goal-pursuit strategies that fit vs. did not fit a primed self-regulatory orientation), and asked participants to continue a word-generation or idea-listing task as long as they enjoyed it. Results supported hypotheses. We consider implications of these findings for other sources of processing fluency, other kinds of tasks, and experiences of person-environment fit.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Leigh Ann Vaughn at lvaughn@ithaca.edu or (607) 274-7353. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.