Repeated Self-Regulation and Asymmetric Hemispheric Activation

Numerous recent studies have investigated repeated self-regulation to uncover the processes involved in self-regulatory behavior over time. Results from most of these studies are consistent with a depletion process in which self-regulatory effectiveness declines over time due to resource depletion. The present research examined an additional factor that may also be involved in repeated self-regulatory exertion, namely, differential hemispheric activation. Five studies examined this issue, focusing on self-control tasks requiring avoidance or vigilance. Studies 1 to 3 indicated that these tasks resulted in greater relative right hemispheric activation. Studies 4 and 5 indicated that, consistent with this pattern of differential activation, initial vigilance self-control resulted in better subsequent performance on a spatial self-regulatory task but worse performance on a verbal self-regulatory task. These findings provide additional insight into the dynamics of self-regulatory behavior across tasks, suggesting the combination of tasks examined may influence the pattern of results obtained.