The Effects of Regulatory Focus Goal Framing on Affect During a new Multitasking Workload paradigm

The current paper aims to inform understanding of the processes underlying the generation of affective responses during multi-goal workload conditions when using a promotion-prevention goal framing. Valence is specified as a dynamic variable that is formulated by a combination of goal progress indicators including goal attainment, velocity discrepancy and position discrepancy. Arousal is a dynamic variable that is a measure of task demands. Affective responses are a combination of these factors. According to Regulatory Focus Theory (Higgins, 1997), the way in which goals are communicated in terms of promotion-prevention, is capable of influencing the values and weightings of goal progress indicators to produce differing trajectories of affective responses. Using Gee’s new Dynamic Affective States Model (2014), we extend this model to a multiple-goal task environment with a newly developed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) simulation. An experimental study was conducted with 65 participants performing simultaneous navigation and classification tasks. Participants were randomly assigned to an overall approach-promotion or approachprevention goal framing condition, while affective states and perceived workload were measured at regular intervals across 16 goal striving mini-missions. The results indicated that Gee’s Model of Affective States could be extended to this new task environment and goal framing approach, being able to capture four distinct trajectories of affective states as distinguished by the goal framing condition and by trials where individuals attained or failed to attain their goals. The contributions of each indicator on valence and arousal differed across promotion and prevention goal framing. We discuss the theoretical, methodological and implication of our findings.