Is either peripheral detail(s) or central feature(s) easy to mentally process?: EEG examination of mental workload based
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Is either peripheral detail(s) or central feature(s) easy to mentally process?: EEG examination of mental workload based on construal level theory Behcet Yalin Ozkara 1
&
Volkan Dogan 1
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The same phenomenon or action may evoke different imaginations across the minds of people. For instance, locking the door could be construed either as putting the key into the lock or as securing the house. According to the construal level theory, the former (latter) is more likely to happen among people with a low (high) level of construal, who have an intrinsic inclination to focus on peripheral details (central features) of the phenomena or action. Given that object’s peripheral details are more concrete and less abstract than its central features, people with a low (high) level of construal have better developed concrete-mindset (abstract-mindset). Previous research has been consistently assuming that people with a low (high) level of construal are better at cognitively processing the concrete (abstract) phenomenon or action. However, this assumption has not yet been empirically tested with EEG methodology. In this paper, we test this assumption through within-subject experimental design (n = 44) conducting EEG methodology. Results of the P-300 component of the event-related brain potential, which is an indicator of mental workload, demonstrated that people with a low (high) level of construal experienced a greater mental workload when they were processing abstract (concrete) phenomena. Keywords Construal level theory . EEG . Mental workload . P-300
Introduction It is a widely observed situation that people can cognitively process a phenomenon or action from different perspectives. This difference may stem from a variety of situational factors (e.g., the emotional situation of sadness or happiness). For instance, the action of locking the door can be construed as turning the key into the slot of the lock or securing the house. This example, which represents two different reflections of the same action in the mind, suggests that people can cognitively process the phenomenon or action with a concrete or abstract mindset. Construal level theory (Trope and Liberman 2010), Behcet Yalin Ozkara and Volkan Dogan are contributed equally to this paper. The order of authorship was determined randomly. * Behcet Yalin Ozkara [email protected] Volkan Dogan [email protected] 1
Department of Marketing, Eskisehir Osmangazi University, 26480 Eskisehir, Turkey
which explains such difference as a function of psychological distance or trait construal-level, posits that individuals construe a phenomenon or action in their minds by focusing on peripheral details or central features of the phenomena or action. That is, if either the psychological distance between the target phenomenon and actor or the construal level of the actor is low (high), the mental representation of the target phenomenon will be based on a concrete (abstract) mindset (Trope and Liberman 2003).
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