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I’ll Do it Later: Exploring the Relationship Between Procrastination and Working Memory

Author(s): Lindsay Nance , Chelsee Moore , Casey Milburn

Presentation: poster

Estimates place college student procrastination between 70%-95%(Steel, 2007). While procrastination has traditionally been viewed as a negative trait, recent studies have proposed two types of procrastination: passive and active. Passive procrastination is characterized by avoiding or escaping aversive tasks, indecisiveness, and fear of revealing incompetency. Active procrastinators intentionally put off tasks seeking to induce psychological flow, delay boredom, and engage in thrill-seeking. To differentiate between types of procrastination and identify relevant individual characteristics, we surveyed 35 College of Idaho students. We found no correlation between active and passive procrastination measures, therefore, supporting the notion that there are two distinct groups. To measure the individual differences, we used surveys of self-efficacy, impulsivity, beliefs about procrastination, self control, and self esteem. We found that impulsivity is positively correlated with passive procrastination and negatively correlated with active procrastination. Moreover, self-control is positively correlated with active procrastination and negatively correlated with passive procrastination. We will also report data from three working memory span tasks which will specify their relationship to procrastination.

 

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