Mental Simulation and Persistence in Action

A large number of studies indicate that mental simulations affect the quality of performed activities. This study explores the question of how persistence in action is affected by different types of outcome- and process-focused simulations (Experiments 1, 5, and 6), simulations of persistent and nonpersistent activities (Experiment 2), and simulations of characteristics (Experiments 3 and 4). Persistence is operationalized in two ways: (a) as the time it takes to perform a task, and (b) as weighted indicators of time and quality of action considered in combination. The results of the study show that process simulation (Experiments 1, 5, and 6) and characteristics simulation (Experiments 3 and 4) effectively increase persistence. Effective simulation depends on prior knowledge of the task (Experiment 2).