Picturing each step of a problem helped gifted students put things off less
Who it’s about: Students
- Helped
Gifted students who rehearsed each step of a problem in their minds put things off less than untrained students.
- Action: Rehearse the steps in your mindtested
- Action: Notice the unpleasant feeling and start anywaytested
- Rule: In weekly sessionsused
Small randomised trial of 30 gifted high school students in Iran · vs students who got no training · they rated themselves · ⚠ numbers unreliable
The study
Who took part
30 students in the third year of one high school for gifted students in Tehran, Iran. They had the highest scores for putting off schoolwork and for school stress. They were split into two equal groups.
What they did
One group had 9 weekly sessions of 90 minutes. In each one, students imagined how a problem starts and stepped through what to do. They used a way to handle their feelings in the scene, then pictured how it ends. The other group got no training.
What happened
Students who had the training rated themselves as putting off schoolwork less at the end than the other group. The gains seemed to last at a later check, but the paper doesn't say when that was. The paper's tables are garbled, so we can't give sizes.
Source
Effectiveness of Process Mental Simulation on Academic Procrastination and Stress of Gifted Students (2022)
DOI: 10.61186/ijes.5.4.120 (opens in a new tab)Tools in this study
Action5
Rehearse the steps in your mindMentally simulate how a task or problem unfolds, step by step, and how you'll handle it.
Action2
Notice the unpleasant feeling and start anywayEmotion regulation: name, accept or tolerate the feeling a task brings, then begin.
