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LIT-1878: On the mechanics of goal striving: Experimental evidence of coasting and shifting

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Properties4
StatusActive — read in full 2026-10-30 (NOTE-1438), from the NIH author manuscript in PubMed Central (PMC8022896), fetched as XML through NCBI's E-utilities. Two online experiments with a lexical decision task and two goals, speed and accuracy. False feedback that one goal was ahead of target was followed by worse performance on that goal (coasting) and better on the other (shifting). In Experiment 1 (n = 151) the feedback moved self-rated mood; in Experiment 2 (n = 222) an if-then plan to "ignore my feelings" removed both effects. The record's first experimental evidence that affect after running ahead lowers a goal's hold on performance and moves it to a rival goal. Effects are small, tests one-tailed, and Experiment 2 has no check that the plan changed affect.
Tagsmotivation, emotion-and-affect
Cited as “grounds” byCLAIM-468 — Valence intensity need not be the strength of the prevailing ordering's potential: in Hesp et al.'s model negative valence is a weakening of the preference ordering's precision with a fall back to habit, and positive affect is reported to lower a goal's priority, so for either sign stronger valence can go with a weaker hold of the ordering, CLAIM-505 — A goal's lowered priority under positive affect need not be a weaker hold of the prevailing ordering: on Carver's satisficing account the effort released goes to the goal furthest behind, which the prevailing ordering of the system's states may itself direct
Cited as “paper” byNOTE-1438 — Thürmer, Scheier & Carver — Coasting and shifting

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J. Lukas Thürmer, Michael F. Scheier and Charles S. Carver (2019 online; 2020), Motivation Science 6(3):266–274 — DOI-10.1037/mot0000157, PMC8022896

Key takeaways

  • Randomly assigned feedback that one goal is ahead of target is followed by worse performance on that goal and better performance on a competing goal, in two experiments.
  • Ahead-of-target feedback leaves mood better than behind-target feedback, though mostly because behind-target feedback lowers it.
  • An if-then plan to ignore one’s feelings removes coasting and shifting, which the authors take as causal evidence for affect’s role.

Standing in the record

Filed on 2026-10-30, with Fulford et al. 2010 (LIT-1860), as the experimental test of the thesis CLAIM-468 and CLAIM-440 attribute to Carver 2003 (LIT-1445): that positive affect from running ahead lowers a goal’s priority and frees effort for another.

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