Abstract
To test whether forming and memorizing more action plans has larger effects than generating fewer plans. In a randomized controlled trial with five intervention groups and one control group, 478 participants were asked to form one, two, three, four, or five action plans, or to complete questionnaires only (control group). One week later, behavior change was measured and participants of the intervention groups completed a free recall task. Outcome measures are daily intake of fruit and vegetables as well as recall of plans. Fruit and vegetable intake increased with higher numbers of plans, and was significantly larger in groups that formed four (d = 0.36) or five plans (d = 0.48) as compared to controls. The sum of recalled plans reflected the number of generated plans, but was unrelated to behavior change. Generating multiple plans benefits behavior change, but to be implemented they need not be recalled.
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Notes
An a priori sample size estimation resulted in a sample size of n = 77 participants per condition (d = 0.59; Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006; α = .05, power = .95, dropout = 30%).
A PDF-version of the intervention is available upon request from the first author.
Sum of recalled situations divided by the number of plans formed in the respective intervention, see Table 1.
Analyses were run as two-tailed tests in an intention-to-treat framework with missing data being imputed using the EM algorithm (Enders, 2001).
Analyses using data from the longitudinal sample only (n = 362; i.e., excluding dropouts) replicated the differential behavior change across groups, F(5, 354) = 2.48, P = .03.
For comparisons between those who formed 2 and 3 plans, and between those with 4 and 5 plans, P < .05.
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Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank Jana Richert and Milena Koring for their help in conducting this study.
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Wiedemann, A.U., Lippke, S. & Schwarzer, R. Multiple plans and memory performance: results of a randomized controlled trial targeting fruit and vegetable intake. J Behav Med 35, 387–392 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-011-9364-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-011-9364-2