Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Keep it cool: temperature priming effect on cognitive control

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Psychological Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The effect of physical temperature on cognition and behavior has been the focus of extensive research in recent years, demonstrating that embodied concepts are grounded in, and shaped by, sensorimotor physical experiences. Nevertheless, less is known about how experienced and perceived temperatures affect cognitive control, one of humans core executive functions. In the present work, we primed participants with cool versus warm temperature using a between participants manipulation of physical touch experience (Experiment 1), and a within participants manipulation of seeing landscape views associated with cool vs. warm temperatures (Experiment 2). In both experiments, cool compared to warm temperatures lead to improved performance on an anti-saccade task, an established cognitive control measure. Implications are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Two participants in the cool priming condition were excluded from this analysis for showing extremely poor performance (40 and 77 % error rates) which was more than three standard-deviations away from the mean (Z values were +3.16 and +6.91, respectively, as compared to a range of −.89 to +1.85 in the rest of the group, representing 0–27 % error rates). Including these participants the Temperature effect was no longer significant (F < 1.00). Nevertheless, since the assumptions of the ANOVA were not met when including these participants we performed a Kruskal–Wallis median test which revealed highly significant differences between conditions, X 2(2) = 10.04, p < .01, indicating the same pattern of results revealed in the previous reported ANOVA. Specifically, while in the cold condition the performance of 16 out of 30 participants were lower the median (and 14 out of 30 were equal or above), in the neutral and the warm conditions there were only 9 out of 29 and 4 out of 28 participants, respectively.

  2. Two participants were excluded from this analysis for showing extremely poor performance in the first block of the anti-saccade task (which for both of them involved the cool condition). Specifically, their error rates (48 and 65 %) was more than three standard-deviations away from the mean (Z = +4.18 and +5.95, as compared to a range of −.81 to +1.56 in the rest of the group, representing 0–23 % error rates). Including these participants the Temperature effect was no longer significant (F < 1.00). Nevertheless, since the assumptions of the ANOVA were not met when including these participants we performed a Friedman ANOVA by ranks which revealed highly significant differences between conditions, ANOVA X 2(2, n = 28) = 10.79, p < .005, indicating the same pattern of results revealed in the previous reported ANOVA. Specifically, the sum of ranks in the cold condition (67.5) was higher than in the neutral (44.5) and in the warm (56) conditions.

  3. A mixed model design, including the order participants perform the three temperature conditions as a between participants variable, and the temperature conditions as a within participants variable, received an enlarged main effect for temperature, F(2,40) = 9.85, p < .001, η 2 p  = .33, while both the order and the interaction with order were not significant (both F < 1, n.s.).

References

  • Anderson, C. A. (1989). Temperature and aggression: Ubiquitous effects of heat on occurrence of human violence. Psychological Bulletin, 106, 74–96.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, C. A., & Anderson, A. K. (1998). Temperature and aggression: Paradox, controversy, and a (fairly) clear picture. In R. Geen & E. Donnerstein (Eds.), Human aggression: Theories, research and implications for policy (p. 247). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (1997). External validity of” trivial” experiments: The case of laboratory aggression. Review of General Psychology, 1, 19–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bargh, J. A., & Shalev, I. (2012). The substitutability of physical and social warmth in daily life. Emotion, 12, 154–162.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barsalou, L. W. (1999). Perceptions of perceptual symbols. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22, 637–660.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barsalou, L. W. (2008). Grounded cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59, 617–645.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Muraven, M., & Tice, D. M. (1998). Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1252–1265.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Baumeister, R. F., & Vohs, K. D. (2007). Self-regulation, ego depletion, and motivation. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 1, 115–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bergman, P., Ho, H., Koizumi, A., Tajadura-Jiménez, A., & Kitagawa, N. (2015). The pleasant heat? Evidence for thermal-emotional implicit associations occurring with semantic and physical thermal stimulation. Cognitive Neuroscience, 6, 24–30.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buss, A. H. (1961). The psychology of aggression. Hoboken, NJ, US: Wiley.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Cheema, A., & Patrick, V. M. (2012). Influence of warm versus cool temperatures on consumer choice: A resource depletion account. Journal of Marketing Research, 49, 984–995.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DeBono, A., Shmueli, D., & Muraven, M. (2011). Rude and inappropriate: The role of self-control in following social norms. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 136–146.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • DeWall, C. N., Baumeister, R. F., Stillman, T. F., & Gailliot, M. T. (2007). Violence restrained: Effects of self-regulation and its depletion on aggression. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 62–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Epley, N., & Waytz, A. (2010). Mind perception. In S. T. Fiske, D. T. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (5th ed., pp. 498–541). Hoboken, NJ, US: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, N. P., & Miyake, A. (2004). The relations among inhibition and interference control functions: A latent-variable analysis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 101–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fujita, K., Trope, Y., Liberman, N., & Levin-Sagi, M. (2006). Construal levels and self-control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90, 351–367.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Gailliot, M. T. (2013). Hunger and reduced self-control in the laboratory and across the world: Reducing hunger as a self-control panacea. Psychology, 4, 59–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibson, J. J. (1966). The senses considered as perceptual systems. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodwin, C. J. (2015). A history of modern psychology. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goschke, T., & Dreisbach, G. (2008). Conflict-triggered goal shielding: Response conflicts attenuate background monitoring for prospective memory cues. Psychological Science, 19, 25–32.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Halali, E., Bereby-Meyer, Y., & Meiran, N. (2014). Between self-interest and reciprocity: The social bright side of self-control failure. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143, 745–754.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Halali, E., Bereby-Meyer, Y., & Ockenfels, A. (2013). Is it all about the self? The effect of self-control depletion on ultimatum game proposers. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 240.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hallett, P. (1978). Primary and secondary saccades to goals defined by instructions. Vision Research, 18, 1279–1296.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hancock, P. A., Ross, J. M., & Szalma, J. L. (2007). A meta-analysis of performance response under thermal stressors. Human Factors, 49, 851–877.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hancock, P., & Vasmatzidis, I. (2003). Effects of heat stress on cognitive performance: The current state of knowledge. International Journal of Hyperthermia, 19, 355–372.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Harmon-Jones, E., Gable, P. A., & Price, T. F. (2011). Leaning embodies desire: Evidence that leaning forward increases relative left frontal cortical activation to appetitive stimuli. Biological Psychology, 87, 311–313.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hofmann, W., Schmeichel, B. J., & Baddeley, A. D. (2012). Executive functions and self-regulation. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16, 174–180.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hommel, B. (2013). Dancing in the dark: No role for consciousness in action control. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 380. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00380.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hommel, B. (2015). The theory of event coding (TEC) as embodied-cognition framework. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1318. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01318.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Ijzerman, H., & Semin, G. R. (2009). The thermometer of social relations: Mapping social proximity on temperature. Psychological Science, 20, 1214–1220.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Inagaki, T. K., & Eisenberger, N. I. (2013). Shared neural mechanisms underlying social warmth and physical warmth. Psychological Science, 24, 2272–2280.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Inzlicht, M., & Schmeichel, B. J. (2012). What is ego depletion? Toward a mechanistic revision of the resource model of self-control. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7, 450–463.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Inzlicht, M., Schmeichel, B. J., & Macrae, C. N. (2014). Why self-control seems (but may not be) limited. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 18, 127–133.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Isen, A. M., Nygren, T. E., & Ashby, F. G. (1988). Influence of positive affect on the subjective utility of gains and losses: It is just not worth the risk. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 710–717.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kang, Y., Williams, L. E., Clark, M. S., Gray, J. R., & Bargh, J. A. (2011). Physical temperature effects on trust behavior: The role of insula. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 6, 507–515.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Katzir, M., Eyal, T., Meiran, N., & Kessler, Y. (2010). Imagined positive emotions and inhibitory control: The differentiated effect of pride versus happiness. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 36, 1314–1320.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Katzir, M., Ori, B., Eyal, T., & Meiran, N. (2015). Go with the flow: How the consideration of joy versus pride influences automaticity. Acta Psychologica, 155, 57–66.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kessler, Y., & Meiran, N. (2008). Two dissociable updating processes in working memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 34, 1339–1348.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kolb, P., Gockel, C., & Werth, L. (2012). The effects of temperature on service employees’ customer orientation: An experimental approach. Ergonomics, 55, 621–635.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). The metaphorical structure of the human conceptual system. Cognitive Science, 4, 195–208.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loersch, C., & Payne, B. K. (2011). The situated inference model an integrative account of the effects of primes on perception, behavior, and motivation. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 234–252.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Meier, B. P., Schnall, S., Schwarz, N., & Bargh, J. A. (2012). Embodiment in social psychology. Topics in Cognitive Science, 4, 705–716.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Meier, B. P., Scholer, A. A., & Fincher-Kiefer, R. (2014). Conceptual metaphor theory and person perception. In M. Landau, M. D. Robinson, & B. P. Meier (Eds.), The power of metaphor: Examining its influence on social life (pp. 43–64). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Meiran, N. (2010). Task switching: Mechanisms underlying rigid vs. flexible self control. In R. R. Hassin, K. N. Ochsner, & Y. Trope (Eds.), Self control in society, mind, and brain (pp. 202–220). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Metcalfe, J., & Mischel, W. (1999). A hot/cool-system analysis of delay of gratification: Dynamics of willpower. Psychological Review, 106, 3–19.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mischel, W. (1996). From good intentions to willpower. In P. M. Gollwitzer & J. A. Bargh (Eds.), The psychology of action: Linking cognition and motivation to behavior (pp. 197–218). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miyake, A., Friedman, N. P., Emerson, M. J., Witzki, A. H., Howerter, A., & Wager, T. D. (2000). The unity and diversity of executive functions and their contributions to complex “frontal lobe” tasks: A latent variable analysis. Cognitive Psychology, 41, 49–100.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Muraven, M., Tice, D. M., & Baumeister, R. F. (1998). Self-control as limited resource: Regulatory depletion patterns. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 774–789.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Niedenthal, P. M., Barsalou, L. W., Winkielman, P., Krauth-Gruber, S., & Ric, F. (2005). Embodiment in attitudes, social perception, and emotion. Personality and Social Psychology Review: An Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc, 9, 184–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nigg, J. T. (2000). On inhibition/disinhibition in developmental psychopathology: Views from cognitive and personality psychology and a working inhibition taxonomy. Psychological Bulletin, 126, 220–246.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nisbett, R. E. (1993). Violence and US regional culture. American Psychologist, 48, 441–449.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Panksepp, J. (1998). Affective neuroscience: The foundations of human and animal emotions. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pelchat, M. L., Johnson, A., Chan, R., Valdez, J., & Ragland, J. D. (2004). Images of desire: Food-craving activation during fMRI. NeuroImage, 23, 1486–1493.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Percy, E. J., Hoffmann, J. L., & Sherman, S. J. (2011). Sticky metaphors and the persistence of the traditional voluntary manslaughter doctrine. University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, 44, 383–427.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pilcher, J. J., Nadler, E., & Busch, C. (2002). Effects of hot and cold temperature exposure on performance: A meta-analytic review. Ergonomics, 45, 682–698.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Prinz, W. (1987). Ideo-motor action. In H. Heuer & A. F. Sanders (Eds.), Perspectives on perception and action (pp. 47–76). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rand, D. G., Greene, J. D., & Nowak, M. A. (2012). Spontaneous giving and calculated greed. Nature, 489, 427–430.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, M. D., Schmeichel, B. J., & Inzlicht, M. (2010). A cognitive control perspective of self-control strength and its depletion. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4, 189–200.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sassenrath, C., Sassenberg, K., & Semin, G. R. (2013). Cool, but understanding… experiencing cooler temperatures promotes perspective-taking performance. Acta Psychologica, 143, 245–251.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schmeichel, B. J. (2007). Attention control, memory updating, and emotion regulation temporarily reduce the capacity for executive control. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136, 241–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schwarz, N., & Clore, G. L. (2007). Feelings and phenomenal experiences. In A. R. Kruglanski & E. T. Higgins (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (2nd ed., pp. 385–407). New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sellaro, R., Hommel, B., Manaï, M., & Colzato, L. S. (2015). Preferred, but not objective temperature predicts working memory depletion. Psychological Research, 79, 282–288.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Semin, G. R., & Smith, E. R. (2008). Embodied grounding: Social, cognitive, affective, and neuroscientific approaches. UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Shalev, I. (2014). Implicit energy loss: Embodied dryness cues influence vitality and depletion. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 24, 260–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shalev, I. (2016). Pictorial and mental arid landscape images reduce the motivation to change negative habits. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 45, 30–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shalev, I., & Bargh, J. A. (2011). Use of priming-based interventions to facilitate psychological health commentary on kazdin and blase (2011). Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6, 488–492.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shalev, I., & Bargh, J. A. (2015). On the association between loneliness and physical warmth-seeking through bathing: Reply to Donellan et al. (2014) and three further replications of Bargh & Shalev (2012) study 1. Emotion, 15, 120–123.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tabibnia, G., Satpute, A. B., & Lieberman, M. D. (2008). The sunny side of fairness. Psychological Science, 19, 339–347.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Uziel, L., & Hefetz, U. (2014). The selfish side of self control. European Journal of Personality, 28, 449–458.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van den Bergh, B., Schmitt, J., & Warlop, L. (2011). Embodied myopia. Journal of Marketing Research, 48, 1033–1044.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vickroy, S. C., Shaw, J. B., & Fisher, C. D. (1982). Effects of temperature, clothing, and task complexity on task performance and satisfaction. Journal of Applied Psychology, 67, 97–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vohs, K. D., & Heatherton, T. F. (2000). Self-regulatory failure: A resource-depletion approach. Psychological Science, 11, 249–254.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Webster, J., Holland, E. J., Sleivert, G., Laing, R. M., & Niven, B. E. (2005). A light-weight cooling vest enhances performance of athletes in the heat. Ergonomics, 48, 821–837

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wilkowski, B. M., Crowe, S. E., & Ferguson, E. L. (2015). Learning to keep your cool: Reducing aggression through the experimental modification of cognitive control. Cognition and Emotion, 29, 251–265.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wilkowski, B. M., Meier, B. P., Robinson, M. D., Carter, M. S., & Feltman, R. (2009). “Hot-headed” is more than an expression: The embodied representation of anger in terms of heat. Emotion, 9, 464.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, L. E., & Bargh, J. A. (2008). Experiencing physical warmth promotes interpersonal warmth. Science (New York, N.Y.), 322, 606–607. doi:10.1126/science.1162548.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, L. E., Huang, J. Y., & Bargh, J. A. (2009). The scaffolded mind: Higher mental processes are grounded in early experience of the physical world. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 1257–1267.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, M. (2002). Six views of embodied cognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9, 625–636.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winkielman, P., Niedenthal, P., Wielgosz, J., Eelen, J., & Kavanagh, L. C. (2015). Embodiment of cognition and emotion. APA handbook of personality and social psychology, 1, 151–175

    Google Scholar 

  • Xu, A. J., Schwarz, N., & Wyer, R. S, Jr. (2015). Hunger promotes acquisition of nonfood objects. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112, 2688–2692.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Zhong, C. B., & Leonardelli, G. J. (2008). Cold and lonely: Does social exclusion feel literally cold? Psychological Science, 19, 838–842.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Sharon Chavoinik, Goldi Feuerstein and Maya Poller for their assistance with data collection. Eliran Halali gratefully acknowledges support from the Fulbright program of the United States- Israel Educational foundation and the ISEF foundation.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Eliran Halali

    Present address: Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, 52900, Israel

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Eliran Halali

  2. Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

    Nachshon Meiran

  3. Zlotowski Center of Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

    Nachshon Meiran & Idit Shalev

  4. Department of Education, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel

    Idit Shalev

Authors
  1. Eliran Halali
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Nachshon Meiran
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Idit Shalev
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Eliran Halali or Idit Shalev.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 1173 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Halali, E., Meiran, N. & Shalev, I. Keep it cool: temperature priming effect on cognitive control. Psychological Research 81, 343–354 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-016-0753-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-016-0753-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation