Consider It Done! Plan Making Can Eliminate the Cognitive Effects of Unfulfilled Goals

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Skyler

Unfulfilled goals continue to generate cognitive activation and interference, long assumed to persist until completion. Masicampo and Baumeister test the alternative hypothesis that forming specific plans can satisfy the cognitive processes that sustain goal pursuit. Across multiple studies, unfulfilled goals produced intrusive thoughts, heightened accessibility of goal-related words, and reduced performance on unrelated tasks. Allowing participants to create specific plans eliminated activation and interference effects, with mediation by plan earnestness, while goal-related emotional changes were not required.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages18

Reading Time45 min

AccessFree to download

Consider It Done! Plan Making Can Eliminate the Cognitive Effects of Unfulfilled Goals

Unfulfilled goals and cognitive activation

Plan making as satisfaction of goal-pursuit processes

Making plans for action

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Consider It Done! Plan Making Can Eliminate the Cognitive Effects of Unfulfilled Goals E. J. Masicampo and Roy F. Baumeister Online First Publication, June 20, 2011. doi: 10.1037/a0024192 CITATION Masicampo, E. J. , & Baumeister, R. F. (2011, June 20) . Consider It Done! Plan Making Can Eliminate the Cognitive Effects of Unfulfilled Goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0024192 Journal of Personality and Social Psychology © 2011 American Psychological Association 0022-3514/11/$12.00 DOI: 10.1037/a0024192 Consider It Done! Plan Making Can Eliminate the Cognitive Effects of Unfulfilled Goals E. J. Masicampo and Roy F. Baumeister Florida State University Unfulfilled goals persist in the mind, as asserted by ample theory and evidence (e.g., the Zeigarnik effect) . The standard assumption has been that such cognitive activation persists until the goal is fulfilled. However, we predicted that contributing to goal pursuit through plan making could satisfy the various cognitive processes that usually promote goal pursuit. In several studies, we activated unfulfilled goals and demonstrated persistent goal activation over time. Unfinished goals caused intrusive thoughts during an unrelated reading task (Studies 1 and 5B), high mental accessibility of goal-related words (Studies 2 and 3), and poor performance on an unrelated anagram task (Study 4) . Allowing participants to formulate specific plans for their unfulfilled goals eliminated the various activation and interference effects. Reduction of the effects was mediated by the earnestness of participants’ plans: Those who ultimately executed their plans were those who also exhibited no more intrusions (Study 4) . Moreover, changes in goal-related emotions did not appear to be a necessary component of the observed cognitive effects (Studies 5A and 5B) . Committing to a specific plan for a goal may therefore not only facilitate attainment of the goal but may also free cognitive resources for other pursuits. Once a plan is made, the drive to attain a goal is suspended—allowing goal-related cognitive activity to cease—and is resumed at the specified later time. Keywords: goal pursuit, self-regulation, plan making, motivation Supplemental materials: [http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0024192.supp](http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0024192.supp) The human mind is remarkably well designed for goal pursuit. Attention (Moskowitz, 2002), perception (Bruner & Goodman, 1947; Lambert, Solomon, & Watson, 1949; Maner et al., 2005), thoughts (Klinger, 1977), and attitudes (Ferguson & Bargh, 2004) all become tuned to help one pursue a goal. The mind vigorously promotes this intense focus on a goal, protecting it from distractions (Shah, Friedman, & Kruglanski, 2002) and resuming it after it has been interrupted (Wicklund & Gollwitzer, 1981) . Even when one is not consciously working toward a goal, the mind keeps the goal active in the unconscious (Klinger, 1975; Zeigarnik, 1927), maintaining vigilance for opportunities to fulfill it (Goschke & Kuhl, 1993; Moskowitz, 2002) . Thus, once a goal is chosen, the mind has many processes to promote its pursuit. At what point do these subside? The obvious answer is that they cease when the goal is attained. This has been favored in theories of goal pursuit (Klinger, 1975) and has found support in empirical research (Frster, Liberman, & Higgins, E. J. Masicampo and Roy F. Baumeister, Department of Psychology, Florida State University. This research was supported in part by a grant from the Templeton Foundation. Thanks to Teresa Chimienti, Samantha Fisch, Kaylla Futch, Shaun Harkin, Mike Hoesten, Kelsey Muldoon, Maggie Murphy, Jessica Patz, Allison Ross, Kayla Sedgwick, Erin Sweeney, and Chris Thorstenson for their suggestions and help with data collection. Correspondence concerning this article should be addres

FAQs

What problem do unfulfilled goals create in the mind?

Unfulfilled goals persist as cognitive activation, producing intrusive thoughts and increased accessibility of goal-related information until the goal is fulfilled.

How does plan making change cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals?

Formulating specific plans for unfulfilled goals eliminates the activation and interference effects observed across studies.

What role do planned execution and emotions play?

Reduction in effects is mediated by how earnestly participants’ plans are formed and those who later execute plans show fewer intrusions; changes in goal-related emotions are not necessary for the cognitive effects.

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Skyler

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