Executive Functions and Self-Regulation Strategies in a Sustained Behavioral Self-Regulation Task

Executive functions (EFs) and self-regulation (SR) strategies are rarely studied together, particularly in sustained behavioral SR, which overlaps with vigilance demands yet is absent from traditional SR measurement. We examined whether EFs predict SR strategy use or the strategy–performance association during a prolonged, monotonous task. We assessed 254 adults (Mage = 29.24, SD = 7.85) using the Brief Executive Function battery (shifting, inhibition, procedural working memory [pWM]) alongside the Mice Task, intended to elicit self-regulatory friction through boredom and available off-task activity. Participants then reported using cognitive reappraisal, situational strategies, subgoaling, and distraction. Structural equation modeling indicated that pWM predicted reported reappraisal use; its associations with subgoaling and distraction use were not independent of recruitment source. Inhibition, and reported reappraisal and situational-strategy use, were associated with Mice Task performance; so was subgoaling use, though with marginal model fit and indeterminate Bayesian evidence. Bayesian analyses favored the null for all 12 EF-by-strategy interaction terms (BF01 = 6.7–15.9), in a design powered to detect interactions of β ≈ 0.20–0.23. Primary findings used non-preregistered rank-based inverse normal transformed strategy-use scores; the preregistered raw-score models fit poorly. Cognitive capacity and reported strategy use appear to relate to sustained self-regulation independently rather than interactively.