Conscientiousness increases efficiency of multicomponent behavior

Many everyday situations require the flexible interruption and changing of different actions to achieve a goal. Several strategies can be applied to do so, but those requiring high levels of cognitive control seem to confer an efficiency (speed) advantage in situations requiring multi-component behavior. However, it is elusive in how far personality traits affect performance in such situations. Given that top-down control is an important aspect of personality and furthermore correlates with conscientiousness, N = 163 participants completed the NEO-FFI and performed an experimental (stop-change) paradigm assessing multicomponent behavior. Applying mathematical constraints to the behavioral data, we estimated the processing strategy of each individual. The results show that multicomponent behavior is selectively affected by conscientiousness which explained approximately 19% of the measured inter-individual behavioral variance. Conscientiousness should hence be seen as a major personality dimension modulating multicomponent behavior. Highly conscientious people showed a more effective, step-by-step processing strategy of different actions necessary to achieve a goal. In situations with simultaneous requirements, this strategy equipped them with an efficiency (speed) advantage towards individuals with lower conscientiousness. In sum, the results show that strategies and the efficiency with which people cope with situations requiring multicomponent behavior are strongly influenced by their personality.