• Ken Ceulemans, Petra A Karsdorp, and Johan W S Vlaeyen.
• Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Research Group Behavioral Medicine, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands. Ken.Ceulemans@maastrichtuniversity.nl
• J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2013 Dec 1; 44 (4): 463-8.

Background And ObjectivesTask persistence despite experiencing pain might be a risk factor for development and maintenance of chronic pain. The Mood-as-Input (MAI) model predicts that the impact of mood on individuals' motivation to persist in a task depends on the interpretation of current mood within a certain motivational context. The aim of the current study was to replicate the original MAI study (Martin, Ward, Achee, & Wyer, 1993), but in a context where the task is painful.MethodsA 2 Mood (negative versus positive) × 2 Stop-Rule (achievement versus hedonic) between-subjects factorial design was used in which 120 healthy participants (97 women, mean age = 21.78 years, SD = 3.07) performed an impression-formation task while being exposed to mechanically induced pressure pain.ResultsThe MAI interaction hypothesis was not confirmed. Instead, participants showed more task persistence when they used hedonic stop-rules as a ground to decide on task (dis)continuation than when they used an achievement-oriented stop-rule. Additionally, participants reporting less pain-related fear also spent more time on the painful impression-formation task. The current findings suggest that the MAI perspective might not apply to task persistence behavior in a pain context.LimitationsThese findings may not generalize to task performance in patients with chronic pain.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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