The relationship between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures among Chinese college students: a moderated mediation model

Abstract

Background

Previous studies have confirmed that core self-evaluation is a predisposition factor for cognitive failures. However, there is little research on the potential mechanisms of action of core self-evaluation on cognitive failures. Therefore, this study aimed to explore how core self-evaluation influences cognitive failures among college students.

Methods

We recruited 1400 college students in China to complete the core self-evaluation scale (CSES), the depression-anxiety-stress scale (DASS-21), the loneliness scale (USL-8), and the cognitive failures questionnaire (CFQ).

Results

Core self-evaluation was negatively associated with cognitive failures, and depression symptoms partially mediated the association between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures. In addition, loneliness moderated the direct effect of core self-evaluation on cognitive failures and the second half of the indirect effect.

Conclusions

By constructing a moderated mediation model, this study specifically elaborated on the mediating role that depression symptoms played between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures, as well as the moderated role of loneliness, which affected core self-evaluation and cognitive failures to diverse extents.

Cognitive failures, which appear as mistakes based on cognition, occur when someone completes simple tasks that usually perform well [1]. To be specific, cognitive failures mainly occur in the following situations, such as holding your mobile phone to find your own; not being able to determine whether you have turned off the lights or closed the door; An idiom or name that comes off the tongue often but can't come to mind; and suddenly not knowing what you're going to do when you're just about to do it and so on. Although cognitive failures do not exhibit the specific structural and functional brain abnormalities characteristic of cognitive disorders, such as memory impairment (a typical early symptom of Alzheimer's disease) and executive dysfunction, they have a severe impact on people's daily lives as well as physical and mental health.

Studies have revealed that frequent cognitive failures can increase susceptibility to stress [2]. The limited resource theory of self-control states that self-control is a limited resource, and once used, the resources on which an individual's other self-control depends will be reduced, making it more difficult to meet the established standards of self-control performance and resulting in ego depletion, leading to the individual's failure to regulate on subsequent tasks [3]. Cognitive failures occupy limited control resources and often induce individuals to interrupt their current learning, work, and leisure activities, reducing their work and learning effectiveness [4, 5]. Phuong found that the detection rate of cognitive failures in adults was 41% [6]. Severe cognitive failures even contribute to Internet addiction [7] and increase the probability of work accidents as well as traffic accidents [8–10]. Besides, cognitive failures will also reduce the learning efficiency of individuals and make it hard to make correct decisions [11]. A study of 1003 undergraduate students showed that cognitive failures (including inattention, forgetfulness, or accidents) can lead to difficulty performing daily tasks and affect health and quality of life [12].

In summary, cognitive failures have increasingly become serious public health problems in social groups, and college students are an important reserve force for social development. Their physical and mental health is closely related to their individuals and families and the future development of the whole country and society. Therefore, this study chose college students as the research objects to analyze the mechanisms and influencing factors of college students' cognitive failures.

Personality trait is an important predictive variable among the formative factors of cognitive failures [13]. Core self-evaluation is a potential and broad personality structure, Judge regards it as the most basic evaluation of an individual's ability and value. It consists of four low-order traits feature with evaluation focus, foundation, and a wide range of effects, which includes self-esteem, general self-efficacy, neuroticism, and locus of control [14]. The link between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures can be explained by the core self-evaluation Theory [15]. The core self-evaluation theory points out that individuals with high levels of core self-evaluation tend to have a high evaluation of their abilities so that they can find self-related stimuli in the environment and mobilize cognitive resources to deal with them as soon as possible. Individuals with low levels of core self-evaluation pay excessive attention to self-related passive information, which will induce them to adopt a negative attitude and concentrate on previous mistakes and defects. Over time, a stereotyped cognitive style can be formed easily and further cause behavior errors [16]. In a word, if the core self-evaluation is likened to a "trunk", then other evaluations are "branches and leaves", as the growth of branches and leaves requires the support of the trunk, the core self-evaluation affects the evaluations related to the environment [17].

A survey of Chinese college students showed that college students in the higher cognitive failures scores group had significantly lower core self-evaluation scores compared to those in the lower cognitive failure scores group [17]. Robert found a significant positive correlation between negative self-evaluation and cognitive failures [18]. Yan's research also suggested that core self-evaluation was associated with cognitive failures [19]. Patrick proved that the higher the core self-evaluation level of students, the better cognitive ability and academic performance [20]. Therefore, this study proposes research hypothesis 1: Core self-evaluation significantly negatively predicts cognitive failures.

As a psychological problem, depression is defined by the World Health Organization as a mood disorder with typical symptoms such as abnormally low mood, lack of interest and pleasure, fatigue, and decreased energy and so on.

Most previous studies have shown that individuals with low core self-evaluation can predict a higher level of depression symptoms [21], which is consistent with Judge's view [14]. In order to explain the relationship between core self-evaluation and depression symptoms, we can base our explanation on the following theories. On the one hand, the self-validation theory holds that individuals will always seek feedback that is consistent with their initial self-concept to maintain and strengthen it [22]. That is, individuals with positive attitudes will seek out positive information and even interpret neutral information as positive information, whereas, individuals with negative attitudes will pay more attention to negative information and interpret neutral information as negative information. Consequently, individuals with low core self-evaluations may seek negative feedback and tend to interpret information more negatively, which in turn can generate a range of negative emotions leading to depression symptoms [23]. On the other hand, according to the depression cognitive theory, a portion of individuals with low core self-evaluation will produce negative cognitive bias after experiencing stressful events, which prevents them from processing information correctly. Moreover, such cognitive bias will occur repeatedly and is hard to control, ultimately developing into depression [24]. Depression is one of the most common mental health disorders among college students in China, with prevalence ranging from 5.9% to 30.39% [25, 26]. Therefore, it is critical to explore factors that may influence the reduction or increase of depressive symptoms both theoretically and practically.

In addition, empirical studies have demonstrated a correlation between higher levels of depression symptoms and cognitive failures [27]. First of all, the integration model of cognitive failure thinks that depression symptoms is a predictive factor of cognitive failures [13, 28]. When individuals are in a negative mood, it is difficult for them to allocate their cognitive resources rationally, and they are prone to make errors and develop cognitive failures in social activities. Secondly, according to the resource overload theory, the total amount of cognitive resources available by individuals is limited, and when one activity takes up more than the total amount of resources, other activities will be affected [29, 30]. College students who are immersed in depression usually pay more attention to their inner feelings and consume more cognitive resources. As a result, it is difficult to continuously and effectively allocate available cognitive resources when completing the current task, and more cognitive failure behaviors appear. Finally, the extension-construction theory of emotion points that if college students feel great pressure, they may be in a state of stress, focus on resources to cope with threatening events, accentuate the deployment of resources in a certain direction, narrow individual thinking-acting resources and cognitive-acting spheres [31], and thus compete with their current tasks with limited resources, leading to an increased frequency of cognitive failures [32, 33]. In summary, core self-evaluation not only directly predicts cognitive failure, but also indirectly predicts cognitive failures through the medium of depression. Therefore, this study proposes hypothesis 2: Depression symptoms plays a mediating role between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures.

Loneliness refers to subjective social isolation accompanied by the painful feelings of not being accepted due to personal isolation or a lack of contact with others [34]. College students are eager to maintain good interpersonal relationships while learning professional knowledge. Whereas, they fail to achieve the expected goals due to personality, cognitive ability, and other reasons. As a result, the accompanying low mood as well as frustration make them feel a host of loneliness. Although core self-evaluation is associated with cognitive failures among college students, different individuals do not necessarily present the same degree. College students are in a critical period of life development, and the ecosystem theory points out that the development of individuals is the result of the joint action of individual and environmental factors [35, 36]. Loneliness has been defined as a public health problem or an "epidemic" by most governments in the world. Numerous researches show that loneliness is associated with the dramatic decline of global cognitive ability [37–39]. Neurophysiology suggests that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is vital for cognition control, which allows individuals to behave flexibly as well as attentively [40, 41]. A study of MRI reports that loneliness negatively correlates with regional white matter density in the prefrontal cortex [42]. In addition, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and several genes in the amygdala have been verified as being associated with loneliness [43]. Therefore, if individuals feel high levels of loneliness, their memory and executive function may be affected to some extent, even producing cognitive failures. In this study, loneliness is regarded as a potential risk factor for cognitive failures. Because there are few studies on the relationship between loneliness and cognitive failures in college students, this study would provide a new perspective to explore its role in the relationship between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures. For one thing, according to the risk enhancement model, for college students with low core self-evaluation, the addition of loneliness can enhance their positive predictive power of cognitive failures [44]. For another thing, according to the risk-buffering model [45, 46], for college students with high levels of core self-evaluation, loneliness as a risk factor can weaken their negative predictive power of cognitive failure. Consequently, this study proposes hypothesis 3: loneliness moderates the relationship between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures.

Loneliness can not only moderate the direct relationship between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures but also moderate its mediating path. Beck's self-schema theory [47] demonstrates that college students with depression are dominated by negative self-schema in their brains. Therefore, when responding to external stimuli, they focus on capturing negative events and emotions consistent with their characteristics, which consumes cognitive resources, reduces sustained attention to current tasks, and triggers negative cognitive processes. The cumulative model of risk factors believes that the effects of a single risk factor are relatively limited, but when risks work together, the influence is no longer the simple addition of two risks but brings greater adaptation difficulties [48]. Therefore, college students with high levels of depression symptoms are more likely to suffer cognitive failures under the dual influence of loneliness caused by a lack of social support and interpersonal communication than those with low levels of depression symptoms. In conclusion, this study proposes hypothesis 4: Loneliness moderates the relationship between depression symptoms and cognitive failures.

In summary, this study constructed a moderated mediation model (Fig. 1) to explore the relationship between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures as well as its potential pathways among college students. Specifically, the first is to examine the relationship between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures; The second is to test whether depression symptoms mediates the relationship between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures; The third is to verify whether loneliness moderates the direct path built by core self-evaluation and cognitive failures; The fourth is to prove loneliness moderates the second half of the mediating path. In a word, this study aims to provide a theoretical and objective empirical basis for improving the cognitive failures of college students.

Fig. 1.

Hypothetical model for this study

Methods

Participants

This study selected students from a university in Jilin Province as the research subjects. The inclusion criteria comprised full-time undergraduate or postgraduate students without a diagnosis of cognitive impairment within the past six months. The exclusion criteria included non-current students (e.g., those on leave of absence or those who had graduated) and individuals wi

th psychiatric disorders. After identifying the target population, the relevant personnel at the university were contacted to facilitate participant recruitment. A convenience sampling method was employed for data collection, utilizing online questionnaires administered via the Wenjuanxing platform. Participants could access and complete the questionnaires by scanning QR codes shared through social media platforms such as QQ and WeChat. In the informed consent process, they were informed that participation was completely anonymous and voluntary. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of School of Public Health, Jilin University on December 4, 2023 (number: 2023–11-08). With the teachers’ help, we distributed 1400 questionnaires in electronic forms to the students at our request, and 1297 valid questionnaires were obtained (the validity rate of the questionnaires was 92.60%). The ages of the subjects ranged from 17–33 years old (M = 22.01, SD = 2.68), including 452 (34.8%) were males and 845 (65.2%) were females, 826 (63.7%) were undergraduate students and 471 (36.3%) were postgraduate students.

Measurements

Core self-evaluation

The core self-evaluation scale developed by Judge [49] and revised by Du [50] was adopted to measure the level of core self-evaluation, which was more applicable to the college students in this study. The scale consists of 10 items and is rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree). The total score is the sum of each item and ranges from 10 to 50; higher scores represent a higher assessment of the individual's core values and competencies. In this study, the Cronbach’s α coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.815.

Loneliness

The Undergraduates’ Loneliness Scale (ULS-8), revised by Hays [51] and introduced by Yan Liu [52], was employed to test college students' loneliness, which is a single dimension scale with 8 questions. On this scale, the 3rd and 6th items were scored in reverse. Participants were required to respond on a 5-point scale from 1 (never) to 4 (always). High scores were indicative of a higher sense of loneliness. In the present study, the Cronbach’s α coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.820.

Depression symptoms

The depression subscale of the Chinese version of the Depression-Anxiety-Stress Scale was applied to evaluate college students' depression [53]. This subscale is composed of 7 items, using a 4-point scale (0 = "not consistent",3 = "always consistent"). The total score of the depression subscale is the sum of the seven-item scores multiplied by 2 and ranges from 0 to 42 points. According to the scores, the degree of depression can be divided into the following groups: 0–9 proves normal; 10–13 is mild depression; 14–20 is moderate depression; 21–27 is severe depression; and 28–42 is defined as extremely severe depression, which suggests that the individual is in a negative emotional state. Higher scores indicate higher levels of depression symptoms. In this study, the Cronbach's α coefficient of this subscale was 0.913.

Cognitive failures

This study adopted the cognitive failures questionnaire compiled by Broadbent [1] and revised by Zhou Yang [54]. This scale consists of 25 items divided into five sub-dimensions: interference, memory failure, interpersonal failure, motor coordination, and name memory failure. Using a 5-Likert scale from 1 to 5: 1 = "never", 5 = "always". The total score ranges from 25 to 125 points. The higher the individual score on the questionnaire, the more serious the problem of cognitive failures. In this study, the Cronbach's α coefficient of this scale was 0.968.

Statistical analyses

In the present study, all data were analyzed by SPSS 24.0. First of all, descriptive statistical analysis was used to describe the sociodemographic information of the subjects and the scores of the studied variables. Meanwhile, to ensure the accuracy and scientificity of the study results, the Harman single-factor test was adopted to determine the effect of common method variance on the original data [55]. The results showed that the eigenvalues of 7 components were more than 1, and the variance interpretation of the largest factor was 38.575%, which was lower than the critical value of 40%. Quantitative data was expressed as the mean ± standard deviation. Then, Pearson correlation analysis was employed to analyze the correlation between the studied variables. Finally, this study used the PROCESS 3.2 macro program to construct the moderated mediation model. Which was a testing method based on bootstrap repeated sampling. It estimates the 95% confidence interval (CI) of the mediation and moderation effects through 5000 bootstrapped samples. If the 95% CI did not contain "0," the effect was significant. After controlling for age and grade, we applied Process Model 4 to test the mediating effect of depression symptoms and verify whether the direct effect and mediating effect were moderated by loneliness using Process Model 15.

Results

Preliminary analyses

The descriptive statistical analysis and correlation analysis results of the studied variables in this study are presented in Table 1. The results showed that the core self-evaluation score was 31.97 5.86, the depression score was 10.70 9.54, the loneliness score was 17.41 4.62, and the cognitive failures score was 65.01 20.33. In addition, the results of the bivariate analysis displayed core self-evaluation was negatively correlated with depression symptoms, loneliness, and cognitive failures, respectively. Conversely, depression symptoms, loneliness, and cognitive failures were positively correlated with each other. The difference analysis of demographic variables in this study showed that age and grade had significant effects on Cognitive failures (F = 9.51, p < 0.05; F = 2.51, p < 0.05). Therefore, age and grade were included in the subsequent analysis as control variables.

Table 1.

Descriptive statistics and the correlation among the studied variables

Variables	M	SD	1	2	3	4	5	6
1 Age	22.01	2.68	1
2 Grade	-	-		1
3 Cognitive failures	65.01	20.33	−0.085**	−0.113**	1
4 CSE	31.97	5.86	0.117**	0.139**	−0.502**	1
5 Depression	10.70	9.54	−0.046	−0.071*	0.539**	−0.514**	1
6 Loneliness	17.41	4.62	−0.059*	−0.083**	0.477**	−0.548**	0.541**	1

CSE Core self-evaluation

*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01.

Testing for the mediating effect of depression

Model 4 in the SPSS macro program compiled by Hayes was used to analyze and examine the mediating role of depression symptoms between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures. Age and grade were regarded as control variables in the subsequent analysis. Table 2 shows the results of this study: Firstly, Model 1A showed that core self-evaluation significantly negatively predicted cognitive failures (B = −1.716, p < 0.001). Secondly, Model2A suggested that core self-evaluation significantly negatively predicted depression symptoms (B = −0.836, p < 0.001). Finally, when both core self-evaluation and depression symptoms were included in Model 3A, the results showed that depression symptoms significantly positively predicted cognitive failures (B = 0.812, p < 0.001), and core self-evaluation still had a negative prediction effect on cognitive failures (B = −1.038, p < 0.001). However, the predictive value decreased from 1.716 to 1.038. The mediating effect was −0.678 (see Table 2), and the 95% CI was [−0.814, −0.550], excluding 0. The mediating effect accounted for 39.51% of the total effect. Hence, depression partially mediated the association between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures. The mediation model is shown in Fig. 2.

Table 2.

Testing the mediating role of depression symptoms

Model A
		Fitting index			Coefficient and significance
		R	R2	F	B	t
Model 1A: Total effect model
Outcome variables	Predictor variables
Cognitive failures	Constant	0.504	0.254	147.062	111.608	13.610***
	Age				0.538	1.268
	Grade				−0.884	−1.938
	Core self-evaluation				−1.716	−20.402***
Model 2A: Mediator variable model
Depression	Constant	0.515	0.266	155.876	32.486	8.510***
	Age				0.273	1.379***
	Grade				−0.264	−1.245
	Core self-evaluation				−0.836	−21.343***
Model 3A: Dependent variable model
Cognitive failures	Constant	0.601	0.361	182.368	85.240	10.921***
	Age				0.318	0.806
	Grade				−0.669	−1.583
	Core self-evaluation				−1.038	−11.454***
	Depression				0.812	14.670***
			β	Boot SE	BootLLCI	BootULCI
Total effect of core self-evaluation on cognitive failures			−1.716	0.084	−1.881	−1.551
Direct effect of core self-evaluation on cognitive failures			−1.038	0.091	−1.215	−0.860
Indirect effect of depression			−0.678	0.068	−0.814	−0.550

Bootstrap sample size = 5000

LL Low limit, CI Confidence interval, UL Upper limit

^*p < 0.05, ^**p < 0.01, ^***p < 0.001

Fig. 2.

Testing for the mediating effect of depression symptoms in the association between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures. Note: The number in brackets represents the coefficient on the direct path before adding the mediation variable. the control variables of age and grade were not shown in the figure (the following is the same). ^*p < 0.05, ^**p < 0.01,.^***p < 0.001

Testing for the moderating effect of loneliness

Model 15 in the SPSS macro program compiled by Hayes was used to analyze and test the moderated mediation model. The results are presented in Table 3. First of all, Model 1B proved that core self-evaluation significantly negatively predicted cognitive failures (B = −0.836, p < 0.001). Then, Model2B showed that the interaction between core self-evaluation and loneliness significantly positively predicted cognitive failures (B = 0.048, p < 0.001), which demonstrated that loneliness weakened the relationship between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures. In addition, the interaction between depression symptoms and loneliness significantly positively predicted cognitive failures (B = 0.024, p < 0.05), suggesting that loneliness can enhance the relationship between depression symptoms and cognitive failures. See Table 3 and Fig. 3 for more information.

Table 3.

Testing the moderated mediation effect of core self-evaluation on cognitive failures

Model B
		Fitting index			Coefficient and significance
		R	R2	F	B	t
Model 1B: Mediator variable model
Outcome variables	Predictor variables
Depression	Constant	0.515	0.266	155.876	−4.927	−1.368
	Age				0.273	1.379
	Grade				−0.264	−1.245
	Core self-evaluation				−0.836	−21.343***
Model 2B: Dependent variable model
Cognitive failures	Constant	0.619	0.383	114.210	61.752	8.751***
	Age				0.258	0.666
	Grade				−0.557	−1.337
	Core self-evaluation				−0.768	−7.713***
	Depression				0.658	10.514***
	Loneliness				0.777	6.243***
	Core self-evaluation × Loneliness				0.048	2.934***
	Depression × Loneliness				0.024	2.075*

*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001

Fig. 3.

Testing for the moderating effect of Loneliness on the direct and indirect relationships between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures. Note: CSV: core self-evaluation. ^*p < 0.05, ^**p < 0.01,.^***p < 0.001

In order to clearly describe the interaction effect, we performed two simple slope analyses to demonstrate the interaction between 1 SD below the mean ("lower loneliness") and 1 SD above the mean ("higher loneliness") of Loneliness. As shown in Fig. 4, regardless of the level of loneliness, the core self-evaluation consistently negatively predicted cognitive failures. The difference was that for college students with lower levels of loneliness (simple slope = −0.993, t = −8.915, p < 0.001, 95% CI = [−1.212, −0.775])), the negative predictive power of core self-evaluation on cognitive failures was stronger than that of college students with higher levels of loneliness (simple slope = −0.543, t = −3.918, p < 0.001, 95%CI = [−0.815, −0.271]). Figure 5 shows that the influence of depression symptoms on cognitive failures performed stronger among college students with higher levels of loneliness (simple slope = 0.768, t = 11.477, p < 0.001, 95% CI = [0.637,0.899]) than that of college students with lower levels of loneliness (simple slope = 0.548, t = 5.788, p < 0.001, 95% CI = [0.362,0.734]).

Fig. 4.

The moderating effect of loneliness on core self-evaluation and cognitive failures

Fig. 5.

The moderating effect of loneliness on depression symptoms and cognitive failures

Discussion

Our outcomes supported all the hypotheses based on previous research and relevant theories, revealing a significant negative correlation between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures. Simultaneously, depression symptoms might partly mediate the association of core self-evaluation with cognitive failures. When college students feel more lonely in their daily lives, it will weaken the impact of core self-evaluation on cognitive failures and enhance the effect of depression symptoms on cognitive failures, which means that loneliness may moderate the influence of core self-evaluation on cognitive failures as well as depression symptoms on cognitive failures. The results of this study were consistent with the phenomenological variable theory of ecological systems theory (PVEST) proposed by Spencer [56]. The theory states that in the interaction with the individual and the environment, the individual will go through five stages: risk factors, stress triggers, reactive coping methods, stable coping responses, and coping outcomes in life stages, and eventually the individual will develop an adaptive or reactive coping method. According to this theory, in the current study, lower core self-evaluation and loneliness are regarded as risk factors; depression symptoms is thought to be the trigger factor of stress; and cognitive failure is the coping method and coping reaction, which ultimately leads to individual behavior mistakes among college students. These findings will not only be conducive to identifying the potential risk factors of cognitive failures and exploring the pathways between cognitive failures and related risk factors, but they will also provide a theoretical basis for taking measures to intervene in the cognitive failures of college students.

College students with lower core self-evaluation are more likely to suffer from cognitive failures, which supports the core self-evaluation theory [15]. Previous studies have also shown that core self-evaluation predicts cognitive failure [17, 18, 57, 58]. The reason may be that self-evaluation is regarded as an internal drive. On the one hand, college students with low evaluation of their ability and a lack of sense of value tend to take a negative attitude towards the things around them so that their cognitive flexibility is reduced, which makes them prone to developing some cognitive failures. On the other hand, college students with low core self-evaluation are insecure, so they are too reflective in dealing with their problems, paying too much attention to the inner world, experiencing deep depression and emptiness, and consuming a host of cognitive resources, resulting in irrational allocation of resources and developing cognitive failures [16]. In addition, Mecacci found that neurotic personality, as one of the core self-evaluation components, was significantly correlated with cognitive failures and could effectively predict cognitive failures [59]. Moreover, the theory of cognitive resources also points out that cognitive failures may be summarized as negligent behaviors caused by ineffectively utilizing cognitive resources [19].

This study expands on previous literature and shows that core self-evaluation can not only predict cognitive failures through the direct pathway but also through the indirect pathway of depression symptoms. Our results are generally consistent with the Cognitive Emotion Theory, which states that individuals with low core self-evaluation will inevitably trigger negative emotions, and individuals tend to be immersed in negative emotions due to focusing on the self and being unable to escape from them, which prevents the allocation of cognitive resources available to the individual to the task at hand, and ultimately leads to the occurrence of cognitive failures [60]. Previous research has also shown that individuals with low core self-evaluation are at high risk of developing adverse emotions such as depression, which leads to the occurrence of more cognitive and behavioral mistakes [15].

We can analyze the construction of this mediation model from two perspectives. For one thing, the results showed that college students with low core self-evaluation were more likely to develop depression symptoms. This result could be explained by Alice's ABC theory. According to the ABC theory, the emergence of emotion is not caused by the stressful event itself but is determined by the individual's cognition of the event. As a personality trait, core self-evaluation can exert a directional effect on external information processing through cognitive schema [61]. College students with low core self-evaluation may be more inclined to adopt negative cognitive schema and even attribute frustrations as well as difficulties to their insufficient capacities, resulting in more negative emotions and leading to higher levels of depression. For another thing, the results of the present study indicated that college students who experienced high levels of depression symptoms were extremely likely to experience cognitive failures, which supports the conclusion of exploring the link between depression and symptoms cognitive failures [62]. The depressive mood is associated with more cognitive failure, and this association may partly be attributed to cognitive failures as an outward behavioral manifestation of depression, such as forgetting names or being distracted. The American Psychiatric Association considers distorted thinking as a judgment criterion for depression [63]. Thus, cognitive failures will often occur in college students who are depressed.

The present study suggests that loneliness moderates the association between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures (Fig. 4). Loneliness harms the physical and mental health of college students [64]. As an early adult population, college students' emotional self-regulation ability, self-care ability, and interpersonal skills are still imperfect. Additionally, they are at high risk of feeling loneliness accompanied by the bewilderment of being newly separated from family life and lifestyle changes. The psychological disharmony theory also supports this view. It holds that the disharmony of individuals' interpersonal relationships will induce different degrees of psychological discomfort and pressure, which makes it easier to produce a certain degree of loneliness [65]. Although there have been relatively few explorations of loneliness and core self-evaluation, some studies have shown a positive correlation between loneliness and neuroticism, while neuroticism is one of the lower-order traits of core self-evaluation [66]. Furthermore, prior studies have also shown that increased levels of loneliness can lead to shyness, anxiety, depression, fury, experience more low self-esteem, low self-evaluation, and social anxiety [67–69]. The resulting mental fatigue will consume an individual's limited cognitive resources, leading to difficulties in concentration and susceptibility to distraction, which can trigger cognitive failures. Meanwhile, this viewpoint is also in accordance with the resource overload theory [29, 30]. Therefore, compared with college students with low levels of loneliness, college students with high levels of loneliness are more inclined to immerse themselves into their world, lack emotional support, and hold a negative attitude towards themselves, resulting in low core self-evaluation, consuming more cognitive resources, and producing a higher level of cognitive failures.

Moreover, loneliness also moderates the relationship between depression symptoms and cognitive failures. Specifically, the higher the levels of depression symptoms, the more significant the effect is (Fig. 5). This can be explained by the risk enhancement model [44]. Given the risk enhancement model, loneliness, as a negative emotion, is positively associated with cognitive failures [47]. College students with loneliness are often distracted and have difficulty concentrating, which means that college students who perceive high levels of loneliness are easily distracted by irrelevant stimuli and unable to focus on their current work and study tasks. Additionally, long-term loneliness can adversely affect the blood pressure and immunity of college students, leading to the deterioration of their health and emotional disorders such as depression [70]. Therefore, college students with high levels of loneliness and depression symptoms have a higher incidence of cognitive failures.

This study extends theoretical and empirical research on cognitive failures among college students and is the first to examine the relationships between core self-evaluation, depression symptoms, loneliness, and cognitive failures. It is worth noting that these findings extend our knowledge. Firstly, core self-evaluation theory and resource overload theory demonstrate that core self-evaluation significantly and negatively predicts cognitive failures. Hence, relevant departments are supposed to take measures such as organizing psychological group counseling and carrying out relevant psychological lectures. Secondly, the present study applies the self-validation theory and the depression cognitive theory to provide sufficient theoretical support for the study of the mediating role of depression symptoms in the relationship between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures. Depression symptoms plays a critical role in the process of cognitive failures and is the ''bridge'' between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures. Therefore, colleges and universities should pay attention to the cultivation of students' emotional regulation abilities to reduce the risk of depression. Finally, we applied resource overload theory and a risk enhancement model to clarify that loneliness as a risk factor can moderate the direct and indirect pathways of core self-evaluation and cognitive failures.

Although the current study has some significant findings about cognitive failures in college students, several limitations need to be recognized. Firstly, the current cross-sectional study cannot draw a strict causal relationship, and longitudinal studies are supposed to be conducted. Secondly, the study used self-reported data, which may affect the objectivity of the findings. Thirdly, we only investigated the mediating role of depression and the moderating role of loneliness. There may be other mediating or moderating variables between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures. Lastly, since convenience sampling was used, there is a risk of sample bias, the objects of this study are a group of college students at a university in Jilin Province, which may affect the generalizability of the results, and it is considered to use random sampling to improve generalizability in the future.

Conclusions

This study confirms a significant negative correlation between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures through a questionnaire survey and further identifies the mediating role of depression symptoms. At the same time, the study verifies that loneliness moderates the relationship between core self-evaluation and cognitive failures on both direct and indirect pathways (second half). Additionally, measures aiming to enhance the ability of individual students to regulate their emotions can be conducive to reducing the incidence of cognitive failures.

Authors’ contributions

Nana Liu: Collecting and analyzing data; writing and revising articles. Siyu Zhu: Analyzing and validating data. Huifang Song: Collecting data. Kun Tang: Collecting data. Xinyao Zhang(Corresponding author): Supervising the collection of data and revising the article.

Funding

Not applicable.

Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to the data is not held by individuals but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate

In accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, the studies involving humans were approved by School of Public Health of Jilin University. The studies were conducted in accordance with the local legislation and institutional requirements. The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.