Exhaustion-Induced Regulatory Transitions: A Preregistered Situational Judgment Test of the GGBN Integration Framework

This study tests whether acute psychophysiological exhaustion induces systematic shifts in athletes’ emotion regulation strategies, as predicted by the Gross-Goleman-Barrett-Neurovisceral Integration (GGBN) model. Using a within-person, pre-post depletion design with counterbalanced parallel forms (A/B), N = 300 athletes complete a novel 18-scenario Situational Judgment Test before and after a standardized Depletion Gauntlet combining high-intensity exercise, cognitive load, and frustration induction. Primary analysis uses a Hierarchical Bayesian Plackett-Luce framework to estimate 11 pre-specified regulatory transition effects and person-level heterogeneity parameters. Exploratory analyses test three theory-derived distributional signatures characterizing population-level response patterns. See attached preregistration for complete specification.