Lace plans to pursue a PhD in neural sciences. Once she decided on that goal, she expended effort toward guiding her thoughts, feelings, and behavior to reach it. Overall, this example illustrates which process? implementation intentions excitation transfer self-awareness self-regulation

Lace's actions of guiding her thoughts, feelings, and behavior toward her goal of pursuing a PhD in neural sciences illustrate the process of **self-regulation**. Self-regulation refers to the ability to manage one's emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in the pursuit of long-term goals. In this case, Lace is actively working to align her internal states and actions with her academic aspirations, which is a key aspect of self-regulation. The other options can be briefly explained as follows: - **Implementation intentions** involve forming specific plans about when, where, and how to act in order to achieve a goal. - **Excitation transfer** refers to the process where arousal from one event carries over to influence responses to a subsequent event. - **Self-awareness** is the recognition of one's own emotions, thoughts, and values, but it does not necessarily involve the active management of them toward a goal. Thus, the correct answer is **self-regulation**.