Performance effectiveness and efficiency under different dyadic work strategies.

Studied the effects of 3 task-solving strategies on group efficiency and effectiveness by having 60 U.S. Army soldiers work in dyads either under a shared labor strategy or 1 of 2 divided labor strategies. Tasks included a difficult and an easy crossword puzzle. On the average, dividing labor resulted in greater efficiency (amount of work per man hour). Requiring Ss to work together resulted in substantially greater group effectiveness (total performance), but this effect occurred primarily on the easy task. It is suggested that a high degree of member interdependence maximizes redundancy of task-relevant abilities, resulting in generally superior performance effectiveness but frequently at the cost of efficiency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in the performance of computer-based work.

Investigated the extent to which age had an impact on the performance of computer-based work. Three simulated real-world computer-interactive tasks that varied in complexity and pacing requirements were evaluated. Ss included 65 women, ranging in age from 25 to 70 yrs. The methodology encompassed physiological, subjective, and objective performance measures. Data indicated that previous computer experience and age had a significant impact on the performance of the 3 tasks. Increased age was associated with longer response times and a greater number of errors for all 3 tasks. Age also influenced perceptions of fatigue and task difficulty. The findings are discussed in terms of the implications for training and job design. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex role orientation and division of labor early in marriage.

Examined the division of labor by newlyweds, including the extent to which spouses participated in the labor force and involved themselves in household work. 120 husbands (mean age 24.3 yrs) and wives (mean age 21.9 yrs) completed the Attitudes Toward Women Scale, the Personal Attributes Questionnaire, and a measure assessing their perceived skill in carrying out 26 household tasks. Data on household task participation were gathered via 9 separate phone interviews. Tasks were classified into 2 groups based on whether they were performed more often by the men or by the women. Husbands' and wives' sex-role attitudes were related to the extent to which wives, but not husbands, participated in the labor force. The more traditional the couple was in terms of their relative employment hours, the less the husband, relative to his wife, was involved in female sex-typed household tasks. No such connection was found for male sex-typed tasks. Spouses' perceived skill at performing tasks traditionally assigned to the spouse of the opposite sex was significantly related to how traditional they were in housework participation. Findings suggest that gender-related attitudes and skills of newlyweds influence the way their relationships come to be structured with regard to economic and instrumental activities. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Determinants of learning and performance in an associative memory/substitution task: Task constraints, individual differences, volition, and motivation.

The way that cognitive abilities, learning task characteristics, and motivational and volitional processes combine to explain individual differences in performance and learning was investigated. A substitution task was studied over practice, and it was discovered that students used 2 different strategies: a learning strategy focused on memorization and a performance strategy in which students persisted in scanning items. Five experiments investigated strategy differences and the ability and motivational correlates of task performance. First, ability correlates of performance and strategy use were demonstrated. Next, reducing task difficulty increased use of the learning strategy. With periodic memory tests, effective reliance on the learning strategy was increased, and task performance correlations with reasoning ability were lowered. Finally, a combination of self-focus and goal-setting interventions increased both general performance levels and use of the learning strategy. Results are discussed in terms of the goal of developing a more comprehensive understanding of learner differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The microstructure of attentional deployment on a dual task in loud noise.

Investigated the effects of loud white noise (100 db) on the temporal and spatial properties of the integration of 2-concurrent visual motor tasks by 32 Ss (aged 18–27 yrs). The main task was a 4-choice, self-paced, continuous response task presented by means of a display unit of an Apple microcomputer. The secondary task was a dot-detection task, in which a blue dot appeared occasionally in 1 of 6 possible unbiased spatial locations at the same horizontal reference above the main task on the same display unit. The 2 tasks were presented in both single and dual task conditions. Task order was counterbalanced, creating 4 subgroups for the quiet condition and 4 for the noise condition. Results show that in noise and quiet there was a single-to-dual task decrement on the main and secondary tasks. The slowness was more pronounced on the detection task in noise. Comparisons within the central task showed evidence that slowness in noise was created by the moments of actual concurrence of central task responses and secondary task signals; in the intervals between, there was evidence of compensatory speeding of response rates in both quiet and noise, but the effect was more pronounced in noise. In noise, Ss were more likely to interrupt the central task to respond to the dot, but this did not favor the dot-detection response. Findings are discussed in terms of a reduced-capacity model in noise that may cause changes in attentional parameters. (French abstract) (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of kinesthetic training on perceptual-motor skills in persons with Huntington's disease.

Examined whether kinesthetic training for persons with Huntington's disease (HD) leads to improved performance in more complex perceptual-motor tasks. 11 persons (aged 31–60 yrs) with HD and 10 normal controls (NCs [aged 19–65 yrs]) performed a horizontal linear positioning task, which required the ability to process kinesthetic information, and the Purdue Pegboard finger dexterity test. Results indicate that HDs experienced a small deficiency in performance of kinesthetic tasks. The size of the deficit was about the same, regardless of whether the task required immediate perception or memory for kinesthetic information. NCs' performance in the kinesthetic training task increased significantly over practice trials, while performance in the HD group did not change as a result of practice. Transfer of training was not found in either group. There was, however, evidence that HDs made significant improvements in finger dexterity through training. (10 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Roles of attribution, affect, and cognitive interference in test anxiety.

Examined the impact of performance outcome, task difficulty, and level of test anxiety on attributional accounts for performance and achievement-related affect. 83 undergraduates who had scored high or low on the Test Anxiety Scale worked on tasks of varying difficulty, evaluated their own performance, and then responded to 2 types of attribution items: the brief version of the Differential Emotions Scale and the Cognitive Interference Questionnaire. Meaningful attributional accounts were uncovered; in particular, performance outcome and task difficulty had independent effects on Ss' attributional judgments. Cognitive interference was implicated as a factor contributing to the attributional predispositions of Ss differing in test anxiety, and it was a major determinant of affective reactions. In addition, Ss' affective responses were predictably associated with their perceived performance outcome, level of test anxiety, difficulty of the task, and attributional accounts of the factors influencing their performance. Results are discussed in terms of the cognitive components and phenomenological experience of test anxiety and the consequent impact anxiety may have on achievement-related behavior. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive development and role-taking ability in boys and girls from 7 to 12.

10 males and 10 females at each of 3 age levels (7, 9, and 12 yrs), matched on IQ, were given a social role-taking task and 2 Piagetian tasks. Performance on all tasks generally increased with age, but correlations between performances on the 2 types of tasks were generally not significant. There were no significant sex differences on the tasks. IQ was correlated with performance on the role-taking task but not with the Piagetian tasks, which were not highly correlated with each other. The ability to "think about possibilities" did not differ significantly for the age or sex groups, but this ability was significantly related to performance on the experimental tasks for the younger Ss. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of number concepts: Ordering and correspondence operations and the role of length cues.

The development of ordering and correspondence operations, under varying degrees of the presence of length cues to number, was studied in 91 preschool children aged 3-5 yrs. Results show that ordering operations, as measured by a relative magnitude task, preceded the development of correspondence concepts. Many-to-one correspondence did not clearly develop before one-to-one correspondence. When length was positively correlated with number, performance improved on tasks involving judgments of comparative size, but did not improve where judgments of equality were required. When length and number cues were negatively correlated, performance was significantly retarded. The findings are interpreted in terms of the young child's difficulty in separating and coordinating the dimensions of length and number. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Elaboration d'un instrument de mesure des habiletés socio-cognitives chez l'enfant de cinq à dix ans.

To assess social cognitive skills in children, a special test was constructed with cognitive and linguistic demands adapted to young children. The test consisted of 4 tasks that were submitted to 200 children, aged 5–10 yrs. Three tasks were devised to measure cognitive role-taking and the 4th to measure referential communication. Results show a significant increase in performance with age for each task and a significant increasing order of difficulty in the tasks. Thus, each task corresponded to specific levels in the development of role-taking skills. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motor responses measured by brain electrical activity mapping.

Studied the brain electrical activity of 14 right-handed normal Ss (mean age 25 yrs) while they were exposed to motor performance tasks of increasing difficulty. Each task lasted 45–60 sec, and a 30-sec period of each task was analyzed by a spectrum analyzer. Data are presented in topographic maps showing the electrical activity for each task, in different frequency bands. Results show a bilateral decrease in amplitude in sensorimotor areas relative to baseline for a single hand movement. Tasks that required the programming of movement showed baseline–task differences in amplitude in additional areas: the right frontal area, the prefrontal area, the posterior parietal area, and the left temporal area. Findings suggest that different topographical areas are involved in motor tasks that require an increased level of programming. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expectations, aspirations, and evaluations as influenced by another's attributions for success and failure.

A study with 80 male and female students aged 16–18 yrs examined the effects of another's attributions for performance on one's own expectations, aspirations, and evaluations of performance. Ss witnessed an other (O) who had attributed his (or her) performance (successful or unsuccessful) on an anagram task to luck, task ease or difficulty, effort, or ability. When O had succeeded, Ss expected to perform best if O had attributed his success to the task (rather than to luck, effort, or ability); when O had failed, Ss expected to perform worst when O had attributed his failure to the task. In addition, Ss witnessing a successful O were more hopeful if O had made a task attribution, but Ss witnessing an unsuccessful O were more hopeful if O had made an effort attribution. Finally, Ss showed a tendency to attribute their own performance to the same cause to which O had attributed his own performance. Results are discussed in relation to the stability–instability and internal–external dimensions of causal attributions and to the need to perceive oneself as exercising effective control over the environment. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Processing of stimulus properties: Evidence for dual-task integrality.

Assessed the conditions under which dual-task integrality can be fostered by manipulating 4 factors likely to influence the integrality between tasks: intertask redundancy (ITD), the spatial proximity of primary and secondary task displays, the degree to which primary and secondary task displays constitute a single object, and the resource demands of the 2 tasks. The resource allocation policy was inferred from changes in the amplitude of the P300 component of the event-related brain potential. 12 university students participated in 3 experimental sessions in which they performed both single and dual tasks. The primary task was a pursuit step tracking task. The secondary tasks required Ss to discriminate between different intensities or different spatial positions of a stimulus. Task pairs that required the processing of different properties of the same object resulted in better performance than task pairs that required the processing of different objects. These same object-task pairs led to a positive relation between primary task difficulty and the resources allocated to secondary task stimuli. ITD and the physical proximity of task displays produced similar effects of reduced magnitude. (54 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early Development of Scaling Ability.

The map is a small-scaled version of the space it represents. It has been argued that children have difficulty interpreting maps because they do not understand scale relations. Recent research has shown that even preschoolers can solve problems that involve scaling in one dimension. This study examined whether early scaling ability extends to tasks involving two-dimensional maps and referent spaces of different sizes. Results showed that about 60% of the 4-year-olds and 90% of the 5-year-olds tested used distance information presented on a map to locate an object in a two-dimensional spatial layout. Children had more difficulties in solving mapping tasks with a larger referent space. This decrease in accuracy as a function of space size on the mapping task was greater than would have been expected on the basis of performance on a parallel nonmapping task. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for the mechanisms underlying early scaling ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of representations in age differences in analogical reasoning.

Age-related declines in the efficiency of a number of cognitive tasks have been postulated to be attributable to decreases with age in the quality of internal representations used to mediate performance on those tasks. This proposal was investigated in a geometric analogies task by manipulating variables (i.e., the number of elements per term and the temporal delay between presentation of pairs of terms) assumed to affect the quality or stability of internal representations. As expected, the performance of older adults was impaired more than that of young adults by these manipulations. Further analyses revealed that these representational deficits may be due to a reduction of approximately 40% in the quantity of some type of processing resource between, approximately, 20 and 70 years of age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictors of crossword puzzle proficiency and moderators of age–cognition relations.

Four studies, each with approximately 200 adults between the ages of 18 and 80, were conducted to address two major goals. The first goal was to examine the relative contributions of different factors to the successful solution of crossword puzzles. Correlations and structural equation analyses revealed that general knowledge is the strongest predictor of crossword puzzle proficiency. Surprisingly, abstract reasoning ability, as measured by several different tests, had no direct relation to puzzle proficiency. The second goal of the project was to examine moderators of the relations between age and measures of both fluid and crystallized cognition. The results provide no evidence to suggest that amount of crossword puzzle experience reduces age-related decreases in fluid cognition or enhances age-related increases in crystallized cognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Task difficulty, cardiovascular response, and the magnitude of goal valence.

Studied the impact of expected task difficulty on anticipatory cardiovascular (CV) responsiveness and the anticipatory reactivity under difficult task conditions in 64 female undergraduates. Ss performed an easy, moderately difficult, or extremely difficult memory task to earn a small incentive for good performance. CV and subjective measures were taken immediately prior to task performance. Both systolic blood pressure (SBP) responses and ratings of goal attractiveness were nonmonotonically related to expected task difficulty, with the most pronounced SBP elevations and highest goal attractiveness in the moderately difficult task condition. CV response measures revealed a strong positive association between systolic and diastolic pressure (but not heart rate) change in the easy condition, positive relationships among measures in the moderately difficult condition, and no significant correlations in the extremely difficult condition. Subjective measures of arousal were not affected by task difficulty. Principal findings are discussed in terms of J. W. Brehm's theory that motivation varies as a nonmonotonic function of the difficulty of goal attainment. Intercorrelations among CV response variables are considered in terms of their possible indication of the mechanisms underlying blood pressure changes associated with variations in motivation. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Division of labor and performance under cooperative and competitive conditions.

The degree to which group members had similar preference orderings among task functions and the degree to which they could observe each other's performance were hypothesized to interact with competitive and cooperative group relationships in determining the extent to which they divided their labor and the level of the group performance. 15 cooperative and 15 competitive dyadic groups worked on jigsaw puzzles under 3 different task conditions: Low Observability-Low Similarity of Preference, High Observability-Low Similarity of Preference, and High Observability-High Similarity of Preference. The division of labor and performance scores of cooperative and competitive groups were similar when the Observability of other's performance and the Similarity of Preference among task functions was low. The relative superiority in division of labor and performance of cooperative groups as compared with competitive groups increased as both Observability and Similarity of Preference increased. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Problem solving: Waking and dreaming.

Investigated whether problem-solving ability is either quantitatively or qualitatively superior following an interval of sleep including dreaming than it is following an equal interval of waking time. 24 college students were tested on matched problems before and after these 2 conditions on 3 problem types: crossword puzzles, Remote Associates Test, and Thematic Apperception Test story completions. These were predicted to show the effects of dreaming in increasing order. Only the story endings changed more following sleep than following an awake period. The direction of the change following waking was toward more successful solutions, and after sleep toward more unsuccessful solutions from the point of view of meeting the heroes' needs. Several interpretations of these findings are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of classroom noise on performance and activity of second-grade hyperactive and control children.

Two experiments assessed the effects of task-overlapping linguistic noise (ambient noise including conversations) on activity and performance of 24 hyperactive and 24 control children. High and low levels of linguistic classroom noise were each presented while Ss were performing tasks requiring auditory processing of information in a repeated-measures crossover design. Hyperactive Ss were most active and performed math and alphabet tasks worse in high than in low linguistic noise. Control Ss showed the opposite performance and activity pattern. The differential effects of linguistic noise were less pronounced in Exp II when the task was new and more challenging for the control Ss, suggesting that task difficulty may play a role in the effects of overlapping stimulation on both groups. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)