Group performance as function of task difficulty and the group's awareness of member satisfaction.

Investigated the hypothesis that group effectiveness increases with increased member awareness of group satisfaction, and that this effect is greater for difficult than for easy tasks. 5-person groups attempted 3 tasks differing in difficulty, under 3 conditions of satisfaction feedback: no feedback, overt feedback, and covert feedback. In the overt condition, Ss publicly indicated their satisfaction with the problem-solving process, whereas in the covert condition their satisfaction was indicated anonymously. The results supported the hypothesis. It was suggested that valid communication of satisfaction leads to more complete use of members' contributions, and hence improves performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of task difficulty, goal setting, and strategy on performance of a heuristic task.

Investigated the relative contribution of goal setting and task difficulty to performance on a heuristic computer task with 128 undergraduates who attempted to solve either easy or difficult maze puzzles. Each S was assigned either an easy, moderate, or difficult goal or told to do his/her best. One month prior to the experiment, Ss responded to the Neuroticism scale of the Eysenck Personality Inventory to collect data on arousal. Data were also collected on acceptance, commitment, task complexity, and performance. Results show that both goals and task difficulty affected task performance, arousal, and perceptions of task complexity. A linear, rather than curvilinear, relationship was found between task arousal and performance. Contrary to prior research by G. A. Bassett (see record 1980-33518-001), results also show that, when the task was difficult, the setting of a difficult goal led to significantly lower performance. The decrease in performance in the difficult goal condition was attributed to the variation in performance strategy employed by these Ss as opposed to other Ss. It is argued that the setting of difficult goals may not be an effective motivational strategy when a heuristic, rather than algorithmic, solution is needed. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bi-stability of movement coordination as a function of skill level and task difficulty.

This study investigated whether the level of practice interacts with the initial conditions (here manipulated as preparatory movements) and task difficulty (ball angular velocity and friction) in determining the stability of movement coordination for a roller ball motor task. Practice level and task difficulty were manipulated as two control parameters that theoretically were hypothesized to change the threshold for the transition between task success and failure. The findings showed bi-stability and hysteresis in the coordination mode as a manifestation of dependence on the initial conditions. The transition from failure to success in the roller ball task as a function of practice time can be modeled as a saddle-node bifurcation corresponding to a first order phase transition. It is proposed that task difficulty acts as a control parameter that is a dual to skill level and that also effectively compensates for practice time. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivation in a task situation as a function of ability and control over the task.

102 psychology students participated in the task of constructing and validating an "academic aptitude test." Training (level of ability) and amount of control over the task were manipulated in a 2 X 2 factorial design. For untrained Ss, performance was positively related to control. The performance of trained Ss was negatively related to control, contrary to prediction. This reversal was tentatively attributed to unintended "side effects" of the training manipulation. As predicted, expected success was positively related to training, perceived ability, and perceived control. A manipulation of success and failure in the task led to results consistent with predictions: Success produced incerases in satisfaction and perceived ability, while failure led to decreases in perceived ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Additive effects of task difficulty and goal setting on subsequent task performance.

Notes that the setting of difficult goals has been consistently found to improve performance in both laboratory and field settings; however, the setting of difficult goals has sometimes been confounded with the difficulty of the task especially in field studies where the difficulty of goals and more complex tasks often co-vary. The present study investigated the relative contribution of goal setting and task difficulty to performance on chess problems. Employing a 3 * 3 factorial design, 82 chess-playing undergraduates attempted to solve either easy, moderately difficult, or difficult chess problems, after accepting either an easy, moderately difficult, or difficult goal. Results show that both goals and task difficulty contributed additively to task performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of aptitudes, strategy training, and task facets on spatial task performance.

A pilot study, with 8 high school students, demonstrated that 3 item characteristics accounted for most of the variation in item difficulty in a paper-folding task: number of folds, number of obscured folds, and number of asymmetric folds. Retrospective reports suggested that Ss employed 2 strategies when attempting to solve these items: a visualization strategy and an analytic strategy. In the main experiment, these 2 strategies were demonstrated via motion picture models; 24 Ss received visualization training, and 24 received analytic training. Training effects of the demonstration films were compared with a performance feedback condition given to 8 Ss. All Ss performed 74 paper-folding items and 60 surface development transfer items following treatment. Error and latency data suggested that the treatments affected strategy selection and efficiency on both tasks. Treatment effects depended on item characteristics and response mode as well as on Ss' fluid-analytic/visualization and verbal abilities, as assessed by the Concept Mastery Test, WAIS Vocabulary test, and Raven Progressive Matrices. Sex differences were also noted, with verbal ability being important in the performance of females but not males. Implications for a process theory of human abilities are discussed. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of aging and task difficulty on divided attention performance.

We report two experiments that compare the performance of young and older adults on perceptual-motor tasks involving division of attention. Previous studies have shown older people to be especially penalized by divided attention situations, but the generality of this finding was recently challenged by Somberg and Salthouse (1982). The present study was conducted to investigate the possibility that age differences in dual-task performance are amplified by an increase in the difficulty of the constituent tasks, where difficulty was manipulated by varying the central, cognitive nature of the tasks (Experiment 1) or the degree of choice involved (Experiment 2). With the present tasks, strong evidence was found for an age-related decrement in divided attention performance. Contrary to our original expectations, however, it does not seem that division of attention presents some especial difficulty to older people. Rather, division of attention is one of several equivalent ways to increase overall task complexity. In turn, age differences are exaggerated as tasks are made more complex. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of goal difficulty on physiological arousal, cognition, and task performance.

Conducted 2 laboratory experiments with 117 undergraduates to examine (1) the effect of assigned goal difficulty on arousal (self-report and heart rate), cognition (perceived norm, self-efficacy strength, and personal goal), and behavioral (task performance) measures and (2) the role of heart rate as a mediator of the goal-difficulty–performance relation. All Ss performed a task requiring cognitive and physical responses. Results of both experiments demonstrate that assigned goal difficulty affected heart rate, cognition, and task performance and that heart rate change was positively related to the cognitive and behavioral measures. Regression analyses suggested that a cognitive–affective mechanism may mediate the goal-difficulty–performance relation. Discussion is focused on the theoretical and practical implications of integrating an arousal concept within goal-setting theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dual-task performance as a function of adult age and task complexity.

A dual-task procedure was used to examine capacity demands of letter-matching in younger and older adults. Older subjects generally were slower on both tasks than were younger adults, but this difference was especially pronounced for the late stages of category matching, suggesting that retrieval and comparison of category information are particularly demanding for older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental test performance as a function of payoff conditions, item difficulty, and degree of speeding.

Using analysis of variance and factor analysis, the performance of 41 psychology students on the Michill General Ability Test was analyzed. "… the experimental manipulation of payoff conditions, difficulty, and speeding can introduce substantially important new factors of which the test constructor may or may not be fully aware… . The commonly held belief that, for all practical purposes, test directions provide an adequate control of the Ss motivation and/or mental set is clearly untenable." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Processing differences as a function of item difficulty in verbal analogy performance.

Research based on componential models of analogical reasoning has typically been based on relatively easy items. Differences between individuals have been ascribed to execution efficiency of component processes within a single model. In the present study, we evaluated processing of verbal analogies by recording eye fixation patterns during problem solution. Problems represented a broad range of levels of difficulty. The findings on easier problems replicated previous work. On more difficult items, however, high verbal individuals tended to adapt their processing strategies to a much greater extent than did low verbal students. Skill differences were not attributable to initial encoding of the item, but rather to more thorough re-encoding of the stem and answers by the high verbal subjects. Current models cannot account for all individuals on all items when experimental items are more representative of aptitude test items. Instead, more complex models that incorporate both person and item characteristics need to be developed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expectations for success on effort-determined tasks as a function of incentive and performance feedback.

Conducted 2 experiments to investigate an attributional analysis of the consequences of perceiving one's effort as stable, as opposed to unstable, on future performance expectancies. In Exp I, 32 male undergraduates were told that performance on the experimental tasks was purely effort determined; they expected a monetary incentive for good performance on half the tasks and received preprogrammed feedback that their performance was either variable or consistent. In Exp II, both 45 male and 51 female Ss believed the tasks were either effort or ability determined and received variable or consistent feedback; incentive was operationalized as the level of task interestingness. As predicted, Ss who believed performance was effort determined and received variable feedback had higher expectations for performance on a later task when its incentive value was high than when it was low. Ss receiving consistent feedback did not differ in their expectations, regardless of the incentive value of the task. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Need for cognition, task difficulty, and the formation of performance expectancies.

In the present article, the authors analyze how performance expectancies are generated and how they affect actual performance. The authors predicted that task difficulty would affect performance expectancies only when cognitive motivation (i.e., need for cognition [NFC]) and cognitive capacity are high. This should be the case because analyzing task difficulty is a process requiring cognitive capacity as well as cognitive motivation. The findings supported the expected NFC × Difficulty interaction for the formation of performance expectancies (Study 1, Study 2), but only when cognitive capacity was high (Study 2). The authors also predicted that expectancies would affect actual performance only if the task is difficult and if task difficulty is taken into account when the expectancy is generated. This hypothesis was supported: Significant relations between performance expectancies and actual performance were found only for difficult tasks and for participants higher in NFC. Studies 5 and 6 showed clear evidence that the NFC × Difficulty interaction could not be explained by differences in the use of task-specific self-concepts. The findings were robust across academic, social, and physical tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of group size, problem difficulty, and sex on group performance and member reactions.

Examined the influence of group size, task difficulty, and member sex on the relationship between actual productivity and potential productivity proposed by I. D. Steiner (1972), and tested the predictive accuracy of hierarchical and equalitarian latency models proposed by F. Restle and J. H. Davis (1962). 349 undergraduates worked 3 intellectual problems of varying difficulty, either as individuals or in same-sex groups of 2, 3, 6, and 10 members. Actual performance was assessed using indexes of the proportion of solvers and time to solution. Potential performance scores were generated from theoretical models for the same indexes. Group size and problem difficulty were important determinants of group performance, whereas member sex generally was not. Size and difficulty effects varied depending on choice of performance measure. For the proportion index, groups often worked up to potential, but those same groups usually fell below potential on the latency index; they were effective but inefficient. Group performance on both indexes generally fell below potential as size and difficulty increased. The concept of "functional size" is advanced to explain the observed pattern of group performance: As group size increases the number of nonparticipators also increases, resulting in a functional group size smaller than actual size. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual abilities and task demands in relation to performance and satisfaction on two repetitive monitoring tasks.

Hypothesized that task satisfaction is related to individual performance-relevant abilities. Two repetitive monitoring tasks were designed, differing only with respect to the demands placed on specific abilities. Each task was performed by 50 male college students for 3 hrs. A measure of perceptual style predicted performance in the less demanding task, whereas measures of perceptual style, general intelligence, selective attention, and memory predicted performance in the more demanding task. The task-related ability was negatively related to satisfaction in the simple task, whereas curvilinear relationships between abilities and satisfaction were found in the more complex task. Implications for personnel selection and job design are discussed. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety as a function of intrinsic-extrinsic job orientation: The presence or absence of observers, and task difficulty.

Divided 92 intrinsically and 96 extrinsically job-oriented male undergraduates into 4 comparable subgroups. 2 subgroups worked on simple anagrams, 1 alone and 1 observed by 2 individuals of higher status. The other 2 worked on difficult anagrams under the same 2 conditions. Felt anxiety and perception of task difficulty ratings were elicited along with reactions toward the experimental conditions. The intrinsically oriented expressed more uneasiness than the extrinsically oriented while being observed on the difficult anagrams. They also tended to perceive the task as more difficult when observed than when alone, while the opposite was true for the extrinsically oriented. The importance of job orientation in the reaction to the presence or absence of os is discussed. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sex differences in performance on ability tests as a function of masculinity, femininity, and androgyny.

Examined with 237 undergraduates the hypothesis that differences in performance on sex-typed ability tests may similarly be attributable to sex-role differences. A battery of tests was administered, including the Bem Sex-Role Inventory, the California Psychological Inventory, and the Comrey Personality Scales, in addition to a male-superior mechanical reasoning test and a female-superior perceptual speed and accuracy test. Large sex differences were obtained. Masculine Ss of both sexes performed highest on mechanical reasoning, followed in order by androgynous, undifferentiated, and feminine Ss. No consistent sex-role differences emerged on the speed and accuracy test. As a control on general ability, the difference between standard scores for mechanical reasoning and for speed and accuracy was calculated; sex-role differences obtained here resembled those on the mechanical reasoning test. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relative task difficulty and transfer of training in skilled performance.

Summarized and analyzed critically are recent studies dealing directly or indirectly with the influence of the relative difficulty of initial and final tasks on transfer of training in skilled performance. Methods used to vary task difficulty are discussed under stimulus variations, response variations, and variations in control-display linkage. Task difficulty is examined in terms of the isolation and control of task variables, of task difficulty and performance standards, and of the U (shaped curve) hypothesis. 23 references. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Activity and task performance of hyperactive children as a function of environmental stimulation.

11 hyperactive 7-11 yr olds in a high-stimulation environment were significantly less active and performed an academically related task no more poorly than when placed in a low-stimulation environment. Results reject the theory that for hyperactive children activity varies directly and performance inversely with amount of environmental stimulation. Understimulation rather than overstimulation apparently precipitates hyperactive behavior. (29 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of learning goal difficulty level and cognitive ability on performance.

The relationship between the difficulty level of a learning goal and a person's (N = 146) performance on a task that required the acquisition of knowledge to perform effectively was examined. Multiple hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the higher the learning goal, the higher the person's performance. Cognitive ability and goal commitment also positively affected performance. The results showed that the person's cognitive ability moderated the learning goal-performance relationship. Contrary to previous research findings on performance goals for tasks that are straightforward for people, the performance of individuals lower in cognitive ability was more positively affected by the setting of a difficult learning goal than was the case for people higher in cognitive ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)