Group performance in a cognitive task.

On a cross-word puzzle task performed by 60 pairs of male Ss, correlations between group performance and performance of the individuals (independently determined) were calculated. 82% of the true group performance variance on the task could be predicted from the individual performance scores. "It is suggested that the nature of the task is important in studies of group performance, and that the existence of 'group' phenomena should be empirically demonstrated rather than assumed." (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)     

Effect of mediated learning intervention on cognitive task performance with a deaf population.

Feuerstein's (1979) mediated learning theory was applied to a deaf population for investigating the cognitive modifiability of this population. The Learning Potential Assessment Device (LPAD) was employed in a pretest-posttest design for determining transfer of learning along cognitive and behavioral dimensions. Severely to profoundly deaf children (N?=?45) with hearing parents and between the ages of 9 and 13 years were randomly assigned to three groups—an experimental and two comparison groups. The subjects in the experimental group received examiner mediation as designed by Feuerstein. In one control condition (elaborated), the examiner provided limited feedback to the subjects, and in the other control condition (standard), the subjects performed the tasks following traditional psychometric procedures. The experimental group performed significantly better than the comparison groups on five of the six LPAD tasks, supporting the applicability of Feuerstein's theory of mediated learning. The experimental group also demonstrated significant transfer of learning on other cognitive and behavioral measures. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conscientiousness and task performance: Test of cognitive process model.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the effect of the Big Five factor of conscientiousness on task performance was mediated by performance expectancy, performance valence, and goal choice. There were 117 business students who completed 6 subscales of the Personality Research Form ( D. N. Jackson, 1987 ), responded to several self-report measures, and performed a simple arithmetic task. A cognitive process model was tested and supported through LISREL analyses. The effect of conscientiousness on task performance was mediated by performance expectancy and goal choice. Robust effects for performance valence were not observed in this situation. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Somatic androgyny and cognitive abilities.

Examined somatic androgyny and IQ in 3 longitudinal studies, conducted at the Institute of Human Development, in order to determine how robust the androgyny–ability relationships reported in recent studies are, and whether these relationships are found after sexual maturity is attained. Results do not reveal significant relationships between androgyny and abilities at either adolescence or middle adulthood, although trends are in the predicted directions. There were no systematic findings from analyses separating aspects of somatic androgyny that are more likely to be primarily under control of the sex hormones as opposed to those that are probably subject to other genetic and/or environmental influences. These results are discussed in terms of factors that might moderate androgyny–ability relationships. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in cognitive task performance across the menstrual cycle.

Examined the effect on cognitive tests of menstrual-cycle-related changes in estrogen in 87 undergraduates. The estrogen peak was expected to facilitate performance of 4 "automatized" tasks and to impair performance of "perceptual-restructuring" tasks, compared with performance in the postovulatory phase when progesterone is thought to counteract the action of estrogen. Daily basal body temperature (BBT) records suggested that 21 Ss did not ovulate in the cycle(s) studied. No main effect of Day 10 of the cycle vs Day 20 occurred for any task in the 66 Ss who did appear to ovulate. However, the magnitude of predicted shifts in performance was significantly correlated with proximity of the "Day 10" testing day to the lowest BBT, the presumed preovulatory estrogen peak; and to the "Day 20" proximity to the highest BBT, the presumed progesterone peak. Ss tested 3 or fewer days before the thermal nadir and on or after the thermal peak had the predicted significant changes on 3 of the 4 tasks. Results support the hypotheses and indicate that precise timing is essential to demonstrate the phenomena. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reflections on conceptual tempo: Relationship between cognitive style and performance as a function of task characteristics.

Reflectives have been shown to outperform impulsives on tasks that require a cautious, systematic approach. A study was conducted to determine whether reflectives, particularly high-anxious reflectives, would show superior performance on speeded tasks; i.e., whether they would exhibit flexibility vs continued caution at the expense of performance. 46 male and 54 female 4th graders, selected by their scores on the Test Anxiety Scale for Children and the Lie Scale for Children as being reflective and impulsive, high and low anxious, were presented with speeded tasks of increasing difficulty. Results reveal that contrary to prediction, high-anxious reflectives performed as well as low-anxious reflectives and both were generally faster and more accurate than impulsives. Only for girls on the most difficult task was there evidence that reflection in combination with high anxiety resulted in overly cautious behavior and impaired performance. Results suggest a definition of cognitive style that stresses the strategy used rather than the disposition for long or short decision times. In addition, a model is proposed to predict the relative speed and accuracy of reflectives and impulsives as a function of the strategy required and the degree of intertrial transfer on the task. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A contribution of cognitive decision models to clinical assessment: Decomposing performance on the Bechara gambling task.

The Bechara simulated gambling task is a popular method of examining decision-making deficits exhibited by people with brain damage, psychopathology, antisocial personality, or drug abuse problems. However, performance on this task is confounded by complex interdependencies between cognitive, motivational, and response processes, making it difficult to sort out and identify the specific processes responsible for the observed behavioral deficits. The authors compare 3 competing cognitive decision models of the Bechara task in terms of their ability to explain the performance deficits observed in Huntington's disease patients as compared with healthy populations and people with Parkinson's disease. The parameters of the best fitting model are used to decompose the observed performance deficit of the Huntington patients into cognitive, motivational, and response sources. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of methylphenidate and expectancy on ADHD children's performance, self-evaluations, persistence, and attributions on a cognitive task.

The effects of 0.3 mg/kg methylphenidate (MPH) and expectancy regarding medication on the performance and task persistence of 60 boys with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were investigated. In a balanced-placebo design, boys in 4 groups (received placebo–drug crossed with told placebo–drug) completed the task in success and failure conditions. Medication improved participants' task persistence following failure. Participants' task performance was not affected by whether they thought they had received medication or placebo. Children made internal attributions for success and made external attributions for failure, regardless of medication or expectancy. These findings confirm previous reports that it is the pharmacological activity of MPH that affects ADHD children's self-evaluations and persistence. The results contradict anecdotal reports that MPH causes dysfunctional attributions and confirm previous studies showing that medication does not produce adverse effects on the causal attributions of children with ADHD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impaired simultaneous cognitive task performance in Parkinson's disease: a dopamine-related dysfunction

Patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) have trouble programming two separate motor acts concurrently. We tested the hypotheses that (1) PD patients may also have difficulty processing two cognitive tasks simultaneously, and (2) the expected deficit may be related to the striatal dopaminergic depletion. We used auditory and visual choice reaction time (CRT) tasks, presented either separately or concurrently, and compared the performance of three groups of PD patients: a group of patients under their usual dose of levodopa ("standard"); a group assessed both at the time of maximal clinical benefit ("on" state) and at the time of minimal clinical benefit (treatment withdrawn for about 18 hours; "off" state); and a group of recently diagnosed untreated patients ("de novo"). Compared with controls, standard and "on" state patients had a normal performance for both separate and concurrent CRT tasks. In contrast, "off" state and de novo patients had a normal performance in the separate CRT tasks but significant deficits in the concurrent CRT tasks. These results suggest that adequate dopaminergic transmission is necessary for concurrent processing of cognitive information and that the striatum integrates the sensorimotor information required to program cognitive acts.     

Effects of general and broad cognitive abilities on mathematics achievement.

This study investigated the direct and indirect effects of general intelligence and 7 broad cognitive abilities on mathematics achievement. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the simultaneous effects of both general and broad cognitive abilities on students' mathematics achievement. A hierarchical model of intelligence derived from the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) taxonomy of intelligence was used for all analyses. The participants consisted of 4 age-differentiated subsamples (ranging from ages 5 to 19) from the standardization sample of the Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ III; Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001). Data from each of the 4 age-differentiated subsamples were divided into 2 data sets. At each age level, one data set was used for model testing and modification, and a second data set was used for model validation. The following CHC broad cognitive ability factors demonstrated statistically significant direct effects on the mathematics achievement variables: Fluid Reasoning, Crystallized Intelligence, and Processing Speed. In contrast, across all age levels, the general intelligence factor demonstrated indirect effects on the mathematics achievement variable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age-sensitive cognitive abilities related to children's acquisition of spatial knowledge.

Two experiments were conducted to determine the extent to which developmental improvement in children's performance on tasks requiring the acquisition of spatial knowledge was related to age-sensitive cognitive abilities. The results of path analyses in Exp 1 indicated that the relationship between age and the acquisition of landmark knowledge was, in fact, mediated by recognition-in-context memory, whereas relationships between age and route knowledge and between age and landmark judgment were unmediated. Similar analyses in Exp 2 indicated that perceptual-motor speed mediated the relationships between age and route knowledge and between age and landmark knowledge. Again, the relationship between age and landmark judgment was unmediated. Overall, the results suggest that the approach used in these experiments can provide new insight into the relationship between spatial cognitive development as a specialized research area and cognitive development in general. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perception of abilities as a determinant of performance.

Studied the relationship between performance effectiveness and perceived possession of required abilities among 64 clerical workers in a public organization. The hypothesis that high performers perceive themselves as having more or higher levels of job-required abilities than do poor performers was supported. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relations between cognitive role-taking performance and age, task presentation, and response requirements.

Assessed the relation between cognitive role-taking performance and the 3 variables of (a) age, (b) the explicitness with which the cognitive perspectives were differentiated in the presentation of the task, and (c) the type of response required of the child. A picture task and a story task were presented individually to a total of 120 children in nursery school and 1st and 3rd grades. Half of the Ss in each age group received a task presentation that emphasized the difference between the child's perspective and that of the "other," while the other half received a procedure that made no explicit reference to the difference. On each task, S was asked to make 3 different types of response. Results indicate a significant relation between age and role taking, and between type of response required and role taking. Emphasizing the difference in perspectives, however, did not facilitate role taking. The importance of specifying the task dimensions that affect role-taking performance is discussed. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Vigilance performance in a bimodal task.

Evaluated the need for an arousal construct in a theory of vigilance, as opposed to a theory based on a selective attention construct. Performance over time was examined in a situation involving 2 detection tasks, 1 in each of 2 modalities. 34 undergraduates were instructed to direct their attention to 1 of the 2 tasks, the primary task; the other task was of secondary importance. The main concern was in discovering whether the vigilance decrement would be specific to the primary task, as would be suggested by the selective attention theory, or whether it would be seen in both tasks, as suggested by the arousal construct. Data show that the decrement is task specific. However, it is not always the primary task which shows the decrement. It is argued that neither the construct of arousal nor that of selective attention is adequate, alone, to deal with the vigilance decrement. Results are discussed in terms of these 2 concepts and in terms of some practical implications for the design of real-life displays. (15 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schizophrenic performance in a word-communication task.

Speaker and listener skills in schizophrenic and in normal Ss were studied using a communication task in which the speaker provides clue words to distinguish referent from nonreferent stimuli, and the listener chooses the speaker's referent from each stimulus array on the basis of the speaker's clue words. 4 groups of 18 speaker-listener pairs were used: schizophrenic speakers-schizophrenic listeners; schizophrenic speakers-normal listeners; normal speakers-schizophrenic listeners; normal speakers-normal listeners. Analysis of accuracy scores (proportion correct referent choices) showed that schizophrenic speakers were inferior to normals (p     

Relationship of goals and microlevel work processes to performance on a multipath manual task.

This laboratory experiment used real-time observation to examine the relationships among goals, work processes, and quantity and quality outcomes using a simple multipath assembly task. Trained observers were able to reliably and accurately document work processes used to perform the task, supporting the use of real-time observation for documenting microlevel task strategies. Results show that (a) work processes were affected by goal content (quantity vs. quality); (b) goal form (gradually difficult vs. fixed and difficult) did not influence outcomes or processes used; (c) work processes and personal goals completely mediated the prediction of quantity outcomes and partially mediated quality outcomes; (d) process-only goals produced a greater number of process changes than outcome goals but led to poorer performance; and (e) outcome goals had a lagged effect on performance. The implications for goal-setting theory are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of electronic performance monitoring on personal control, task satisfaction, and task performance.

A laboratory study was conducted to assess effects of electronic performance monitoring on individuals working on computers in an officelike environment. Participants (N ?=?108) worked on a computerized data correction task under 6 experimental conditions that varied the amount of control over performance monitoring and knowledge concerning specific monitoring events. Results confirmed and extended a model proposed by D. B. Greenberger and S. Strasser (1986) to relate personal control, satisfaction, and performance. Participants with the ability to delay or prevent electronic performance monitoring indicated higher feelings of personal control and demonstrated superior task performance. Participants with exact knowledge of the occurrence of monitoring expressed lower feelings of personal control than those from whom specific knowledge of monitoring was hidden. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of task performance and contextual performance on systemic rewards.

Evidence from 2 samples of Air Force mechanics supported the hypothesis that contextual performance affects employees' career advancement and rewards over time. Results of hierarchical regressions controlling for experience showed task performance and contextual performance each predicted systemic rewards. Each facet explained separate variance in promotability ratings over 2 years. In both samples, contextual performance explained separate variance in informal rewards but task performance did not. Task performance explained incremental variance in career advancement 1 year later but contextual performance did not. Analyses using correlations corrected for unreliability suggest these results cannot be attributed to measurement error. Contextual performance still explained separate variance in informal rewards, and task performance explained distinct variance in career advancement a year later. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Variability of performance in a vigilance task.

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of signal pattern and frequency on the variability of S's performance in a vigilance task. Ss were 12 male college students who watched 3 dials during 3 consecutive 27-min. periods. Real signals occurred alone in 1 period while 2 different patterns of dummy signals were added in the other 2 periods. It was found that dummy signals which occurred at semiregular intervals were more effective in reducing S's variability than those which occurred at nonregular intervals. It was also found that variability increased with time. It is concluded that use of a semiregular pattern of dummy signals would be one way of improving performance on a vigilance task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)