The effects of recent practice on task switching.

Four experiments investigated the effect of recent selective practice on the cost of switching between 2 tasks afforded by letter-digit pairs: alphabet arithmetic and shape comparison. Experiments 1 and 2 found a greater cost associated with switching to the more recently practiced task: evidence that task-set inertia contributes to switching costs. Experiment 3 found this effect to be limited to trials on which a recently trained stimulus followed another such stimulus: a result problematic for all current theories of task-set priming. Experiment 4 showed that the effect of recent practice was eliminated by active preparation for a task switch: It appears that endogenous task-set preparation reduces the effects of task-set inertia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of task complexity and practice on performance after loss of sleep.

An experiment was conducted to assess the effects of degrees of task complexity and practice on performance after loss of sleep. The Ss were automatically presented every 7 sec. for 23 min., with cards containing 6 symbols. A symbol had to be chosen on the basis of certain rules. Some cards required 1 rule, some 2, some 3, and some 4. Group 1 was practiced after normal sleep and tested after 22 and 46 hr. without sleep. Group 2 was tested without sleep and without previous practice. Group 3 was practiced and tested after normal sleep. Loss of sleep had a greater effect after practice, but no clear differences emerged between the different levels of task complexity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of method of recall on performance in the dichotic listening task.

Reports 2 experiments with 100 undergraduates in which Ss were required to recall dichotically presented digits (3/1/2-span) either vocally or in writing. It was found that items in the 1/2-span reported 2nd were recalled significantly more accurately with written as compared with vocal recall. Data suggest that the differential accuracy of recall of the items in the 2 1/2-spans, which is normally reported, is attributable, partially at least, to interference at output produced by the vocalization of items in the 1st 1/2-span. (French summary) (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)     

The effects of sleep deprivation on performance in a simulated communication task.

"Twenty Ss were tested for their ability to receive and send complex instructions in a simulated communication situation following 55 and 70 hr. without sleep. The ability to receive showed a significant decrement, but the ability to send did not. The time required to send instructions and the number of errors corrected spontaneously increased significantly. In the case of sending, high-intelligence Ss showed greater decrement than low-intelligence Ss." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Help that works: The effects of aid on subsequent task performance.

Explored the interactive effects of aid, situational "demandingness" (i.e., task difficulty and threatening aspects of the helper's behavior), and help-recipients' self-esteem on recipients' postaid task performance. Based on the threat-to-self-esteem model of reactions to help (J. D. Fisher, in press), and past research (H. Sigall and R. Gould; see record 1977-25438-001) of reactions to help, it was predicted that if aid is threatening or challenging, then only high self-esteem Ss will respond with especially competent postaid task performance. Aspects of the helping context that exacerbate the threat or highlight the challenge posed by aid will further accentuate the difference in performance between high and low self-esteem Ss. Overall, these predictions were confirmed by data generated from 35 low and 43 high self-esteem (Self-Esteem Inventory) female undergraduates. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The functional anatomy of memory

A review of recent work using Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to examine brain systems involved in auditory-verbal memory is presented. Initial work delineated widespread brain regions which were, to a large extent, in agreement with existing neuropsychological literature. Expanding on this, a number of studies have examined memory encoding and retrieval separately. Additionally, experiments have been carried out to specifically address sub-components of memory such as the use of visual imagery as a mnemonic strategy, the functional anatomical evidence for the episodic/semantic memory distinction and the different brain regions involved in explicit and implicit memory tasks.     

The effects of encoding task on age-related differences in the functional neuroanatomy of face memory.

Age-related differences in brain activity mediating face recognition were examined using positron emission tomography. Participants encoded faces using a pleasant-unpleasant judgement, a right-left orientation task, and intentional learning. Scans also were obtained during recognition. Both young and old groups showed significant effects of encoding task on recognition accuracy, but older adults showed reduced accuracy overall. Increased brain activity in older adults was similar to that seen in young adults during conditions associated with deeper processing, but was reduced during the shallow encoding and recognition conditions. Differential correlations of brain activity and behavior were found that suggest older adults use unique neural systems to facilitate face memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of task importance and publicness on the relation between goal difficulty and performance.

In a laboratory study using undergraduate students (N?=?200), perceived task importance was found to moderate the relationship between goal level and performance. Moreover, participants performed better when both the goal and performance were public rather than anonymous. These findings suggest that by manipulating task importance and publicness of performance, it is possible to influence the impact that the difficulty of specific goals have on performance. The results are consistent with our hypotheses that the motivation to preserve one's self-image and the motivation to preserve one's public-image are two factors that determine effort and persistence devoted to assigned goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of sleep loss on task performance and the electroencephalogram in young and elderly subjects

The effects of 28-h sleep loss on performance, reaction time (RT) distribution functions, and spectral composition of the EEG were evaluated in three choice-RT tasks for young (N = 12, aged 18-24 years) and old (N = 12, aged 62-73 years) subjects. Manipulations of stimulus degradation, stimulus-response compatibility, and interstimulus interval variability were to affect encoding, response selection, and motor adjustment stages, respectively. In order to discriminate between independent variables that were presumed to be computational or energetical in nature, effects on EEG spectra and RT-distributions were studied. Spectra of the EEG indicated higher cortical arousal levels for the elderly than for the young. The most dramatic effect of sleep loss on performance was a marked increase in the number of omitted responses. This effect was smaller for the elderly than for the young. The results suggest that the detrimental effects of sleep loss are smaller in the elderly, which is consistent with an inverted-U relationship between arousal and performance. The age effects on the processing stages were mainly limited to response selection.     

The effects of handedness, family history and sex on the performance of a dichotic listening task

The action of some drugs on the eye may lead to the occurrence of unforeseen ocular and extraocular reactions. Vincaleukoblastin (Velbe) provokes serious corneal lesions with a healing time of two weeks and a half. The local application of Neo-Synephrine eye drops (10%) and Mydrial-Atropine ointment may lead in the case of a pharmacogenetic disposition to disagreeable systemic effects. In one case of preparation for a cataract operation by akinesis and retrobulbar injection, Novocain was changed by mistake with Pilocarpinum hydrochloricum by the error of a pharmaceutical firm. This led to severe complications, which could by successfully treated with Chlorpromazine (Largactil). The knowledge of these clinical observations may be of greater usefulness in the preventation of untoward drug reactions.     

The effects of self-esteem, success–failure, and self-consciousness on task performance.

Research has demonstrated that task performance of low self-esteem individuals (low SEs) suffers in the presence of self-focusing stimuli (e.g., a mirror). The present study determined if such stimuli must inevitably have adverse effects on low SEs. It was reasoned that if low SEs were provided with success feedback from a previous task, then the nature of their self-consciousness would be altered on a subsequent task. Specifically, low SEs should attend more to positive and less anxiety-provoking aspects of themselves than would low SEs who received failure feedback from the previous task. Under the former condition, low SEs' subsequent task performance was expected to improve. For high SEs, who typically perform well, success–failure feedback was expected to have little effect on subsequent performance. 90 undergraduates high and low in chronic self-esteem received false success or failure feedback from a task and completed a concept formation task in either the presence or absence of a mirror. Whereas high SEs performed equally well following success or failure, low SEs in the success condition performed significantly better than low SEs in the failure condition. This Self-Esteem?×?Prior Feedback interaction was significant in the presence of the mirror but not its absence. (21 ref) (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)     

The functional anatomy of a hysterical paralysis

The concept of a conversion disorder (such as hysterical paralysis) has always been controversial (Ron, M.A. (1996). Somatization and conversion disorders. In: B.S. Fogel, R.B. Schiffer & S.M. Rao (Eds.), Neuropsychiatry. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore, MD). Although the diagnosis is recognised by current psychiatric taxonomies, many physicians still regard such disorders either as feigned or as failure to find the responsible organic cause for the patient's symptoms. We report a woman with left sided paralysis (and without somatosensory loss) in whom no organic disease or structural lesion could be found. By contrast, psychological trauma was associated with the onset and recurrent exacerbation of her hemiparalysis. We recorded brain activity when the patient prepared to move and tried to move her paralysed (left) leg and when she prepared to move and did move her good (right) leg. Preparing to move or moving her good leg, and also preparing to move her paralysed leg, activated motor and/or premotor areas previously described with movement preparation and execution. The attempt to move the paralysed leg failed to activate right primary motor cortex. Instead, the right orbito-frontal and right anterior cingulate cortex were significantly activated. We suggest that these two areas inhibit prefrontal (willed) effects on the right primary motor cortex when the patient tries to move her left leg.     

The functional anatomy of sound intensity discrimination

The human neuroanatomical substrate of sound intensity discrimination was investigated by combining psychoacoustics and functional neuroimaging. Seven normal subjects were trained to detect deviant sounds presented with a slightly higher intensity than a standard harmonic sound, using a Go/No Go paradigm. Individual psychometric curves were carefully assessed using a three-step psychoacoustic procedure. Subjects were scanned while passively listening to the standard sound and while discriminating changes in sound intensity at four different performance levels (d' = 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, and 4.5). Analysis of regional cerebral blood flow data outlined activation, during the discrimination conditions, of a right hemispheric frontoparietal network already reported in other studies of selective or sustained attention to sensory input, and in which activity appeared inversely proportional to intensity discriminability. Conversely, a right posterior temporal region included in secondary auditory cortex was activated during discrimination of sound intensity independently of performance level. These findings suggest that discrimination of sound intensity involves two different cortical networks: a supramodal right frontoparietal network responsible for allocation of sensory attentional resources, and a region of secondary auditory cortex specifically involved in sensory computation of sound intensity differences.     

The effects of age, illustrations, and task variables on the performance of procedural assembly tasks.

Older adults may be disadvantaged in the performance of procedural assembly tasks because of age-related declines in working memory operations. It was hypothesized that adding illustrations to instructional text may lessen age-related performance differences by minimizing processing demands on working memory in the elderly. In the present study, younger and older adults constructed a series of 3-dimensional objects from 3 types of instructions (text only, illustration only, or text and illustrations). Results indicated that instructions consisting of text and illustrations reduced errors in construction for both age groups compared with the other formats. Younger adults, however, outperformed older adults under all instructional format conditions. Measures of spatial and verbal working memory and text comprehension ability accounted for substantial age-related variance across the different format conditions but did not fully account for the age differences observed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Framing of task performance strategies: effects on performance in a multiattribute dynamic decision making environment

It is well documented that the way a static choice task is "framed" can dramatically alter choice behavior, often leading to observable preference reversals. This framing effect appears to result from perceived changes in the nature or location of a person's initial reference point, but it is not clear how framing effects might generalize to performance on dynamic decision making tasks that are characterized by high workload, time constraints, risk, or stress. A study was conducted to examine the hypothesis that framing can introduce affective components to the decision making process and can influence, either favorably (positive frame) or adversely (negative frame), the implementation and use of decision making strategies in dynamic high-workload environments. Results indicated that negative frame participants were significantly impaired in developing and employing a simple optimal decision strategy relative to a positive frame group. Discussion focuses on implications of these results for models of dynamic decision making.     

The moderating effects of task complexity on the relationship between regulatory foci and safety and production performance.

Regulatory foci of promotion and prevention have been shown to relate differentially to occupational safety and production. This research proposes that task complexity can help explain the differences reported between these 2 self-regulatory processes and safety and productivity performance. Results revealed that promotion is positively related to production and prevention is positively related to safety regardless of task complexity. However, when task complexity is high, promotion negatively relates to safety and prevention negatively relates production. Implications for work motivation theory and research, as well as avenues for future research, are discussed. Practical implications for managerial interventions to optimize both safety and productivity are also presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of familiarity of task and choice on the functional performance of younger and older adults.

An experiment was conducted to compare the functional performance of younger and older adults on familiar and unfamiliar tasks under 2 conditions of perceived control. Specifically, the relation between age and motor and process skills was examined. The familiar tasks were simple cooking tasks, whereas the unfamiliar tasks were contrived, meaningless tasks developed for this study. Younger and older adults did not differ in the ratings of the familiarity of the tasks, but results from 2 Age?×?Task?×?Choice analyses of variance demonstrated a significant age difference for motor and process skills under all conditions. This suggests that older adults demonstrate age-related decline, even with activities that take motivational, experiential, and ecological validity components into account. For the process skills scale, there was also a significant main effect for choice. These results support the concept that perceived control may improve performance, but not differentially for older adults; that is, younger and older adults both demonstrated improved process performance when given their choice of tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Does intrinsic motivation theory explain the adverse effects of rewards on immediate task performance?

In an effort to answer the question posed in the title, we assessed the effects of rewards on the immediate task performance of preschool children in two studies. Both studies had within-subjects, repeated measures designs, and both yielded highly consistent results showing a detrimental effect of reward on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and on the Goodenough-Harris Draw-a-Man test. Performance decrements were confined to sessions in which subjects were rewarded; when rewarded subjects were shifted to nonreward, their performance improved dramatically. Although these studies were not concerned with the effects of reward on intrinsic motivation, the findings appear to present theoretical difficulties for current cognitive-motivational explanations of the adverse effects of material rewards on immediate task performance. An alternative viewpoint that material rewards can produce a temporary regression in psychological functioning is suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)