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)