Self-efficacy as a moderator of information-seeking effectiveness

The authors assessed previously unexplored processes by which information seeking and self-efficacy contribute to self-regulatory effectiveness in industrial selling. They assessed the synergistic interaction of inquiry and monitoring with respect to role clarity and tested whether this interaction was further moderated by self-efficacy. Results indicated that the role-clarifying effects of feedback inquiry and monitoring were contingent rather than independent. Role clarity increased as the combination of inquiry and monitoring increased. Furthermore, these joint effects were moderated by self-efficacy, such that high-self-efficacy employees were able to effectively use the combination of inquiry and monitoring to clarify role expectations, whereas low-self-efficacy employees were not. Implications for theory, practice, and future research are discussed.     

Skills-demands compatibility as a determinant of flow experience in an inductive reasoning task

The skills-demands fit hypothesis of flow theory was examined. Based on the earlier finding that high demands in a game situation do not reduce the experience of flow, a cognitive task paradigm was used. The effect of skills-demands compatibility on the experience of flow but not of other, similar psychological states (i.e., concentration, negative and positive activation) was also investigated. Participants were 89 undergraduate students who worked on a number of inductive reasoning tasks in four successive trials with or without skills-demands compatibility. The results clearly supported the skills-demands fit hypothesis; concentration and activation were affected only by the tasks' difficulty. Inductive reasoning tasks are a useful tool for the experimental analysis of flow, and skills-demands compatibility is a significant and powerful condition of flow, but not of other, similar psychological states.     

Prior task failure as a determinant of biofeedback and cognitive task performance

In a study of the effects of controllability of outcomes upon behavior in a biofeedback context, 40 college students were assigned to four groups differing in pretreatment: (1) a success-failure group, given false feedback in a fictitious blood-vessel control task for two sessions designed to convey success followed by two sessions of failure feedback; (2) a failure-failure group, given false failure feedback throughout pretreatment; (3) a contingent failure group, receiving actual feedback in a temperature biofeedback task with criteria that assured failure throughout pretreatment; and (4) a control group, given no specific task during this phase. In a subsequent phase, all subjects received actual frontal (forehead) electromyographic (EMG) response training with biofeedback. In analyses of the results, during EMG training, the contingent failure group attained lower levels than the other three groups. By contrast, on a cognitive (anagram) task, interpolated between pretreatment and EMG training, the contingent failure group demonstrated relatively poorer performance than the other groups. The results are discussed in terms of reactance and learned helplessness theories of perceived loss of control in this context.Some of the data reported here were included in a thesis submitted by the second author in partial fulfillment of requirements for the master's degree in psychology, University of Hawaii, 1981. The entire paper was the basis for a presentation at the annual meeting of the Biofeedback Society of America, Albuquerque, 1984.     

Performance in a delayed comparison discrimination task as a function of stimulus interpretation

In a sequential same-different comparison task, physically similar visual stimuli with the same interpretation were more poorly discriminated than equally similar stimuli with different interpretations. Physical similarity of stimulus pairs was held constant by using parametrically controlled computer-generated visual forms and by using each pair of figures as both a sameinterpretation pair and as a different-interpretation pair. The interpretation variable used the ambiguous-figure properties of the forms. The two forms in each pair could be seen as representing the same object given one way of interpreting them; a second interpretation applied to only one member of the pair. The discrimination results held for interstimulus intervals of 300 msec and 13 sec. Similarities between the present studies and “categorical perception” studies are noted.     

Performance of a visuomotor walking task in an augmented reality training setting

Visual cues can be used to train walking patterns. Here, we studied the performance and learning capacities of healthy subjects executing a high-precision visuomotor walking task, in an augmented reality training set-up. A beamer was used to project visual stepping targets on the walking surface of an instrumented treadmill. Two speeds were used to manipulate task difficulty. All participants (n = 20) had to change their step length to hit visual stepping targets with a specific part of their foot, while walking on a treadmill over seven consecutive training blocks, each block composed of 100 stepping targets. Distance between stepping targets was varied between short, medium and long steps. Training blocks could either be composed of random stepping targets (no fixed sequence was present in the distance between the stepping targets) or sequenced stepping targets (repeating fixed sequence was present). Random training blocks were used to measure non-specific learning and sequenced training blocks were used to measure sequence-specific learning. Primary outcome measures were performance (% of correct hits), and learning effects (increase in performance over the training blocks: both sequence-specific and non-specific). Secondary outcome measures were the performance and stepping-error in relation to the step length (distance between stepping target). Subjects were able to score 76% and 54% at first try for lower speed (2.3 km/h) and higher speed (3.3 km/h) trials, respectively. Performance scores did not increase over the course of the trials, nor did the subjects show the ability to learn a sequenced walking task. Subjects were better able to hit targets while increasing their step length, compared to shortening it. In conclusion, augmented reality training by use of the current set-up was intuitive for the user. Suboptimal feedback presentation might have limited the learning effects of the subjects.     

Adherence as a determinant of effectiveness of internet cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety and depressive disorders

Since 2009, the Clinical Research Unit for Anxiety and Depression (CRUfAD) has been providing primary care clinicians with internet cognitive behaviour therapy (iCBT) courses to prescribe to patients. Although these courses have demonstrated efficacy in research trials, adherence in primary care is less than half that of the research trials. The present studies pose three questions: first, do course non-completers drop out because of lack of efficacy? Second, can changes in delivery (e.g. adding choice, reminders and financial cost) improve adherence? Last, does clinician contact improve adherence? The results showed that non-completers derive benefit before dropping out; that adding reminders, choice of course and timing, and financial cost can significantly improve adherence; and that clinician contact during the course is associated with increased adherence. It is concluded that improved adherence is an important determinant of effectiveness.     

Small-group effectiveness on an administrative task as influenced by knowledge of results and sex composition of the group

Two experiments were designed to investigate some possible extensions to Locke's theory of task motivation and incentives. In experiment 1 (192 Ss) the effect of KR on small-group effectiveness (SGE) was analyzed. The SGE-measurements (productivity and group atmosphere) were based on a subjective operationalization of the concept ?small-group effectiveness'. Five one-way analyses of variance revealed no significant influence of KR on SGE thus supporting Locke's findings. In experiment 2 (64 Ss) homogeneous male groups were compared to homogeneous female groups to find out whether sex composition of the group would have a significant influence on SGE. Five Fisher t-tests revealed no differences between the means of male and female groups. In this case, too, Locke's theory was supported. Limitations and implications of these results are discussed.     

Learning a procedural task: effectiveness of multimedia presentations

Three experiments investigated the effectiveness of presenting procedural information through different media and their combinations. Experiment 1 examined the effectiveness of text, line drawings, text and line drawings, video. and video stills for learning a first aid task. The results showed an advantage of text and line drawings and of the video presentation over the other three conditions for both bandaging performance and answering questions about the task. Experiment 2 showed that the beneficial effect of the combination of text and pictures could not be accounted for simply in terms of a dual coding explanation. Rather, the effectiveness of the media and their combinations was influenced by the extent to which they conveyed action information. Finally, Experiment 3 showed no evidence of a contiguity effect: text and pictures were as effective when presented together on the same screen as when they were presented separately. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance of bilinguals in a picture-word interference task

The picture-word interference task was administered to Spanish-English adults in order to determine whether the lexicons of bilinguals are integrated or whether words are stored and accessed separately in semantic memory. Pictures were printed with Spanish words naming other objects, with English translations, and with X's. Spanish and English distractor words were observed to slow down picture naming in both languages. Also, an interaction was detected among subjects naming pictures in English. On the first trial Spanish words produced more interference than English words, whereas the pattern was reversed thereafter. This effect is attributed to task novelty, which disappears with practice. No differential patterns of interference were observed among subjects naming pictures in Spanish, probably because of greater error variance. Results for English picture-naming bilinguals supported the integration hypothesis but suggested that there is less distance between words within a language than between languages in semantic memory.