Television distraction and the performance of introverts and extroverts

An experiment was run to test the effect on reading comprehension of distraction by a television programme, which was presented while reading took place. Respondents, classified in terms of extroversion or introversion, carried out two reading comprehension tests in silence and in the presence of a television drama programme. As predicted, extroverts and introverts both performed better in silence, but there was a significant interaction that showed that extroverts performed better than introverts in the presence of television distraction. The findings are discussed in relation to previous research on this subject.     

Music while you work: the differential distraction of background music on the cognitive test performance of introverts and extraverts

The current study looked at the distracting effects of ‘pop music’ on introverts' and extraverts' performance on various cognitive tasks. It was predicted that there would be a main effect for music and an interaction effect with introverts performing less well in the presence of music than extraverts. Ten introverts and ten extraverts were given two tests (a memory test with immediate and delayed recall and a reading comprehension test), which were completed, either while being exposed to pop music, or in silence. The results showed that there was a detrimental effect on immediate recall on the memory test for both groups when music was played, and two of the three interactions were significant. After a 6-minute interval the introverts who had memorized the objects in the presence of the pop music had a significantly lower recall than the extraverts in the same condition and the introverts who had observed them in silence. The introverts who completed a reading comprehension task when music was being played also performed significantly less well than these two groups. These findings have implications for the study habits of introverts when needing to retain or process complex information. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Situational Tests in Student Selection: An Examination of Predictive Validity,Adverse Impact,and Construct Validity

The Flemish Admission Exam ‘Medical and Dental Studies’ is comprised of four cognitive ability tests and four situational tests, namely two work samples (i.e., a lecture and a medical text) and two video‐based situational judgement tests (i.e., a physician–patient interaction and a medical expert discussion). On the basis of the Admission Exam scores of 941 candidates (359 men, 582 women) this study shows that situational tests significantly can predict better than cognitive ability tests, with lecture and text emerging as significant predictors. When situational tests are combined with cognitive ability tests, there are no mean gender differences. Situational tests also enable us to measure a broader range of constructs. For example, in this study, the personality factor Openness is related to better situational test performance. Overall, this study demonstrates that situational tests may be a useful complement to traditional student selection procedures.     

Can preference for background music mediate the irrelevant sound effect?

Research suggests that listening to background music prior to task performance increases cognitive processes, such as attention and memory, through the mechanism of increasing arousal and positive mood. However, music preference has not been explored with regard to a more common and realistic scenario of concurrent music and cognition, namely the ‘irrelevant sound effect’ (ISE). To examine this, serial recall was tested under quiet, liked and disliked music sound conditions as well as steady‐state (repetition of ‘3’) and changing‐state speech (random digits 1–9). Results revealed performance to be poorer for both music conditions and the changing‐state speech compared to quiet and steady‐state speech conditions. The lack of difference between both music conditions suggests that preference does not affect serial recall performance. These findings are discussed within the music and cognition and auditory distraction literatures. Copyright © 2010 JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd.     

心算对内外倾者的心率、T波幅度和呼吸频率的影响

该文旨在探讨内、外倾者在三种不同难度心算时,心率、Ｔ波幅度、呼吸频率变化的差异。通过艾森克个性问卷筛选出１５名内倾者和１５名外倾者作为被试,让其完成三种不同难度的心算任务。实验结果表明,心算时两组被试心率均显著上升,内倾组上升幅度大于外倾组;Ｔ波幅度显著降低,内倾组降低幅度大于外倾组但差异不显著;呼吸频率显著上升,但两组上升幅度差异不显著。此外,从心率变化上看,两组被试对心算均表现出适应,内倾组的适应速度比外倾组慢。本实验表明,焦虑性精神紧张比智力操作性精神紧张对心率的影响更大。     

Trait Intellect Predicts Cognitive Engagement: Evidence from a Resource Allocation Perspective

Trait Intellect, one of the two ‘aspects’ of the broader Openness/Intellect ‘domain’, predicts performance on a range of cognitive tasks including tests of intelligence and working memory. This has been explained in terms of the tendency for high‐Intellect individuals to explore, or engage more effortfully with, abstract information. This theoretical perspective can be framed in the language of Resource Allocation Theory, in terms of high‐Intellect individuals allocating more of their available cognitive resources to abstract cognitive tasks. In two experiments (total N = 160), we examined the relation between Intellect and cognitive engagement during a primary word‐search task under conditions of both high and low secondary cognitive load. Both experiments revealed that high‐Intellect individuals were more vulnerable to the impact of the secondary cognitive load on primary task performance. This suggests that, under low secondary load, such individuals were indeed allocating more of their available cognitive resources to the primary task. These results held after controlling for trait Openness, trait Industriousness (an aspect of Conscientiousness) and a measure of working memory capacity (N‐back task). Our findings provide novel support for the cognitive mechanisms proposed to underlie trait Intellect. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Extroversion-related differences in speed of premotor and motor processing as revealed by lateralized readiness potentials

To further elucidate extroversion-related differences in speed of sensorimotor processing, the authors obtained behavioral and psychophysiological measures as participants (16 introverts and 16 extroverts) performed a visual go/no-go task. Although no extroversion-related differences in reaction time emerged, introverts showed faster premotor processing but slower central and peripheral motor processing--as indicated by latencies of the lateralized readiness potential (LRP) and electromyographic (EMG) data, respectively--than extroverts did. Additional regression analyses revealed that stimulus-locked LRP latency, response-locked LRP latency, and Nl EMG amplitude accounted for 40% of overall variability in individual extroversion scores. On the basis of the present results, the authors introduce a compensation hypothesis that accounts for the common failure of researchers to demonstrate extroversion-related differences in reaction time. The present results challenge J. Brebner and C. Cooper's (1985) model of extroversion in which stimulus analysis is not slower in introverts than in extroverts. However, the present findings support the assumption of faster motor processing in extroverts.     

Rugby versus Soccer in South Africa: Content familiarity contributes to cross-cultural differences in cognitive test scores

In this study, cross-cultural differences in cognitive test scores are hypothesized to depend on a test's cultural complexity (Cultural Complexity Hypothesis: CCH), here conceptualized as its content familiarity, rather than on its cognitive complexity (Spearman's Hypothesis: SH). The content familiarity of tests assessing short-term memory, attention, working memory, and figural and verbal fluid reasoning, was manipulated by constructing test versions with an item content derived from either Afrikaans or Tswana culture in South Africa. Both test versions were administered to children of both cultures. The sample consisted of 161 urban Afrikaans, 181 urban, and 159 rural Tswana children (M_age = 9.37 years). Children generally performed best on the test version that was designed for their own group, particularly on the cognitively and culturally complex working memory and figural fluid reasoning tests. This relation between content familiarity and cognitive test performance supports CCH and disconfirms SH.     

Test‐Specificity of the Advantage of Retaking Cognitive Ability Tests

In selection settings, when people retake the same cognitive ability tests, scores are generally positively biased. Our approach aimed to test whether these previous exposure effects are test‐specific or transferable to other tests. We compared the differences between scores for first‐time test takers and retakers for 2 kinds of material: ‘old’ tests, known only to the retakers, and ‘new’ tests, unknown to both groups. The current study used data collected during 2 sessions –S and S+1 – of a selection process for entry into the French national air transport pilot training system, with at least 500 first‐time test takers and 130 retakers in each session. For Session S, on average, retakers scored higher on the ‘old’ tests, but not on the ‘new’ tests. Moreover, the material that was new to retakers at Session S was old at Session S+1, and the finding for old tests could be replicated at Session S+1. The finding that the acquired skills that led to higher scores on old tests were only test‐specific is discussed.     

Dream actors in the theatre of memory: Their role in the psychoanalytic process2

The author notes that neuropsychological research has discovered the existence of two long‐term memory systems, namely declarative or explicit memory, which is conscious and autobiographical, and non‐declarative or implicit memory, which is neither conscious nor verbalisable. It is suggested that pre‐verbal and pre‐symbolic experience in the child's primary relations is stored in implicit memory, where it constitutes an unconscious nucleus of the self which is not repressed and which influences the person's affective, emotional, cognitive and sexual life even as an adult. In the analytic relationship this unconscious part can emerge essentially through certain modes of communication (tone of voice, rhythm and prosody of the voice, and structure and tempo of speech), which could be called the ‘musical dimension’ of the transference, and through dream representations. Besides work on the transference, the critical component of the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis is stated to consist in work on dreams as pictographic and symbolic representations of implicit pre‐symbolic and pre‐verbal experiences. A case history is presented in which dream interpretation allowed some of a patient's early unconscious, non‐repressed experiences to be emotionally reconstructed and made thinkable even though they were not actually remembered.     

A temporal discriminability account of children's eyewitness suggestibility

Children's suggestibility is typically measured using a three‐stage ‘event–misinformation–test’ procedure. We examined whether suggestibility is influenced by the time delays imposed between these stages, and in particular whether the temporal discriminability of sources (event and misinformation) predicts performance. In a novel approach, the degree of source discriminability was calculated as the relative magnitude of two intervals (the ratio of event–misinformation and misinformation–test intervals), based on an adaptation of existing ‘ratio‐rule’ accounts of memory. Five‐year‐olds (n =150) watched an event, and were exposed to misinformation, before memory for source was tested. The absolute event–test delay (12 versus 24 days) and the ‘ratio’ of event–misinformation/misinformation–test intervals (11:1, 3:1, 1:1, 1:3 and 1:11) were manipulated across participants. The temporal discriminability of sources, measured by the ratio, was indeed a strong predictor of suggestibility. Most importantly, if the ratio was constant (e.g. 18/6 versus 9/3 days), performance was remarkably similar despite variations in absolute delay (e.g. 24 versus 12 days). This intriguing finding not only extends the ratio‐rule of distinctiveness to misinformation paradigms, but also serves to illustrate a new empirical means of differentiating between explanations of suggestibility based on interference between sources and disintegration of source information over time.     

Ecological and person‐oriented aspects of metacognitive processes in test‐taking

This study examines critical aspects of both the ecological and the person‐oriented accounts of observed biases in confidence judgements on tests of cognitive abilities. These biases reflect metacognitive processes involved in test‐taking. According to the ecological approach, poor realism of confidence judgements is due to the nature of the items included in general knowledge tests (test‐driven biases). The person‐oriented approach, however, argues that biases in confidence judgements may be due to a general self‐monitoring trait. The present study employed the ‘de‐biasing’ procedure proposed by Juslin ( 1994 ) for the selection of general knowledge test items, and used a newly developed geographical knowledge test suitable for the Australian population. Two other cognitive tests (Raven's Progressive Matrices and Line Length) were administered in order to determine whether there is a consistency in confidence ratings across diverse tasks. Statistical procedures traditional to both approaches‐calibration curves and factor analysis ‐ were employed. The results, with minor qualifications, support both perspectives. The study found a separate confidence factor, indicative of a self‐monitoring trait. Two other potential metacognitive factors (i.e. ‘expectation’ and ‘evaluation’, corresponding to self‐assessment/planning and self‐evaluation) could not be separated from accuracy and speed measures. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Planning over the day span: memory for the content of plans

The purpose of this study was to clarify the effect of the time of day on memory for the content of plans, and to examine the influence of knowledge of daily activities on it. Twenty‐four undergraduates participated as subjects in the experiment. Participants were told to memorize 24 plans of one day (e.g. ‘13:00’, ‘making a telephone call’), and were then asked to recall them in the test phase. Furthermore, we tried to explore their knowledge of everyday activities using a questionnaire. The result showed that plans of night, morning, and evening were recalled better than that of afternoon. This result was explained by the notion that knowledge of one's personal daily activities might affect memory of plans. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Does it deliver what it promises? Evaluation of cognitive distraction caused by speech-based interfaces with detection response and box task

Speech is considered a promising modality for human-machine interaction while driving, especially in reducing visual and manual distraction. However, speech-based user interfaces themselves have shown to increase cognitive distraction. There remains a lack of standardized and unambiguous methods for measuring the impact of speech-based assistants on cognitive distraction while driving. This work aims to investigate whether the combination of the box task and the detection response task (DRT) is a suitable method for assessing the cognitive distraction caused by speech-based assistants. For this purpose, participants (N = 39) engaged in artificial (n-back tasks) and natural speech-based secondary tasks (interaction with Android’s Google Assistant and Apple's Siri) differing in predefined levels of cognitive workload while performing the box task and the DRT. The results showed that DRT performance differed between the 0-back and 1-back task but not between the different cognitive workload levels of the speech-based assistants. No clear effects emerged for the box task parameters. Thus, the combination of the box task and DRT is well-suited for measuring cognitive distraction caused by artificial secondary tasks but not by natural interactions with speech-based assistants.     

认知操作、认知方式与外倾性人格特质的关系

对28名外倾被试和28名内倾被试进行实验性认知测试,以考察认知操作、认知方式与外倾性人格特质的关系。结果表明,内外倾被试在含有社会认知操作、非社会认知操作的认知任务的测试总分上没有差异,而在社会认知一非社会认知方式的评价分数上存在显著差异。外倾被试更多地倾向于社会认知型认知方式,内倾被试更多地倾向于非社会认知型认知方式。研究结果支持了外倾性与智力关系的假设：外倾性与社会认知一非社会认知的认知方式存在相关关系,而与认知操作测试总分无关。     

奖惩线索条件下内外倾个体的自主唤醒和行为反应

将停止信号任务和金钱激励延迟任务相结合,使用16导生理记录仪记录被试的生理指标,探讨内外倾者在动机凸显情景下的生理唤醒特点以及反应调节能力。结果发现,隐含奖励和惩罚线索呈现之后,内外倾者的心率增快,内倾者的皮肤电活动显著增强。在停止信号任务中的优势反应阶段,内外倾者表现为对奖励凸显线索刺激的反应时缩短;而在非优势反应阶段,和外倾者相比较,内倾者的抑制反应错误率增高。表明内外倾者在奖惩线索条件下表现出不同的生理唤醒特点和行为反应。     

The interactive effect of personality, time of day, and caffeine: a test of the arousal model

The personality dimension of introversion/extraversion is one of the few personality dimensions that can be reliably identified from study to study and investigator to investigator. The importance of this demension within personality theory is due both to the stability of the trait and the influential theory of H. J. Eysenck. The basic assumption in Eysenck's theory of introversion/extraversion is that the personality differences between introverts and extraverts reflect some basic difference in the resting level of cortical arousal or activation. Assuming that there is a curvilinear relationship (an inverted U) between levels of stress and performance leads to a test of this arousal theory. That is, moderate increases in stress should hinder the performance of introverts who are presumably already highly aroused. However, the same moderate increase in stress might help the performance of the presumably underaroused extraverts. Revelle, Amaral, and Turriff reported that the administration of moderate doses of caffeine hindered the performance of introverts and helped the performance of extraverts on a cognitive task similar to the verbal test of the Graduate Record Examination. Assuming that caffeine increases arousal, this interaction between introversion/extraversion and drug condition supports Eysenck's theory. This interaction was explored in a series of experiments designed to replicate, extend, and test the generality of the original finding. The interaction between personality and drug condition was replicated and extended to additional cognitive performance tasks. However, these interactions were affected by time of day and stage of practice, and the subscales of introversion/extraversion, impulsivity, and sociability, were differentially affected. In the morning of the first day, low impulsives were hindered and high impulsives helped by caffeine. This pattern reversed in the evening of the first day, and it reversed again in the evening of Day 2. We concluded that the results from the first day of testing require a revision of Eysenck's theory. Instead of a stable difference in arousal between low and high impulsives, it appeared that these groups differed in the phase of their diurnal arousal rhythms. The result is that low impulsives are more aroused in the morning and less aroused in the evening than are the high impulsives. A variety of peripheral or strategic explanations (differences in caffeine consumption, guessing strategies, distraction, etc.) for the observed performance increments and decrements were proposed and tentatively rejected. It seems probable that some fundamental change in the efficiency with which information is processes is responsible for these performance changes.     

The constructive role of gender asymmetry in social interaction: Further evidence

Two hundred and sixty‐four children aged 6.5–7.5 years (first graders) took part in a pre‐test, interaction, and post‐test experiment working on a spatial transformation task known as the ‘village task’. Cognitive progress was assessed by pre‐ to post‐test gains in both an immediate and delayed post‐test in dyads and individual participants as a control. The results indicate clear links between particular pair types with both communication processes and with learning and cognitive developmental outcomes. The present study demonstrates that gender can act as a source of status asymmetry in peer interaction to influence communication, learning, and cognitive development in same‐ and mixed‐sex dyads.     

Shooting behaviour: How working memory and negative emotionality influence police officer shoot decisions

Previous research on police officer shoot decisions has focussed on the influence of situational factors that lead to the shooting error. Focussing instead on the ‘shooter’, the present study examined whether working memory capacity and threat‐related increases in negative emotionality influenced participant shoot decisions in a simulated shooting task. Following a working memory test, 24 police officers viewed a police‐relevant threatening video while physiological indices of arousal and negative affect were obtained and then completed a computerized shoot‐don't shoot task. Results indicated that lower working memory capacity was associated with a greater likelihood of shooting unarmed targets and a failure to shoot armed targets. Moreover, an interaction effect indicated that these associations were only significant for officers who experienced heightened negative emotionality in response to the video. Results suggest that when negatively aroused via threat, limited working memory capacity increases the risk of shooting error. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.