Causal uncertainty,claimed and behavioural self‐handicapping

Background: Causal uncertainty beliefs involve doubts about the causes of events, and arise as a consequence of non‐contingent evaluative feedback: feedback that leaves the individual uncertain about the causes of his or her achievement outcomes. Individuals high in causal uncertainty are frequently unable to confidently attribute their achievement outcomes, experience anxiety in achievement situations and as a consequence are likely to engage in self‐handicapping behaviour. Aims: Accordingly, we sought to establish links between trait causal uncertainty, claimed and behavioural self‐handicapping. Sample: Participants were N=72 undergraduate students divided equally between high and low causally uncertain groups. Method: We used a 2 (causal uncertainty status: high, low) × 3 (performance feedback condition: success, non‐contingent success, non‐contingent failure) between‐subjects factorial design to examine the effects of causal uncertainty on achievement behaviour. Following performance feedback, participants completed 20 single‐solution anagrams and 12 remote associate tasks serving as performance measures, and 16 unicursal tasks to assess practice effort. Participants also completed measures of claimed handicaps, state anxiety and attributions. Results: Relative to low causally uncertain participants, high causally uncertain participants claimed more handicaps prior to performance on the anagrams and remote associates, reported higher anxiety, attributed their failure to internal, stable factors, and reduced practice effort on the unicursal tasks, evident in fewer unicursal tasks solved. Conclusions: These findings confirm links between trait causal uncertainty and claimed and behavioural self‐handicapping, highlighting the need for educators to facilitate means by which students can achieve surety in the manner in which they attribute the causes of their achievement outcomes.     

Use of absolute and comparative performance feedback in absolute and comparative judgments and decisions

Which matters more—beliefs about absolute ability or ability relative to others? This study set out to compare the effects of such beliefs on satisfaction with performance, self-evaluations, and bets on future performance. In Experiment 1, undergraduate participants were told they had answered 20% correct, 80% correct, or were not given their scores on a practice test. Orthogonal to this manipulation, participants learned that their performance placed them in the 23rd percentile or 77th percentile, or they did not receive comparative feedback. Participants were then given a chance to place bets on two games—one in which they needed to get more than 50% right to double their money (absolute bet), and one in which they needed to beat more than 50% of other test-takers (comparative bet). Absolute feedback influenced comparative betting, particularly when no comparative feedback was available. Comparative feedback exerted weaker and inconsistent effects on absolute bets. Absolute feedback also had stronger (and more consistent) effects on satisfaction with performance and state self-esteem. Experiment 2 replicated these effects in a different university sample, and demonstrated that the effects emerge even when bets are placed after participants rate their satisfaction with their performance (although these ratings do not mediate the effect of feedback on bets). These findings suggest that information about one’s absolute standing on a dimension may be more influential than information about comparative standing, partially supporting a key tenet of Festinger’s [Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117–140.] theory of social comparison.     

Limits of control: The effects of uncontrollability experiences on the efficiency of attentional control

Two experiments were conducted to explore the effects of experiencing uncontrollability on the efficiency of attentional control. The experience of uncontrollability was induced either by unsolvable tasks (Experiment 1) or by tasks in which non-contingent feedback was provided (Experiment 2). A version of the Attentional Network Test-Interactions with an additional measure of vigilance (ANTI-V) was used to evaluate the efficiency of the attentional networks (i.e., alerting, orienting, and executive). Results of both experiments revealed a decreased efficiency of executive attention in participants who experienced stable control deprivation but no negative effects in participants who were able to restore their sense of previously deprived control. Additionally, when participants were asked to perform unsolvable tasks and did not receive feedback (Experiment 1), detrimental effects on the orienting network and vigilance were observed. The motivational and cognitive mechanisms underlying the effects of various uncontrollability experiences on conflict resolution and attentional control are discussed.     

The domain specificity and generality of overconfidence: Individual differences in performance estimation bias

One hundred twenty-three college students performed a knowledge assessment task and a game of motor skill in which they had to predict their performance before each block of trials. There was a bias in the direction of overconfidence on both tasks, even though the latter involved the motor domain, did not require the use of numeric probabilities, and allowed predictions to be made by using an aggregate judgment made in a frequentist mode. An analysis of individual differences indicated that there was considerable domain specificity in confidence judgments. However, participants who persevered in showing overconfidence in the motor task—despite previous feedback revealing their overconfident performance predictions—were significantly more overconfident in the knowledge calibration task than were participants who moderated their motor performance predictions so as to remove their bias toward overconfidence. The latter finding is consistent with explanations of overconfidence effects that implicate mechanisms with some degree of domain generality.     

Attachment, attention, and cognitive control: Attachment style and performance on general attention tasks

Three studies examined the effects of attachment style on performance in non-attachment-related attention tasks; one study also assessed the effect of priming memories of experiences of attachment security or insecurity on attentional performance in a flanker task. In Study 1, participants performed a psychological refractory period (PRP) task assessing their ability to switch attention rapidly from one decision to another; in Studies 2 and 3 they performed a flanker task assessing their ability to resist distracters. Avoidant attachment predicted better performance on both tasks, and the effects remained even after controlling for neuroticism, general anxiety, and BIS/BAS scores. Study 3 showed that thinking in detail about a past experience of insecurity eliminated avoidant participants’ superior performance. In sum, avoidant people are generally skilled at regulating their attention, even on non-attachment-related tasks, but their performance is hampered by reminders of experiences of insecurity.     

Learning to Make Selection and Detection Decisions: The Roles of Base Rate and Feedback

The effects of type of feedback and base rate on threshold learning in a multiple‐cue decision task were examined. In most such decision experiments, participants receive feedback after every trial (full feedback), and a single base rate (usually 0.5) is used. Our experiment explored conditional feedback (feedback only after positive decisions) representing common selection and detection tasks (such as hiring), where the decision maker receives no feedback unless the decision is positive (e.g., hire the applicant). We used three base rates (0.2, 0.5, and 0.8). As expected, performance was best in full feedback, but after 300 learning trials, the difference was small. Conditional feedback generally resulted in fewer positive decisions than full feedback, but this difference was not found in the low (0.2) base rate condition. There were interactions between base rates and types of feedback. Results provide partial support for the constructivist encoding hypothesis of Elwin and colleagues. Simulation results suggest that our results may reflect overconfidence when feedback is not given. With respect to rate of learning, when the base rate was 0.2, conditional feedback participants reached approximately the same selection rate but did so more slowly than the full feedback participants. Partial feedback participants learned slower and appeared to be still learning after 500 trials. When the base rate was 0.5 or 0.8, partial feedback was nearly as good as full feedback, but conditional feedback resulted in a systematically lower rate of positive decisions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The impact of informative tutoring feedback and self-efficacy on motivation and achievement in concept learning

Informative tutoring feedback (ITF) provides assisted multiple response tries by offering strategically useful information for task completion as opposed to simply offering the solution. Previous studies on ITF focused on its effects on achievement. The present studies examine the assumption that ITF affects not only achievement, but also motivational variables such as task engagement, effort, persistence, and satisfaction with performance. In two experiments, students differing in self efficacy (SE) for identifying concepts worked on concept identification tasks. In cases of incorrect hypothesis about the concept, they received either outcome feedback or ITF. Results reveal that motivation and achievement depend on both SE and type of feedback. Future research should examine in more detail how ITF affects the self-enhancing processes between on-task motivation, achievement, and self-evaluation.     

Task feedback effects on conflict monitoring and executive control: relationship to subclinical measures of depression

Emerging evidence suggests that depression is associated with executive dysfunction, particularly after committing errors or receiving negative performance feedback. To test this hypothesis, 57 participants performed two executive tasks known to elicit errors (the Simon and Stroop Tasks) during positive or negative performance feedback. Participants with elevated depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory scores >or= 13) were characterized by impaired posterror and postconflict performance adjustments, especially during emotionally negative task-related feedback. Additionally, for both tasks, depressive symptoms were inversely related to postconflict reaction time adjustments following negative, but not positive, feedback. These findings suggest that subclinical depression is associated with impairments in behavioral adjustments after internal (perceived failure) and external feedback about deficient task performance.     

Sleep deprivation and stressors: Evidence for elevated negative affect in response to mild stressors when sleep deprived

Stress often co-occurs with inadequate sleep duration, and both are believed to impact mood and emotion. It is not yet known whether inadequate sleep simply increases the intensity of subsequent stress responses or interacts with stressors in more complicated ways. To address this issue, we investigated the effects of one night of total sleep deprivation on subjective stress and mood in response to low-stress and high-stress cognitive testing conditions in healthy adult volunteers in two separate experiments (total N = 53). Sleep was manipulated in a controlled, laboratory setting and stressor intensity was manipulated by changing difficulty of cognitive tasks, time pressure, and feedback about performance. Sleep-deprived participants reported greater subjective stress, anxiety, and anger than rested controls following exposure to the low-stressor condition, but not in response to the high-stressor condition, which elevated negative mood and stress about equally for both sleep conditions. These results suggest that sleep deprivation lowers the psychological threshold for the perception of stress from cognitive demands but does not selectively increase the magnitude of negative affect in response to high-stress performance demands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Learning to calibrate: Providing standards to improve calibration accuracy for different performance levels

This experimental study explores whether feedback in the form of standards helps students in giving more accurate performance estimates not only on current tasks but also on new, similar tasks and whether performance level influences the effect of standards. We provided 122 first‐year psychology students with seven texts that contained key terms. After reading each text, participants recalled the correct definitions of the key terms and estimated the quality of their recall. Half of the participants subsequently received standards and again estimated their own performance. Results showed that providing standards led to better calibration accuracy, both on current tasks and on new, similar tasks, when standards were not available yet. Furthermore, with or without standards, high performers calibrated better than low performers. However, results showed that especially low performers' calibration accuracy benefitted from receiving standards.     

Adapting to target error without visual feedback

What information is necessary for the motor system to adapt its behaviour? Visual hand-to-target error provides salient information about reach performance, but can learning proceed without this information? We investigated adaptation to an unperceived target perturbation under visual open-loop conditions. Participants looked and reached, without any vision of their hand, to a target that jumped rightward at saccade onset (Perturbation condition) or remained stationary throughout the trial (Stationary condition). The target jump in the Perturbation condition was tied to the saccade, such that participants were unaware that it had occurred. Each type of exposure was followed by a posttest, in which participants reached to a target that disappeared at saccade onset. In the posttest, participants reached farther following exposure to the perturbation than they did following exposure to the stationary target, indicating that participants had learned from systematic exposure to the jump. These findings imply that online error induces motor learning, even when participants receive no visual information about their performance.     

Effects of auditory feedback on gait behavior,gaze patterns and outcome performance in long jumping

In the current study, we conducted two experiments to investigate the impact of concurrent, action-induced auditory feedback on gait patterns, gaze behavior and outcome performance in long jumping. In Experiment 1, we examined the effects of present vs. absent auditory feedback on gait, gaze and performance outcome measures. Results revealed a significant interaction effect between condition (present vs. absent auditory feedback) and phase (acceleration vs. zeroing-in phase) on participants' step lengths indicating that the absence (rather than the presence) of auditory feedback led to facilitatory effects in terms of a more prototypical gait pattern (i.e., shorter steps in the acceleration phase and longer steps in the zeroing-in phase). Similarly, the absent auditory feedback led to a higher gaze stability in terms of less switches between areas of interest (AOIs). However, there was no effect on jumped distance. In Experiment 2, we scrutinized the influence of concurrent vs. delayed auditory feedback on all three performance parameters. In contrast to concurrent feedback, delayed auditory feedback negatively affected all three measures: participants showed (i) dysfunctional deviations from their prototypical gait pattern (i.e., shorter steps across both phases of the run-up), (ii) less stable, maladaptive gaze patterns (i.e., more switches between AOIs) and (iii) poorer jumping performance (i.e., shorter jumped distances). Together, the two experiments provide clear evidence for the impact of concurrent, action-induced auditory feedback on the coordination of complex, rhythmical motor tasks such as the long jump.     

An Evaluation of Interventions to Facilitate Algebra Problem Solving

Three participants were trained on 6 target algebra skills and subsequently received a series of 5 instructional interventions (cumulative practice, tiered feedback, feedback plus solution sequence instruction, review practice, and transfer training) in a multiple baseline across skills design. The effects of the interventions on the performance of 5 problem-solving tasks that required novel combinations of 2 or more of the target skills were evaluated. Results showed that cumulative practice of the skills and a combination of feedback with solution sequence instruction led to limited performance increases on some of the problem-solving tasks, with one task meeting the mastery criterion following the solution sequence intervention. The introduction of the transfer training resulted in more consistent improvements across tasks such that participants achieved the performance criterion on all remaining problem-solving tasks during a final baseline condition. The findings suggest that a structured intervention designed to transfer stimulus control from previously established discriminative stimuli to more complex, novel stimuli can facilitate problem solving without extensive direct instruction on the higher-level skills. This research was funded in part by a contract with the Florida Department of Children and Families. The content and opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Department of Children and Families. We thank Tim Vollmer for suggestions made throughout this study and for helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. We also thank Linda Meckler for her assistance with data collection. Kristin H. Mayfield, now at iLearn, Inc., Marietta, GA, USA.     

A Q Analysis on the Impact of Shadow Education on the Academic Life of High School Students

Shadow education, more commonly known as private tutoring, has been actively supplementing the formal mainstream education system in both developed and developing countries. Using the Q methodology, a quali-quantilogical approach, the study determined how private tutoring has impacted the academic life of high school students by exploring and analyzing their subjective experiences in relation to being part of shadow education. This was done by asking 30 high school students to perform a Q sort of 48 statements that depicts the impact of shadow education or private tutoring. The findings revealed that exposure to shadow education activities affected the general attitude of the participants towards their studies and learning and their perception about their selves and their ability to perform tasks related to their schooling. Likewise, results also showed that exposure to shadow education activities had an effect on the academic performance of the participants. The effect of exposure to shadow education activities are not limited to those commonly reported in literature.     

The moderator role of followers’ personality traits in the relations between leadership styles,two types of task performance and work result satisfaction

Authentic leadership is changing our understanding of what makes good leadership. However, few studies have explored how followers’ individual differences and the nature of the task they perform affect its relation to followers’ work outcomes. We examine the moderator role of two core task types (intellective vs. generative) and two personality traits (conscientiousness and emotional stability) in the relationship between two leadership feedback styles (authentic vs. transactional) and task performance or work result satisfaction in a two-wave experiment. The sample consisted of 228 participants enrolled in an organizational psychology course, 34% of whom had work experience. Our results show that over time the effect of an authentic feedback style on task performance became stronger for those participants who previously scored very low on intellective tasks or very high on generative tasks. Furthermore, a significant three-way interaction between these two traits and our leadership feedback styles indicates that the effect of authentic feedback conforms different patterns depending on the followers’ personality traits and the type of task they perform. Moreover, authentic feedback had a stronger effect on participants’ work result satisfaction. Participants with low levels of either conscientiousness or emotional stability displayed higher levels of satisfaction in the authentic feedback condition.     

Coping With Physical Exertion and Negative Feedback Under Competitive and Self-Standard Conditions

The relationship between goal orientation, self-efficacy, perceived ability, effort, commitment, exertion, feedback tolerance, and process/outcome measures were investigated in 4 studies. In Study 1. feedback (win, lose, win/lose) in a competitive task (accuracy of dart throws) was manipulated. Results showed dart accuracy performance correlated significantly with ego orientation when feedback was positive (win opponent), but not when negative (lose) or alterable (lose/win). Self-efficacy and perceived ability after task familiarity predicted performance in all feedback conditions. In Study 2. a computer-simulated running task was performed by participants under 3 feedback modes (win. lose, win/lose) nested within 2 conditions (self-standard and against an opponent). Results indicated that ego more than task orientation accounted for the performance variance in all experimental conditions. Self-efficacy and task-specific psychological states accounted for 63% to 68% of the performance variance. In Studies 3 and 4. exertion time in strength and endurance tasks were related to the type of activity in which participants were engaged and their commitment and exertion tolerance in the specific tasks. Goal orientation and self-efficacy accounted for much of the exertion-time variables' variance, but they were not significant predictors.     

拖延对工作绩效的影响——压力偏好与任务类型的调节作用

本研究探索了压力偏好和任务类型在拖延行为对绩效产生作用过程中的调节作用。用问卷调查的方法对155人进行调查。结果发现：相比偏好压力者,厌恶压力者的工作绩效更容易受到拖延行为的影响;对于复杂任务,拖延对偏好压力者的绩效影响显著低于对厌恶压力者;而对于简单任务,两种类型人的绩效的差别并不明显。结论是,偏好压力者能够减弱拖延行为对其工作绩效的影响,尤其对于复杂任务,这种影响更加明显。     

The Role of Concurrent Feedback in Learning to Walk Through Sliding Doors

Concurrent feedback is defined as information about performance given to participants during the execution of an action. This article investigates whether concurrent feedback is beneficial or detrimental to the learning of an ecologically relevant task. Eighteen participants were asked to walk through a virtual corridor and they practiced over 1110 trials to adjust their walking speed so as to pass through sliding doors that opened and closed at a frequency of 1 Hz. Concurrent feedback informed them about the possible need to accelerate or decelerate. Performance of participants who received concurrent feedback on 66% of the practice trials (on average) did not differ significantly from performance of participants who did not receive concurrent feedback. Furthermore, participants of both of these groups significantly outperformed participants who received concurrent feedback on all practice trials. These results are discussed in relation to the perceptual-motor mechanisms that underlie the control of the action. Also discussed are implications for future research, including the use of self-controlled feedback and the use of multisensory training programs.     

Functional and dysfunctional perfectionists: are they different on compulsive-like behaviors?

Both perfectionism and excessive responsibility have been linked to obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Up to now however, a greater number of studies have focused on the role of responsibility. The present study compared compulsive-like behavior of people with different styles of perfectionism. Sixteen functional perfectionists (FP) and 16 dysfunctional perfectionists (DP) were compared on three different tasks in order to explore OC type behavior such as doubting, checking and intrusions. Results show that DP participants, compared to FP participants, scored higher on an OC behavior scale, took significantly more time to complete a precision task and precipitated their decision when confronted with ambiguity. The two groups also tended to differ in their intrusive thoughts following an unsolved problem; FP participants were more preoccupied about solving the problem than about the quality of their performance, contrary to DP subjects. Results are discussed according to theoretical models of OCD.     

Priming effects of age stereotypes on memory of older adults in Korea

This study examined priming effects of age stereotypes on memory of Korean older adults. Age stereotypes refer to general beliefs about older adults. Through a priming task, older participants were briefly exposed to positive or negative age stereotypes without awareness. Before and after the priming task, free‐recall tasks were given to participants to measure their memory performance. Changes in performance caused by the priming task were estimated as priming effects of age stereotypes. Participants showed better memory performance after they were exposed to positive stereotypes during the priming task (positive priming effects). In contrast, participants showed worse memory performance after they were exposed to negative age stereotypes during the priming task (negative priming effects). The magnitude of priming effects was similar in positive and negative stereotypes. This result suggests that the implicit activation of age stereotypes can change memory of Korean elderly in both positive and negative ways.