Emergent leadership as a function of sex and task type

Emergent leadership was examined in relation to sex and task type; 120 subjects participated in four-person mixed-sex groups. Three task conditions (masculine, neutral, and feminine gender orientations) were tested with 10 groups in each condition. It was predicted and found that more men than women would emerge as leaders in the masculine and neutral task conditions, while more women would assume the leadership role in the feminine task condition. The effects of the gender orientation of a task are discussed. It is suggested that expertise with a task may explain the task type effect found.This study is based on the senior author's master's thesis, conducted at Wayne State University under the direction of the second author.     

Caffeine enhances real-world language processing: evidence from a proofreading task

Caffeine has become the most prevalently consumed psychostimulant in the world, but its influences on daily real-world functioning are relatively unknown. The present work investigated the effects of caffeine (0 mg, 100 mg, 200 mg, 400 mg) on a commonplace language task that required readers to identify and correct 4 error types in extended discourse: simple local errors (misspelling 1- to 2-syllable words), complex local errors (misspelling 3- to 5-syllable words), simple global errors (incorrect homophones), and complex global errors (incorrect subject-verb agreement and verb tense). In 2 placebo-controlled, double-blind studies using repeated-measures designs, we found higher detection and repair rates for complex global errors, asymptoting at 200 mg in low consumers (Experiment 1) and peaking at 400 mg in high consumers (Experiment 2). In both cases, covariate analyses demonstrated that arousal state mediated the relationship between caffeine consumption and the detection and repair of complex global errors. Detection and repair rates for the other 3 error types were not affected by caffeine consumption. Taken together, we demonstrate that caffeine has differential effects on error detection and repair as a function of dose and error type, and this relationship is closely tied to caffeine's effects on subjective arousal state. These results support the notion that central nervous system stimulants may enhance global processing of language-based materials and suggest that such effects may originate in caffeine-related right hemisphere brain processes. Implications for understanding the relationships between caffeine consumption and real-world cognitive functioning are discussed.     

Field independence as a function of sex, sex-roles, and the sex-role appropriateness of the task

Two experiments were conducted to explain the sex difference in field independence by reference to socialization factors. It was hypothesized that the sex-role appropriateness of the task as masculine or feminine-typed would influence the performance of masculine and feminine women in a manner congruent with their sex-role orientation. 28 pilot subjects and 100 subjects in Study 2 were equally divided between the sexes. Both studies used the Bem Sex-role Inventory, but different versions of the Embedded Figures Test. The over-all results suggested that feminine women varied their performance according to task appropriateness, although not always in a manner congruent with their sex-role orientation. Androgynous individuals and masculine men did not alter their performance.     

Solution strategies as possible explanations of individual and sex differences in a dynamic spatial task

When individuals perform spatial tasks, individual differences emerge in accuracy and speed as well as in the response patterns used to cope with the task. The purpose of this study is to identify, through empirical criteria, the different response patterns or strategies used by individuals when performing the dynamic spatial task presented in the Spatial Orientation Dynamic Test-Revised (SODT-R). Results show that participants can be classified according to their response patterns. Three different ways of solving a task are described, and their relation to (a) performance factors (response latency, response frequency, and invested time) and (b) ability tests (analytical reasoning, verbal reasoning, and spatial estimation) are investigated. Sex differences in response patterns and performance are also analyzed. It is found that the frequency with which men and women employ each one of the strategies described here, is different and statistically significant. Thus, employed strategy plays an important role when interpreting sex differences on dynamic spatial tasks.     

Age, sex, social class, and quality of family interaction as determinants of adolescents' future orientation: a developmental task interpretation

This study is concerned with the effect of age, sex, social class, and quality of family interaction on the future orientation of adolescents aged 10-11, 14-15, and 17-19 years. Seventy-three girls and 75 boys were interviewed about their future hopes and fears. The content and extension of each aim and fear as well as the amount of planning, knowledge, and perceived locus of control involved was estimated from answers. The contents of aims and fears were closely related to the developmental tasks. Nearly half the subjects were afraid of war. The extension of subjects' future orientation decreased, whereas their knowledge about the future increased with age. The subjects from the higher social classes were oriented farther into the future than those from the lower classes. An interpretation emphasizing the importance of the principal developmental tasks on young people's future orientation is discussed.     

Adolescents and microcomputers: sex differences, proxemics, task and stimulus variables

Questionnaires concerning attitudes toward use of microcomputers at home, in school, and at video arcades were administered to 879 high school students. Direct observations of adolescent proxemics and sex differences, and of various parameters of video games in 18 video arcades were made. A thorough and representative content analysis of sex bias of microcomputer software advertising brochures was carried out. Results supported previous findings of overrepresentation of masculine culture in the adolescent world of microcomputers, particularly regarding video games. Various types of computer-related activity were not related to socioeconomic class of the parents or to academic grades except for use of home microcomputers, which was mildly positively related to socioeconomic class (r = .124, p less than .001). Nearly half the activity in the arcades was strictly solitary. None of the arcade video games allowed for cooperative play. Most allowed only for sequential competition (86%) or simultaneous competition (7%); as many as 7% did not provide a display of the scores for a second player.     

Navigation in the Morris swim task as a baseline for drug discrimination: a demonstration with morphine

A morphine versus saline discrimination was demonstrated using the Morris swim task as the behavioral baseline. The apparatus was a large circular pool filled with water made opaque by floating polypropylene pellets. Rats were placed in the tank in randomly selected locations (12 trials per session) and could escape by swimming to a platform submerged 2 cm below the surface. Morphine (5.6 mg/kg) or saline was injected prior to training sessions. The position of the platform in a given session depended on the drug condition, thus forming the basis for discriminative responding. Three of the 4 rats acquired the discrimination, as evidenced by direct swims to the condition-appropriate platform. Generalization probe sessions were conducted following acquisition. Probe sessions were preceded by injections of morphine (0, 1.0, 3.0, 5.6, or 10.0 mg/kg) and involved placing the rat in the pool for 1 min without a platform. Swim patterns revealed a gradient, with probe swimming more concentrated in the area of the morphine platform position after higher morphine doses. In addition, dose-dependent increases in the likelihood of swimming first to the morphine-associated platform location were obtained. These results illustrate the generality of drug discrimination across different behavioral procedures, and of particular interest with respect to spatial learning, demonstrate interoceptive stimulus control of navigation.     

Sex,sex roles,and response styles for negative affect: Selectivity in a free recall task

Study 1 examined how responses to negative affect may be influenced by sex differences in response styles [S. Nolen-Hoeksema (1987), “Sex Differences in Unipolar Depression: Evidence and Theory,” Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 101, pp. 259–282] and situational norms. Male and female experimental subjects were led to experience negative affect by reading and rating sad stories, and were then given either nonnormative or normative feedback. Nonnormative subjects were informed that their story ratings were more negative than other participants' ratings. Normative subjects were informed that their ratings were similar to others' ratings. For nonnormative subjects, men recalled less negative material than women, suggesting that response styles are most apparent when negative affect is considered inappropriate. As both sex and sex role orientation are predictive of response styles, Study 2 examined the hypothesis that both sex and sex role orientation are predictive of recall in a manner similar to sex in Study 1. Male and female subjects high and low in masculinity and femininity were assigned to negative-nonnormative and neutral affect conditions. In addition to a marginally significant sex effect consistent with Study 1, results revealed that high-masculinity individuals tended to recall more positive material in the negative-nonnormative condition than in the neutral affect condition. In contrast, low-masculinity individuals recalled less positive material in the negative-nonnormative condition than in the neutral affect condition. The implications of this research for the impact of negative affect on recall are addressed.     

Affective processing in overwhelmed individuals: Strategic and task considerations

Previous research suggests that emotionally overwhelmed individuals (high affect intensity, intermediate attention to emotions, low clarity of emotions) attempt to counteract the influence of affective information. In five studies (ns=129, 177, 119, 339, 261), the current research found that task performance in overwhelmed individuals varied by current arousal and by whether affective influence occurred on evaluative versus non-evaluative tasks. Overwhelmed high current arousal participants exhibited decreased affective influence on evaluative tasks but increased affective influence on non-evaluative tasks. These results are consistent with the effects of active suppression of affective information, including ironic effects of monitoring for affective information. In contrast, overwhelmed low current arousal participants exhibited increased affective influence on evaluative tasks but decreased affective influence on non-evaluative tasks. These results are consistent with attentional avoidance of affective information. Overall, these results further suggest that overwhelmed individuals attempt to counteract the influence of affective information. Whether they are successful depends on their current arousal and how affect can influence performance.     

Facial action patterns, electromyography, and moods in response to an insoluble task as a function of sex and sex-role differences

College students of either androgynous or sex-typed orientation were randomly assigned to either an insoluble concept-formation task or a solvable one. Posttreatment scores were compared for measures of dysphoric mood (Multiple Affect Adjective List), electromyographic responses (corrugator and zygomatic), and discrete facial responses (Facial Action Coding System). In Study 1, 18 androgynous women were compared to 16 feminine women; in Study 2, 16 androgynous men were compared to 16 masculine men. The insoluble task was associated with more corrugator activity (frowning) than the solvable task in both studies. Feminine women displayed more corrugator responses across both tasks than androgynous women. However, masculine men did not differ from androgynous men in over-all corrugator response activity. Androgynous women smiled more than feminine women on the facial action coding measure. Men subjected to the insoluble task reported significantly more anxiety, depression, and hostility. Masculine men scored higher on anxiety during the insoluble task than androgynous men, while the latter scored somewhat higher on anxiety in the other condition.     

Gaze behavior in face comparison: The roles of sex, task, and symmetry

Knowing where people look on a face provides an objective insight into the information entering the visual system and into cognitive processes involved in face perception. In the present study, we recorded eye movements of human participants while they compared two faces presented simultaneously. Observers’ viewing behavior and performance was examined in two tasks of parametrically varying difficulty, using two types of face stimuli (sex morphs and identity morphs). The frequency, duration, and temporal sequence of fixations on previously defined areas of interest in the faces were analyzed. As was expected, viewing behavior and performance varied with difficulty. Interestingly, observers compared predominantly the inner halves of the face stimuli—a result inconsistent with the general left-hemiface bias reported for single faces. Furthermore, fixation patterns and performance differed between tasks, independently of stimulus type. Moreover, we found differences in male and female participants’ viewing behaviors, but only when the sex of the face stimuli was task relevant.     

Large sex difference in adolescents on a timed line judgment task: attentional contributors and task relationship to mathematics

Visuospatial performance, assessed with the new, group-administered Judgment of Line Angle and Position test (JLAP-13), varied with sex and mathematical competence in a group of adolescents. The JLAP-13, a low-level perceptual task, was modeled after a neuropsychological task dependent upon functioning of the posterior region of the right hemisphere [Benton et al, 1994 Contributions to Neuropsychological Assessment: A Clinical Manual (New York: Oxford University Press)]. High-school boys (N = 52) performed better than girls (N = 62), with a large effect for sex (d = 1.11). Performance increased with mathematical competence, but the sex difference did not vary significantly across different levels of mathematics coursework. On the basis of earlier work, it was predicted that male, but not female, performance in line judgment would decline with disruptions to task geometry (page frame), and that the sex difference would disappear with disruptions to geometry. These predictions were supported by a number of univariate and sex-specific analyses, although an omnibus repeated-measures analysis did not detect the predicted interaction, most likely owing to limitations in power. Thus, there is partial support for the notion that attentional predispositions or strategies may contribute to visuospatial sex differences, with males more likely than females to attend to, and rely upon, internal or external representations of task geometry. Additional support for this hypothesis may require development of new measures or experimental manipulations with more powerful geometrical disruptions.     

Problem-solving performance of young boys and girls as a function of task appropriateness and sex identity

The problem-solving performance of young boys and girls was examined in three conditions in which good performance was indicated as being appropriate for boys, for girls, or for both boys and girls. The relations between task scores and five sex-role measures were also examined. As predicted, the boys performed significantly more poorly when the task was indicated as one that girls did better. The girls' performance was not affected by the conditions of the study. The girls' problem-solving scores did not differ significantly from the boys' scores. There was some relationship between the task scores and the sex-role measures for boys, but not for girls. Associations among the sex-role measures were not high.This research was supported by a DGES-FCAC research grant from the government of Quebec, Canada.     

Spatial task performance,sex differences,and motion sickness susceptibility

There are substantial individual differences in susceptibility to motion sickness, yet little is known about what mediates these differences. Spatial ability and sex have been suggested as possible factors in this relationship. 89 participants (57 women) were administered a Motion Sickness Questionnaire that assesses motion sickness susceptibility, a Water-level Task that gauges sensitivity to gravitational upright, and a Mental Rotation Task that tests an individual's awareness of how objects typically move in space. Significant sex differences were observed in performance of both the Water-level Task (p<.01), and the Mental Rotation Task (p<.005), with women performing less accurately than men. Women also had significantly higher scores on the Motion Sickness Questionnaire (p<.005). Among men, but not women, significant negative relationships were observed between Water-level Task performance and Motion Sickness Questionnaire score (p<.001) and between Mental Rotation Task performance and Motion Sickness Questionnaire score (p<.005). In conclusion, women performed significantly more poorly than men did on the spatial ability tasks and reported significantly more bouts of motion sickness. In addition, men showed a significant negative relationship between spatial ability and motion sickness susceptibility.