The Role of Self-Focus,Task Difficulty,Task Self-Relevance,and Evaluation Anxiety in Reaction Time Performance

Self-focused attention has been found to facilitate task performance in some instances and inhibit it in others. Among chronically anxious individuals it appears to consistently hinder performance. Less is known about the impact of self-focus on the performance of normal individuals. The present study examines the role of task difficulty, task self-relevance, and presence of evaluation anxiety in the performance effects of self-focus among normal individuals. Participants performed a simple reaction time (RT) and a lexical decision task, in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively, with or without self-focus. Self-focus and evaluation anxiety resulted in faster responding in simple RT, but there was no significant effect of self-focus on performance in the more difficult lexical decision task. Participants' heart rate (HR) was monitored and indicated that orienting was associated with slower RT in both experiments, and less orienting was found during self-focus and evaluation conditions. Results are interpreted in light of several self-focus theories.     

How Task Characteristics and Social Support Relate to Managerial Learning: Empirical Evidence From Dutch Home Care

Researchers have revealed that managers profit most from informal and on-the-job learning. Moreover, research has shown that task characteristics and social support affect informal learning. On the basis of these insights, the authors examined the effects of task characteristics (psychological job demands, job control) and social support from the supervisor and colleagues on informal on-the-job learning among 1,588 managers in the Dutch home-care sector. A regression analysis revealed that high demands, high control, and high colleague and supervisor support were each associated with high levels of informal learning. The authors found no evidence for statistical interactions among the effects of these concepts. They concluded that to promote managers' informal workplace learning, employers should especially increase job control.     

Embodied Information in Cognitive Tasks: Haptic Weight Sensations Affect Task Performance and Processing Style

Research in the field of embodied cognition showed that incidental weight sensations influence peoples’ judgments about a variety of issues and objects. Most studies found that heaviness compared to lightness increases the perception of importance, seriousness, and potency. In two experiments, we broadened this scope by investigating the impact of weight sensations on cognitive performance. In Experiment 1, we found that the performance in an anagram task was reduced when participants held a heavy versus a light clipboard in their hands. Reduced performance was accompanied by an increase in the perceived effort. In Experiment 2, a heavy clipboard elicited a specific response heuristic in a two-alternative forced-choice task. Participants showed a significant right side bias when holding a heavy clipboard in their hands. After the task, participants in the heavy clipboard condition reported to be more frustrated than participants in the light clipboard condition. In both experiments, we did not find evidence for mediated effects that had been proposed by previous literature. Overall, the results indicate that weight effects go beyond judgment formation and highlight new avenues for future research.