Skill‐based versus effort‐based task difficulty: A task‐analysis approach to the role of specific emotions in motivating difficult actions

We make a distinction between primarily effort-based and skilled-based tasks and examine the correspondence between emotion and task. We reverse attribution theory results wherein failure to expend effort engenders regret and accomplishing tasks with skill engenders pride, and propose these emotions as antecedents to effort-based and skill-based behaviors. Specifically, pride (regret) produces higher self-efficacy, behavioral intentions and sign-ups when the task (CPR training) is portrayed as skill-intensive (effort-intensive) compared to effort-intensive (skill-intensive) or easy. Our research highlights the value of integrating an attributional analysis of tasks into an appraisal theory of emotions and suggests mechanisms that might underlie this relationship.     

积极情绪对任务转换的影响

通过两个行为实验考察了积极情绪图片所诱发的情绪状态对任务转换的影响及其机制。研究任务是数字分类任务,分为保持和转换两个阶段。首先要求被试对靶刺激形成一定的习惯化反应,然后改变任务要求。实验1以53名大学生为被试,分别在积极情绪、消极情绪和中性条件下完成任务,发现在与中性条件相比时,积极情绪促进任务转换,消极情绪延缓任务转换。实验2以37名大学生为被试,增加了一种转换条件,考察积极情绪促进任务转换的心理原因,结果表明积极情绪因偏好新异刺激而促进任务转换     

From state neuroticism to momentary task performance: A person × situation approach

The goal of this article was to investigate the mechanisms through which personality relates to task performance. We argue that perceptions of work pressure and task complexity trigger momentary levels of neuroticism (i.e., state neuroticism) and that these momentary levels of neuroticism predict momentary task performance. Moreover, we hypothesized that the relationship between momentary job demands and state neuroticism is moderated by trait neuroticism. To test this model, we conducted an event reconstruction study and a day reconstruction study. The results revealed that trait neuroticism indeed moderated the momentary job demands–state neuroticism relationship, and in three out of four cases state neuroticism was found to mediate the relationship between momentary job demands and momentary task performance. From a practical point-of-view our results suggest that employees’ task performance can be improved by enhancing the way in which individuals perceive job demands. This strategy would be particularly helpful for individuals for whom the momentary job demands–state neuroticism relationship is the strongest (i.e., employees high in trait neuroticism).     

Facial expression discrimination varies with presentation time but not with fixation on features: A backward masking study using eye-tracking

The current study investigated the effects of presentation time and fixation to expression-specific diagnostic features on emotion discrimination performance, in a backward masking task. While no differences were found when stimuli were presented for 16.67 ms, differences between facial emotions emerged beyond the happy-superiority effect at presentation times as early as 50 ms. Happy expressions were best discriminated, followed by neutral and disgusted, then surprised, and finally fearful expressions presented for 50 and 100 ms. While performance was not improved by the use of expression-specific diagnostic facial features, performance increased with presentation time for all emotions. Results support the idea of an integration of facial features (holistic processing) varying as a function of emotion and presentation time.     

Overthinking skilled motor performance: Or why those who teach can’t do

Skilled athletes often maintain that overthinking disrupts performance of their motor skills. Here, we examined whether these experiences have a basis in verbal overshadowing, a phenomenon in which describing memories for ineffable perceptual experiences disrupts later retention. After learning a unique golf-putting task, golfers of low and intermediate skill either described their actions in detail or performed an irrelevant verbal task. They then performed the putting task again. Strikingly, describing their putting experience significantly impaired higher skill golfers’ ability to reachieve the putting criterion, compared with higher skill golfers who performed the irrelevant verbal activity. Verbalization had no such effect, however, for lower skill golfers. These findings establish that the effects of overthinking extend beyond dual-task interference and may sometimes reflect impacts on long-term memory. We propose that these effects are mediated by competition between procedural and declarative memory, as suggested by recent work in cognitive neuroscience.     

Mental effort and task interference in auditory attention

Dual-task performance was examined in three experiments. The primary task was to repeat or to add one to four digits presented auditorily at a rate of 1 digit/second. This primary task was combined with three different secondary tasks in which subjects listened to a list of words either for later recognition of some of the words (Experiment 1) or for detection and a later report of a target word (Experiments 2 and 3). Different patterns of task interference were obtained. Recognition performance was sensitive to between-task variations in capacity demands but did not reflect momentary attentional demands within the primary task. Detection performance reflected both between-task and within-task variation in capacity demands of the primary task. The interference between the primary and the secondary task was mutual, with more interference when the selection-cue in the detection task was a category name than when it was the target word itself. These findings are discussed in terms of effort theory of attention and the role of attentional strategies in dual-task performance.     

Meta-analysis of age and skill effects on recalling chess positions and selecting the best move

A meta-analysis was conducted of studies that measured the effects of both age and skill in chess on the tasks of selecting the best move for chess positions (the best move task) as well as recalling chess game positions (the recall task). Despite a small sample of studies, we demonstrated that there are age and skill effects on both tasks: age being negatively associated with performance on both tasks and skill being positively associated with performance on both tasks. On the best move task, we found that skill was the dominant effect, while on the recall task, skill and age were approximately equally strong effects. We also found that skill was best measured by the best move task. In the case of the best move task, this result is consistent with the argument that it accurately replicates expert performance (Ericsson & Smith, 1991). Results for the recall task argue that this task captures effects related to skill, but also effects likely due to a general aging process. Implications for our understanding of aging in skilled domains are also discussed.     

Attending to the execution of a complex sensorimotor skill: expertise differences, choking, and slumps

A simulated baseball batting task was used to compare the relative effects of attending to extraneous information (tone frequency) and attending to skill execution (direction of bat movement) on performance and swing kinematics and to evaluate how these effects differ as a function of expertise. The extraneous dual task degraded batting performance in novices but had no significant effect on experts. The skill-focused dual task increased batting errors and movement variability for experts but had no significant effect on novices. For expert batters, accuracy in the skill-focused dual task was inversely related to the current level of performance. Expert batters were significantly more accurate in the skill-focused dual task when placed under pressure. These findings indicate that the attentional focus varies substantially across and within performers with different levels of expertise.     

主动性人格与员工行为的关系：政治技能视角下有中介的调节模型

本研究通过两时点纵向问卷调查,探讨主动性人格与组织公民行为、任务绩效之间的关系,考察主动社会化行为在其中的中介作用,以及政治技能的调节作用。结果表明：（1）主动社会化行为在主动性人格和组织公民行为、任务绩效之间起中介作用;（2）政治技能对主动社会化行为在主动性人格和组织公民行为、任务绩效之间的中介效应起调节作用：当政治技能水平上升,主动性人格通过主动社会化行为对组织公民行为及任务绩效的预测更加明显。     

主动性人格与员工行为的关系：政治技能视角下有中介的调节模型

本研究通过两时点纵向问卷调查,探讨主动性人格与组织公民行为、任务绩效之间的关系,考察主动社会化行为在其中的中介作用,以及政治技能的调节作用。结果表明：（1）主动社会化行为在主动性人格和组织公民行为、任务绩效之间起中介作用;（2）政治技能对主动社会化行为在主动性人格和组织公民行为、任务绩效之间的中介效应起调节作用：当政治技能水平上升,主动性人格通过主动社会化行为对组织公民行为及任务绩效的预测更加明显。     

Performance Self-Predictions: The Impact of Expectancy Strength and Incentives1

Performance self-predictions represent an individual's anticipated level performance on an upcoming task. This study focused on the accuracy of these predictions, as well as subjective reactions to making them under varying expectancy and incentive conditions. Results indicate that performance-contingent incentives had a positive effect on task performance, but a negative effect on preferences for making performance predictions. Expectancy strength also influenced these predictions, their subjective interpretations, and task performance. Additional results address the role of other task-relevant judgments (e.g., self-assessed ability and intended effort) when predicting one's performance on a task. Implications of these findings for work motivation and judgment accuracy are discussed.     

A multilevel analysis of effort, practice, and performance: effects; of ability, conscientiousness, and goal orientation

This article examines the relationship between motivation and performance during skill acquisition. The authors used multilevel analysis to investigate relationships at within- and between-person levels of analysis. Participants were given multiple trials of practice on an air traffic control task. Measures of effort intensity and performance were taken at repeated intervals. As expected, the relationship between effort and performance increased with practice. Furthermore, the rate at which this effect strengthened was faster for individuals with high-ability or low-performance orientation. There was also an interaction between learning and performance orientations that only emerged after practice. By the end of practice, the negative effects of performance orientation were stronger for individuals with high learning orientation. Results highlight the importance of adopting a multilevel framework to enhance understanding of the link between motivation and performance.     

The effects of noise and task priority on recall of order and location

Previous studies have suggested that one of the effects of noise is to improve performance on a primary task and impair performance on a secondary task. This was confirmed in the first experiment which used a modified version of Hockey and Hamilton's (1970) task of memory for order and location. A second experiment showed that the effect was due to noise interacting with task priority and not with the identity of the task performed first rather than second. The effect of priority can easily be modified and a third experiment showed that priority instructions have to be effective for there to be an interaction between noise and priority. It is suggested that a major effect of noise is to bias the allocation of effort towards the operation which appears to best repay the investment of more effort. This may take the form of a bias towards the high priority task but the effect of noise is also likely to depend on other factors such as the difficulty of each part of the task and the salience of the stimuli.     

Conscious awareness of motor fluidity improves performance and decreases cognitive effort in sequence learning

Motor skill learning is improved when participants are instructed to judge after each trial whether their performed movements have reached maximal fluidity. Consequently, the conscious awareness of this maximal fluidity can be classified as a genuine learning factor for motor sequences. However, it is unknown whether this effect of conscious awareness on motor learning could be mediated by the increased cognitive effort that may accompany such judgment making. The main aim of this study was to test this hypothesis in comparing two groups with, and without, the conscious awareness of the maximal fluidity. To assess the possible involvement of cognitive effort, we have recorded the pupillary dilation to the task, which is well-known to increase in proportion to cognitive effort. Results confirmed that conscious awareness indeed improved motor sequence learning of the trained sequence specifically. Pupil dilation was smaller during trained than during novel sequence performance, indicating that sequence learning decreased the cognitive cost of sequence execution. However, we found that in the group that had to judge on their maximal fluidity, pupil dilation during sequence production was smaller than in the control group, indicating that the motor improvement induced by the fluidity judgment does not involve additional cognitive effort. We discuss these results in the context of motor learning and cognitive effort theories.     

A neo-Piagetian investigation of the serial position effect in children's motor learning

Children's serial motor skill acquisition was studied within a neo-Piagetian framework. High and low M-processors performed on a curvilinear repositioning task. A primacy-recency effect was evidenced for both groups on the age-related task, while a recency effect occurred for only the high M-processors on the task one stage beyond the developmental processing capacity of the subjects. High M-processors were more accurate and less variable than low M-processors. Although low M-processors performed better on the more complex task than on the simpler one, their performance never exceeded that of the high M-processors. Implications of these results for future research were discussed.     

The relationship between momentary emotions and well-being across European Americans,Hispanic Americans,and Asian Americans

Cultural differences in the emphasis on positive and negative emotions suggest that the impact of these emotions on well-being may differ across cultural contexts. The present study utilised a momentary sampling method to capture average momentary emotional experiences. We found that for participants from cultural contexts that foster positive emotions (European Americans and Hispanic Americans), average momentary positive emotions predicted well-being better than average momentary negative emotions. In contrast, average momentary negative emotions were more strongly associated with well-being measures for Asian Americans, the group from a cultural context that emphasises monitoring of negative emotions. Furthermore, we found that acculturation to American culture moderated the association between average momentary positive emotions and well-being for Asian Americans. These findings suggest the importance of culture in studying the impact of daily emotional experiences on well-being.     

On the automatic nature of the task-appropriate processing effect in event-based prospective memory

This research tested competing predictions about the cognitive processes underlying the task-appropriate processing effect in prospective memory. Participants had to press a designated key whenever a word from the semantic category of animals or from the structural category of palindromes occurred in an ongoing lexical decision task. The availability of attentional resources was manipulated by varying the effort to the ongoing task in terms of speed or accuracy. In the task-appropriate semantic prospective memory task, performance was robust against the speed versus accuracy instructions. In the task-inappropriate structural prospective memory task, performance declined under speed instructions that detracted attentional resources. Accordingly, a facilitating effect of task-appropriate processing was observed under speed instructions but not accuracy instructions. The results support the notion that the task-appropriate processing effect is due to a larger contribution of automatic cue detection to prospective memory performance under task-appropriate than task-inappropriate conditions.     

The Efficiency of Skilled Performance

The observed ease or effort of performance has traditionally been considered an integral part of any definition of skill (e.g., Guthrie, 1935). Empirical investigations of skill learning and performance have, however, largely ignored the effort or efficiency with which the movement is performed. This situation has arisen despite the fact that in many skills, particularly athletic endurance events or industrial work tasks, efficiency of performance may be essential to the goal of the task. This paper focuses on the energy demand of various skills and its relationship to issues of learning, performance, and individual differences in preferred rhythm. It is shown that across a variety of tasks the individual’s freely chosen work-rate is the most efficient. The significance of preferred rhythm to theoretical perspectives on rhythmic activity is discussed.     

The efficiency of skilled performance

The observed ease or effort of performance has traditionally been considered an integral part of any definition of skill (e.g., Guthrie, 1935). Empirical investigations of skill learning and performance have, however, largely ignored the effort or efficiency with which the movement is performed. This situation has arisen despite the fact that in many skills, particularly athletic endurance events or industrial work tasks, efficiency of performance may be essential to the goal of the task. This paper focuses on the energy demand of various skills and its relationship to issues of learning, performance, and individual differences in preferred rhythm. It is shown that across a variety of tasks the individual's freely chosen work-rate is the most efficient. The significance of preferred rhythm to theoretical perspectives on rhythmic activity is discussed.     

Goal Orientation and Feedback Congruence: Effects on Discretionary Effort and Achievement

This study examines the differential effects of outcome feedback for achievement goal orientations' relationship with effort and achievement. In support of our predictions, learning goal orientation had a positive relationship with task achievement in the absence of outcome feedback and a negative relationship in its presence, while performance goal orientation maintained a positive relationship with achievement regardless of whether outcome feedback was provided. We attribute this to a decrease in task interest when initial task purpose, as determined by personal goal orientation, is incongruent with the subsequent task cues provided by outcome feedback. Predictions regarding task effort and combined goal orientation effects were not supported. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.