Performance evaluations, need for cognition, and the acquisition of a complex skill: an attribute–treatment interaction

We proposed that intermittent evaluations of performance could be used to promote the acquisition of a complex skill. We also hypothesized that trainees low in need for cognition (NFC) would benefit more from intermittent evaluations compared to trainees high in NFC. Accordingly, 106 young adult males participated in 5 h of training in order to learn a complex computer task that simulated the demands of a dynamic aviation environment. Trainees’ performance was assessed either intermittently during training or at the end of training. Results indicated that intermittent performance evaluations enhanced the skill-based learning of trainees low in NFC, whereas intermittent skill evaluations tended to undermine the skill-based learning of trainees high in NFC. The findings are discussed in relation to Deci’s (1975) theory of intrinsic motivation and the need for more research examining attribute–treatment interactions with respect to training and skill acquisition.     

Achievement Goals in Social Interactions: Learning with Mastery vs. Performance Goals

Little work has studied achievement goals in social interaction situations. The present experiment aimed at contributing to this matter by showing the potential of social interaction (in particular disagreement) to moderate the effects of achievement goals on learning. Participants were led to think they interacted with a partner, sharing opinions about a text that they were studying. Mastery and performance goals were manipulated. During the “interaction,” they received either disagreement or agreement from this bogus partner. Results showed that a condition in which mastery goals were induced led to better learning than a performance goal condition only when the partner disagreed. No differences between goal conditions were observed when the partner agreed. Implications for achievement goal research are discussed. Part of this work was conducted during Céline Darnon’s doctoral dissertation under the supervision of Fabrizio Butera, and was written during Céline Darnon’s post-doctorate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, thanks to a Fulbright fellowship.     

Mental fatigue influence on effort-related cardiovascular response: difficulty effects and extension across cognitive performance domains

Two experiments investigated cardiovascular effects of mental fatigue as a function of (1) the difficulty of the cognitive challenge with which participants were confronted, and (2) the relevance of that challenge to the activity that instigated the fatigue. In the first, participants performed an easy (fatigue low) or difficult (fatigue high) counting task and then were presented an arithmetic challenge (task B relevance high) or a scanning challenge (task B relevance low) with instructions that they would avoid a noise if they attained a modest performance standard. Analysis of blood pressure responses assessed during the work periods revealed fatigue main effects, reflecting stronger responses for High Fatigue participants, regardless of the character of the second task. In the second, the procedure was the same except that it included a high performance standard and provided the chance to win a prize. Analysis of the pressure data revealed fatigue x work period interactions, reflecting relatively stronger responses among High Fatigue participants in work period 1, but relatively weaker responses among these participants in work period 2. Results confirm previous findings and support an analysis of fatigue influence on effort and associated cardiovascular responses. They also argue against the idea that mental fatigue influence may be confined to relevant cognitive performance realms.

To connect is to be influenced: What determines a third‐party's forgiveness attitudes to conflicting groups' violent partisan members?

The present research seeks to answer the question of what determines an uninvolved third party's forgiveness attitudes toward conflicting groups' violent partisan members. Specifically, Bangladeshi participants read a fictitious interview with a radicalized Palestinian who declared his intention to avenge himself against Israelis for his personal and collective plight by carrying out a suicide bombing attack. Findings reveal that an empathy manipulation (high empathy = other focused or low empathy = objective focused) influenced participants' forgiveness attitudes towards the radicalized Palestinian such that in the high empathy condition participants were more forgiving of the target than participants in the low empathy condition. Moreover, while the strength of their religious identification (Islam) played no significant role, participants' tendency to attribute the target's decision to situational factors fully mediated the effects of empathy on forgiveness.