One night of sleep deprivation affects reaction time, but not interference or facilitation in a Stroop task

The Stroop color-naming task is one of the most widely studied tasks involving the inhibition of a prepotent response, regarded as an executive function. Several studies have examined performance on versions of the Stroop task under conditions of acute sleep deprivation. Though these studies revealed effects on Stroop performance, the results often do not differentiate between general effects of sleep deprivation on performance and effects specifically on interference in the Stroop task. To examine the effect of prolonged wakefulness on performance on the Stroop task, we studied participants in a 40-h "constant routine" protocol during which they remained awake in constant conditions and performed a Stroop color-naming task every two hours. We found that reaction time was slowest when the color and word did not match (incongruent), fastest when the color and word did match (congruent), and intermediate when participants named the color of the non-word stimulus (neutral). Performance on all three trial types degraded significantly as a function of time awake. Extended wakefulness did not significantly change the additional time needed to respond when the color and word did not match (Stroop interference), nor did it change the amount of facilitation when color and word matched. These results indicate that one night of sleep deprivation influences performance on the Stroop task by an overall increase in response time, but does not appear to impact the underlying processes of interference or facilitation. The results suggest that the degree to which an "executive function" is affected by sleep deprivation may depend on the particular executive function studied and the degree to which it is subserved by the prefrontal cortex.     

Mismatch of vocational graduates: What penalty on French labour market?

This study explores individual effects of educational mismatch on wages, job satisfaction and on-the-job-search on French labour market. We distinguish between horizontal matches (job matches with field of studies) and vertical matches (job matches the level of qualification) on the one hand and skills matches (worker's assessment) on the other hand. We use data from the French survey “Generation 98,” conducted among a sample of 22780 young vocational graduates asked about their employment situation 3 years after leaving school. We show that whatever the criterion chosen, there is a minority of matched situations. We find that situations of vertical mismatch and skill mismatch have strong negative effects on wages, while situations of horizontal mismatch have not. However, horizontal mismatch increases both job dissatisfaction and the desire to find another job, even if their job is qualified, permanent and reasonably well paid. Implications for the evaluation of vocational training programs are discussed.     

Strategic adaptation to performance objectives in a dual-task setting

How do people interleave attention when multitasking? One dominant account is that the completion of a subtask serves as a cue to switch tasks. But what happens if switching solely at subtask boundaries led to poor performance? We report a study in which participants manually dialed a UK‐style telephone number while driving a simulated vehicle. If the driver were to exclusively return his or her attention to driving after completing a subtask (i.e., using the single break in the xxxxx‐xxxxxx representational structure of the number), then we would expect to see a relatively poor driving performance. In contrast, our results show that drivers choose to return attention to steering control before the natural subtask boundary. A computational modeling analysis shows that drivers had to adopt this strategy to meet the required performance objective of maintaining an acceptable lateral position in the road while dialing. Taken together these results support the idea that people can strategically control the allocation of attention in multitask settings to meet specific performance criteria.     

Deconstructing the tower: Parameters and predictors of problem difficulty on the Tower of London task

The Tower of London (TOL) task has been widely used in both clinical and research realms. In the current study, 104 healthy participants attempted all possible moderate- to high-difficulty TOL problems in order to determine: (1) optimal measures of problem solving performance, (2) problem characteristics, other than the minimum moves necessary to solve the problem, that determine participants’ difficulty in solving problems successfully, quickly, and efficiently, and (3) effects of increased task experience on which problem characteristics determine problem difficulty. A factor analysis of six performance measures found that, regardless of task experience, problem difficulty could be captured well either by a single factor corresponding to general quality of solution or possibly by three subordinate factors corresponding to solution efficiency, solution speed, and initial planning speed. Regression analyses predicting these performance factors revealed that in addition to a problem’s minimum moves three problem parameters were critical in determining the problem difficulty: goal position hierarchy, start position hierarchy, and number of solution paths available. The relative contributions of each of the characteristics strongly depended on which performance factor defined performance. We conclude that TOL problem performance is multifaceted, and that classifying problem difficulty using only the minimum moves necessary to solve the problem is inadequate.     

State mood,task performance,and behavior at work: A within-persons approach

We examine the intra-individual relationships between state mood and the primary components of the individual-level criterion space (task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and work withdrawal) as they vary within the stream of work. Using experience-sampling methods, 67 individuals in a call center responded to surveys on palmtop computers at random intervals 4–5 times each day for 3 weeks (total N = 2329). These data were matched to objective task performance obtained from organizational call records (total N = 1191). Within-persons, periods of positive mood were associated with periods of improved task performance (as evidenced by shorter call time) and engaging in work withdrawal. Trait meta-mood moderated these relationships. Specifically, individuals who attended to their moods had a stronger relationship between mood and speed of task performance (call time) and individuals able to repair their mood cognitively evidenced a weaker relationship between mood and withdrawal. Implications and the use of within-persons designs are discussed.     

教师关怀行为与学生学业成绩的关系:学习效能感的中介作用

采用教师关怀行为问卷、学生学习效能感问卷调查1430名中学生,考察教师关怀行为、学生学习效能感和学业成绩之间的关系.结果发现:(1)教师关怀行为的得分高于“3”,达到了3.54;学生的学习效能感的得分也比较高,得分为3.73;(2)教师关怀行为、学生学习效能感和学生的学业成绩及其各维度之间存在着显著的正相关;(3)学生学习效能感在教师关怀和学生的学业成绩之间起着部分中介作用,其中介效应值为0.25,并且学习效能感的两个维度中的学习能力效能感的中介效应(效应值为0.18)大于学习行为效能感(效应值为0.04)的中介效应.     

Motivation and engagement in diverse performance settings: Testing their generality across school,university/college,work, sport,music, and daily life

In the light of recent calls for more integrative approaches to theorizing and measurement in motivation and engagement research, the present study assesses the generality of key motivation and engagement constructs across seven performance domains: elementary school (N = 624), high school (N = 21,579), university/college (N = 420), work (N = 637), music (N = 224), sport (N = 204), and daily life (N = 249). Based on domain specific adaptations of the Motivation and Engagement Scale, multi-group confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) tested invariance across the seven domains. First and higher order multi-group CFAs demonstrated broad invariance in factor loadings (in particular), factor correlations/variances, and uniquenesses across performance domains. Taken together, the present data support the hypothesized generality of key motivation and engagement constructs. Findings hold implications for pragmatic, statistical, substantive, and intervention considerations in motivation and engagement research and also for research into cognate constructs in personality psychology more generally.     

Workload Variability and Social Support: Effects on Stress and Performance

The current study investigated the effect of workload variability on performance and stress, as well as the role of social support as a potential intervention. Based on previous research it was predicted that a shift in workload from either high to low or low to high would lower performance and increase stress, while the provision of social support would result in higher performance and lower stress. Results revealed significant decrements in performance following workload shifts, though no increase in stress was perceived. Performance in both workload conditions significantly, but inconsistently, increased following the provision of social support and stress significantly decreased following the shift from high to low workload. Implications and future research steps are discussed further.     

Factors Influencing Employee Intentions to Provide Honest Upward Feedback Ratings

Based on current research involving rater motivation, we examined several factors hypothesized to influence employee intentions to provide honest upward feedback. Survey data were collected from a demographically diverse sample of hospital employees (n = 203). In summary, we found empirical support for generalizing extant models of rater motivation to an upward feedback context: cynicism towards upper management and the upward feedback process, understanding upward feedback, and opportunity to observe their supervisors were the primary predictors of employee intentions to provide honest upward feedback ratings, mediated by the (a) extent to which employees perceived positive benefits would result from rating their supervisors honestly, (b) the extent to which employees feared retaliation by their supervisors, and (c) rater self-efficacy.