Personality,Interest, and Motivational Determinants of Maximal and Typical Performances on a Verbal Knowledge Task

The motivation constructs of Need for Cognition, Liking in Thinking, and Typical Intellectual Engagement, NEO Five-Factor Inventory factors, and RIASEC interests along with age were used to predict verbal tasks completed under timed (maximal performance) or untimed (typical performance) conditions. The results from a sample of 341 participants (245 female and 116 male), ranging in age from 18 to 71 years (M = 29.33, SD = 12.08), indicated that the men and women diverge in the relationships between their noncognitive domains and the verbal tasks. That is, women's verbal abilities are influenced by their age, and personality, interests, and motivations, whereas only personality and age contributed to verbal abilities in men. The results also displayed that the context in which a cognitive task is performed induced either maximal or typical efforts with different relationships with the predictor variables. The implications of the findings in relation to workplace training and development are discussed.