Mind wandering, motivation, and task performance over time: Evidence that motivation insulates people from the negative effects of mind wandering.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholaus P. Brosowsky ◽  
Joseph DeGutis ◽  
Mike Esterman ◽  
Daniel Smilek ◽  
Paul Seli
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Mind Wandering ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Over Time ◽  
And Task

On the link between mind wandering and task performance over time

2014 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 14-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Thomson ◽  
Paul Seli ◽  
Derek Besner ◽  
Daniel Smilek
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Mind Wandering ◽  
Over Time ◽  
And Task

Effects of enterprise social media usage on task performance through perceived task structure: the moderating role of perceived team diversity

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manting Deng ◽  
Hefu Liu ◽  
Qian Huang ◽  
Guanqi Ding
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Task Structure ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Team Diversity ◽  
Enterprise Social Media ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
And Task

PurposeOrganisations have widely adopted enterprise social media (ESM) to improve employees' task performance. This study aims to explore the mediating role of perceived task structure on the relationship between ESM usage and employee task performance. The authors investigate the moderating effects of perceived team diversity on the relationship between ESM usage and perceived task structure.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a questionnaire survey in China on 251 working professionals who use social media in their respective organisations.FindingsResults showed that employees' perception of task structure considerably mediates the relationship between ESM usage and task performance. Findings also confirmed that perceived team diversity negatively affects the relationship between ESM usage and perceived task interdependence.Research limitations/implicationsPractitioners and/or managers should pay attention to the effect of ESM usage on employee's perceived task structure. Furthermore, they should focus on the level of team diversity when adopting ESM to enhance task performance.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the knowledge of perceived task structure in explaining the effect of ESM usage on task performance based on communication visibility theory. This work presents the relationship among ESM usage, perceived task structure, perceived team diversity and task performance. Moreover, this research enriches the literature on ESM usage by investigating the moderating roles of perceived team diversity whilst presenting the negative effects of perceived team diversity.

scholarly journals I Can See It in Your Eyes: Gaze as an Implicit Cue of Uncanniness and Task Performance in Repeated Interactions With Robots

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Perugia ◽  
Maike Paetzel-Prüsmann ◽  
Madelene Alanenpää ◽  
Ginevra Castellano
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Measurement Techniques ◽  
Implicit Measure ◽  
Gaze Behavior ◽  
Gaze Patterns ◽  
Joint Task ◽  
People’S Perception ◽  
Perception Of Robots ◽  
Over Time ◽  
And Task

Over the past years, extensive research has been dedicated to developing robust platforms and data-driven dialog models to support long-term human-robot interactions. However, little is known about how people's perception of robots and engagement with them develop over time and how these can be accurately assessed through implicit and continuous measurement techniques. In this paper, we explore this by involving participants in three interaction sessions with multiple days of zero exposure in between. Each session consists of a joint task with a robot as well as two short social chats with it before and after the task. We measure participants' gaze patterns with a wearable eye-tracker and gauge their perception of the robot and engagement with it and the joint task using questionnaires. Results disclose that aversion of gaze in a social chat is an indicator of a robot's uncanniness and that the more people gaze at the robot in a joint task, the worse they perform. In contrast with most HRI literature, our results show that gaze toward an object of shared attention, rather than gaze toward a robotic partner, is the most meaningful predictor of engagement in a joint task. Furthermore, the analyses of gaze patterns in repeated interactions disclose that people's mutual gaze in a social chat develops congruently with their perceptions of the robot over time. These are key findings for the HRI community as they entail that gaze behavior can be used as an implicit measure of people's perception of robots in a social chat and of their engagement and task performance in a joint task.

scholarly journals Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) Ambivalence and Task Performance: The Cross-Domain Buffering Role of Social Support

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 1927-1957 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allan Lee ◽  
Geoff Thomas ◽  
Robin Martin ◽  
Yves Guillaume
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Work Performance ◽  
Leader Member Exchange ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Absolute Level ◽  
Lmx Theory ◽  
Member Exchange ◽  
And Task

Leader-member exchange (LMX) theory proposes that leaders develop different quality relationships with those they manage and this is predictive of work performance. While LMX quality has been viewed as univalent (ranging from low to high quality), this paper proposes that it can also be bivalent in nature (i.e., coexisting positive and negative thoughts towards the relationship), which we refer to as LMX ambivalence. A survey measure of LMX ambivalence is developed, and through three validation and two main studies, it is shown to have construct, discriminant, and incremental predictive validity beyond that of LMX quality. Hypotheses concerning LMX ambivalence and task performance are tested in two main studies and show that (1) LMX ambivalence is negatively related to performance regardless of LMX quality, (2) high levels of perceived support from the organization (Study 1) or coworkers (Study 2) nullify the negative association between LMX ambivalence and performance, and (3) high LMX ambivalence leads to more negative affect and in turn lower task performance, but only when coworker support is low (Study 2). These results show the importance of viewing LMX quality not only in terms of its absolute level (low vs. high quality) but also as a bivalent construct where both positive and negative cognitions can coexist. They also demonstrate the value of social support in buffering the negative effects of LMX ambivalence. Furthermore, our findings extend a central tenet of LMX theory by implying that LMX quality varies not only within groups (i.e., LMX differentiation) but also within leader-follower dyads.

scholarly journals Spontaneous Mind-Wandering Tendencies Linked to Cognitive Flexibility in Young Adults

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Sheng Wong ◽  
Adrian R. Willoughby ◽  
Liana Machado
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Task Switching ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Mind Wandering ◽  
Voluntary Task Switching ◽  
Switching Performance ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
And Task

Despite that previous studies have investigated mind wandering using task-switching paradigms, the association between the tendency to mind wander and cognitive flexibility remains largely unexplored. The present study investigated the relationship between self-reported spontaneous mind-wandering tendencies and task-switching performance in young adults. Seventy-nine university students performed a forced task-switching and a voluntary task-switching paradigm and then completed a battery of questionnaires. The results showed that compared to participants with lower spontaneous mind-wandering tendencies, participants with higher spontaneous mind-wandering tendencies demonstrated better performance (evidenced by smaller switch cost reaction times) in the forced task-switching paradigm despite indicating more mind wandering during task performance. Performance on the voluntary task-switching paradigm, on the other hand, did not differ between the two groups. The findings in the forced task-switching paradigm indicate a link between mind wandering and cognitive flexibility, thus providing initial evidence in favor of a role for switching in mind wandering.

scholarly journals An opportunity cost model of subjective effort and task performance

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 661-679 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Kurzban ◽  
Angela Duckworth ◽  
Joseph W. Kable ◽  
Justus Myers
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Opportunity Cost ◽  
Subjective Experience ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Cost Model ◽  
Cost Benefit ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Over Time ◽  
And Task

AbstractWhy does performing certain tasks cause the aversive experience of mental effort and concomitant deterioration in task performance? One explanation posits a physical resource that is depleted over time. We propose an alternative explanation that centers on mental representations of the costs and benefits associated with task performance. Specifically, certain computational mechanisms, especially those associated with executive function, can be deployed for only a limited number of simultaneous tasks at any given moment. Consequently, the deployment of these computational mechanisms carries an opportunity cost – that is, the next-best use to which these systems might be put. We argue that the phenomenology of effort can be understood as the felt output of these cost/benefit computations. In turn, the subjective experience of effort motivates reduced deployment of these computational mechanisms in the service of the present task. These opportunity cost representations, then, together with other cost/benefit calculations, determine effort expended and, everything else equal, result in performance reductions. In making our case for this position, we review alternative explanations for both the phenomenology of effort associated with these tasks and for performance reductions over time. Likewise, we review the broad range of relevant empirical results from across sub-disciplines, especially psychology and neuroscience. We hope that our proposal will help to build links among the diverse fields that have been addressing similar questions from different perspectives, and we emphasize ways in which alternative models might be empirically distinguished.

scholarly journals The effects of intrinsic motivation on mental fatigue

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. e0243754
Author(s):  
Mega B. Herlambang ◽  
Fokie Cnossen ◽  
Niels A. Taatgen
Keyword(s):  
Intrinsic Motivation ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Extrinsic Motivation ◽  
Mental Fatigue ◽  
Time On Task ◽  
Physiological Measures ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Task Effects ◽  
High Level ◽  
Over Time

There have been many studies attempting to disentangle the relation between motivation and mental fatigue. Mental fatigue occurs after performing a demanding task for a prolonged time, and many studies have suggested that motivation can counteract the negative effects of mental fatigue on task performance. To complicate matters, most mental fatigue studies looked exclusively at the effects of extrinsic motivation but not intrinsic motivation. Individuals are said to be extrinsically motivated when they perform a task to attain rewards and avoid punishments, while they are said to be intrinsically motivated when they do for the pleasure of doing the activity. To assess whether intrinsic motivation has similar effects as extrinsic motivation, we conducted an experiment using subjective, performance, and physiological measures (heart rate variability and pupillometry). In this experiment, 28 participants solved Sudoku puzzles on a computer for three hours, with a cat video playing in the corner of the screen. The experiment consisted of 14 blocks with two alternating conditions: low intrinsic motivation and high intrinsic motivation. The main results showed that irrespective of condition, participants reported becoming fatigued over time. They performed better, invested more mental effort physiologically, and were less distracted in high-level than in low-level motivation blocks. The results suggest that similarly to extrinsic motivation, time-on-task effects are modulated by the level of intrinsic motivation: With high intrinsic motivation, people can maintain their performance over time as they seem willing to invest more effort as time progresses than in low intrinsic motivation.

scholarly journals Do aligned bodies align minds? The partners’ body alignment as a constraint on spatial perspective use.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexia Galati ◽  
Angelina Symeonidou ◽  
Marios N Avraamides
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Spatial Ability ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Spatial Language ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Route Description ◽  
High Level ◽  
East West ◽  
Over Time ◽  
And Task

In a direction-giving task, we examine whether a high-level constraint–the task partners’ relative body alignment–influences spatial language use and task accuracy. In 32 pairs, task partners interacted in two conditions: for one route description, direction givers (DGs) and direction followers (DFs) sat side-by-side (aligned condition), and for another they sat opposite one another (counter-aligned condition). After each description, DFs drew the route on a map. When pairs were counter-aligned (vs. aligned), DGs increased their use of expressions from a survey perspective, using more frequently terms such as east-west. When counter-aligned, DFs also used more words per conversational turn, which was taken to reflect the increased difficulty of coordinating in that condition. Still, in terms of task performance, the accuracy of DFs’ drawings was unaffected by the partners’ body alignment or spatial language use; it was only predicted by the DGs’ spatial ability. We argue that, because direction-giving emphasizes accuracy, task partners invest in strategies that contribute to mutual understanding (e.g., recaps of the route by the DF at the end, evidenced by shifts in language use over time). Thus, body alignment in direction-giving impacts coordination difficulty and spatial language use, but it does not singularly influence task performance.

scholarly journals Effect of Psychological Ownership on Employee Silence and Task Performance: A Study on Academicians

2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kultigin Akcin ◽  
Serhat Erat ◽  
Umit Alniacik ◽  
Aydem B. Ciftcioglu
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Psychological Ownership ◽  
Significant Positive Effect ◽  
Negative Effects ◽  
Employee Silence ◽  
Managerial Implications ◽  
Performance Research ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
And Task

This study examines the effect of psychological ownership on employee silence and task performance. It aims to probe the relationship between psychological ownership (a relatively new concept in the literature) and employee silence and the effect of psychological ownership on task performance. Research data is collected from 502 academicians employed by state universities in Turkey. Exploratory factor analyses, correlation and regression analyses are performed to test a number of hypotheses. Data analyses revealed that, there is a negative relationship between psychological ownership and both acquiescent silence and defensive silence, while there is a positive relationship between psychological ownership and pro-social silence. Further, it is found that acquiescent silence and defensive silence have significantly negative effects on task performance, while pro-social silence exerts a statistically significant positive effect on task performance. Finally, psychological ownership is found to exert a statistically significant positive effect on task performance. Research and managerial implications of these findings are discussed in detail.

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