Advancing Issues in Motivation Intensity Research

2019 ◽  
pp. 372-392
Author(s):  
Guido H. E. Gendolla ◽  
Rex A. Wright ◽  
Michael Richter
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Cardiovascular Reactivity ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Performance Standards ◽  
Biological Aging ◽  
Material Incentive ◽  
Instrumental Behavior ◽  
Social Evaluation ◽  
Implicit Affect ◽  
Extensive Program

What determines effort intensity in instrumental behavior? According to motivation intensity theory, effort should be proportional to experienced task difficulty as long as success is possible and justified and low when success is impossible or excessively difficult, given the available benefit. When task difficulty is unspecified or unknown, effort should be proportional to the importance of success. This chapter reports an extensive program of research that has operationalized effort intensity as cardiovascular reactivity during task performance and used multiple manipulations of variables influencing subjective task difficulty (e.g., performance standards, instrumentality, ability, fatigue, mood, depressive symptoms, implicit affect, implicit and biological aging) and the amount of justified effort (e.g., material incentive, instrumentality, needs, personal and social evaluation, mortality salience). In the second edition of this handbook, this chapter focuses on recent empirical evidence for the principles of motivation intensity theory and discusses challenges for other theoretical accounts.

Effort Intensity: Some Insights From the Cardiovascular System

2012 ◽  
pp. 419-438 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido H. E. Gendolla ◽  
Rex A. Wright ◽  
Michael Richter
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Cardiovascular Reactivity ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Performance Standards ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Material Incentive ◽  
Instrumental Behavior ◽  
System P ◽  
Clear Support

This chapter deals with the psychological process that determines effort intensity in instrumental behavior. According to motivation intensity theory, effort should be proportional to experienced task difficulty as long as success is possible and justified and low when success is impossible or excessively difficult, given the available benefit. When task difficulty is unspecified or unknown, effort should be proportional to the importance of success. We report a program of experimental studies that have operationalized effort intensity as cardiovascular reactivity during task performance and used multiple manipulations of variables influencing subjective task difficulty (e.g., performance standards, ability, mood) and the amount of justified effort (e.g., material incentive, instrumentality, evaluation). The empirical evidence is in clear support of the principles of motivation intensity theory and challenges a number of other theoretical accounts. Directions for future research are discussed.

The Effect of Processing Code, Response Modality and Task Difficulty on Dual Task Performance and Subjective Workload in a Manual System

1987 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 847-851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yili Liu ◽  
Christopher D. Wickens
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Task Structure ◽  
Time Sharing ◽  
Multiple Resources ◽  
Response Modality ◽  
Dual Task Performance ◽  
Processing Resources ◽  
And Task

We report here the first experiment of a series studying the effect of task structure and difficulty demand on time-sharing performance and workload in both automated and corresponding manual systems. The experimental task involves manual control time-shared with spatial and verbal decisions tasks of two levels of difficulty and two modes of response (voice or manual). The results provide strong evidence that tasks and processes competing for common processing resources are time shared less effectively and have higher workload than tasks competing for separate resources. Subjective measures and the structure of multiple resources are used in conjunction to predict dual task performance. The evidence comes from both single task and from dual task performance.

scholarly journals Mood impact on cardiovascular reactivity when task difficulty is unclear

2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Richter ◽  
Guido H. E. Gendolla
Keyword(s):  
Cardiovascular Reactivity ◽  
Task Difficulty

Interaction of Arousal and Task Difficulty upon Perceptual Restriction

1971 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 259-264
Author(s):  
Gerald M. Long ◽  
Suchoon S. Mo
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Significant Interaction ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Arousal Level ◽  
The Other ◽  
Stress Group ◽  
Cue Utilization ◽  
Central Task ◽  
Ice Water ◽  
And Task

Ss were required to perform both central and peripheral perceptual tasks presented simultaneously by means of 200-msec. tachistoscopic flashes. The central task, requiring the discrimination between 2 lines on the basis of length, was progressively increased in difficulty from Test I to Test III. Peripheral task performance required the estimation of the number of black dots surrounding the central task. This number varied randomly between 1 and 8. Half the Ss in each test performed these tasks under stress (hand in ice-water), the other Ss under no stress. A significant interaction ( p < .01) was found; the stress group was inferior to the no-stress group on the peripheral task when the central task was relatively easy (Test I) but was superior to the no-stress group when the central task was extremely difficult (Test III). The results were interpreted in terms of the dependence of the “range of cue utilization” upon the degree of difficulty of the perceptual material as well as arousal level.

scholarly journals Collaborative Task Performance for Learning Using a Virtual Environment

1999 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl-Erik Bystrom ◽  
Woodrow Barfield
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Virtual Environment ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Head Tracking ◽  
Collaborative Task ◽  
Sense Of Presence ◽  
And Control ◽  
And Task

This paper describes a study on the sense of presence and task performance in a virtual environment as affected by copresence (one subject working alone versus two subjects working as partners), level of control (control of movement and control of navigation through the virtual environment), and head tracking. Twenty subjects navigated through six versions of a virtual environment and were asked to identify changes in locations of objects within the environment. After each trial, subjects completed a questionnaire designed to assess their level of presence within the virtual environment. Results indicated that collaboration did not increase the sense of presence in the virtual environment, but did improve the quality of the experience in the virtual environment. Level of control did not affect the sense of presence, but subjects did prefer to control both movement and navigation. Head tracking did not affect the sense of presence, but did contribute to the spatial realism of the virtual environment. Task performance was affected by the presence of another individual, by head tracking, and by level of control, with subjects performing significantly more poorly when they were both alone and without control and head tracking. In addition, a factor analysis indicated that questions designed to assess the subjects' experience in the virtual environment could be grouped into three factors: (1) presence in the virtual environment, (2) quality of the virtual environment, and (3) task difficulty.

Yoked Design and Secondary Task in Adaptive Training

1982 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-24
Author(s):  
David F. Johnson ◽  
Robert C. Haygood ◽  
William M. Olson
Keyword(s):  
Task Performance ◽  
Secondary Task ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Primary Task ◽  
Average Level ◽  
Difficulty Level ◽  
Adaptive Training ◽  
Level Of Difficulty

This paper describes two methodological innovations in the study of adaptive training. The first is the use of a yoked design to insure that the average level of task difficulty for fixed-difficulty subjects is the same as the average level of difficulty reached by adaptive subjects. The second is the demonstration of the feasibility of using a secondary (subsidiary, non-loading) task to furnish the adaptive criterion for changing the difficulty level of the primary task. The results of two experiments are reported. Both experiments demonstrate the feasibility and utility of yoked design and adaptation on secondary task performance in adaptive training.

Task Complexity and Subjective Arousal

1986 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-71
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Pond ◽  
Laurie A. Kimball
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Task Difficulty ◽  
Task Complexity ◽  
Perceptual Information ◽  
Check List ◽  
Adjective Check List ◽  
Subjective Arousal ◽  
Medium Group

Responses on the Activation–Deactivation Adjective Check List were recorded for forty–eight subjects who were performing a visual perceptual information processing task at one of three levels of task difficulty. In general, significant task performance differences in the expected direction were recorded. Two of the activation measures were found to differentiate between low and high task difficulty groups, while the scores for the medium group fell between these two-but did not significantly differ from either. Gender differences for both performance and activation measures were largely not significant.

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