Task Complexity and Subjective Arousal

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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Communication of Visual and Auditory Information and The Coordination of Team Task Performance

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/1071181319631021 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 63 (1) ◽

pp. 1719-1723

Author(s):

Adam F. Werner ◽

Jamie C. Gorman ◽

Michael J. Crites

Keyword(s):

Task Performance ◽

Performance Measures ◽

Task Difficulty ◽

Perceptual Information ◽

Auditory Information ◽

Interpersonal Coordination ◽

Visual Condition ◽

Remote Navigation ◽

Team Task ◽

Bimodal Condition

Due to lack of visual or auditory perceptual information, many tasks require interpersonal coordination and teaming. Dyadic verbal and/or auditory communication typically results in the two people becoming informationally coupled. This experiment examined coupling by using a two-person remote navigation task where one participant blindly drove a remote-controlled car while another participant provided auditory, visual, or a combination of both cues (bimodal). Under these conditions, we evaluated performance using easy, moderate, and hard task difficulties. We predicted that the visual condition would have higher performance measures overall, and the bimodal condition would have higher performance as difficulty increased. Results indicated that visual coupling performs better overall compared to auditory coupling and that bimodal coupling showed increased performance as task difficulty went from moderate to hard. When auditory coupling occurs, the frequency at which teams communicate affects performance— the faster teams spoke, the better they performed, even with visual communication available.

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Lacking Pace but Not Precision: Age-Related Information Processing Changes in Response to a Dynamic Attentional Control Task

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci10060390 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 390 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Anna Torrens-Burton ◽

Claire J. Hanley ◽

Rodger Wood ◽

Nasreen Basoudan ◽

Jade Eloise Norris ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Information Processing ◽

Task Performance ◽

Attentional Control ◽

Cognitive Reserve ◽

Task Complexity ◽

Memory Function ◽

Driving Ability ◽

Younger Adults ◽

Substantial Impact ◽

Age Related

Age-related decline in information processing can have a substantial impact on activities such as driving. However, the assessment of these changes is often carried out using cognitive tasks that do not adequately represent the dynamic process of updating environmental stimuli. Equally, traditional tests are often static in their approach to task complexity, and do not assess difficulty within the bounds of an individual’s capability. To address these limitations, we used a more ecologically valid measure, the Swansea Test of Attentional Control (STAC), in which a threshold for information processing speed is established at a given level of accuracy. We aimed to delineate how older, compared to younger, adults varied in their performance of the task, while also assessing relationships between the task outcome and gender, general cognition (MoCA), perceived memory function (MFQ), cognitive reserve (NART), and aspects of mood (PHQ-9, GAD-7). The results indicate that older adults were significantly slower than younger adults but no less precise, irrespective of gender. Age was negatively correlated with the speed of task performance. Our measure of general cognition was positively correlated with the task speed threshold but not with age per se. Perceived memory function, cognitive reserve, and mood were not related to task performance. The findings indicate that while attentional control is less efficient in older adulthood, age alone is not a defining factor in relation to accuracy. In a real-life context, general cognitive function, in conjunction with dynamic measures such as STAC, may represent a far more effective strategy for assessing the complex executive functions underlying driving ability.

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Gender Differences in Response to Ambient Color, Task Complexity and Presence of Evaluative Others

Proceedings of the Human Factors Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/154193128202600624 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 26 (6) ◽

pp. 590-594

Author(s):

Daniel J. Pond

Keyword(s):

Gender Differences ◽

Task Difficulty ◽

Task Complexity ◽

Tracking Task ◽

Tracking Performance ◽

Pursuit Tracking ◽

Versus Complex ◽

Performance Results ◽

Female Subjects

Sixty-four male and thirty-two female subjects each performed a CRT pursuit tracking task in one of the eight conditions created by combinations of task difficulty (simple versus complex), evaluative audience presence versus absence, and wall color (red versus green). Females recorded significantly higher error scores, were less aroused and more sensitive to ambient color than were their male counterparts. Further, audience presence was found to enhance male and impair female tracking performance. Results suggest that differentials in subject motivation may have affected the present research.

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Motivation and task performance in a task-based web-based tandem project

ReCALL ◽

10.1017/s0958344002000319 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 16-31 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

CHRISTINE APPEL ◽

ROGER GILABERT

Keyword(s):

Task Performance ◽

Task Difficulty ◽

Task Complexity ◽

Target Language ◽

Decision Making Process ◽

Web Based ◽

Affective Variables ◽

Materials Used ◽

E Mail ◽

And Task

The objective of this paper is to describe a task-based project in tandem via e-mail, and to discuss the effects of motivation on task performance. In this project, a group of Irish students and a group of Spanish students are asked to carry out a series of tasks in collaboration with their tandem partners via e-mail by means of a web page especially designed for the project. Half the message is meant to be written in the student’s native language and half in the target language, and students are also encouraged to correct one another. The goal behind our research is to discuss the effects of motivation on task performance. We argue that resource directing (such as reasoning demands) and resource depleting factors (such as prior knowledge) which belong to task complexity in Robinson’s model (Robinson, 2001) are closely connected to affective variables which, as is the case with motivation, belong to task difficulty. Motivational factors like interest in the meanings to be exchanged, involvement in the decision-making process, students’ expertise in the topic, media and materials used, and the diffusion of outcomes among others have strong effects on task performance, and should therefore be considered together with complexity variables.

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Gender Differences in the Mental Rotations Test (MRT) Are Not Due to Task Complexity

Journal of Individual Differences ◽

10.1027/1614-0001.29.3.130 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

pp. 130-133 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Corinna Titze ◽

Martin Heil ◽

Petra Jansen

Keyword(s):

Gender Differences ◽

Mental Rotation ◽

Task Complexity ◽

Time Constraints ◽

Medium Effects ◽

Performance Factors ◽

Mental Rotations ◽

Sufficient Power ◽

Forced Choice Tasks ◽

Choice Tasks

Gender differences are one of the main topics in mental rotation research. This paper focuses on the influence of the performance factor task complexity by using two versions of the Mental Rotations Test (MRT). Some 300 participants completed the test without time constraints, either in the regular version or with a complexity reducing template creating successive two-alternative forced-choice tasks. Results showed that the complexity manipulation did not affect the gender differences at all. These results were supported by a sufficient power to detect medium effects. Although performance factors seem to play a role in solving mental rotation problems, we conclude that the variation of task complexity as realized in the present study did not.

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