Group administration influences design but not written word fluency testing

Abstract

Quicker assessments of right and left frontal lobe function, such as the examination of performance on design and language fluency tasks, respectively, lend themselves to a group administration setting. However, the influence of social facilitation factors on a dissociation model in these group settings is not well understood. One hundred college students (71 women) completed design and written word fluency tasks while sitting beside a faster or slower working confederate. Questionnaires related to trait worry, emotion regulation, state depression, anxiety and stress were completed following these tasks. Students in the fast condition produced significantly more unique designs, but there was no condition difference on written word fluency. This finding indicated that performance on a design task, which requires relative right frontal activation, may decrease if the subject is paired with a slow working confederate. High trait worriers demonstrated reduced performance on the design task (as indicated by higher design error ratios) but preserved performance on the word task. This supported a single dissociation in that performance on these tasks indicates compromised right hemisphere function and preserved left hemisphere function, respectively, in high trait worriers.