Task Experience Research Articles

How feedback shapes flow experience in cognitive tasks: The role of locus of control and conscientiousness

Flow experience refers to a motivational state of complete concentration on a given task, which can immediately facilitate cognitive performance. Although research has identified feedback as strong antecedent of flow, differences between the effects of positive and negative feedback on flow and the moderating role of personality traits remain largely unexplored. In the present online-based experimental study, we investigated flow as mediator in the effects of normative feedback on performance in a logical reasoning task. Thereby, we also examined moderating effects of locus of control and conscientiousness on indirect effects of positive and negative feedback on task performance via flow. Our sample involved 240 participants, who were randomly assigned to three different feedback conditions (positive, negative, no feedback) after a logical reasoning task. Subsequently, the subjects solved a follow-up task for which they reported the degree of their flow experience. Moderated mediation path modelling showed that positive feedback exerted a positive indirect effect on task performance via flow for highly conscientious individuals. In contrast, negative feedback exerted negative indirect effects on task performance via flow for individuals, who exhibited an internal locus of control or low levels of conscientiousness. Finally, we derived theoretical implications for scholarly understanding of flow experience.

Detecting a Single Automation Failure: The Impact of Expected (But Not Experienced) Automation Reliability.

Examine the impact of expected automation reliability on trust, workload, task disengagement, nonautomated task performance, and the detection of a single automation failure in simulated air traffic control. Prior research has focused on the impact of experienced automation reliability. However, many operational settings feature automation that is reliable to the extent that operators will seldom experience automation failures. Despite this, operators must remain aware of when automation is at greater risk of failing. Participants performed the task with or without conflict detection/resolution automation. Automation failed to detect/resolve one conflict (i.e., an automation miss). Expected reliability was manipulated via instructions such that the expected level of reliability was (a) constant or variable, and (b) the single automation failure occurred when expected reliability was high or low. Trust in automation increased with time on task prior to the automation failure. Trust was higher when expecting high relative to low reliability. Automation failure detection was improved when the failure occurred under low compared with high expected reliability. Subjective workload decreased with automation, but there was no improvement to nonautomated task performance. Automation increased perceived task disengagement. Both automation reliability expectations and task experience played a role in determining trust. Automation failure detection was improved when the failure occurred at a time it was expected to be more likely. Participants did not effectively allocate any spared capacity to nonautomated tasks. The outcomes are applicable because operators in field settings likely form contextual expectations regarding the reliability of automation.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ОРГАНІЗАЦІЇ ВЗАЄМОДІЇ ЧАСТИН І ПІДРОЗДІЛІВ НАЦІОНАЛЬНОЇ ГВАРДІЇ УКРАЇНИ, НАЦІОНАЛЬНОЇ ПОЛІЦІЇ УКРАЇНИ ТА ІНШИХ ПРАВООХОРОННИХ ОРГАНІВ У СФЕРІ ОХОРОНИ ГРОМАДСЬКОГО ПОРЯДКУ І ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ ГРОМАДСЬКОЇ БЕЗПЕКИ

The main forms, methods and problems of interaction of the National Police of Ukraine, other law enforcement agencies with units of the National Guard of Ukraine in performing tasks of public order and public safety, especially to ensure public order during mass events and riots, based on the current regulatory framework, problematic issues related to the experience of law enforcement tasks by both domestic and foreign law enforcement forces in the context of globalization processes that have covered all spheres of public life in the world. Ukraine is no exception, especially against the backdrop of a hybrid armed confrontation in the southeast with units and subdivisions of the Russian Armed Forces and its mercenaries. Currently in Ukraine, against the background of a hybrid war with Russia, radical socio-economic and political changes are underway, which in most cases are slowing down due to exacerbation of the crime situation, rising organized crime, high probability of large-scale riots, especially in Kyiv, protection of law and order of the maximum concentration of efforts on the main directions of counteraction to the aggressive criminal environment, at stages of development and realization of strategy and tactics of struggle adequate to these displays. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the improvement of forms and methods of organizing the interaction of the National Guard of Ukraine with the National Police of Ukraine and other law enforcement agencies in protecting public order and ensuring public safety and solving problems given the imperfection of the current legal framework.

Effects of Choice Restriction on Accuracy and User Experience in an Internet-Based Geopolitical Forecasting Task.

Large-scale geopolitical forecasting tournaments have emerged in recent years as effective testbeds for conducting research into novel forecasting tools and methods. A challenge of such tournaments involves the distribution of forecasting load across forecasters, since there are often more forecasting questions than an individual forecaster can answer. Intelligent load distribution, or triage, may therefore be helpful in ensuring that all questions have sufficient numbers of forecasts to benefit from crowd-based aggregation and that individual forecasters are matched to the questions for which they are best suited. A possible downside of triage, however, is that it restricts the choices of forecasters, potentially degrading motivation and accuracy. In two studies involving pools of novice forecasters recruited online, we examined the impact of limiting forecaster choice on forecasters’ accuracy and subjective experience, including motivation. In Study 1, we tested the impact of restricted choice by comparing the forecasting accuracy and subjective experience of users who perceived they did or did not have choice in the questions they forecasted. In Study 2, we further tested the impact of restricted choice by providing users with different menu sizes of questions from which to choose. In both studies, we found no evidence that limiting forecaster choice adversely affected forecasting accuracy or subjective experience. This suggests that in large-scale forecasting tournaments, it may be possible to implement choice-limiting triage strategies without sacrificing individual accuracy and motivation.

Carry-over effects of tool functionality and previous unsuccessfulness increase overimitation in children.

Children ‘overimitate’ causally irrelevant actions in experiments where both irrelevant and relevant actions involve a single common tool. This study design may make it harder for children to recognize the irrelevant actions, as the perceived functionality of the tool during the demonstration of the relevant action may be carried over to the irrelevant action, potentially increasing overimitation. Moreover, little is known how overimitation is affected by the demonstrator's expressed emotions and the child's prior success with the task. Here, 131 nine- to ten-year-old French and German children first engaged in a tool-based task, being successful or unsuccessful, and then watched an adult demonstrating the solution involving one irrelevant and one relevant action before smiling or remaining neutral. These actions were performed with the same tool or with two separate tools, testing potential carry-over effects of the functionality of the relevant action on the irrelevant action. We show that overimitation was higher when the same tool was used for both actions and when children were previously unsuccessful, but was not affected by the demonstrator's displayed emotion. Our results suggest that future overimitation research should account for the number of tools used in a demonstration and participants' previous task experience.

Experience-related enhancements in striatal temporal encoding.

Temporal control of action is key for a broad range of behaviors and is disrupted in human diseases such as Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia. A brain structure that is critical for temporal control is the dorsal striatum. Experience and learning can influence dorsal striatal neuronal activity, but it is unknown how these neurons change with experience in contexts which require precise temporal control of movement. We investigated this question by recording from medium spiny neurons (MSNs) via dorsal striatal microelectrode arrays in mice as they gained experience controlling their actions in time. We leveraged an interval timing task optimized for mice which required them to "switch" response ports after enough time had passed without receiving a reward. We report three main results. First, we found that time-related ramping activity and response-related activity increased with task experience. Second, temporal decoding by MSN ensembles improved with experience and was predominantly driven by time-related ramping activity. Finally, we found that a subset of MSNs had differential modulation on error trials. These findings enhance our understanding of dorsal striatal temporal processing by demonstrating how MSN ensembles can evolve with experience. Our results can be linked to temporal habituation and illuminate striatal flexibility during interval timing, which may be relevant for human disease.

The link between flow and performance is moderated by task experience

Flow is an intrinsically motivating (i.e. ‘autotelic’) psychological state of complete absorption in moment-to-moment activity that can occur when one performs a task whose demands match one's skill-level. Flow theory proposes that Flow causally leads to better performance, but empirical evidence for this assumption is mixed. Recent evidence suggests that self-reported Flow may not be linked to performance-levels per se, but instead to deviations from anticipated performance (the so-called flow deviation, or F~d effect). We aimed to replicate and extend these results by employing a high-speed steering game (CogCarSim) to elicit Flow, and specifically focused on the moderating effects of learning and task experience on the F~d effect. In a longitudinal design, 18 participants each played CogCarSim for 40 trials across eight sessions, totaling 720 measurements across participants. CogCarSim reliably elicited Flow, and learning to play the game fit well to a power-law model. We successfully replicated the F~d effect: self-reported Flow was much more strongly associated with deviation-from-expected performance than with objective performance levels. We also found that the F~d effect grew stronger with increasing task experience, thus demonstrating an effect of learning on Flow. We discuss the implications of our findings for contemporary theories of Flow.

EFL Learners’ Perception of Task Experience Through Flow Outlook: Task Complexity and Modality in Focus

Regardless of the appreciation of language learners’ achievement in task-based language teaching, not much has been hinged upon learners’ perception and reception of various elements. This study examined task complexity and modality effects on Iranian EFL learners’ comprehension of task difficulty, competencies, and difficulty-skill balance as well as the learners’ task experience. The Flow Outlook features were also applied to investigate how difficulty-skill balance anticipated flow experience. Via a repeated-measures design, and with a focus on task complexity (simple vs. complex) and task modality (written vs. spoken), 49 EFL learners carried out four argumentative tasks (two simple written and spoken vs. two complex written and spoken tasks); then, they ticked the flow questionnaire to gauge their perception of task difficulty, competence, and task experience. Repeated-measures MANOVA revealed although task complexity influenced task difficulty and difficulty-skill balance significantly, the skill was not affected significantly; task modality influenced task difficulty and skill significantly while difficulty-skill balance received no significant effect. The follow-up post hoc test indicated that complexity and modality significantly influenced flow, attention, and control, but not interest. Linear regression revealed difficulty-skill balance was a predictor for learners’ flow experience for both writing tasks and simple speaking task but not for complex speaking tasks. Pedagogically, the findings of this research may have some implications for English language teachers, learners, and materials developers.

Skilled bandits: Learning to choose in a reactive world.

In uncertain environments we must balance our need to gather information with our desire to reap rewards by exploiting current knowledge. Achieving this balance is further complicated in reactive environments where actions produce long-lasting change to the system. In four experiments, we investigate how people learn to make effective decisions from experience in a dynamic multiarmed bandit task. In contrast to the typical exploitation-dependent diminishing rewards found in previous studies, options were framed as skills that developed greater rewards the more they were chosen. In Experiment 1, we provide a proof of concept, and in Experiments 2-4 we explore the boundaries of participants' sensitivity to reactive dynamics. Our results suggest that most individuals can learn effective strategies for coping with these reactive environments. A two-part comparison of several competing psychological models supports several conclusions: (a) a sizable minority of individuals learned that their environment was reactive, (b) evidence suggests several distinct groups of individuals employed unique decision strategies, and (c) testing models with the simulation method reveals qualitative misfits that motivate future theory development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Mapping students' interest in a new domain: Connecting prior knowledge, interest, and self-efficacy with interesting tasks and a lasting desire to reengage

How students experience educational environments and the interconnections between their readiness, task experiences and their long-term desire to reengage with course content are critical questions for educators. Research postgraduate students (n = 310) at a research-intensive university in Hong Kong, engaging in a 24-h introductory teaching course, participated in this study. Learner readiness for the course was assessed as prior Domain interest, self-efficacy, and knowledge. Subsequently, students completed four formative assessments, reported their on-task interest in seven strategically chosen tasks and end-of-course Course and Domain interest. Longitudinal-SEM tested interconnections between readiness components, Task, Course and Domain interest. Initial self-efficacy beliefs for teaching predicted early Task interest, while Domain interest was a predictor of Task interest in explicitly practical task experiences. Strong interconnections between Task interest across the study were evident. Individual written and social discussion tasks presented strong contributions to future Course/Domain interest. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Enhancing Context-Based Meta-Reinforcement Learning Algorithms via An Efficient Task Encoder (Student Abstract)

Meta-Reinforcement Learning (meta-RL) algorithms enable agents to adapt to new tasks from small amounts of exploration, based on the experience of similar tasks. Recent studies have pointed out that a good representation of a task is key to the success of off-policy context-based meta-RL. Inspired by contrastive methods in unsupervised representation learning, we propose a new method to learn the task representation based on the mutual information between transition tuples in a trajectory and the task embedding. We also propose a new estimation for task similarity based on Q-function, which can be used to form a constraint on the distribution of the encoded task variables, making the task encoder encode the task variables more effective on new tasks. Experiments on meta-RL tasks show that the newly proposed method outperforms existing meta-RL algorithms.

Evaluating Meta-Reinforcement Learning through a HVAC Control Benchmark (Student Abstract)

Meta-Reinforcement Learning (RL) algorithms promise to leverage prior task experience to quickly learn new unseen tasks. Unfortunately, evaluating meta-RL algorithms is complicated by a lack of suitable benchmarks. In this paper we propose adapting a challenging real-world heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) control benchmark for meta-RL. Unlike existing benchmark problems, HVAC control has a broader task distribution, and sources of exogenous stochasticity from price and weather predictions which can be shared across task definitions. This can enable greater differentiation between the performance of current meta-RL approaches, and open the way for future research into algorithms that can adapt to entirely new tasks not sampled from the current task distribution.

Study of Skills & Qualities of Indian Military Veterans Valued Most by Employers and Colleagues

1) A skilled, dedicated and responsible employable persons is a resource employer are always looking for to have in their organisation. Employers across the world are facing a growing skills gap that impacts the productivity and long-term economic prosperity of the organisation. Majority of graduates and qualified professionals churned out from the universities and training institutes lack employability skills. Situations become difficult for the employers due to growing attrition rate and employers find it tough to cope up with situation when trained and skilled Human Capital leaves the organisation and there is not enough pool of resources to choose from. The workforce simply does not have enough employable workers and skilled candidates to fill an ever-increasing number of high skilled jobs. Indian Armed forces constitute one of the most trained personnel with very high level of motivation, trainable and possessing qualities most suitable to any organization today. Every year Indian Armed forces contribute over 60000 disciplined, hard & soft skilled, motivated and well-trained persons in form of ExServicemen (ESM, Indian Military veteran or veteran) who retire from active service in the age group 40 - 54 years and still have enough productive and employable life ahead. Drawing from the pool of transitioning military for these types of jobs could be an excellent way to develop a pipeline of talent to fill the skills gap. Articles and papers cite the reasons why employers should hire veteran and what kind of skills veterans have. 2) Employers are often on the look-out for employees who are dedicated, committed, trustworthy and loyal to them while hiring new employees. Indian veterans are cross-trained in multiple skills and have experience in varied tasks and responsibilities and employable in all categories from senior & strategic leadership roles to junior level leader and ground level workforce levels. Employers, entrepreneurs, peers and colleagues of veteran were approached to give their views on the most sought-after skills and qualities they see in veterans as employees. The paper brings out the skills and employable qualities which Indian employers’ value most in the veterans.

Why are the batteries in the microwave?: Use of semantic information under uncertainty in a search task

A major problem in human cognition is to understand how newly acquired information and long-standing beliefs about the environment combine to make decisions and plan behaviors. Over-dependence on long-standing beliefs may be a significant source of suboptimal decision-making in unusual circumstances. While the contribution of long-standing beliefs about the environment to search in real-world scenes is well-studied, less is known about how new evidence informs search decisions, and it is unclear whether the two sources of information are used together optimally to guide search. The present study expanded on the literature on semantic guidance in visual search by modeling a Bayesian ideal observer’s use of long-standing semantic beliefs and recent experience in an active search task. The ability to adjust expectations to the task environment was simulated using the Bayesian ideal observer, and subjects’ performance was compared to ideal observers that depended on prior knowledge and recent experience to varying degrees. Target locations were either congruent with scene semantics, incongruent with what would be expected from scene semantics, or random. Half of the subjects were able to learn to search for the target in incongruent locations over repeated experimental sessions when it was optimal to do so. These results suggest that searchers can learn to prioritize recent experience over knowledge of scenes in a near-optimal fashion when it is beneficial to do so, as long as the evidence from recent experience was learnable.

Cognitive enrichment device provides evidence for intersexual differences in collaborative actions in Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus).

Social living, long lifespan and advanced cognitive skills provided favourable conditions for the development of pro-social behaviours and cooperative activities in cetacean. Dolphins have been observed to collaborate for various purposes, finding food, finding mates or raising and teaching younger individuals. This study investigated the potential impact of demographic factors (sex and age), social factors (relatedness and group size), and individual experience in a cooperative problemsolving task. A cognitive enrichment device was tested with 22 dolphins in 11 group settings. The device consisted of a tube, containing ice and fish, sealed by two caps with rope handles and designed to be operated by pairs of dolphins. The investigation focused on the differences in trial outcome (success rate of cooperative opening of the device) and on cooperative play (dolphin pairs engaging in synchronous swim with the device). From the five potential factors, sex showed the highest impact. Cooperative openings were more than four times more frequent in males than in females (75% vs 17%, respectively), and cooperative play was exclusively displayed by adult males. Given the strong correlation between cooperative opening and cooperative play, we argue the two behaviours can be regarded as parts of a cooperative action chain. This study provides the first evidence for intersexual differences in collaborative actions in dolphins under systematic testing conditions.

M-AR: A Visual Representation of Manual Operation Precision in AR Assembly

ABSTRACT The research of augmented reality physical tasks for human-computer collaboration is still an attractive dynamic research field. In recent years, AR Instruction supporting collaborative assembly has been developed, which can transfer graphic annotation between man and machine. However, there is little research on high precision manual assembly. This paper proposes a high-precision cognitive AR representation (M-AR) for manual operation guidance, which aims to transform a high-precision assembly relationship into a series of visual information to meet the user’s cognition of high-precision task intention. Using this representation, we conducted a within-subject case study to compare it with original AR representation (original AR) and low-precision cognitive AR representation. The results showed that there were significant differences in execution time and operation errors. The user’s subjective feedback also showed that M-AR supporting cognitive feedback can significantly improve a user’s cognitive experience in a physical task.

Metacognition and fluid intelligence in value-directed remembering

The ability to selectively focus on and remember important information, referred to as value-directed remembering, may be crucial for effective memory functioning. In the present study, we investigated the relationships between metacognitive monitoring and control accuracy, selectivity for valuable information, and fluid intelligence. Mediation analyses demonstrated that participants’ monitoring assessments and later recall were influenced by the value of the to-be-learned words and the accuracy of participants’ judgments was moderated by fluid intelligence. Moreover, recall, selectivity, metacognitive awareness of selectivity, and metacognitive accuracy all generally increased with task experience, demonstrating participants’ ability to improve their memory by utilizing cognitive resources more effectively. Together the results suggest that people may be aware of the need to be selective, and engaging in value-directed remembering may be related to higher-level cognitive skills associated with problem-solving and reasoning. Specifically, the strategic use of memory may be involved in focusing on important information, and the metacognitive processes that allow for this prioritization of memory may be related to more general problem-solving abilities that involve identifying important features of information to guide cognition in a broader context.

Illegitimate tasks of primary school teachers at selected schools in the Western Cape: A reality for a developing country?

Orientation: The quality of basic education in South Africa is in need of interventions to improve the general standard of education offered in many public schools. Teachers and their work experiences are important factors that impact this standard.Research purpose: The aim of this study was to shed light on the factors that contribute to the experiences and outcomes of illegitimate tasks, as experienced by teachers, and the potential buffers to the negative effects of these tasks.Motivation for the study: The motivation for this study was to inform human resource practices and interventions to enhance the work experiences of teachers.Research approach/design and method: Exploratory qualitative research was conducted with 10 primary school teachers (n = 10) from a selected Western Cape education district. Responses to semi-structured individual interviews were transcribed verbatim, unedited and categorised into main themes through directed content analysis.Main findings: Environmental and psychological factors that lead to the experience of unnecessary and unreasonable illegitimate tasks, the time-consuming nature and outcomes of these tasks, as well as mechanisms that can buffer the harmful effects of illegitimate tasks, were identified.Practical/managerial implications: The identification of various contributing factors resulting in teachers’ experience of different types of illegitimate tasks and associated outcomes. Potential interventions and recommendations for future research are made.Contribution/value-addition: Qualitative studies regarding teachers’ experience of illegitimate tasks in the South African context are lacking. This article sheds light on the contributing factors, unnecessary and unreasonable tasks experienced and outcomes, as well as mechanisms that buffer the effect of illegitimate tasks amongst primary school teachers.

Pengaruh Pengalaman Audit, Keahlian Audit, Tekanan Ketaatan, Dan Kompleksitas Tugas Terhadap Audit Judgment Auditor (Studi Pada BPK-RI Perwakilan Provinsi Papua Barat)

This study aims to analyse the influence of audit experience, audit expertise, compliance pressure and complexity of tasks on auditor judgment audits. The sample in this study was an auditor working with the Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia, representative of West Papua Province. The sample is selected based on purposive sampling method. Data collection was conducted by distributing questionnaires to 42 respondents and returned as many as 32 questionnaires. The data was analyzed using linear regression analysis with SPSS 21. The results of this study show that audit experience affects audit judgment auditors. Audit expertise has no effect on auditors' judgment audits. Compliance pressure affects auditors' judgment audits. The complexity of the task has no effect on the auditor's audit judgment.

Perception-Action Integration Is Modulated by the Catecholaminergic System Depending on Learning Experience.

BackgroundThe process underlying the integration of perception and action is a focal topic in neuroscientific research and cognitive frameworks such as the theory of event coding have been developed to explain the mechanisms of perception-action integration. The neurobiological underpinnings are poorly understood. While it has been suggested that the catecholaminergic system may play a role, there are opposing predictions regarding the effects of catecholamines on perception-action integration.MethodsMethylphenidate (MPH) is a compound commonly used to modulate the catecholaminergic system. In a double-blind, randomized crossover study design, we examined the effect of MPH (0.25 mg/kg) on perception-action integration using an established “event file coding” paradigm in a group of n = 45 healthy young adults.ResultsThe data reveal that, compared with the placebo, MPH attenuates binding effects based on the established associations between stimuli and responses, provided participants are already familiar with the task. However, without prior task experience, MPH did not modulate performance compared with the placebo.ConclusionsCatecholamines and learning experience interactively modulate perception-action integration, especially when perception-action associations have to be reconfigured. The data suggest there is a gain control–based mechanism underlying the interactive effects of learning/task experience and catecholaminergic activity during perception-action integration.