Low Task Difficulty Research Articles

The impact of reliance on accounting performance measures on job-related tension and managerial performance: Additional evidence

Based on Harrison's ( Accounting, Organizations and Society, pp. 1–15, 1992; Accounting, Organizations and Society, pp. 319–339, 1993) findings on the generalizability of research results related to budgetary participation and budget emphasis between cultures, two tests on the three-way interaction between budget emphasis, budgetary participation and task characteristics (task uncertainty and task difficulty) affecting job-related tension and managerial performance were conducted in Singapore. The results support a high budget emphasis and high budgetary participation combination in low task difficulty situations; and a high budgetary participation style, regardless of budget emphasis, in high task difficulty situations.

Workload Context Effect: An Elusive Phenomenon

The effect of workload context on subsequent performance and workload ratings has crucial implications regarding workload transition. However few studies have examined workload context effects; and those that have, report contradictory results. This study attempts to determine if the failure to find evidence of workload context effects might be attributable to methodological factors such as task duration, task difficulty, and experimental design. Twelve subjects “flew” three sessions of three trials on a computer-based flight simulator, and rated the workload after each trial. A pre-post experimental design presented the first and third trials at a medium level of difficulty while the second (experimental) trial was of low, medium, or high difficulty. Crosswinds of 2, 12, and 22 knots created the levels of low, medium, and high task difficulty. Analyses of the performance and workload data did not reveal significant differences in Trial 3 as a function of prior task difficulty presented in Trial 2. The inability to find workload context effects in the present study suggests that previous inconsistent findings can not be attributed to differences in task duration and experimental design. Rather, it appears that contradictory results may be attributable to differences in the range of task difficulty employed, the workload measurement tool, or both.

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.

The Functions of Inner Speech in Elementary School Students’ Problem-Solving Behavior

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the functions of students’ reported inner speech during problem solving. Elementary school students in grades three to six who differed in mathematics achievement were randomly assigned to a low-task difficulty or high-task difficulty problem-solving condition. Immediately after working on assigned problems, and while anticipating more of the same, students were questioned about their inner speech during problem solving. Neither age nor ability differences were reflected in the students’ reports. Rather, reports indicated that students in general maintained an adaptive problem solving stance in both problem solving conditions. Adaptive behavior was characterized by strategic instructional statements focused on the task and positive affect statements focused on the self.

Early postnatal x-irradiation of the hippocampus and discrimination learning in adult rats.

Rats with X-irradiation-produced degranulation of the hippocampal dentate gyrus were trained in the acquisition and reversal of simultaneous visual and tactile discriminations in a T-maze. These experiments employed the same treatment, apparatus, and procedure but varied in task difficulty. In the brightness and roughness discriminations, the irradiated rats were not handicapped in acquiring or reversing discriminations of low or low-moderate task difficulty. However, these rats were handicapped in acquiring and reversing discriminations of moderate and high task difficulty. In a Black/White discrimination, in which the stimuli were restricted to the goal-arm walls, the irradiated rats were handicapped in the acquisition (low task difficulty) and reversal (moderate task difficulty) phases of the task. These results suggest that the irradiated rats were not handicapped when the noticeability of the stimuli was high, irrespective of modality used, but were handicapped when the noticeability of the stimuli was low. In addition, these results are consistent with the hypothesis that rats with hippocampal damage are inattentive due to hyperactivity.

Effects of High Status and Low Status Actor's Performance on Observers' Attributions of Causality and Behavioral Intentions

The present study investigated the effect of three variables, the difficulty level of the task, the nature of the feedback and the nature of the relationship between model and observer, on peer observers' attributions of model's performance and their subsequent intention to imitate model. It was predicted that the level of skill attributed to high sociometric status actors would be similar for both high and low task difficulty conditions whereas the magnitude of skill attributed to low sociometric status actors would be greater in the high difficult task condition than in the low difficult task condition. These expectations were confirmed. In addition, significant positive relationships between skill attributions and intention to imitate the model were found for both low and high status models, suggesting that beliefs concerning causes of outcome mediate intention to imitate. A considerable amount of research has been stimulated by Attribution Theory (Heider, 1958). The theory holds that in order to make his environment more predictable, an individual is motivated to ascertain the origin or cause of an event which is perceived to occur within his life space. As the theory has evolved, it has been primarily concerned with a person's determination of the causes of the behavior of others. This tendency on the part of a perceiver to search for the causes of an actor's behavior would appear to have particular relevance for those situations in which standards or patterns of behavior can be transmitted on the basis of observational learning through exposure to the behavior exhibited by a model. The present study was designed to investigate the effect of three variables-(1) the difficulty of the task confronting the model, (2) the nature of feedback provided the model, and (3) the nature of the relationship

Effect of Need Achievement and Task Difficulty on Competitive and Noncompetitive Motor Performance

Atkinson's theory of achievement motivation was tested on a stabliometer task of either low, moderate, or high task difficulty. Ss (N=120) were either assigned to a condition with competition for a monetary reward or to a noncompetitive no-reward condition. In the high task-difficulty condition Ss competing for a reward performed better on initial trails than did Ss in the noncompetitive condition. Although no performance differences were found between Ss who tended to achieve success and Ss who tended to avoid failure, the latter Ss had poorer consistency of performance (intravariance scores) on initial learning trials.