Low Time Constraints Research Articles

Emotions, time, and strategy: The effects of happiness and sadness on strategic decision-making under time constraints

Managers often have limited available time to make high-quality strategic decisions that are both original and feasible. This joint objective is important but difficult to achieve because under time constraints, managers must combine different cognitive processes that are often influenced by emotional states. However, research investigating how time constraints and emotions interact and impact the quality of strategic decisions is scarce. Building upon the affect infusion model and information processing perspective, our experimental study involving 174 managers shows that the impact of time constraints and emotions varies across the two decision-making tasks of strategic idea generation and strategic choice. In particular, compared to the managers in a neutral emotional state under low time constraints, the happy managers under high time constraints seemed to generate fewer original and fewer feasible strategic ideas and appeared to make worse original strategic choices, while compared to the managers in a neutral emotional state under low time constraints, the sad managers under high time constraints made better original strategic choices. Our study contributes novel insight into behavioral strategy research by showing how time constraints and emotions causally and jointly influence different quality dimensions in various tasks involving strategic decision-making.

Why renew fresh feathers? Advantages and conditions for the evolution of complete post‐juvenile moult

Juveniles of several passerine species renew all of their fresh juvenile feathers immediately after fledging (complete post‐juvenile moult), in contrast to the majority, which perform a partial post‐juvenile moult. To understand the adaptive roles of this phenomenon we compared the quality of juvenile plumage in species that perform a complete post‐juvenile moult with that of species which perform a partial post‐juvenile moult; we similarly compared juveniles and adults in each of these groups. The quality of feathers was measured by mass of primaries, colour, and length. In species which perform a complete post‐juvenile moult the plumage quality of second‐year individuals, in their first breeding season, is similar to the plumage quality of adults, unlike those species that perform a partial post‐juvenile moult. In species which perform complete post‐juvenile moult, the quality of the feathers grown in the nest is lower than the quality of adult post‐breeding feathers. In contrast, in species which perform partial post‐juvenile moult the quality of the feathers grown in the nest is similar to that of adult post‐breeding feathers. We found that a complete post‐juvenile moult strategy is much more common 1) in residents and short‐distance migrants than in long‐distance migrants, 2) in southern latitudes, 3) in species with medium body mass and 4) in omnivores and granivores. Our results indicate two adaptive roles of the complete post‐juvenile moult strategy: 1) achieving high quality plumage in the first year which may increase individual survival probability and fitness and 2) allocating fewer resources to nestling plumage and more to nestling development, which enables the nestlings to leave the nest earlier, thus reducing the probability of encountering nest predators. We suggest that the complete post‐juvenile moult, immediately after fledging, is an optimal strategy in favourable habitats and under low time constraints, as in some tropical ecosystems.

Age and Time Effects on Implicit and Explicit Learning

Background/Study Context: It has been proposed that effects of aging are more pronounced for explicit than for implicit motor learning. The authors evaluated this claim by comparing the efficacy of explicit and implicit learning of a movement sequence in young and older adults, and by testing the resilience against fatigue and secondary tasking after learning. It was also examined whether explicit learning in older adults can be promoted by alleviating time constraints during learning.Methods: The alternating serial reaction time task (ASRTT) was used. Experiment 1 compared the benefits of receiving full instructions about the stimulus sequence relative to receiving no instructions in young (20–25 years) and older (50–65 years) adults during retention and during transfer to fatigue and secondary task conditions. Experiment 2 alleviated time constraints during the initial bouts of practice with full instructions.Results: Experiment 1 indicated that the older adults learned on the ASRTT and achieved similar performance as young adults when no instructions were given. In contrast to the young adults, learning was not superior in older adults who received full instructions compared with those who did not. Experiment 2 indicated that alleviating time constraints allowed some of the older adults to gain from instruction but only under relatively low time constraints, but there was no retention with rigorous time constraints.Conclusion: Explicit learning, but not implicit learning, declines in older adults. This is partly due to older adults difficulties to apply explicit knowledge. Less rigorous time constraints can help to ameliorate some of these difficulties and may induce levels of explicit learning in older adults that will result in superior performance compared with implicit learning. Implicit learning did occur under time constraints that prevented explicit learning.

Learning to Make Decisions in Dynamic Environments: Effects of Time Constraints and Cognitive Abilities

This study investigated the effects of time constraints and cognitive abilities on dynamic decision making (DDM). The learning and performance of individuals trained in a DDM task with time constraints were compared with those who were trained without time constraints. Although all participants received the same total amount of time to perform the task, individuals under more stringent time constraints were given 3 times more practice trials on the first 2 days of the study than were people under less stringent time constraints. Despite the additional practice runs, participants under high time constraints performed worse than did participants under low time constraints on the 3rd day of the study. A subsequent analysis of cognitive abilities and decision heuristics revealed that individuals' actions corresponded with simple heuristic predictions more closely with minimal practice than with extended practice, under high rather than low time constraints, and in individuals with low rather than high cognitive abilities. These findings suggest that mere repetition of a task with less time within a trial is counterproductive to learning and that learning depends on cognitive abilities. Potential applications of this research include the design of training procedures for dynamic tasks.

Learning to Make Decisions in Dynamic Environments: Effects of Time Constraints and Cognitive Abilities

This study investigated the effects of time constraints and cognitive abilities on dynamic decision making (DDM). The learning and performance of individuals trained in a DDM task with time constraints were compared with those who were trained without time constraints. Although all participants received the same total amount of time to perform the task, individuals under more stringent time constraints were given 3 times more practice trials on the first 2 days of the study than were people under less stringent time constraints. Despite the additional practice runs, participants under high time constraints performed worse than did participants under low time constraints on the 3rd day of the study. A subsequent analysis of cognitive abilities and decision heuristics revealed that individuals' actions corresponded with simple heuristic predictions more closely with minimal practice than with extended practice, under high rather than low time constraints, and in individuals with low rather than high cognitive abilities. These findings suggest that mere repetition of a task with less time within a trial is counterproductive to learning and that learning depends on cognitive abilities. Potential applications of this research include the design of training procedures for dynamic tasks.

Role Burdens and Physical Health of Women and Men

This article looks at role burdens experienced by women and men, asking if heavy burdens are linked with poor physical health status and frequent health care. The role burden variables refer to job schedule, feelings about roles and life, time constraints and pressures, family dependency, and levels of role involvement and responsibility. The data source is the Health In Detroit Study, which has health items from a retrospective interview and prospective health diaries. Results show that dissatisfaction with roles/life and feelings of very great or very little time pressure are associated with poor health. To a lesser extent, very low or very high objective time constraints, irregular and short job schedules, no or high family dependency, and very low or very high income responsibility are linked with poor health. By contrast, having numerous roles is associated with good health. Some of these results point toward social causation (how the quantity and quality of roles influence health) and others to social selection (how health influences role involvements). The relationships are similar for women and men. But women are more at risk of poor health because, more often than men, they tend to have few roles (especially nonemployment), more dissatisfaction with their main role and life, low time constraints, low income responsibility, and irregular job schedules. In conclusion, role burdens may lie more in subjective feelings about one's activities than in their objective characteristics. Having low quality roles may jeopardize health, whereas having numerous ones can help maintain or enhance it.