Questions tagged [performance]
Questions relating to the enactment of tasks within society and how this reflects on our internal characteristics. Tests and other assessments can act as measures of performance.
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Which of IQ or personality traits best predict job performance?
IQ seems to be an important predictor of job performance (close to 0.6 correlation coefficient), see here.
It is said that: "Evidence from more than 100 y of research indicates that ...
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What are the effects of alcohol on muscle memory?
Muscle memory (also referred to as "motor memories") is a form of procedural memory, which is a form of implicit memory. I'm particularly interested in trained tasks like throwing a dart, shooting a ...
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Are unannounced tests unexpected by participants?
I was looking into whether unannounced (memory) tests were actually unexpected by participants, and if the benefits accredited to unannounced tests are well-founded. Considering that students are ...
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How is "being in a flow" explained cognitively?
When wathcing the European Championship athletics, I hear many people talking about being in a "flow". Flow is defined as follows:
Flow is an optimal psychological state that occurs when there is a ...
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How does social interaction affect the decrease in performance when multitasking?
A well known effect of multitasking is that if you have to switch to do another one, then your performance of both will decrease, in compared to the performance when you do them separately.
FYI: ...
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How long can a person stay happy, excited and motivated about something new?
I'm interested in learning more about studies or experiments that determine how long a typical person can stay excited about something new:
...
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Pygmalion effect and negative expectations
I've been reading about the Pygmalion effect. From what extracted, it means positive expectations positively influence performance.
Now I'm curious to know this... does the Pygmalion effect also apply ...
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Is leg jiggling a focus aid?
This is slightly left-field, but I am interested in the Cognitive Science implications of this question: Many people, myself included, are "leg jigglers", meaning we often sit jiggling or bouncing a ...
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Is multitasking a myth?
Often, the term 'multitasking' is applied to very busy and 'wired' people. There is an adage that women multitask better than men.
My question is, do we actually multitask? If so, what are the ...
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Pomodoro Technique vs Flow
Pomodoro technique and entering into flow states are two commonly mentioned productivity techniques used by people studying or doing creative work. I have used these two techniques and I feel more ...
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Motor skill: Let speed come naturally?
I've commonly heard that when practising a motor skill, one should start slow with correct form and one shouldn't force speed. Rather, let speed come naturally. I believe this but I can't find a ...
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What is the relationship between self-perceptions and actual driving ability?
I've often heard it said that almost everyone thinks that they are a better than average driver.
If this is true, it could be explained by a number of theories.
Some of these are outlined in this ...
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What is the field that deals with observing an individual's fitness within a system called?
Foreword: Perhaps this question is better suited for statistics.stackexchange.com, but I'm deeply interested in studying about both the living thing and the statistics side of things.
Everything in ...
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Are there positive/negative effects of new/repetitive music in work performance?
I work the weekend closing shifts at a local supermarket. There are many stores in the chain, and they all have the same soundtrack - consisting mostly of 70's music - which is played on repeat ...
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Why do I always screw up when people are watching?
I’m wondering why people are more likely to fail when they know people are watching and or counting on them. For example in a football game where there is 2 seconds left in the game, and team A has ...
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Becoming an expert with accumulative hours of practice much less than the average expert?
Anders Ericsson's work is famous for creating the idea of "deliberate practice" and its creation of experts, but Anders also talks about how long hours are inevitable in becoming an expert. Let's ...
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Mental fatigue and recovery schedule
(Complete novice here)
I am looking for some research or publications that would tackle the question of how much rest is required for good mental performance / productivity and is there a schedule ...
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Can lucid dreaming detract from the recuperative effect of REM sleep?
Imagine you mastered lucid dreaming, so you have a lucid dream every night.
You might want to use this phase to do creative work or problem solving.
Would this have a negative influence on the ...
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If 10 words are presented at the same time, is it still considered a 'free recall' test?
I'm a little bit confused about the definition of a free recall test. According to Wikipedia:
Items are usually presented one at a time for a short duration, ...
If 10 items are presented at the ...
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What is the evolutionary advantage of being embarrassed?
What I am trying to understand is why do I feel embarrassed in certain situation.
E.g. when I'm talking to people, why do I think about being judged or sounding stupid that would result me in ...
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Are there studies that compare the accuracy of forecasters that are asked to state probabilities vs. forecasters that are asked to state odds?
The Good Judgement project asks it's forecasters to estimate the likelihood of events occurring by asking them for probabilities (20%, 60%...). Sport betting usually communicates the odds of an event (...
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Is there a basic mathematical relationship between IQ and learning speed?
Is there a basic mathematical relationship between IQ and learning speed? ... such as linear, exponential, etc?
For example, if some number of people with an approximate IQ of 100 (95-105) take X ...
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Why can't we use 100% of the brain in a certain moment?
I know it's a myth that we only use 10% of our brain, but the point is that we use less than 10% in any given moment; only by using different parts of our brain for various tasks over time do we ...
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Is there evidence that listening to music can aid/hinder concentration or performance?
I, like many computer programmers, love to listen to music while I work. I have always believed that music helps me stay focused and motivated, and improves my performance on many types of tasks, ...
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For an average adult, in general, if one knows they will wake up in the middle of a cycle--is it better to go to bed later?
Let us say that one consistently goes to sleep at the same time every day, and sets an alarm for the same duration of sleep 7 hours and 45 minutes (e.g., 10:45pm to 6:30am).
One day, they get caught ...
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Predicting workplace performance of job applicants? [closed]
As an employer who interviews engineering candidates, I'm interested in using the state of the art findings in psychometrics/psychology to predict which candidates are the most likely to be successful....
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Is there a way to hasten recovery from sleep inertia?
Sleep inertia is a transitional state of lowered arousal occurring immediately after awakening from sleep and producing a temporary decrement in subsequent performance. (1)
There is study ...
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Do ADHD drugs harm the brain?
Particularly, the amphetamine "vyvanse". If one was to take a 30mg dose once a day for 50+ years, would it damage brain function at all? Would the brain simply get used to the drug and become 100% ...
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Why do I perform better at rhythm games after a long period of not playing?
Every once in a while I decide to play Phase Shift (very similar to Guitar Hero). I might go weeks or months between plays, but when I return, I often break a high score within the first few songs I ...
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Does masturbation in men negatively affect cognitive processes?
Gary Wilson has mentioned that porn and masturbation is an addiction that negatively affect mental performance. Moreover, there is some "pseudo-science" claiming that abstaining from masturbation ...
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Can intense multitasking improve fluid intelligence/working memory?
The Dual N-Back task is the only task I'm aware of that has empirical support showing that it improves working memory. It appears to improve working memory through multitasking, although this ...
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What is the distribution of performance in academic programming subjects?
On Programmers SE there is a popular question about scientific evidence for whether some people either are or are not able to program.
One person cites an unpublished manuscript by Dehnadi and ...
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Does individual work performance follow a Paretian distribution?
O'Boyle and Aguinis (2012) wrote a paper arguing that individual job performance follows a Paretian distribution rather than a normal distribution (put simply, a very long tail to the right, rather ...
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Efficiency of multitasking depending on task difficulty
How does the efficiency of multi-tasking differ by task type? My understanding is that multitasking impairs efficiency for cognitively challenging tasks.
Does this apply to trivial tasks as well?
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Is there an inventory to measure competence in the workplace? [closed]
I'm currently doing a study where I chose to have HR management practitioners view a sample of resumes from applicants, and then have them give a competence score. I'm just not sure what kind of ...
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A framework for modeling tasks, behaviors and characteristics [closed]
I'm doing my master's thesis on evaluating startup team dynamics from an investors's perspective. To construct and argue the methods that I'm suggesting, I'd like to build a simple model of most ...
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Could the knowledge of the construct of self-efficacy affect the student's aptitude to a certain task?
I am a tutor for children with learning disabilities and i have read that they have lower levels of perceived self-efficacy than students without this learning disabilities. I decided to deepen the ...
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Yerkes-Dodson Law and Drugs
According to the Yerkes-Dodson Law, there is optimal point of arousal and performance. Suppose a person takes a stimulant such as Adderall. This would increase his arousal. However, it may increase ...
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Does distraction cause us to skip to the next step in a motor plan?
Often, if one is concentrating too hard on a particular task, it seems as though it's quite easy to skip to the next step of a plan of action. For example, a baseball infielder may attempt a throw to ...
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Interaction between caffeine intake and biorhythm on alertness
Throughout the day, people's wakefulness and attentiveness varies, as modulated by one's circadian biorhythm. Whereas in the morning people are less awake, just before noon and around 15:00 people ...
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How long does it take to refocus after context switching?
Context switching has been highlighted for the toll it takes on productivity at great length, particularly by people who work in software and project management.
Are there any psychology/...
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Grit — is it distinct from correlates of success?
There's been quite a splash in the field of psychology around the concept of grit introduced around 2007 (Wikipedia article). For example, the associated TED talk has been viewed more than 10 million ...
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What is the most effective maximum work duration per day?
A related question asks about the best work-break schedule for an effective eight hour work day.
This question presupposes that eight hours of work per day is a good duration and that all you need is ...
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How much sleep is needed for peak cognitive performance?
How much sleep is needed for peak cognitive performance? If some were to, for example, wake up one morning at 12:30PM, would a sleeping pill help obtain better sleep required for that performance the ...
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Can you practice and improve physical activities only by thinking?
By physical activities I mean any kind of task, work, sport, you have to use your body.
Not always have the time to do some task or even the possibility (need some equipment, not great situation). I ...
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Does the "use it or loose it" principle apply to the brain?
Does not using the brain decreases mental functioning? If so, is it recommended to keep using the brain, for example by learning new things or engaging in challenging activities (puzzels, quizzes etc.)...
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Models of barriers to "Flow" (being in "the zone")
This Wikipedia article is an excellent overview to the concept of Flow.
The problem is, from personal experience, in one specific area, I think it's incomplete. To quote:
Schaffer (2013) proposed 7 ...
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What is the relationship between practice and performance of telephone call centre workers?
I am interested in modelling the relationship between practice and performance both in laboratory tasks and field settings. I was interested in what existing research has examined how the performance ...
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Does expecting to be in a safe situation elicit unsafe behavior? [closed]
When the traffic light is red you are aware that a car might comes rushing in. So you are extra careful and always check the street before you actual cross the street. But one the other hand if you ...
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Does the meta-analytic literature overestimate the relationship between conscientiousness and job performance?
There are quite a few meta-analyses of the relationship between personality and job performance (for a review, see Barrick & Mount, 2012; and specific meta-analyses: Barrick & Mount, 1991; ...
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