When and how less is more: reply to Tharp and Pickering

DeCaro, Marci S.; Carlson, Krista D.; Thomas, Robin D.; Beilock, Sian L.

doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2009.03.001

Cited by 29 publications

(53 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Differences in working memory capacity. Working memory capacity may be an important mediator of judgment performance (DeCaro, Carlson, Thomas, & Beilock, 2009;Lewandowsky, 2011). Hence, we measured individual differences in working memory capacity with an operation-span task (Unsworth et al, 2005).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deliberation’s Blindsight

2013

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Multitasking poses a major challenge in modern work environments by putting the worker under cognitive load. Performance decrements often occur when people are under high cognitive load because they switch to less demanding-and often less accurate-cognitive strategies. Although cognitive load disturbs performance over a wide range of tasks, it may also carry benefits. In the experiments reported here, we showed that judgment performance can increase under cognitive load. Participants solved a multiple-cue judgment task in which high performance could be achieved by using a similarity-based judgment strategy but not by using a more demanding rule-based judgment strategy. Accordingly, cognitive load induced a shift to a similarity-based judgment strategy, which consequently led to more accurate judgments. By contrast, shifting to a similarity-based strategy harmed judgments in a task best solved by using a rule-based strategy. These results show how important it is to consider the cognitive strategies people rely on to understand how people perform in demanding work environments.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deliberation’s Blindsight

2013

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“…A number of theoretical accounts of category learning suggest that the acquisition of new categories is a complex activity that may involve a series of specific cognitive abilities or processes (e.g., Ashby & Maddox, 2011;Ashby & O'Brien, 2005). Several recent studies have indicated that working memory plays an important part in category learning (e.g., Craig & Lewandowsky, 2012DeCaro, Carlson, Thomas, & Beilock, 2009;DeCaro, Thomas, & Beilock, 2008;Erickson, 2008;Lewandowsky, 2011;Lewandowsky, Yang, Newell, & Kalish, 2012;Sewell & Lewandowsky, 2012). However, those studies were complicated by the complexity of working memory which is not a unitary construct but consists of multiple components or processes (Baddeley, 1986;Miyake et al, 2000), and it remains unclear which specific processes are involved in category learning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Results indicated that category learning performance, especially the rule-based category learning, was significantly disrupted by the concurrent working memory-demanding task. Furthermore, some recent studies have directly investigated the relationship between category learning and working memory (e.g., Craig & Lewandowsky, 2012DeCaro et al, 2009DeCaro et al, , 2008Lewandowsky, 2011). For instance, DeCaro et al (2008DeCaro et al ( , 2009) revealed that individuals with higher working memory capacity (WMC) took fewer trials to fully learn the rule-based categories than those with lower WMC.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The contribution of temporary storage and executive processes to category learning

2015

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“…An example is found in DeCaro et al (2009), who modeled levels of performance accuracy expected given different strategies for approaching the categorization tasks described earlier (e.g., using one, two, or three dimensions or the optimal strategy of figuring out the rules for the information integration task).…”

Section: Recommendation #3: Investigate Performance Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research conducted in the "less is more" paradigm has focused attention on different problem-solving strategies employed by people who vary in their cognitive ability levels and perform tasks in different performance contexts (Beilock & DeCaro, 2007;DeCaro et al, 2009). …”

Section: Recommendation #3: Investigate Performance Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is cognitive ability a liability? A critique and future research agenda on skilled performance.

Beier¹,

Oswald²

2012

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied

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Over a century of psychological research provides strong and consistent support for the idea that cognitive ability correlates positively with success in tasks that people face in employment, education, and everyday life. Recent experimental research, however, has converged on a different and provocative conclusion, namely that lower-ability people can actually be more effective performers within special environments characterized by features such as time pressure, social evaluation and unpredictable task change. If this conclusion is true, it has extensive implications for practices such as personnel selection, training design, and teaching at all levels.The current paper re-examines and reinterprets this research within the context of wellestablished resource theories of cognitive processing and skill acquisition leading to a less provocative conclusion that serves to reiterate the benefits of cognitive ability for task performance. Following this re-examination, we conclude by providing a research agenda for examining the determinants of skilled performance in dynamic task environments, including: (a) broadening the range of abilities and task difficulties examined, (b) considering the role of nonability traits and goals in skilled performance (e.g., personality, learning and performance goals), (c) investigating the processes (e.g., problem solving strategies) that people use in complex environments, (d) developing research designs and analytic strategies for examining adaptive performance, and (e) investigating how best to train for adaptive performance. Over a century of psychological research has provided a wealth of empirical support for cognitive ability as one of the most critical determinants of skilled performance. Setting aside the nature-nurture controversies surrounding the development of peoples' cognitive ability (Neisser, 1998), it is a well established and uncontroversial finding that cognitive ability can be reliably measured and is a consistent and strong predictor of important societal outcomes, such as work performance and career accomplishments (Campbell, McCloy, Oppler, & Sager, 1993;Hunter & Hunter, 1984;Neisser, et al., 1996; Park, Lubinski, & Benbow, 2007;Schmidt & Hunter, 2004), performance in academic environments (Binet & Simon, 1916;Kuncel, Hezlett, & Ones, 2001), and successful navigation of the complexities of everyday life (Gottfredson, 1997;Griener, Snowdon, & Schmitt, 1996). Certainly, theoretical disagreements about the exact nature and structure of cognitive abilities remain (e.g., see the exchange by Ackerman, Beier, & Boyle, 2005;Kane, Hambrick, & Conway, 2005;Oberauer, Schulze, Wilhelm, & Süß, 2005), and nonability traits such as interests, personality, and motivation are critically important determinants of performance (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998). Nonetheless, there is a strong scientific consensus that higher levels of cognitive ability yield positive benefits for virtually all types of skilled performance.A spate of recent research, however, has directly chall...

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When and how less is more: reply to Tharp and Pickering

Cited by 29 publications

References 20 publications

Deliberation’s Blindsight

Deliberation’s Blindsight

The contribution of temporary storage and executive processes to category learning

Is cognitive ability a liability? A critique and future research agenda on skilled performance.

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