Cognitive Individual Differences and Work Performance

Study unit 4:

Cognitive individual differences and work performance

Using examples, explain what the study field of cognitive psychology entails 10

According to Stenberg, cognitive psychology deals with how people perceive, learn, remember and think about information because to know is to be able to understand the world, to be in control of and to predict events. In other words, cognitive psychology is the discipline or area in psychology that studies the influence of cognition on behaviour.

DuBrin describes cognitive psychology as the movement that studies how people's perception of events that influence their actions affects their behaviour. For example, if an employee perceives it to be true that hard work will lead to a bonus, he or she will put in extra effort.

Cognitive concepts evolved and expanded in reaction to the simplistic S-R principle of behaviourism, in the idea that cognitive appraisal can moderate, direct and even control the interaction between stimuli and responses or actions from people. An example is the emotion generation process, in which cognitive appraisal of emotion-eliciting events and previous or existing emotional reactions and conclusions, and also personality determine new emotional responses. Another example is stress reactions which are largely determined by cognitive appraisal.

According to Ulrich Neisser's definition, cognitive psychology refers to all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered and used. Cognitive psychology is therefore the study of the mental operations that support people's acquisition and use of knowledge.

The reference to a sensory input implies that cognition begins through our sensory contact with the external world. Transformation of the sensory input means that our representation of the world is not just a passive registration of our physical surroundings, but an active construction that may involve both reduction and elaboration.

·  Reduction occurs when information is lost – that is, we can only attend to a small part of the physical stimulation that surrounds us, and we can remember only a small part of what we attend to.

·  Elaboration occurs when we add to the sensory input. For example, when you start a new job you will recall previous experiences.

The last part of Neisser's definition is probably the most important in that, after information has been perceived, stored and recovered, it should be put to good use.

Kellogg states more specifically that cognitive psychology should be defined as the study of human cognitive or mental processes, and their role in thinking, feeling and behaving. The discipline portrays the human mind as a processor of information. In the theory and research on cognitive psychology the following areas of study are usually covered:

·  biological basis of cognitive behaviour

·  memory processes

·  learning

·  perception

·  attention and consciousness

·  ability factors (intelligence and aptitudes)

·  thinking

·  language

·  knowledge representation and information processing

·  problem-solving and creativity

·  decision-making and reasoning

·  cognitive development

After considering the consultants at Professio (Pty) Ltd (or another scenario), indicate any cognitive processes and behavior that you could detect. 15

Describe various approaches that we mentioned when we explained intelligence. 25

Write five brief scenarios to illustrate five different cognitive styles. 25

Distinguish between four types of learners and explain how each would approach the information gathering and processing. 10

Explain at least five constructs that indicate cognitive aptitude factors. 15

Briefly, explain the nature of different cognitive processes. 15

How do the different cognitive processes influence cognitive behavior in the workplace? 25

Cognitive behaviour refers to all the processes people use to obtain knowledge or to become conscious of the environment they function in. Individuals differ not only in acquiring information or knowledge, but also in how they process and use the acquired knowledge. You may recognise this in how employees differ when completing the same task – they process the instructions and complete the task differently because they differ in many ways in their cognitive functioning, their innate attributes and potential, and their acquired cognitive skills.

1 Attention

Kellogg explains that attention refers to the process of selecting only certain stimuli in order to concentrate or focus cognitive processes. Reed expands on this idea by mentioning that employees are often bombarded by all kinds of perceptual stimuli and they then have to decide which of the stimuli are of interest and crucial. In many work situations information overload results in ``mental fatigue'' which leads to, concentration problems and errors in task completion. In a similar sense, psychological fatigue or ``burnout'' especially in the service professions, refers to serious stress caused, by overload in helping other people. One of the symptoms is poor employee relations and an inability to fulfil caring tasks.

Two broad classes of theories have developed to explain attention

THE FILTER THEORIES

(Broadbent) postulate that a bottleneck occurs in the flow of information. This bottleneck is called SELECTIVITY and occurs to prevent information overload.

Broadbent's theory postulates that the bottleneck occurs at the perception or pattern recognition stage, and that attention is represented by a filtering process which determines what information should be recognised.

Treisman's theory allows for tasks to be executed without complete attention selectivity. For example, in understanding language, the occasional recognition of words can happen in an unattended channel. The filter weakens the unattended message, but does not completely block it out. Important or expected words can be recognised in the unattended channel if their thresholds for recognition are low enough to be exceeded by the attenuated message. Attention is represented by the pattern recognition stage and not the filter. Deutsch and Deutsch propose that the bottleneck occurs after pattern recognition. The problem is not one of perception, but rather one of selection into memory after perception has occurred. The most important stages are pattern recognition and selection.

CAPACITY THEORIES.

Kahneman argued that a capacity theory assumes that there is a general limit on a person's capacity to perform mental work. A person has considerable control over how this limited capacity can be allocated to different activities. Interference occurs when the demands of two or more activities exceed available capacity.

In general, it is a well-documented fact that information overload, and also job and role overload, can overtax employee capacities and cause mental fatigue. All of these are well-researched causal factors in conditions of job fatigue, underachievement and work stress. The effect of attention on the workplace is further emphasised because employees will have different capacities for paying attention for shorter or longer periods. They may differ in their sensory abilities and their thresholds to observe stimuli and to distinguish between stimuli (for example, sound, smell, touch and visual signs). It is important to provide for optimal conditions in the workplace and work design in order to accommodate most or specific employees and their attention capabilities.

2. Memory and forgetting

Memory refers to the storage of information from where it is continuously recalled on demand. Examples are performing daily activities because we automatically have the stored knowledge available or thinking about a specific event that happened ten years ago. Another important advantage of memory and recall of information is that it enables us to plan for the future.

Quinn explains that there are three stages or components in the memory process:

·  Sensory register

·  Short-term memory

·  Long-term memory

Each of these stages forms part of the memory process and the main difference between them is the duration of each. The sensory register is the first step in the memory process and lasts only a few milliseconds. The next stage is short-term retention or recall, and lasts only a few seconds. Long-term retention is the final stage in memory and can last a lifetime.

Memory may also involve forgetting information in short-term memory is lost rapidly unless it is preserved through practice, and hence the need for practice and refresher courses in training.

Sensory store receives information and stores it briefly in its original sensory form. The sensory store extends the amount of time that a person has to recognise a pattern. If a visual pattern is flashed on a screen for five milliseconds, the observer has more than five milliseconds to identify it if the visual information can be maintained briefly in the sensory store. The sensory store for vision lasts only approximately one quarter of a second, but this is much longer than the five milliseconds of exposure. The information in the sensory store is lost at the end of this time unless it can be identified during the pattern recognition stage. Most of the patterns that people encounter are familiar and when they recognise a familiar pattern, they use the information they stored previously in memory. If the pattern does not match the description of a familiar pattern, the observer may want to store the new description in memory if it is important.

The filter limits the amount of information that can be recognised at one time and the selection stage limits the amount of information that can be entered into memory. Memory consists of short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM). STM is limited in both the amount of information or capacity that it can hold, and in the length of time or duration for which it can hold the information. LTM does not have this problem in that it has no limitation on the amount of information it can hold, and forgetting occurs very slowly if at all.,

One of the interesting claims about individual variation in memory is that it is attributable to practising memory. Some people are able to remember facts, episodes, dates, times, places and names much better, while others may be able to remember other types of information better. Finally Ericsson argues that most or all, variability in memory can be explained by differences in acquired memory skills. The way in which a person transfers information from the STM to the LTM is explained by the Atkinson-Shiffrin model. This model proposes that information in the STM is transferred to the LTM through certain processes that a person uses to facilitate the acquisition of knowledge:

·  Rehearsal (the repetition of information – aloud or silently – over and over until it is learnt)

·  Coding, which is the attempt to place the information that should be remembered in the context of additional, easily retrievable information, such as a mnemonic phrase or sentence (association of facts with visual images)

·  Imaging, which refers to creating visual images to remember verbal information

The individual differences in people's ability to recall past events or use their LTM are evident throughout life. Some people are simply more able to recall details and events than other people. DuBrin offers a number of concepts and techniques to preserve memory:

·  Use it or lose it: continuously learn new things and try to remember new information.

·  Be well organised: by carefully organising your environment, you can counteract some memory loss.

·  Regular exercise: this not only stimulates muscle and physical development, but also mental ability.

·  Memory improvement techniques: making visual associations between new ideas and familiar objects, and rehearsing new material.

Evidence shows that a major determinant of individual differences in memory is how effectively people can group material into familiar chunks.

3. Learning

Learning is indicative of the relatively permanent changes that take place in an individual as a result of specific experiences. It does not include the effect of bodily injuries, fatigue, ageing, adaptability and the normal process of maturing.

Individual differences influence learning.

The term ``dynamic learner'' conjures up images of an active, continuously productive person who develops over time in knowledge, skill and motivation with the goal of accomplishing some set of desired learning outcomes.

Adult learners are often more ready and willing to learn, may have higher self-esteem and will be more skilled at integrating information. However, they may also be more critical. Adult learners should be given more say in the planning and assessment of learning.

It is important to set realistic boundaries for the individual learning process and that effective learning environments should be created. There is a continuum in that no learner is completely adaptable to whatever learning situation presents itself, nor can a particular learning situation be optimally suitable to all learners.

There is evidence to support a positive relationship between learner motivation and scores on learning measures.

·  Individuals with an internal locus of control had higher motivation to learn than those with an external locus of control.

·  Individuals with high levels of trait anxiety tended to be less motivated to learn than individuals with lower levels of trait anxiety.

·  An individual's level of conscientiousness was also found to be indirectly related to the motivation to learn through its effect on self-efficacy beliefs with regard to pre-training.

These meta-analytical findings support the notion that personality traits such as conscientiousness can affect learning outcomes through their influence on motivation to learn.

Differences between introverts and extroverts in learning performance.

·  Introverts may value rewards less compared to extroverts whose performance will be more enhanced by rewards.

·  The work performance of introverts will become more easily impaired than that of extroverts.

·  Distraction will influence the learning of introverts more than that of extroverts.

·  Introverts will be less effective than extroverts in situations where learning is tested by responses from participants.

·  Introverts usually take longer to remember information from long-term memory storage.

·  Introverts will be more critical of how they respond when assessed than extroverts.

·  Introverts have less effective memory or retention in short-term intervals, but do better than extroverts during long-term retention intervals.

There are different learning styles along two dimensions on a bipolar cognitive growth model which reflect the cognitive and affective processes people use to obtain and analyse information in problem-solving. The two dimensions are active-reflective learning and abstract-concrete learning. Thus, to obtain second dimension information, individuals' learning style may range from dealing with concrete or tangible objects to dealing with abstract or theoretical concepts. According to the first dimension, individuals' processing of information may range from direct participation to detached observation.