Cognitive control strategies and adaptive performance in a complex work task
Niessen, C; Lang, JWB
Date: 8 October 2020
Journal
Journal of Applied Psychology
Publisher
American Psychological Association
Publisher DOI
Abstract
Adapting to task changes in work settings frequently calls not only for shifting one’s
thoughts and behaviors to the new demands, but also for dealing with outdated knowledge and
skills. This article focuses on the role of control strategies in task adaptation, and reports two
experimental studies using an air traffic control ...
Adapting to task changes in work settings frequently calls not only for shifting one’s
thoughts and behaviors to the new demands, but also for dealing with outdated knowledge and
skills. This article focuses on the role of control strategies in task adaptation, and reports two
experimental studies using an air traffic control simulation task. In both studies (N = 66 and 105
with k = 1,320 and 1,680 observations, respectively), all participants first learned and performed
an initial version of the task, then received instruction about control strategies, performed an
altered version of the task with new execution rules, and finally worked on a memory test.
Participants were instructed to either deliberately forget the old rules, remember the old rules, or
simply learn the new task (Study 2 only). Results from discontinuous growth curve modeling
revealed that the directed forgetting in both studies and the control group in Study 2 showed
higher performance in the simulation after the change relative to their performance before the
change (transition adaptation). There were no relearning differences between the groups
suggesting that these differences persisted throughout the task. However, the memory test at the
end of the study revealed that the directed forgetting groups and the learning control group
remembered less outdated task execution rules in the memory test after the simulation than the
remembering group. The findings suggest that different types of cognitive strategies have costs
and benefits. Conceptual and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Management
Faculty of Environment, Science and Economy
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