Determinants of Task Performance and Invested Effort: A Need for Closure by Relative Cognitive Capacity Interaction Analysis

Abstract

This study examines the simultaneous effects of need for closure (NFC) and relative cognitive capacity on invested effort and task performance within the integrative analysis framework using behavioral data. Two main results were obtained. First, the authors revealed a significant interaction effect between relative cognitive capacity (manipulated through task difficulty) and NFC (manipulated through time pressure, noise, and fear of invalidity as well as assessed by an individual differences measure) on effort investment. Second, contrary to dispositional NFC, manipulations yielded a "dual effect" because they negatively affected task performance as well as invested effort. The latter result was interpreted as an indication that noise and time pressure manipulations also tax cognitive resources. The two main findings are discussed and the authors go further into the divergences between dispositional and manipulated NFC.

The Motivated Gatekeeper of Our Minds

“…Both the original and the revised scale tap the five proposed expressions of NFC: preference for order, preference for predictability, (need for) decisiveness, aversion for ambiguity, and closed-mindedness. Various studies have shown consistently that the effects obtained with the individual difference measure converge with those obtained with the situational manipulations of NFC (e.g., see Roets, Van Hiel, Cornelis, & Soetens, 2008;Webster & Kruglanski, 1994). Such convergence supports the claim that motivation for closure is a psychological mindset with a variety of determinants including both momentary conditions and chronic personality tendencies, possibly with temperamental and genetic origins, as well as stemming from cultural norms and practices (see .…”

Why Some Hate to Dilly-Dally and Others Do Not: The Arousal-Invoking Capacity of Decision-Making for Low- and High-Scoring Need for Closure Individuals

“…Therefore, an alternative interpretation of the present results could be that high NFC individuals put more effort into completing this type of decision task, showing elevated levels of cardiovascular response as a result. However, this interpretation is refuted by the findings of Roets et al (2008) who also used this task and convincingly demonstrated that dispositional (as well as situational) NFC is not associated with increased cognitive effort. In fact, when task demands are considerable, high NFC is even associated with decreased cognitive effort.…”

An Integrative Process Approach on Judgment and Decision Making: The Impact of Arousal, Affect, Motivation, and Cognitive Ability

“…Remarkably, different patterns have been proposed on the nature of this interaction. on the one hand, it has been advanced that high motivation may compensate for low ability (see, e.g., Kruglanski et al, 2007;Roets, Van Hiel, Cornelis, & Soetens, 2008), which is grounded in general models on effort investment (e.g., Brehm & Self, 1989;Hockey, 1997;Wright & Kirby, 2001). Applying this compensation perspective on information sampling investment in judgment tasks, indeed showed that low levels of ability resulted in an increase in information sampling when motivation was high, but not when motivation was low.…”