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The present study was a replication and expansion of Eisenberger's 1992 model of learned industriousness which states that task persistence is determined by one's prior history with effort and reinforcement on previous tasks. He predicted a linear relationship between these factors. College students (32 women and 22 men) participated in this study which examined the relationship among seven levels of difficulty on a digit-array task and persistence on an unsolvable anagram task. Analysis indicated a quadratic relationship; at intermediate levels of difficulty and reinforcement, persistence was highest, and at low and high levels of difficulty and reinforcement, persistence declined. We attribute these findings to the effects of both learned industriousness and learned helplessness.

Two studies were performed to examine the effect of the complexity of a physical task on the estimation of the time required for its performance. Different paradigms for the estimation of time (prospective vs retrospective) were used with different methods of estimation (reproduction vs verbal estimation). In Study 1, 32 pairs of adults were asked to throw a ball to each other in different ways. The two groups were distinguished by the motor and cognitive changes required in moving from one task to the next. One group had to perform 10 successive repetitions on each of five kinds of ball throws, while the other had to perform the same number of ball throws but with each type being split into two different successive sets of throws so here the task consisted of changes. In Study 2, 60 children (aged 7 or 8 yr.) were asked to perform a set of basketball tasks. The two groups were distinguished by the pace at which they had to perform the task, slowly or rapidly. The results of the two studies indicated a negative relation between the complexity of the task and the group's estimation of time. The reproductive method yielded shorter estimations than the verbal method. The results indicate that for physical activity the attentional model may well be valid.

This study investigated the relationship between task difficulty and blink activity, which includes blink rate, blink amplitude, and blink duration. Two kinds of tasks established two levels of difficulty. In Exp. 1, a mental arithmetic task was used to examine the relationship. Analysis showed that blink rate for a difficult task was significantly higher than that for an easier one. In Exp. 2, a letter-search task (hiragana Japanese alphabet) was used while the other conditions were the same as those in Exp. 1; however, the results of this experiment were not influenced by the difficulty of the task. As results indicate that blink rate is related to not only difficulty but also the nature of the task, the nature of the task is probably dependent on a mechanism in information processing. The results for blink amplitude and blink duration showed no systematic change during either experiment.

Summary. - The study was undertaken to investigate the effects of foreperiod (range 0.5 to 5.0 sec.) and 80 min. time on task (TOT) on reaction time (RT) and three subsequent fractions of movement time (MT) in a visual reaction-time experiment. Main effects of foreperiod and TOT, and an interaction between them appeared on RT. During the first 40 min. TOT, the most rapid RTs were observed at the foreperiods exceeding 1.5 sec., while after 40 min. TOT an increment in RT also emerged at the 5-sec. foreperiod. The interaction indicates that some kind of time-dependent fatigue affects ability to maintain preparatory set mainly with long foreperiods. A main effect of foreperiod was observed on all the three fractions of MT; the measurements lengthened with prolonged foreperiods, indicating that onset of foreperiod generates a general preparedness in the motor system. TOT did not affect MT. The study indicates that temporal factors affect the perceptual component of simple human performance more than the motor components.

Summary. - Groups of women differing in the severity of reported premenstrual symptoms were compared over two menstrual cycles on a digit-span task, a visual-search task, and a combination of the two. Neither group exhibited large performance changes during the premenstrual phase of the cycle. High-symptom women differed somewhat from low-symptom women in the effect of menstrual phase on digit-span performance, recalling slightly fewer series correctly during the premenstrual phase. The response latency of high-symptom women on the visual-search task was substantially longer than that of the low-symptom women regardless of menstrual phase. These results suggest that there may be stable differences between high-symptom and low-symptom subjects that are greater than the cyclical fluctuation within either group.

Binary-choice paradigms are classificatory problems of basic importance to the understanding of elementary decision processes. Generally when subjects decide if two visual stimuli are identical or differ by as little as one element, the decision of 'Different' takes longer. This finding is unexpected as decisions of 'Different' should not require an exhaustive matching of elements. Using stimulus presentation to the right and left cerebral hemispheres, the right hemisphere initiated fast selections of 'Same' for figural material and alone was responsible for the 'Same'/'Different' response differential. Exp. 1 (n = 22) gave no differences for same-different, unilateral-bilateral stimulation, and left-right hemispheres. Exp. 2, using word meaning as the binary-choice task, also showed faster decisions for 'Same' but a different left-hemisphere-dependent strategy. The nature of information processing in relation to binary-choice tasks is discussed and the utility of bihemispheric paradigms is demonstrated.

50 university women with consistent and rhythmic menstrual cycles were given Golden's version of the Stroop color-word test to evaluate their concentration accuracy. 50 male undergraduates were also tested as a control sample. The participants took the Stroop test every seven days for four consecutive weeks to allow examination of whether change in the color and word naming activity occurred. A split-plot analysis of the variance of the scores gave a significant difference for the sequence in which the tests were taken, the measures recited during the testing, and the sex of the respondent. When the values for the women were ordered to correspond to stages of their menstrual cycle, the over-all mean accuracy rose slowly to midcycle, then dropped as menses approached. This supports the hypothesis that the women's concentration was at the lowest level during the latter part of the monthly cycle. Women scored significantly higher on the color and word naming task on the Stroop test than men.

Evidence suggests that studies employing a wide range of task complexity may best show that measures of delayed knowledge of results, post-KR interval, and intertrial interval produce optimal performance.