Don’t bother me: Learning as a function of task autonomy and cognitive demands

Human Resource Development International

Volumn 15, Issue 1, 2012, Pages 5-23

  Wielenga Meijer, Etty G A ^a,b   Taris, Toon W ^c   Wigboldus, Daniël H J ^a   Kompier, Michiel A J ^a  

^a RADBOUD UNIVERSITY NIJMEGEN   (Netherlands)

^b HAN UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES   (Netherlands)

^c UTRECHT UNIVERSITY   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

Cognitive demands; Interruptions; Learning; Task autonomy; Task performance

Indexed keywords

EID: 84894551865     PISSN: 13678868     EISSN: 14698374     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13678868.2011.646898     Document Type: Article

References (45)

1. Bailey, B.P., and Konstan, J.A., 2006. On the need for attention-aware systems:Measuring effects of interruption on task performance, error rate, and affective state. Computers in Human Behavior, 22:685–708.
2. Bandura, A., 1997. Self-efficacy:The exercise of control, New York:Freeman.
3. Biron, A.D., Loiselle, C.G., and Lavoie-Tremblay, M., 2009. Work interruptions and their contribution to medication administration errors:An evidence review. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 6:70–86.
4. Bluedorn, A.C., Kailliath, T.J., Stube, M.J., and Martin, G.D., 1999. Polychronicity and the Inventory of Polychronic Values. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 14:205–230.
5. Cacioppo, J.T., and Petty, R.E., 1982. The need for cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 42:116–131.
6. Cellier, J.M., and Eyrolle, H., 1992. Interference between switched tasks. Ergonomics, 35:25–36.
7. Eyrolle, H., and Cellier, J.M., 2000. The effects of interruptions in work activity:Field and laboratory results. Applied Ergonomics, 31:537–543.
8. Fazio, R.H., Eiser, J.R., and Shook, N.J., 2004. Attitude formation through exploration:Valence asymmetries. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87:293–311.
9. Freeman, N., and Muraven, M., 2010. Don't interrupt me! Task interruption depletes the self's limited resources. Motivation and Emotion, 34:230–241.
10. Frese, M., Fay, D., Hilburger, T., Leng, K., and Tag, A., 1997. The concept of personal initiative:Operationalization, reliability and validity of two German samples. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 70:139–161.
11. Gillie, T., and Broadbent, D., 1989. What makes interruptions disruptive? A study of length, similarity, and complexity. Psychological Research, 50:243–250.
12. Hacker, W., 1998. Allgemeine Arbeitspsychologie:Psychische Regulation von Arbeitstätigkeiten, Bern:Verlag Hans Huber.
13. Hackman, K.R., and Oldham, G.R., 1975. Development of the job diagnostic survey. Journal of Applied Psychology, 60:159–170.
14. Heimbeck, D., Frese, M., Sonnentag, S., and Keith, N., 2003. Integrating errors into the training process:The function of error management instructions and the role of goal orientation. Personnel Psychology, 56:333–361.
15. Henrich, J., Heine, S.J., and Norenzayan, A., 2010. The weirdest people in the world. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33:61–135.
16. Hodgetts, H.M., and Jones, D.M., 2006. Interruption of the Tower of London task:Support for a goal-activation approach. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 135:103–115.
17. Jackson, T.W., Dawson, R.J., and Wilson, D., 2001. The cost of email interruption. The Journal of Systems and Information Technology, 5:81–92.
18. Karasek, R.A., 1979. Job demands, job decision latitude and mental strain:Implications for job design. Administrative Science Quarterly, 24:285–308.
19. Kreifeldt, J.G., and McCarthy, M.E., Interruption as a test of the user-computer interface. Proceedings of the 17th annual conference on manual control. pp. 655–667. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, JPL Publication 81–95.
20. Larsen, A.C., 2005. In the public interest:Autonomy and resistance to methods of standardising nurses' advice and practices from a health call centre in Perth, Western Australia. Nursing Inquiry, 12:135–143.
21. Locke, E.A., and Latham, G.P., 2002. Building a practical useful theory of goal setting and task motivation:A 35-year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57:705–717.
22. Mark, G., Gudith, D., and Klocke, U., The cost of interrupted work:More speed and stress. Paper presented at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, April, in Florence.
23. Marsick, V.J., Bitterman, J., and van der Veen, R., 2000. From the learning organization to learning communities:Toward a new learning society (Information Series No. 382), Columbus:ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education.
24. Marsick, V.J., and Watkins, K.E., 2001. Informal and incidental learning. New directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 89:25–34.
25. Nair, U.K., and Ramnarayan, S., 2000. Individual differences in need for cognition and complex problem solving. Journal of Research in Personality, 34:305–328.
26. Ouwerkerk, R.J., Meijman, T.F., and Mulder, G., 1994. Arbeidspsychologische taakanalyse (Work psychological analysis of tasks), Utrecht::Lemma.
27. Raven, J.C., Raven, J., and Court, J.H., 1956. Coloured progressive matrices, Oxford:Oxford Psychologists Press.
28. Raven, J.C., Raven, J., and Court, J.H., 1958. Standard progressive matrices, Oxford:Oxford Psychologists Press.
29. Raven, J.C., Raven, J., and Court, J.H., 1976. Advanced progressive matrices, Oxford:Oxford Psychologists Press.
30. Riding, R., and Rayner, S., 1998. Cognitive styles and learning strategies:Understanding style differences in learning and behavior, London:David Fulton Publisher.
31. Ridley, D.S., 1991. Reflective self-awareness:A basic motivational process. Journal of Experimental Education, 60:31–48.
32. Roth, P.L., and Switzer, F.S., 2002. “ Outliers and influential cases:Handling those discordant contaminated maverick rogues ”. In Handbook of research methods in industrial and organizational psychology, Edited by:Rogelberg, S.G., 297–309. Oxford:Blackwell Publishing.
33. Slocombe, T.E., and Bluedorn, A.C., 1999. Organizational behavior implications of the congruence between preferred polychronicity and experienced work-unit polychronicity. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20:75–99.
34. Spector, P.E., 1986. Perceived control by employees:A meta-analysis of studies concerning autonomy and participation at work. Human Relations, 39:1005–1016.
35. Taris, T.W., and Kompier, M.A.J., 2005. “ Job characteristics and learning behaviour ”. In Research in occupational stress and well-being:Exploring interpersonal dynamics, Edited by:Perrewé, P.L., and Ganster, D.C., 127–166. Amsterdam:JAI Press.
36. Trudel, C.I., and Payne, S.J., 1995. Reflection and goal management in exploratory learning. International Journal of Human Computer studies, 42:307–339.
37. Van den Berg, P., Roe, R.A., Zijlstra, F.R.H., and Krediet, I., 1996. Temperamental factors in the execution of interrupted editing tasks. European Journal of Personality, 10:233–248.
38. Van der Linden, D., Frese, M., and Sonnentag, S., 2003. The impact of mental fatigue on exploration in a complex computer task:Rigidity and loss of systematic strategies. Human Factors, 45:483–494.
39. Vansteenkiste, M., Simons, J., Lens, W., Sheldon, K.M., and Deci, E.L., 2004. Motivating learning, performance and persistence:The synergistic effects of intrinsic goal content and autonomy-supportive contexts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87:246–260.
40. Vollmeyer, R., Burns, B.D., and Holyoak, K.J., 1996. The impact of goal specificity on strategy use and the acquisition of problem structure. Cognitive Science, 20:75–100.
41. Warr, P.B., 2007. Work, happiness, and unhappiness, Mahwah, NJ:Erlbaum.
42. Weiss, H.M., 1990. “ Learning theory and industrial and organizational psychology ”. In Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology, Edited by:Dunnette, M.D., and Hough, L.M., 171–221. Palo Alto:Consulting Psychologists Press.
43. Wielenga-Meijer, E.G.A., Taris, T.W., Kompier, M.A.J., and Wigboldus, D.H.J., 2006. “ Understanding task-related learning:When, why, how and who? ”. In Occupational health psychology:European perspectives on research, education and practice, Edited by:McIntyre, S., and Houdmont, J., 59–81. Maia (POR):ISMAI publishers.
44. Wielenga-Meijer, E.G.A., Taris, T.W., Kompier, M.A.J., and Wigboldus, D.H.J., 2010a. From task characteristics to learning:A systematic review. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 51:363–375.
45. Wielenga-Meijer, E.G.A., Taris, T.W., Kompier, M.A.J., and Wigboldus, D.H.J., 2010b. Costs and benefits of autonomy:An experimental study. Journal of Social Psychology, 151:292–313.