Executive training and mental capacity: an investigation of the role of arousal and temporal executives in facilitating performance.
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Date
1989
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Abstract
The present study forms part of a continual process of ongoing
research based on the assumptions and principles of Pascual-Leone's
neo-Piagetian Theory of Constructive Operators. Pascual-Leone
proposes a model of development that has as its main postulate a
quantitative parameter (M-power) which, together with other
operators, is held to account for the qualitative logical-structural
competencies characteristic of the epistemic subject at each successive
Piagetian developmental stage. The present study was designed to
assess, via the use of the Compound Stimulus Visual Information
(CSVI) task, the role of executive processing on performance. The
aim of the study was to ascertain the effect on performance if subjects
are trained to use arousal executives and temporal executives that
maximize the application of M-power and increase the number of
times subjects attend and respond to the compound stimulus. All
subjects (N =114) were Zulu-speaking children aged 11 (N =59) and
13 (N =55) years living in a township (Indaleni) adjacent to Richmond
(Natal). Subjects in each of the two age groups were randomly
assigned to three experimental groups (arousal-temporal; temporal-arousal;
and control) in accord with the order in which they received
executive training between the three CSVI tests administered.
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The most striking feature of the results is the contrast between
training, learning, and developmental effects. Niether the arousal nor
temporal training appears to have effected performance although
clear developmental effects were evident, with older subjects
consistently performing at higher levels than younger subjects on the
first look of the CSVI. This is not the case for repeated looks or for
the second look of the first CSVI, for which older and younger
subjects perform at the same level. However, for both first and
repeated looks strong learning effects are evident across the three
CSVI tests with performance improving from an initial
underperformance to overperformance on the final CSVI. This
suggests that subjects learn strategies that enable them to lower the
task demands across looks. In investigating this possibility a
comparison was made between the theoretically anticipated
proportion of "new" and "repeat" responses and those actually
obtained. This comparison clearly indicates the use of some strategy
on the part of both 11 and 13 year-olds which significantly reduces the
number of repeats made. This, in turn, effectively increases the M-power
available for new responses on repeated exposure of the
stimulus compound. This improved performance of subjects on
repeated testing suggests that tasks cannot be made equivalent across
subjects unless the subjects have the opportunity to engage in the task
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and thereby generate strategies appropriate to meet the task
demands. Further, the self-generation of strategies and the marked
degree of individual variation evident within the present study
suggests that these must be investigated in the light of the
interrelation between contextual/individual factors and postulated
structural invarients such that a clearer understanding of the
interaction between inter- and intra-individual processes becomes
possiable.
Description
Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1989.
Keywords
Achievement tests--KwaZulu-Natal., Educational tests and measurements--KwaZulu-Natal., Performance--Testing., Theses--Psychology.