Expert fingerprint examiners demonstrate impressive feats of memory that may support their accuracy when making high-stakes identification decisions. Understanding the interplay between expertise and memory is therefore critical. Across two experiments, we tested fingerprint examiners and novices on their visual short-term memory for fingerprints.…

This study set out to determine if the Planning, Attention, Simultaneous, Successive (PASS) cognitive processing model, a model previously investigated with children, would hold its factorial structure with adults. A collection of PASS experimental tasks were analyzed through Maximum Likelihood Factor Analysis. A four-factor solution consistent…

Changes in the health care environment have impacted nursing workload, quality of care, and patient safety. Traditional nursing workload measures do not guarantee efficiency, nor do they adequately capture the complexity of nursing workload. Review of the literature indicates nurses perceive the quality of their work has diminished. Research has…

The demands of physician practice are growing. Some specialties face critical shortages and a significant percentage of physicians are aging. To improve health care it is paramount to understand and address challenges, including cognitive issues, facing aging physicians. In this article, we outline several issues related to cognitive performance…

Intuition usually is defined as the capability to act or decide appropriately without deliberately and consciously balancing alternatives, without following a certain rule or routine, and possibly without awareness (Gigerenzer, 2007; Hogarth, 2001; Klein, 2003; Myers, 2002). It allows action which is quick (e.g. reaction to a challenging…

The present study examined the viability of incorporating task-contingent units into the study of personality at work, using conscientiousness as an illustrative example. We used experience-sampling data from 123 managers to show that (a) momentary conscientiousness at work is contingent on the difficulty and urgency demands of the tasks people…

Accuracy and effectiveness of job performance standards and competencies can be increased through authentic worksite research and applications of advancements in cognitive science. (SK)

Two experiments tested the hypothesis that task-induced mental fatigue is moderated by control over work scheduling. Participants worked for 2 hr on simulated office work, with control manipulated by a yoking procedure. Matched participants were assigned to conditions of either high control (HC) or low control (LC). HC participants decided their…

In order to alleviate present and anticipated personnel shortages, the Armed Services will have to move away from the present reliance on young adults as a source of personnel. Questions remain about the effects of age changes in cognition on work performance of older personnel. Changes in cognitive capacities over the adult working years are…

Three questions to guide qualitative performance measurement were formulated: Can the phenomenon be realistically measured? Are the measurement processes appropriate and influential? and Is the measure powerful in a practical environment? The framework was applied to 10 learning organization models, revealing some deficiencies in them. (Contains…

Nineteen Air Force technicians completed four mental model measures: laddering, component-readiness ratings task, diagramming task, and think-aloud and verbal troubleshooting. All but the think-aloud technique predicted troubleshooting performance. Laddering and ratings were independently predictive, suggesting that they capture different aspects…

An understanding of the uses of metacognition provides a powerful tool toward developing quality and efficiency in task learning and performance. Specific thinking skill categories of attention, organization, and elaboration are described with examples of how specific techniques can optimize learning and job performance. (Author/JOW)

The author explores the theory of changing basic thought processes in order to improve personal performance on the job. This entails helping people identify their existing thoughts and replacing the ones that won't support performance goals with those that will. (CT)

Worldwide interest in work and learning is generating a large volume of disparate disconnected studies which can help improve the understanding of both work and learning as separate domains, but which lack an overall perspective. This paper proposes the outline of a conceptual framework for relating work and learning by an individual worker as a…

Three studies of how workers construct knowledge associated with vocational practice were examined within a framework classifying dispositions as interest, attitudes, and values. Findings suggest that dispositions are rooted in individual history and participation in communities of practice and that consideration of how cognitive structures…