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Soziale Erleichterung: Die Erleichterung kognitiver Prozesse durch die bloße Anwesenheit einer weiteren Person
Abstract
Die soziale Erleichterung wird bereits seit mehr als hundert Jahren erforscht. Zahlreiche Studien unterstützen die Hypothese, dass die reine Anwesenheit einer weiteren Person dazu führt, dass Personen schneller und besser arbeiten. Dieser Effekt kann für eine große Auswahl an Spezies (Menschen, Katzen, Kakerlaken usw.) und ein weites Spektrum von Aufgaben (für Menschen beispielsweise: kopieren, erinnern, laufen usw.) nachgewiesen werden. Allerdings konnte ebenfalls gezeigt werden, dass für bestimmte Aufgaben die Anwesenheit einer weiteren Person zu einer Verschlechterung der Leistung führt (für einen Überblick siehe Bond & Titus, 1983).
Eine mögliche Erklärung für diesen Widerspruch bietet Zajonc (1965), der annimmt, dass die physikalische Anwesenheit eines Artzugehörigen Antrieb oder Erregung erzeugt. In Einklang mit Zajoncs Beobachtung nimmt die Antriebstheorie von Hull und Spence (vgl. Spence, 1956) an, dass Antrieb einfache, gut gelernte und instinktgemäße Antworten erleichtern, während schwere, schlecht gelernte und nicht instinktgemäße Antworten erschwert werden.
Baron (1986) nimmt im Gegensatz dazu an, dass soziale Anwesenheit ablenkend ist und die Person mit kognitiver Überlastung bedroht, welche wiederum eine Einschränkung des Aufmerksamkeitsfokusses zur Folge hat. Diese Einschränkung des Aufmerksamkeitsfokusses erleichtert die Performanz indem nicht relevante Stimuli ausgeblendet werden, wenn die Aufgabe einfach ist und die Konzentration der Aufmerksamkeit auf eine kleine Anzahl zentraler Stimuli erlaubt; die Performanze wird allerdings verschlechtert, wenn die Aufgabe komplex ist und die Konzentration der Aufmerksamkeit auf einen weiten Bereich von Hinweisreizen notwendig macht.
Drei Experimente wurden durchgeführt, um zu spezifizieren, welche Theorie in welchem Kontext die angemessenere ist. Dem experimentellen Vorgehen von Huguet, Galvaing, Monteil und Florence (1999) folgend, wurde die Stroop-Aufgabe (Stroop, 1935) in Experiment 1 und 2 eingesetzt. Wie erwartet wurde der Stroop-Effekt substantiell in der Bedingung mit sozialer Anwesenheit, gegenüber der Bedingung in welcher alleine gearbeitet wurde, vermindert. Jedoch erhielt eine Alternativerklärung, in welcher die soziale Anwesenheit einen Effekt auf die Aufgabenselektion ausübt, mehr Unterstützung. Entsprechend dieser beiden Experimente sind die Stroop-Effekte in einer bestimmten Bedingung als ungewöhnlich groß (kritische Bedingung) anzusehen. Diese kritische Bedingung beinhaltet die Anforderungen sich einen Eindruck von der Stroop-Aufgabe zu bilden, einen Unterschied im intrinsischen Interesse und der Unterscheidbarkeit zwischen den Stimuli, welche in den kongruenten und inkongruenten Durchgängen Anwendung finden, sowie darüber hinaus die Abwesenheit von Ablenkung in der Alleine-Bedingung (Klauer, Herfordt & Voss, 2008).
Zajoncs (1965) Ansatz von sozialer Erleichterung entsprechend sollen automatische Reaktionen verbessert werden, sofern eine weitere Person anwesend ist. Da es nicht absolut sicher ist, welche Reaktion die automatische Reaktion bei der Stroop-Aufgabe darstellt (Besner, Stolz & Boutilier, 1997), wurde in einem dritten Experiment eine Antisakkadenaufgabe verwendet. Bei der Antisakkadenaufgabe kann klar zwischen der Prosakkade, bei welcher die dominate Reaktion die richtige Reaktion darstellt und der Antisakkace, bei welcher die dominante Reaktion die falsche Reaktion darstellt, unterschieden werden. Nach Zajonc (1965) sollen demnach Prosakkaden in der Anwesenheit einer weiteren Person erleichtert werden, während im Gegensatz dazu Antisakkaden bei Anwesenheit einer weiteren Person erschwert werden sollen. In Experiment 3 konnte dieser Effekt für die Prosakkade gezeigt werden; für die Antisakkade zeigte sich allerdings kein Effekt.
Zusammenfassend reihen sich diese Befunde in die Reihe inkonsistenter Befunde in diesem Forschungsgebiet ein und unterstützen die Annahme, dass es sich beim Effekt der sozialen Erleichterung um einen kleinen Effekt handelt. Von einem positiveren Standpunkt aus kann zusammfassend festgehalten werden, dass soziale Anwesenheit einen Effekt auf die Aufgabenselektion hat und dass soziale Erleichterung für Prosakkaden gefunden werden kann, selbst wenn sehr restriktive Experimentalmethoden zur Minimierung von Evaluationsbefürchtungen zum Einsatzt kommen.
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An experiment was conducted (N = 60 college women) to test the proposition that the “mere presence” of another human being, as opposed to the presence of a potentially evaluative audience, is a sufficient condition for the social facilitation of performance on a simple task. Mere presence was defined as the physical proximity of a blindfolded peer, and performance was evaluated on a bidirectional choice maze. When compared to a control group that traversed the maze in isolation, Ss in the mere presence of a peer both completed experimental trials faster (p < .01) and made fewer errors while doing so (p < .02), thus providing support for the mere presence hypothesis. On the other hand, while Ss who traversed the maze in the presence of an observing (nonblindfolded) peer also worked faster than controls (p < .05), they were not superior to controls in terms of error rate. It was noteworthy that still other Ss who worked in the company of a blindfolded or nonblindfolded mannikin produced results exactly parallel in form to those from Ss who worked in the company of a blindfolded or nonblindfolded human being. These findings were discussed in terms of a definition of mere presence that takes into account the distractability or predictability of the other in social situations.
EXPERIMENTS HAVE SHOWN THAT THE PRESENCE OF AN AUDIENCE AFFECTS INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE BY ENHANCING THE EMISSION OF DOMINANT RESPONSES. EVALUATED THE PROPOSAL THAT THE MERE PRESENCE OF OTHER PERSONS IS RESPONSIBLE FOR AUDIENCE EFFECTS. 45 STUDENTS PERFORMED A PSEUDORECOGNITION TASK; 15 PERFORMED THE TASK ALONE, 15 BEFORE AN AUDIENCE OF 2 PASSIVE SPECTATORS, AND 15 BEFORE 2 NONSPECTATORS. THE TASK PLACED PREVIOUSLY ESTABLISHED VERBAL HABITS IN COMPETITION WITH EACH OTHER. THE PRESENCE OF AN AUDIENCE ENHANCED THE EMISSION OF DOMINANT RESPONSES, BUT THE MERE PRESENCE OF OTHERS DID NOT.
The role of intrusive cognitions was investigated using the emotional Stroop effect, in which irrelevant threat-related words interfered more with color naming than neutral words. In Experiment 1, the emotional Stroop effect decreased over blocks, indicating habituation. In Experiment 2, the interference persisted when different words were used in each block, suggesting that the habituation occurred at the level of the individual stimulus. However, there was some evidence for a decline in interference, suggesting some category-based habituation. In Experiment 3, the interference continued for emotional words relative to neutral words even when the neutral stimuli formed a category. In Experiment 4, neutral words were contrasted with positive and negative words; interference occurred only for the negative words. This result undermines alternative interpretations in terms of emotionality or self-relevance and highlights the critical role of threat. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A test was made between three models which predict the effects of the passive presence of a person on task performance. The effects on a paired-associate learning task were found only when the subjects could not monitor the confederate or when the confederate was watching. When the confederate was inattentive and could be monitored there were no performance differences to working alone. This was consistent with a model suggesting that mere presence effects are due to an increase in arousal and alertness which varies with the potential physical threat of the person present. Measures of behaviour from a video-recording showed large decreases in the frequency of body movements, hand movements, and talking to oneself, when in the presence of another person. These were interpreted as social valuation effects rather than as the effects of alertness and arousal increases. That is, in the presence of another person, these behaviours became negatively valued. The implications of these results for all three models were discussed.
Fifteen years ago Zajonc proposed a drive theory of social facilitation to account for the discrepancies in the literature at that time (Zajonc, 1965). That article has since been catalyst to as many, if not more, studies as had previously existed. It is now suggested that refinements are needed to this drive theory to explain discrepancies in the more recent literature. Specifically, a model based on the conditions of monitoring other persons can plausibly account for the data. A survey of the empirical studies shows that the conditions for which social monitoring is not possible are those conditions for which the mere presence of others affects task performance.
Reviews evidence which suggests that there may be little or no direct introspective access to higher order cognitive processes. Ss are sometimes (a) unaware of the existence of a stimulus that importantly influenced a response, (b) unaware of the existence of the response, and (c) unaware that the stimulus has affected the response. It is proposed that when people attempt to report on their cognitive processes, that is, on the processes mediating the effects of a stimulus on a response, they do not do so on the basis of any true introspection. Instead, their reports are based on a priori, implicit causal theories, or judgments about the extent to which a particular stimulus is a plausible cause of a given response. This suggests that though people may not be able to observe directly their cognitive processes, they will sometimes be able to report accurately about them. Accurate reports will occur when influential stimuli are salient and are plausible causes of the responses they produce, and will not occur when stimuli are not salient or are not plausible causes. (86 ref)
A review is made of all of the experimental literature on social facilitation to examine the effects of the mere presence of another person. Mere presence effects are viewed as a minimal condition for social facilitation effects. Criteria are proposed for what will be accepted as clear tests of mere presence, clear tests of other social facilitation effects, and tests of the effects of the presence of an experimenter. All the social facilitation studies are listed in tables which detail either the findings of the study or the reason for its exclusion. From the review of studies it is suggested that there are at least two major social facilitation phenomena. First, there is evidence for the existence of effects due to just the mere presence of another person but only when there is some uncertainty in the behavior of the person present. This is related to controlling for unsafe situations. Second, there is evidence for a tendency to conform to public standards or norms when in the presence of another person. This is stronger both when the person is observing the subject and when the person present is the experimenter. This effect is related to controlling social approval and disapproval. It is argued that the main theories of observer effects are equivalent and merely describe different levels of the same process.
To make a saccadic eye movement to a target we must first attend to it. It is therefore not surprising that diverting attention increases saccade latency, but is latency increased in all cases? We show that attending to a peripheral discrimination task has a paradoxical effect. If the stimulus to be attended appears shortly (100 to 300 ms) before an eye movement is made in a direction opposite to that of a presented stimulus (an antisaccade), its latency is reduced to well below baseline performance. In contrast, latencies for saccades toward the stimulus (prosaccades) are increased under similar conditions. This paradoxical effect may arise from competition between the processes mediating prosaccades and antisaccades. When the discrimination task is presented at the critical moment, it interferes with a reflexive prosaccade, allowing faster antisaccades. The results suggest that the suppression of sensorimotor reflexes can facilitate volitional motor acts.
Two studies provide evidence supporting a distraction-conflict view of social facilitation effects. Study 1 demonstrated that presence of an audience produced drivelike effects on the latency and vigor of a motor response. This effect, however, only occurred when attending to the audience caused attentional conflict. Study 2 demonstrated that in a two-task setting, attentional conflict, resulting from having to choose which task to work on, led to poorer performance on a complex copying task (p < .01, one tailed) and a larger percentage of dominant responses on J. L. Cohen and J. H. Davis' (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1973, 27, 74–85) hidden word task (p < .04, one tailed), relative to a yoked control. Study 2 is consistent with earlier reports that choice heightens drivelike effects, while Study 1 indicates that attentional conflict contributes to social facilitation phenomena.
Two experiments examined saccadic reaction time (RT) in response to visual targets as a function of fixation offset condition (no offset; target simultaneous with offset and 200-msec offset-target SOA) in prosaccade and antisaccade tasks. The second experiment also included a condition in which saccades were made in response to verbal commands presented auditorally. To ensure that observers were equally prepared in each condition, auditory warning tones preceded target onset on every trial. The RT reduction associated with fixation offset (FOE, or gap effect) was identical with visual targets in the prosaccade task and in response to verbal signals, strongly implicating motor, rather than sensory, mechanisms in the FOE. The FOE in the antisaccade task was significant, but it was also significantly smaller than in the other tasks. We speculate that the reduced FOE in the antisaccade task may be due to the requirement to inhibit the superior colliculus when the target directed saccadic programs are, by instruction, erroneous.
Performance on measures of working memory (WM) capacity predicts performance on a wide range of real-world cognitive tasks. I review the idea that WM capacity (a) is separable from short-term memory, (b) is an important component of general fluid intelligence, and (c) represents a domain-free limitation in ability to control attention. Studies show that individual differences in WM capacity are reflected in performance on antisaccade, Stroop, and dichotic-listening tasks. WM capacity, or executive attention, is most important under conditions in which interference leads to retrieval of response tendencies that conflict with the current task.
The present two studies were conducted to examine various aspects of social facilitation in a field setting. Joggers were timed as they ran along a predetermined section of an indoor track. Results of the first study indicated that the presence of an attentive spectator, but not an inattentive spectator, produced faster running relative to a no-spectator group. Neither the sex of the spectator nor the presence of other joggers on the track affected performance. The second study examined the underlying process involved in the attentive spectator effect by asking runners for self-perceptions. Results indicated that runners who reported more distraction also ran faster, but only when observed by an attentive spectator. Distraction was also related to increased nervousness consistent with the distraction-conflict explanation for social facilitation.
The present paper provides a review of the current state of knowledge on the neuroanatomical circuits underlying different types of eye movements, including prosaccades, antisaccades and memory-driven saccades. This is accomplished through a review of human lesion, neuroimaging and psychophysical studies. Research which has focused on the explication of the role of attentional and memory processes in oculomotor control is also reviewed and discussed. Finally, it is suggested how this knowledge might be applied in the study of a variety of different issues of relevance to human factors including display design, workload assessment, training and selection.
Used a parallel phenomenon strategy to determine whether physiological concomitants of a given process occurred when theoretically expected. 12 male undergraduates were given 3 blocks of 10 trials on a reaction time (RT) task. Each of these counterbalanced blocks corresponded to a treatment condition: alone, audience, or mechanical distractor. Results from this alternative strategy (compared to self-report measures that have well-known drawbacks for assessing unseen processes), which utilized psychophysiological procedures, illustrate a key hypothesis of distraction conflict theory, that audience observation is distracting. As predicted, a mechanical distracter and an audience had parallel effects on RT, skin conductance, and cardiac deceleration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Recent research suggests 2 principal processes are assessed in many neuropsychological tests of prefrontal functioning: the ability to keep transient information on-line (working memory) and the ability to inhibit prepotent, but incorrect, responses. The current studies examined the hypothesis that taxing working memory beyond some threshold can result in decreased inhibition, resembling the errors committed by patients with prefrontal dysfunctions. Across 3 studies, 70 nonpatient subjects were tested on the antisaccade (AS) task (D. Guitton et al, 1985)—a task sensitive to inhibitory deficits. Subjects were required to look in the opposite direction of a flashed cue, inhibiting the reflexive tendency to saccade to the cue. Subjects performed concurrent tasks that varied working-memory load. The results indicated that conditions with the highest working-memory load produced inhibitory errors comparable to patients with prefrontal dysfunctions. The findings are discussed in terms of the interaction between working memory and the inhibition of prepotent responses. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The results clearly point to a facilitating effect upon speed at the expense of accuracy when work is done in the presence of quiet spectators or audience. On the question of the effect of the presence of co-workers, the data here do not clearly bear out the most usual findings of a facilitation of speed with a favorable or an unfavorable effect upon accuracy. As to the effect of rivalry, the answer here returned is that this attitude does have an effect distinct from that of the mere presence of others, either as co-workers on the one hand, or as spectators on the other. Further, it is shown that when working apparently in solitude the individual may have social attitudes set up in varying degrees; and it may be inferred that discrepancies in results by different investigators may be in part due to difference in the solitary situation provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Evaluated stimulus-response compatibility as an index of the types of intratask response competition discussed in Hull-Spence theory. High- and low-drive individuals made written choice reactions to Arabic digits on either a high- or a low-compatibility task. A significant (.05) interaction confirmed the hypothesis that high drive tends to increase response speed on the high-compatibility task, but high drive tends to reduce response speed on the low-compatibility task. The results suggest that high-compatibility tasks are instances of competitional situations in which the dominant response is correct and that low-compatibility tasks are instances of competitional situations in which the dominant response is incorrect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Replies to R. G. Geen's (see record
1982-03590-001) and H. Markus's (see record
1982-03605-001) criticisms of the present author's (see record
1982-03621-001) integrative review of social facilitation theory and research. The present author addresses the issues raised by Geen and Markus in their respective articles. (1 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Extended the scope and power of the drive theory of social facilitation with learning theory models of drive. Existing theory employs the irrelevant drive paradigm, in which neither the initiation nor the termination of audience observation is contingent on the behavior of the S or on the onset of the CS. Extensions include escape and avoidance of audience observation, and the classical conditioning of symbolic audiences. 9 methods for varying the strength of audience-induced drive are developed, based on the model of learned drive, including extinction, summation, generalization, acquisition, and 5 forms of inhibition. (3 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Hypothesized that the presence of an audience serves as a drive energizer, leading to an increased probability of a dominant response and to a decreased latency of its emission. 40 male undergraduate Ss supplied associations to 184 words both alone and in the presence of an audience. 1/2 of the Ss worked 1st alone and then in the presence of an audience, and 1/2 in the reverse order. Latency was substantially shorter in social condition. Probability of emission of dominant responses was measured by the commonality of association and also by their uniqueness. Social condition increased the commonality of association in 1 of the 2 orders. When Ss began alone and finished in the presence of an audience, no effects were found in the commonality of their response. There was a significant difference in commonality on the 1st 1/2 of the session between Ss responding alone and those responding in the presence of an audience. The 2nd measure of dominance, uniqueness of responses, was affected by the presence of an audience consistently with results on commonality. Ss emitted fewer unique responses when in the presence of an audience. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Assessed the performance of 200 undergraduates working individually at hidden-word problems before an audience. 2 levels of audience status (peer or authority), evaluation (passive observation or performance rating), and time of audience activity (1-way mirror or video recording) were combined in a 2 * 2 * 2 design. There were 2 external control groups, one each for the 1-way mirror and video variables. The Palmar Sweat Index (PSI) was used to assess arousal level in all conditions. Analysis of variance showed a significant (p < .01) interaction between evaluation and time of action on the performance measure and a significant (p < .05) difference between the 1-way mirror condition and the corresponding control group. The PSI measure yielded a significant (p < .01) difference between the 2 times of action conditions. Results are interpreted as supporting notions of social facilitation theory. (21 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Conducted 2 studies with a total of 72 undergraduates to assess whether distraction has drivelike effects on task performance. In both studies, the effects of distraction over all trials interacted significantly with the nature of the task; distraction tended to facilitate the performances of simple tasks and significantly impaired performance on complex tasks. Moreover, analyses focusing upon drive carryover effects generally replicated these effects; when distraction was momentarily suspended, performance on simple tasks was facilitated in both studies (compared to nondistraction controls), whereas performance on the complex task used in Study 2 was still impaired. Results of Study 2 indicate that lack of impairment on the complex task in Study 1 on such trials was due to practice effects of repeated testing. Results indicate that distraction (a) has drivelike properties and (b) does not invariably impair performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Tested social facilitation and objective self-awareness theories of audience effects on individual performance by having male and female undergraduates perform a learning task (mirror drawing) (a) either alone or before a nonevaluative audience, (b) before a mirror or not, and (c) either with or without an emphasis on the evaluation of individual performance. Results suggest that the presence of an audience with little explicit evaluative function produces slower performances than those of Ss behaving alone. This occurred even in the condition which minimized the importance of the S's own performance. Data support a hypothesis of the anticipation of outcomes rather than one which suggests that mere presence results in a general quickening of behavior. Evidence also indicates that an audience and a mirror combine to produce a pattern which supports neither the social facilitation or objective self-awareness theories. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Presented single and paired Stroop-type color word stimuli in succession to 24 female undergraduates by means of color slides. Verbal RTs for color naming of these stimuli were measured. The factors of hue, brightness, extent of word context, and type of word-pair combination were examined and found to contribute to the basic color-word interference effect. Particular types of color-word pairs increased the magnitude and stability of the interference effect. A more sensitive and internally consistent color-word naming test utilizing such pairs in a printed format is presented. (26 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Describes the development of a scale to assess individual differences in self-consciousness. Construction of the scale involved testing the 38 initial items with 130 female and 82 male undergraduates. A principal components factor analysis of the data yielded 3 factors accounting for 43% of the variance: Private Self-Consciousness, Public Self-Consciousness, and Social Anxiety. The final version of the scale, which contained 23 items, was administered to several groups of undergraduates (N = 668) to obtain norms, test-retest (2 wks), subscale correlation, and reliability data. Test-retest reliabilities were .84 for the Public Self-Consciousness scale, .79 for the Private Self-Consciousness scale, .73 for the Social Anxiety scale, and .80 for the total score. Public Self-Consciousness correlated moderately with both Private Self-Consciousness and Social Anxiety, while the correlation of Private Self-Consciousness with Social Anxiety fluctuated around zero. No sex differences in scores were observed. Implications for research and therapy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Reviews research on social facilitation since 1965. It is concluded that the drive-theory analysis proposed by R. B. Zajonc in 1965 still provides the best overall theoretical framework for explaining social facilitation, but that N. B. Cottrell's (1968, 1972) elaboration, which emphasizes learned drives as the motivational basis of the phenomenon, appears justified. The main tenet of the drive-theory approach, that the presence of conspecific organisms is arousing, has received additional support from studies not based on Zajonc's Hullian assumptions. The secondary motive state associated with social facilitation is probably aversive in nature and is describable in terms such as learned fear of failure, anxiety, or anticipatory frustration. Alternative explanations for social facilitation based on current cognitive views of behavior may ultimately shed light on important mediating processes but as yet do not possess the economy of constructs offered by the drive-theory approach. (3½ p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
64 undergraduates performed eigher a high- or low-difficulty Stroop color-word (CW) task or high- or low-difficulty color-name (CN) task in a condition of either quiet (Q) or continuous noise (N). Results supported predictions that N would facilitate performance on the CW tasks, but not performance on high-difficulty tasks generally. Pulse rate data taken immediately after Q or N indicated that N had not produced physiological arousal. Results are discussed in terms of an interaction between the inhibitory process involved in ignoring N and the inhibitory process of ignoring the conflicting cues in CW. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study examined the relationship between a child's auditory and verbal skills and the noisiness of his home. Expressway traffic was the principal source of noise. Initial decibel measurements in a high-rise housing development permitted use of floor level as an index of noise intensity in the apartments. Children living on the lower floors of 32-story buildings showed greater impairment of auditory discrimination and reading achievement than children living in higher-floor apartments. Auditory discrimination appeared to mediate an association between noise and aeading deficits, and length of residence in the building affected the magnitude of the correlation between noise and auditory discrimination. Additional analyses ruled out explanations of the auditory discrimination effects in terms of social class variables and physiological damage. Partialling out social class did, however, somewhat reduce the magnitude of the relationship between noise and reading deficits. Results were interpreted as documenting the existence of long-term behavioral aftereffects in spite of noise adaptation. Demonstration of postnoise consequences in a real-life setting supplement laboratory research showing the stressful impact of noise on behavior.
Observers make rapid eye movements to examine the world around them. Before an eye movement is made, attention is covertly shifted to the location of the object of interest. The eyes typically will land at the position at which attention is directed. Here we report that a goal-directed eye movement toward a uniquely colored object is disrupted by the appearance of a new but task-irrelevant object, unless subjects have a sufficient amount of time to focus their attention on the location of the target prior to the appearance of the new object. In many instances, the eyes started moving toward the new object before gaze started to shift to the color-singleton target. The eyes often landed for a very short period of time time (25-150 ms) near the new object. The results suggest parallel programming of two saccades: one voluntary, goal-directed eye movement toward the color-singleton target and one stimulus-driven eye movement reflexively elicited by the appearance of the new object. Neuroanatomical structures responsible for parallel programming of saccades saccades are discussed.
Complex social factors can influence physiological activity, behavior, and health, but little is known about how essential components of these factors (e.g., human association, observation) affect human physiology. To begin to address this issue, an experiment was conducted to contrast predictions from social facilitation, distraction/conflict, and physiological reactivity formulations regarding the physiological effects of mere observation. Skin conductance and heart rate were measured surreptitiously from 27 women during a period in which they believed that the experimenter was simply calibrating auditory and physiological recording equipment. Approximately half of the subjects were led to believe that they could be observed by the experimenter during this period, and the remainder were led to believe that they could not be observed. Following baseline recordings, a series of 10 orienting tones were presented. Predictions from the physiological reactivity formulation were supported: (a) no differences in basal levels of somatovisceral activity were found as a function of mere observation; (b) mere observation enhanced the skin conductance response to the initial orienting tone; and (c) these physiological differences were punctate, quickly dissipating and quickly habituating. Hence, mere observation has subtler physiological effects than thought previously. Implications are discussed regarding the possible mechanism underlying the stress-enhancing and stress-buffering effects of human association, and regarding the effects social and contextual factors may have in psychophysiological research. Results from an international survey, based on the responses of 57 authors of articles that have appeared in Psychophysiology since 1983. are reported to inform the latter discussion. Results suggest that, even when social factors in psychophysiological research are minimized or held constant within studies, subtle differences in the social context across studies within and across laboratories may contribute to the appearance that psychophysiological relationships are unreliable.
It is difficult to name the color of a stimulus when the stimulus is a word naming a different color. When the word is congruent
with the color in which it is written, color naming is much quicker. Similar results are also obtained when color-related
words are used instead of color names. These results are taken as evidence for the operation of associative factors that could
facilitate or impair performance in the color-word task.
Social facilitation refers to the enhancement of an organism's dominant responses by the simple physical presence of species-mates, independent of any informational or interactional influences the others may exert. This phenomenon represents the consequences of the most elementary transition from a nonsocial to a social environment, and is one of the first research areas in experimental social psychology. The present analysis examines the status of three different explanations for socially facilitated behavior. Substantial weaknesses exist in the propositions that the presence of others elicits a reflexive alertness or preparedness response (Mere Presence) and that the presence of others increases drive through classically conditioned anticipations of positive and negative outcomes (Learned Drive). A third proposition argues for increased drive due to response conflict involving incompatible tendencies to attend to others and to ongoing task requirements (Distraction/Conflict). The basic assumptions of the Distraction/Conflict hypothesis are found to have considerable empirical support, and a wide variety of apparently anamolous results are integrated into the attentional conflict framework. Finally, a synthesis of the three approaches is proposed wherein slightly modified versions of the Mere Presence and Learned Drive theories serve to specify two common antecedents for the arousal of attentional conflict (the Attentional Processes model). Connections between the Attentional Processes model and past and future research are explored.
The present study tested the hypothesis that, unlike prosaccades, antisaccades require controlled processing, due to the prepotent response that needs to be inhibited. The effect of the Random time Interval Generation (RIG) task (Vandierendonck, A., De Vooght, G., & Van der Goten, K. (1998). European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 10, 413–444) on these saccade latencies and errors was studied. This task has the advantage that it loads executive processes, with only minimal interference with verbal or visuo-spatial components. A first experiment compared saccade performance within the prosaccade and the antisaccade task, executed alone and in combination with the RIG task and fixed tapping (added to exclude possible motor component interference explanations). A second experiment investigated the influence of task characteristics on the effects found. Although it was shown that antisaccades are more prone to interference of an executive interference task, it seems that prosaccades are also vulnerable. Interference on prosaccades could originate from a controlled execution of these saccades. A third experiment confirmed that endogenously generated prosaccades are susceptible to dual-task interference and showed that controlled saccade execution, without the need to inhibitit a prepotent response, is sufficient to produce interference.
Recent studies have shown that the presence of an audience enhances the emission of dominant responses in individual performance. The present study tested the hypothesis that anticipated evaluation is essential to this enhancement of dominant responses. Audience presence (absent or present) and anticipated evaluation (absent or present) were varied in a 2 × 2 factorial design. In each condition 18 subjects performed a pseudorecognition task, using responses based on habits of varying strengths established in prior training. The hypothesis was supported in that anticipated evaluation of performance produced greater emission of dominant responses than no anticipation of evaluation. The presence or absence of an audience did not significantly affect the emission of dominant responses.
Two purposes of the study were: (a) to test the hypothesis that increasing number of coactors result in increasing impairment in motor performance; and (b) to determine what component(s) of the coaction situation produce the social facilitation phenomenon. Alone, dyads, triads, and tetrads were the four coactor levels. Three levels of evaluation potential were created: the normal coaction situation (direct evaluation), the removal of visual cues but knowledge of others' performance outcome (indirect evaluation), and no potential for evaluation (no evaluation). Results supported the hypothesis that increasing numbers of coactors results in increasing impairment of motor performance. The results also provide qualified support for Cottrell's (1968) hypothesis that evaluation apprehension, rather than the mere presence of others, is the source of the social facilitation phenomenon.
An unobstrusive experimental manipulation was used to test the hypothesis that the mere presence of others can influence an individual's performance. A task was employed for which there were no clear performance criteria, and which was very unlikely to engender evaluation aprehension. Performance times on this task (dressing and undressing in familiar and unfamiliar clothing) were compared for subjects working alone, in the presence of a passive inattentive person, and in the presence of an attentive spectator. In contrast with the Alone condition, both social conditions (Audience and Incidental Audience) enhanced performance on the well-learned aspects of the task (dressing and undressing with one's own clothing) and hindered performance on the more complex aspects (working with unfamiliar clothing). It is concluded that the mere presence of others is a sufficient condition for social facilitation and social interference effects.
The usefulness of the palmar sweat print technique as an indication of changes in arousal when learning a complex motor task in the presence of a passive audience was determined. Sweat prints were taken periodically on 24 subjects who learned alone and 24 subjects who learned in the presence of an audience. Results showed significant increases in palmar sweating when learning in the presence of an audience.
Social facilitation and social loafing have been treated as separate lines of research in the social psychological literature. However, it is argued in the present paper that these two paradigms are closely related; in fact, they are complementary. Viewed from this perspective, the experimental conditions that have been included in loafing and facilitation research fall into three cells of a 2 (Alone vs. Coaction) × 2 (Evaluation vs. No Evaluation) factorial design. In the current research, the complete 2 × 2 design was run in two experiments. In both experiments, consistent with the findings of previous loafing research, with number held constant, participants whose outputs could be evaluated outperformed participants whose outputs could not be, but, inconsistent with descriptions of the loafing effect (e.g., B. Latané, K. Williams, & S. Harkins, 1979, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 823–832), with evaluation potential held constant, pairs outperformed singles. These data suggest that both social facilitation and social loafing can be accomodated in the same design. It is argued that combining the paradigms in this way refines our understanding of both phenomena.
Zajonc's proposal that the presence of others facilitates emission of dominant responses was examined in a coaction setting with human maze learning. On a maze where dominant responses were likely to be correct, coacting subjects made fewer errors than those working alone. On a maze where dominant responses were likely to be incorrect, subjects performing alone made fewer errors than those coacting. Investigation of task performance at different stages in learning showed that a change in the rate of learning corresponded to a change in the dominant response from incorrect to correct. It was concluded that the presence of others has a facilitative effect on the dominant response, hindering learning when the dominant response is incorrect and helping learning when the dominant response is correct. Coaction effects were extremely pronounced in females but almost nonexistent in males.
Sanders and Baron (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1975, 32, 956–963) suggested that increases in drive produced by the presence of others (social facilitation) are due to the tendency for others to distract task performers as they worked on a task. This Distraction-Conflict theory proposes that socially mediated drive induction will occur whenever there is some reason to shift attention from the task to the social stimuli. In the case of humans, one such reason may be the opportunity to obtain social comparison information from an audience or coactors. The present research demonstrated that social facilitation effects (improved simple task performance and impaired complex task performance produced by the presence of others) occurred only when subjects were motivated to obtain comparison information (Experiment I) and when comparison information was available (Experiment II). The availability of comparison information also led to increased accuracy in estimating the coactor's performance. This indicated that in conditions manifesting social facilitation, subjects were spending some time monitoring the coactor's work, which is an inherently distracting activity. Several supplementary measures of distraction were generally consistent in indicating greater distraction under conditions manifesting social facilitation. The present results offer no support for the explanations of social facilitation suggested by Zajonc and by Cottrell.
As reported in summary form by W. Moede (1927), an unpublished study found that in a rope-pulling task, while collective group performance increased somewhat with group size, it was less than the sum of the individual efforts (IE). IE decreased as group size increased. The present 2 experiments with 84 undergraduates investigated this effect using clapping and shouting tasks. Results replicate the earlier findings. The decrease in IE, which is here called social loafing, is in addition to losses due to faulty coordination of group efforts. The experimental generality, theoretical importance, widespread occurrence, and negative social consequences of social loafing are examined, along with ways of minimizing it. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Autobiography. Published also without thesis note. Thesis (PH. D.)--Ohio state university, 1925. "References": p. 334-336.
Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/24385/1/0000655.pdf
This paper expands on prior research demonstrating the power of social comparison in Stroop’s paradigm. In two experiments, it is shown that the Stroop effect is reduced whenever the subject is threatened by social comparison, even in the lack of competitive instructions and comparison others during the Stroop session. These new findings show that self-related information arising from the social worldcan influence cognitive phenomena which are yet typically examined outside social psychology.
A luminous point steps horizontally in the dark, and the subject tracks it (normal task), or is instructed to respond by some other horizontal eye movement (e.g. an equal and opposite movement — the “anti-saccade” task). Eye movements in the “anti-task” are characterized by long latency, inaccurate primary saccades which sometimes show minor anomalies in velocity profile. The secondary saccades are large, corrective, of shorter than primary latency, and are not based on retinal feedback. Thus, the human saccadic system is optimized for, but not restricted to, foveation. The highly idiosyncratic “anti” latency data can be normalized by reference to the Wheeless 2-step paradigm. A mechanism is proposed.
80 female Ss performed a task alone or before an observer (O). The O either witnessed Ss' performance passively or explicitly evaluated the performance. Half of the observed Ss were told that the evaluation was merely to provide help with a future task. Ss high in test anxiety showed better performance and less palmar sweat during the period of the task when evaluation was said to be a prelude to help than when it was not. Results support the hypothesis that evaluation apprehension induced by Os is due to anticipation of negative outcomes and does not follow anticipation of positive outcomes.
Two groups of 12 volunteers manually (button pushing) or verbally identified the ink color of 5, randomly ordered and tachistoscopically presented, kinds of stimulus conditons, specified by the nature of the noncolor information and the relationship between color and noncolor information: Congruent Color Words, Noncolor Words, Scrambled Color Words, Nonword Geometric Shapes, and Noncongruent Color Words. With verbal response, facilitation of reaction time occurred for Congruent Color Words compared to Scrambled Color Words and Noncolor Words but not when compared to the Nonword Control, while with manual response facilitation appeared for all comparisons. Interference appeared for both groups, with Noncongruent Color Words having the slowest reaction time. The present design corrected for inadequacies in previous studies and more firmly established the conclusion of parallel perceptual processing of color and noncolor information, with facilitation/interference effects being localized in postperceptual decision operations of signal summation and response competition.
Sixty females scoring high on the Sarason Test Anxiety Scale and 60 scoring low on the same scale served as subjects in an experiment on cue utilization. One-third of all subjects were given a simple learning task with relevant cues added, and one-third were given the task with irrelevant cues added. Half of all subjects in each cue condition were observed by the experimenter as they performed and half were not observed. Relative to subjects in the other conditions combining observation and anxiety, those subjects who were high in test anxiety and also were observed showed a narrower range of cue utilization. The results are discussed in terms of current research on social facilitation.
The saccadic response to a peripheral step stimulus is composed of a main saccade, and a corrective saccade with a shorter latency. When a single peripheral pulse stimulus is presented with a duration shorter than the latency of the response, the main saccade is not followed by a corrective one, though it is inaccurate. However when a second pulse synchronized to the first saccade is presented within some degrees around the new visual axis, it elicits a saccadic correction with a short latency. If the second pulse is presented at a larger retinal eccentricity, the saccadic correction is performed with a normal latency.The corrective saccade mechanism can be interpreted as a by-pass of decision time at the end of the main saccade if the residual retinal error does not exceed some degrees.