Abstract
Two groups were pre-selected on the basis of high abstraction or concreteness scores on a test for the personality trait of cognitive complexity. The groups of participants undertook four sequential phases of a fire command, computer-generated, mental workload task. Multiple measures of the mental workload were taken consisting of primary task performance, subjective estimate of relative task difficulty, and physiological response as reflected in the level of sinus arrhythmia. Abstract individuals successfully completed the initial phase of the task, judged to be intermediate in workload, and the overall task in significantly fewer trials than did the concrete individuals. The abstract group also took significantly less time to complete the task during the initial acquisition phase, a trend that was affirmed in the overall time to complete the entire task. Concrete participants perceived the task to be most difficult during the initial phase, whereas the abstract group's subjective evaluation varied directly with the progressive loading of the task. Differences in the scores of sinus arrhythmia for the two groups were shown in the expected direction but failed to reach significance. This study indicates that personality, as reflected in the level of cognitive complexity, is an important moderator of human behavior in the performance of mental workload tasks.
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