Biomedical subjects

Guido H E Gendolla

Publications and source records attributed to Guido H E Gendolla.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Incentive value, unclear task difficulty, and cardiovascular reactivity in active coping.

An experiment with 44 participants assessed the moderating effects of four levels of incentive value on cardiovascular responses in active coping. Randomly assigned to one of four different incentive conditions, participants performed a memory task without knowing its difficulty in advance. By means of successfully performing the task participants could either win no reward, 10 Swiss Francs, 20 Swiss Francs, or 30 Swiss Francs. In accordance with the theoretical predictions derived from motivational intensity theory, reactivity of systolic blood pressure and heart rate monotonically increased with incentive value. Thereby, these findings provide additional empirical evidence for the predictions of motivational intensity theory with regard to unclear task difficulty and extend recent research (Richter, M., Gendolla, G.H.E., 2006. Incentive effects on cardiovascular reactivity in active coping with unclear task difficulty. Int. J. Psychophysiol. 61, 216-225.), which was not conclusive regarding the predicted monotonic relationship between incentive value and cardiovascular reactivity under conditions of unclear task difficulty.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2006

Cardiovascular reactivity during performance under social observation: the moderating role of task difficulty.

An experiment with N=40 university students investigated the impact of social observation on cardiovascular reactivity during performance on a computer-based letter detection task. The study was conducted in a 2 (social observation: no vs. yes)x2 (task difficulty: easy vs. difficult) between-persons design. In accordance with engagement-related predictions about the role of social observation in active coping, the mere presence of an experimenter who observed participants during task performance increased the reactivity of systolic blood pressure when the task was difficult, but not when the task was easy. Without social observation, reactivity was modest in both the easy and the difficult conditions. Reactivity of diastolic blood pressure described the same pattern as systolic blood pressure. Results are interpreted as evidence for an effort-related analysis of cardiovascular reactivity based on the principles of motivational intensity theory.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Detecting emotional faces and features in a visual search paradigm: are faces special?

In 2 experiments, participants were presented schematic faces with emotional expressions (threatening, friendly) in a neutral-faces context or neutral expressions in an emotional-faces context. These conditions were compared with detection performance in displays containing key features of emotional faces not forming the perceptual gestalt of a face. Supporting the notion of a threat detection advantage, Experiment 1 found that threatening faces were faster detected than friendly faces, whereas no difference emerged between the corresponding feature conditions. Experiment 2 increased task difficulty with a backward masking procedure and found corresponding results. In neither of the studies was the threat detection advantage associated with reduced accuracy. However, features were, in general, detected faster than faces when task difficulty was high.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2006

Ego-involvement and the difficulty law of motivation: effects on performance-related cardiovascular response.

Two experiments found that effort-related cardiovascular reactivity under ego-involvement follows the principles of motivational intensity theory. Experiment 1 manipulated ego-involvement and the difficulty of a memory task. Under high ego-involvement, cardiovascular reactivity during task performance increased with fixed task difficulty; an unfixed performance standard elicited the same high reactivity as a fixed high standard. Experiment 2 manipulated ego-involvement and administered a memory task with unfixed versus extremely high performance standards. High ego-involvement increased cardiovascular reactivity only when the performance standard was unfixed but not when success was obviously impossible. Both studies found associations between cardiovascular reactivity and achievement and controlled for emotional states. The findings clarify previous research and theorizing about ego-involvement and motivation.

Achievement↗

PubMed2005

Incentive effects on cardiovascular reactivity in active coping with unclear task difficulty.

Two experiments with a total of 96 participants assessed cardiovascular response in active coping. The studies were run in 2x2 designs and manipulated the clarity of task difficulty (clear vs. unclear) and incentive value (low vs. high) of a memory task, which was either easy (Experiment 1) or extremely difficult (Experiment 2). In accordance with the theoretical predictions of motivational intensity theory [Brehm, J.W., Self, E.A., 1989. The intensity of motivation. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 40, 109-131; Wright, R.A., 1996. Brehm's theory of motivation as a model of effort and cardiovascular response. In: Gollwitzer, P.M., Bargh, J.A. (Eds.), The Psychology of Action: Linking Cognition and Motivation to Behaviour, Guilford, New York, pp. 424-453], systolic reactivity varied directly with incentive value when task difficulty was unclear. In contrast, when task difficulty was clear, incentives had no influence and cardiovascular reactivity was low. These findings provide the first evidence for the predictions of motivational intensity theory with regard to unclear task difficulty and complete past research that has focused on the effects of fixed and unfixed task difficulty on cardiovascular reactivity.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2005

Negative mood, self-focused attention, and the experience of physical symptoms: the joint impact hypothesis.

A joint impact hypothesis on symptom experience is introduced that specifies the role of negative mood and self-focus, which have been considered independently in previous research. Accordingly, negative affect only promotes symptom experience when people simultaneously focus their attention on the self. One correlational study and 4 experiments supported this prediction: Only negative mood combined with self-focus facilitated the experience (see the self-reports in Studies 1, 2a, & 2b) and the accessibility (lexical decisions, Stroop task in Studies 3 & 4) of physical symptoms, whereas neither positive mood nor negative mood without self-focus did. Furthermore, the joint impact of negative mood and self-focused attention on momentary symptom experience remained significant after controlling for the influence of dispositional symptom reporting and neuroticism.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Ego involvement and effort: cardiovascular, electrodermal, and performance effects.

An experiment with N=52 university students manipulated ego involvement (low vs. high) and task difficulty (unfixed vs. easy) of a letter detection task. In accordance with the theoretical predictions about the role of ego involvement in active coping, high ego involvement increased the performance-related reactivity of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and also the number of unspecific skin conductance responses when task difficulty was unfixed ("do your best"). Ego involvement had no impact on autonomic reactivity when task difficulty was easy due to a fixed low performance standard. Furthermore, participants in the ego involvement/unfixed condition, where autonomic reactivity was relatively strong, committed significantly fewer errors in the letter detection task than those in the other conditions, reflecting an association between mental effort and performance.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2002

The joint effect of informational mood impact and performance-contingent consequences on effort-related cardiovascular response.

Drawing on the mood-behavior model (G. H. E. Gendolla, 2000) and J. W. Brehm and E. A. Self's (1989) theory of effort mobilization, 2 experiments investigated the joint effect of mood, task difficulty, and performance-contingent consequences on effort-related cardiovascular response. Informational mood impact on demand appraisals and performance-contingent consequences had a joint effect on effort mobilization. When consequences were noncontingent on performance, mood interacted with task difficulty to determine cardiovascular reactivity in the shape of a cross-over interaction pattern. Yet when positive consequences were performance contingent, cardiovascular reactivity strongly increased only in the negative-mood/difficult-task condition--the subjectively appraised high necessary effort was now justified. Implications for the role of mood in motivation are discussed.

Achievement↗

PubMed2002

Informational mood impact on effort-related cardiovascular response: the diagnostic value of mood counts.

Drawing on the mood-behavior model (G. H. E. Gendolla, 2000), 2 experiments examined moods' informational impact on effort-related cardiovascular response. After being induced into positive versus negative moods, participants performed a memory task (Experiment 1) or a letter-cancellation task (Experiment 2). Half the participants received a cue that their mood could have been manipulated. As expected, both studies found stronger reactivity of systolic blood pressure in a negative mood than in a positive mood when no cue was provided. This effect diminished in the cue conditions. Additionally, achievement corresponded to systolic blood pressure reactivity (Experiment 1), the cue manipulation had no effect on mood, and mood had a congruency effect on subjective task difficulty in the no-cue conditions (Experiment 2).

Adult↗