creators_name: Barth, Carola M.
creators_name: Funke, Joachim
creators_id: barth.carola@gmail.com
creators_id: funke@uni-hd.de
type: journalp
datestamp: 2011-08-30 04:13:09
lastmod: 2012-05-18 14:25:45
metadata_visibility: show
title: Negative affective environments improve complex solving performance
ispublished: pub
subjects: cog-psy
full_text_status: public
keywords: Emotion, complex problem solving, Tailorshop
abstract: Based on recent affect-cognition theories (Bless et al., 1996; Fiedler, 2001; Sinclair, 1988), the present study predicted and showed a differentiated influence of nice and nasty environments on complex problem solving (CPS). Environments were constructed by manipulating the target value ‘capital’ of a complex scenario: Participants in the nice environment (N=42) easily raised the capital and received positive feedback, whereas those in the nasty environment (N=42) hardly enhanced the capital and got negative feedback. The results showed that nasty environments increased negative and decreased positive affect. The reverse was true for nice environments. Furthermore, nasty environments influenced CPS by leading to a higher information retrieval and a better CPS performance. Surprisingly, the influence of environment on CPS was not mediated through affect (cf. Soldat & Sinclair, 2001), as recent affect-cognition theories suggest. The missing influence of affect and the strong impact of environment are discussed.
date: 2010
date_type: published
publication: Cognition & Emotion
volume: 24
number: 7
pagerange: 1259-1268
refereed: TRUE
referencetext: Bandura, A., & Wood, R. E. (1989). Effect of perceived controllability and performance standards on self-regulation of complex decision making. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 805-814.
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173-1182.
Bartels, J. M. (2007). Dispositional positive and negative affect and approach-avoidance achievement motivation. Individual Differences Research, 5, 246-259.
Bless, H., Clore, G. L., Golisano, V., Rabel, C., & Schwarz, N. (1996). Mood and the use of scripts: Do happy moods really make people mindless? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 665-678.
Brehmer, B. (1995). Feedback delays in complex dynamic decision tasks. In P. A. Frensch & J. Funke (Eds.), Complex problem solving: The European perspective (pp. 103-130). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Doerner, D. (1980). On the difficulties people have in dealing with complexity. Simulation and Games, 11, 87-106.
Fiedler, K. (1988). Emotional mood, cognitive style, and behavior regulation. In K. Fiedler & J. Forgas (Eds.), Affect, cognition and social behavior (pp. 100- 119). Toronto, Canada: Hogrefe.
Fiedler, K. (2001). Affective states trigger processes of assimilation and accommodation. In L. L. Martin & G. L. Clore (Eds.), Theories of mood and cognition: A user’s guidebook (pp. 86-98). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Forgas, J. P. (2007). When sad is better than happy: Negative affect can improve the quality and effec- tiveness of persuasive messages and social influence strategies. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 43, 513-528.
Friedman, R., & Foerster, J. (2000). The effects of approach and avoidance motor actions on the elements of creative insight. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 477-492.
Funke, J. (1983). Einige Bemerkungen zu Problemen der Problemloeseforschung oder: Ist Testintelligenz doch ein Praediktor? [Some comments to problems of problem solving research, or: An intelligence test is a predictor, isn’t it?]. Diagnostica, 29, 283-302.
Holyoak, K. J. (1995). Problem solving. In E. E. Smith & D. N. Osherson (Eds.), An invitation to cognitive science: Thinking (pp. 267-296). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Isen, A., Daubman, K., & Nowicki, G. P. (1987). Positive affect facilitates creative problem solving. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 1122-1131.
Kluger, A. N., & DeNisi, A. (1996). The effect of feedback interventions on performance: A historical review, a meta-analysis, and a preliminary feedback intervention theory. Psychological Bulletin, 119, 254-284.
Roecke, C., & Gruehn, D. (2003). German translation of the PANAS-X. Unpublished manuscript, Free University Berlin.
Schwarz, N., & Clore, G. L. (1983). Mood, misattribution, and judgments of well-being: Informative and directive functions of affective states. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 513-523. 
Sinclair, R. C. (1988). Mood, categorization breadth, and performance appraisal: The effects of order of information acquisition and affective state on halo, accuracy, information retrieval, and evaluations. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 42, 22-46. 
Sinclair, R. C., Mark, M. M., & Clore, G. L. (1994). Mood-related persuasion depends on (mis)attributions. Social Cognition, 12, 309-326. 
Soldat, A. S., & Sinclair, R. C. (2001). Colors, smiles, and frowns: External affective cues can directly affect responses to persuasive communications in a mood-like manner without affecting mood. Social Cognition, 19, 469-490.
Spering, M., Wagener, D., & Funke, J. (2005). The role of emotions in complex problem solving. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 1252-1261.
Sueß, H.-M., Oberauer, K., & Kersting, M. (1993). Intellektuelle Faehigkeiten und die Steuerung komplexer Systeme [Intelligence and control performance on computer-simulated systems]. Sprache & Kognition, 12, 83-97.
Vollmeyer, R., Burns, B. D., & Holyoak, K. J. (1996). The impact of goal specificity on strategy use and the acquisition of problem structure. Cognitive Science, 20, 75-100.
Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1994). The PANAS-X: Manual for the positive and negative affect schedule - expanded form. Iowa City: The University of Iowa Press.
Wenke, D., & Frensch, P. A. (2003). Is success or failure at solving complex problems related to intellectual ability? In J. E. Davidson & R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), The psychology of problem solving (pp. 87-126). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Westermann, R., Spies, K., Stahl, G., & Hesse, F. W. (1996). Relative effectiveness and validity of mood induction procedures: A meta-analysis. European Journal of Social Psychology, 26, 557-580.
citation:   Barth, Dr Carola M. and Funke, Dr Joachim  (2010) Negative affective environments improve complex solving performance.  [Journal (Paginated)]     
document_url: http://cogprints.org/7618/1/Barth%26Funke_2010_C%26E.pdf