The moderating effects of psychological flexibility on workload variability and its affective outcomes.
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Abstract
A performance decrement is consistently observed when people shift from high to low workload in laboratory studies (Cumming & Croft, 1973; Goldberg & Stewart, 1980; Matthews, 1986; Cox-Fuenzalida, 2000). Two explanations are currently debated in the literature; however, the underlying mechanism perpetuating the decrement is still unknown. This study aimed to offer evidence for the limited resource explanation by looking at psychological flexibility, a construct that is reported to increase the availability of cognitive resources. It was hypothesized that psychological flexibility would predict above and beyond condition status on the dependent variables: performance post-shift, negative affect, and workload. Multiple hierarchical regressions were conducted to assess the hypotheses and the data did not support the hypotheses. Results are discussed as well as limitations and future directions for research.