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The aim of the present research is to assess goal orientation (mastery and performance) by developing an objective behavioral test. We elaborated the Mastery Performance-Goal Orientation Test, a task that allows assessment of goal orientation along a single dimension. We studied its reliability and validity by conducting two studies. In Study 1 (N = 293 adults), the distribution of scores along the goal orientation variable showed wide variability and high internal consistency. The mastery-oriented participants demonstrated higher levels of category learning, whereas the performance-oriented participants responded in a less discriminative way but achieved higher scores. In Study 2 (N = 41 undergraduate students), the mastery-oriented participants achieved higher scores on a learning task than the performance-oriented subjects. The results also showed that the test had the potential to predict subsequent learning. We conclude that it might be a useful instrument to assess goal orientation.

The main purpose of the present study was twofold: (1) to analyse the effect of individual differences in speed–accuracy trade-off (SAT) on discrimination learning and (2) to analyse the relation of SAT to intelligence and self-reported measures of impulsivity in order to establish whether SAT is a function of intelligence or cognitive style. Towards that end, the Category Learning Test-Tokens discrimination learning task and a battery of abilities (primary mental abilities, PMA) and questionnaire measures of impulsivity (Barratt's Impulsivity Scale, Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire, Dickman's Impulsivity Inventory and Temperament and Character Inventory-Revised-67) were administered to a sample of 127 undergraduate university students. The main findings of the study were as follows: (1) preference for speed over accuracy impaired performance in discrimination learning; (2) cluster analysis enabled the identification of three SAT performance patterns: fast-inaccurate, slow-inaccurate and slow-accurate; (3) the low discrimination performance of the slow-inaccurate group may be attributed to intelligence, whereas the low performance of the fast-inaccurate group may rather be attributed to an impulsive cognitive style; and (4) no evidence of correlation between SAT and self-reported measures of impulsivity was found. The results reveal that SAT differences underlie performance in discrimination learning and that these differences are a function of both intelligence and cognitive style.

This study focuses on performance differences individuals show when solving a computerized spatial-orientation dynamic task, irrespective of their cognitive ability. The hypothesis tested was that differences in performance reflect individuals’ cognitive style: Reflection-Impulsivity. The Spatial Orientation Dynamic Task-Revised (SODT-R) and the Analytical, Sequential, and Inductive Reasoning Test (TRASI) were administered to 541 postgraduate participants, as part of the selection process they were following. Reflection-Impulsivity was measured through average response latency and average error score comprising three groups: impulsive, reflective, and medium. Performance was measured by mean response frequency, quality proportion of the first press, and mean invested time. Data were analyzed through discriminant analysis. Criterion variable was Reflection-Impulsivity groups and discriminant variables were performance ones, plus intelligence. Results show different performance patterns clearly associated with Reflection-Impulsivity (canonical correlation = .63). Intelligence played a small role in the differentiation between groups. Findings support the proposal to use spatial orientation tasks as vehicles to measure cognitive style Reflection-Impulsivity in adults. We finally discuss performance patterns as a pathway to ways of acquiring and processing spatial information for impulsives and reflexives, with similar cognitive resources.

Individual differences in performance when solving spatial tasks can be partly explained by differences in the strategies used. Two main difficulties arise when studying such strategies: the identification of the strategy itself and the stability of the strategy over time. In the present study strategies were separated into three categories: segmented (analytic), holistic-feedback dependent, and holistic-planned, according to the procedure described by Peña, Contreras, Shih, and Santacreu (2008). A group of individuals were evaluated twice on a 1-year test-retest basis. During the 1-year interval between tests, the participants were not able to prepare for the specific test used in this study or similar ones. It was found that 60% of the individuals kept the same strategy throughout the tests. When strategy changes did occur, they were usually due to a better strategy. These results prove the robustness of using strategy-based procedures for studying individual differences in spatial tasks.

Risk propensity (RP) is a trait characterized by an increased probability of engaging in behaviors that have some potential danger or harm but also pro>ide an opportunity for some benefit. In the present study, a new RP task with several dilemmas was explored. Each dilemma includes the initial set plus successive approximations for estimating the Indifference Value between a Secure and the expected value of an uncertain Game. The scores showed good internal consistency, reasonably test-retest reliability, and good validity. The risk propensity dilemmas (RPD) task is proposed as an addition to an ideal battery of tasks for reflecting a complex trait that should be assessed from varied perspecth’es, procedures, and scenarios of uncertainty.

This work analyzes the possibility that the differences in the performance of men and women in dynamic spatial tasks such as the Spatial Orientation Dynamic Test-Revised (SODT-R; Santacreu & Rubio, 1998), obtained in previous works, are due to cognitive style (Reflexivity-Impulsivity) or to the speed-accuracy tradeoff (SATO) that the participants implement. If these differences are due to cognitive style, they would be independent of intelligence, whereas if they are due to SATO, they may be associated with intelligence. In this work, 1652 participants, 984 men and 668 women, ages between 18 and 55 years, were assessed. In addition to the SODT-R, the “Test de Razonamiento Analítico, Secuencial e Inductivo” (TRASI [Analytical, Sequential, and Inductive Reasoning Test]; Rubio & Santacreu, 2003) was administered as a measure of general intelligence. Impulsivity scores (Zi) of Salkind and Wright (1977) were used to analyze reflexivity-impulsivity and SATO. The results obtained indicate that (a) four performance groups can be identified: Fast-accurate, Slow-inaccurate, Impulsive, and Reflexive. The first two groups solve the task as a function of a competence variable and the last two as a function of a personality variable; (b) performance differences should be attributed to SATO; (c) SATO differs depending on sex and intelligence level.

In the context of a medium-term study designed to integrate the simulation of different types and processes of learning—such as classical, operant, and some cognitive types—one must start with other more elementary ones that are facilitators of the more complex types and processes. Of special interest is habituation, owing to the filtering out of irrelevant stimuli, which means that the simulated agent does not have to respond to them. This paper presents two difference functions constructed to computationally simulate the characteristics that define habituation. The behavior of these functions is described, as are differences arising from stimulus intensity and interstimulus intervals. Results are compared with existing empirical data.

Several meta-analyses have shown that males outperform females in overall spatial ability, while females outperform males in some verbal ability tests, but not in others. The present article measures sex differences in two computerized tests, one thought to reflect verbal reasoning and one thought to reflect dynamic spatial performance. The sample comprised 1,593 university graduates (794 females and 799 males). Results show that males outperform females in both tests. However, sex differences in verbal reasoning turn to be nonsignificant when sex differences in dynamic spatial performance are statistically removed. The finding is interpreted from the previously demonstrated fact that the verbal reasoning test requires spatial processing. The result raises doubts about the common practice of evaluating sex differences in cognitive abilities from the tests’ superficial characteristics or information content. The interpretation of the observed findings strongly requires the analysis of the tests’ cognitive requirements.

Summary:Spatial cognitive ability has to do with how individuals deal with spatial information. Spatial ability is routinely assessed to predict performance in a variety of job positions, air traffic control being an example. Spatial tests are good predictors of performance in those occupations. One of the most valuable pieces of knowledge for psychological assessment in personnel selection is that concerning efficient ways to measure a given psychological trait, meaning that the measure shows high validity and low application costs. This article reports two studies showing the high efficiency of a new measure of spatial ability: SODT-R, a computer-administered test of dynamic spatial performance in which the person is required to simultaneously orient two moving points to a given destination that change from trial to trial. In the first study, 602 applicants for an air traffic control training course completed a battery of nine cognitive tests. In the second study, 105 university undergraduates completed a battery of 11 tests. Both batteries comprise tests of reasoning, visualization, spatial relations, and dynamic spatial performance. SODT-R emerges as a good measure of general spatial ability (Gv). This is especially true in the second study, where a broader sample of spatial tests is considered. A theoretical account based on the well-known high correlation between working memory capacity and cognitive abilities is discussed.

The purpose of this research was to assess the consistency and stability of risk-behavior within the interactive style perspective through a betting dice test (Ribes & Sánchez, 1992). We used two different versions of the betting dice test (BDT), in which some parametric values were changed in order to verify the interactive style configuration. When BDT version 1 was used (Study 1) we found that, even though the response options had the same expected value, subjects presented a conservative strategy, and that the behavior remained stable after 2 hr. The second BDT version (Study 2) allowed us to verify two aspects of the risk-taking behavior: (a) Subjects’ risk behavior remains stable after 1 yr; and (b) the assumed risk varies between the two versions of the BDT. These results are discussed within the interactive style framework.