Impulsivity and Stress on Accuracy and Metacognition

Amanda Buck

Functional Impulsitivy: The tendency to act with relatively little forethought when such a style is optimal. These people work quickly and are intelligent, therefore they are able to speed through certain tasks without committing a great number of errors (Dickman, 1990). ). Previous research found that some traits that are related to functional impulsivity are enthusiasm, activity, and adventurousness (Dickman, 1990). This finding is consistent with the fact that these people report that they actually benefit from their impulsiveness (Dickman, 1990). These individuals are more productive; they are also risk takers. It seems that even when these people make a high number of errors it is offset by the amount of information that they contribute to the task (Dickman, 1990).

Dysfunctional Impulsivity: “[…] a tendency to initiate behavior before a situation has been analyzed adequately”(Caplan & Shecter, 1990). These people are characterized by disorderliness and they tent to ignore important information that is necessary to make accurate decisions (Dickman, 1990). Another phrase that describes impulsiveness is “not persistent” which is characteristic of dysfunctional impulsiveness. These people do not report benefitting from their impulsiveness (Dickman, 1990).

Stress: A situation that is considered threatening or demanding and necessary resources are unavailable to cope with the situation. For the purpose of this study time pressure will be the stressor during a mathmatical task which has also been known to provolk anxiety (Cohen, Kamarck & Mermelstein, 1983).

Accuracy Scores: The number of questions answered correctly on an arithmetic task.

Metacognition: “Knowing about what you know” ~ the predicted accuracy, determined by individuals, and how confident individuals are about the predicted percentage.

Article #1: Dysfunctional and Functional Impulsivity have been shown to have differences in cost during accuracy tasks. Functional impulsives had higher scores and higher accuracy when answering questions. These subjects had a higher number of correct answers within a limited time period (Dickman, 1990).

Article #2: Previous research has suggested that personality plays a role in the accuracy of metacognition. Therefore, because impulsiveness is a personality trait there should be a difference in the way functional impulsives and dysfunctional impulsives respond to metacognition. (Pallier, Wilkinson, Danthiir, Kleitman, Knezevic, Stankov, & Roberts, 2002). [In general, people are ignorant about their own intellectual and social skills (Hacker, Bol, Horgan & Rakow, 2000). However, the more intelligent one is the better they are able to predict metacognitive abilities accurately (Pallier, et al., 2002). Functional Impulsives tend to be more confident (Dickman, 1990). Confidence is a very important factor in determining accuracy of self-assessment therefore it is plausible to conclude that individuals who are functionally impulsive will be more accurate when making judgements about their performance. In reference to metacognition, individuals generalize their cognitive abilities, causing them to predict consistent levels of confidence. Because of this pattern, confidence ratings are often inaccurate (Pallier, et al., 2002). Problem solving causes confidence biases to occur because individuals tend to be over-confident about their knowledge in such areas (Pallier, et al., 2002).]

Article #3: When subjects are faced with time pressure, they are much less confident about the decisions they make (Zautra, Reich, Davis, Potter, & Nicolson, 2000). Other studies have been done on impulsivity and accuracy, which show that people who are high in impulsivity are much more rapid in their speed of processing and less accurate than others who were low in impulsivity. It has been found by many that functional impulsives are better with speed of processing information (Brunas-Wagstaff, Bergquist and Wagstaff, 1994).

Article #4: Surprisingly, stress can create positive mood states on certain occasions if the stressor is viewed as a challenge and not a threat (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2000). Therefore, because impulsiveness is a personality trait there will be an effect of stress on impulsiveness. Impulsive individuals have been found to react to stress in a number of different ways. Dysfunctionally impulsive people tend to react differently to environmental stressors than functionally impulsive people. One study shows that individuals who are low in impulsivity show a higher rate of performance, according to speed and accuracy, than do individuals that are high in impulsivity when put in stressful situations (Corr & Kumari, 1998). These findings imply that impulsive people are greatly affected by stress, and because dysfunctionally impulsive people tend to have a difficult time processing information, they will have more of a deficit in accuracy when put under pressure. Surprising as it is, stress can create positive mood states on certain occasions if the stressor is viewed as a challenge and not a threat (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2000). People who are functional impulsives may view stress in a different way than people who are dysfunctional impulsives. They have a different attitude about stressful tasks and different personality characteristics that help them deal with the situation more productively. Because these individuals are enthusiastic and highly productive, they tend to be more accurate when making decisions under stressful situations.

My Study: 2 x 2 w/ 2 DVs

IV #1: Impulsivity w/ 2 levels: Functional vs. Dysfunctional

IV #2: Stress w/ 2 levels: time pressure vs. no time pressure

DV #1: Accuracy scores: number of correct answers

DV #2: Metacognition: perceived accuracy, and confidence rating

Main Effects:

As stress levels increase functional impulsives will have higher accuracy scores than dysfunctional impulsives.

Functional impulsives will be more accurate and less confident when predicting real scores than dysfunctional impulsives.

Interaction:

Accuracy scores are dependent upon stress level and type of impulsivity.

Accuracy and confidence in predicting scores are dependent upon stress level and type of impulsivity .(as stress increases individuals are even less confident about the predictions that they make.)

My Hypothesis: Main effects for type of impulsivity and stress, and an interaction between all variables.

#1: After considering this information, it is hypothesized that when participants are completing a mathematical task under stressful conditions, the functional impulsives will have higher accuracy than the dysfunctional impulsives.

#2: Functional impulsives will be more accurate in their percentage ratings for metacognition and will be under-confident in their confidence ratings, while dysfunctional impulsives will be less accurate in their percentage ratings of metacognition and over-confident in their confidence ratings. In general, people are ignorant about their own intellectual and social skills (Hacker, Bol, Horgan & Rakow, 2000). However, the more intelligent one is the better they are able to predict metacognitive abilities accurately (Pallier, et al., 2002). Functional Impulsives tend to be more confident (Dickman, 1990). Confidence is a very important factor in determining accuracy of self-assessment, therefore it is plausible to conclude that individuals who are functionally impulsive will be more accurate when making judgements about their performance. In reference to metacognition, individuals generalize their cognitive abilities, causing them to predict consistent levels of confidence. Because of this pattern, confidence ratings are often inaccurate (Pallier, et al., 2002). Problem solving causes confidence biases to occur because individuals tend to be over-confident about their knowledge in such areas (Pallier, et al., 2002).

	Functional	Dysfunctional
Stress (time)	80	50
No Stress (no time)	90	75

	Functional	Dysfunctional
Percent Rating (real)	75	65
Confidence Rating (perceived)	50	80

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