Dimitri van der Linden

Work stress and attentional difficulties: An initial study on burnout and cognitive failures

Professional burnout is a stress-related disorder, having mental exhaustion due to work stress as its most important characteristic. Burned out individuals also often complain about attentional problems. However, it is currently not clear whether such complaints are based on true cognitive deficits or whether they merely reflect the way burned out individuals rate their own cognitive performance. To confirm the cognitive complaints we used a cognitive failure questionnaire (CFQ) to assess the level of self-reported attentional difficulties in daily life. We also measured performance on tasks of sustained attention and response inhibition (the SART and the Bourdon-Wiersma Test). We compared three groups: (1) a group of ‘burned out’ individuals (n=13) who stopped working due to their symptoms and sought professional treatment; (2) teachers at a vocational training institute (n=16) who reported high levels of burnout symptoms but continued to work; and (3) teachers from the same institute (n=14) who reported no burnout symptoms. The level of burnout symptoms was found to be significantly related to the number of cognitive failures in daily life, and to inhibition errors and performance variability in the attentional tasks. To our knowledge, explicit tests of objective cognitive deficits in burned out individuals have not been conducted before. Consequently, this is the first study to indicate that burnout is associated with difficulties in voluntary control over attention and that the level of such difficulties varies with the severity of burnout symptoms.

Recovery opportunities, work-home interference, and well-being among managers

The present study addressed the associations among various indicators of effort expenditure at work and recovery opportunities (perceived job demands and job control, hours worked overtime, hours worked according to ones contract), work – home interference, and well-being (exhaustion and enjoyment) in a cross-sectional study among 117 male and 82 female managers. Drawing on effort-recovery theory, we expected that high job demands, low job control, a high number of hours worked overtime, and a full-time appointment would be associated with high levels of work – home interference, low levels of enjoyment, and high levels of exhaustion. Stepwise regression analysis largely supported the hypothesis that high job demands and low job control are associated with adverse work outcomes. However, the effects of the number of hours worked overtime and according to ones contract were usually weak and insignificant, suggesting that high effort expenditure does not necessarily have adverse health consequences.

A multifaceted investigation of the link between mental fatigue and task disengagement.

Mental fatigue is often characterized by reduced motivation for effortful activity and impaired task performance. We used subjective, behavioral (performance), and psychophysiological (P3, pupil diameter) measures during an n-back task to investigate the link between mental fatigue and task disengagement. After 2 h, we manipulated the rewards to examine a possible reengagement effect. Analyses showed that, with increasing fatigue and time-on-task, performance, P3 amplitude, and pupil diameter decreased. After increasing the rewards, all measures reverted to higher levels. Multilevel analysis revealed positive correlations between the used measures with time-on-task. We interpret these results as support for a strong link between task disengagement and mental fatigue.

The Impact of Mental Fatigue on Exploration in a Complex Computer Task: Rigidity and Loss of Systematic Strategies:

We investigated the impact of mental fatigue on exploration in a complex computer task. The exploration behavior of participants who underwent a fatigue manipulation (N = 36) was compared with that of a control (nonfatigued) group (N = 32). A distinction was also made between participants with high or low levels of general computer experience. Results showed that fatigued participants used significantly less systematic exploration and made more errors than did nonfatigued participants. Fatigued participants with low computer experience also showed significantly more rigid behavior than did the other participants. No differences were found on the number of subtasks solved. Compared with low-experience participants, highly experienced participants showed significantly more systematic exploration, less unsystematic trial and error, solved more subtasks, and made fewer errors (marginally significant p = .056). Findings were interpreted as the result of reduced task engagement under fatigue and reduced involvement of executive control on behavior. Actual or potential applications of this research include guidelines to prevent detrimental effects of mental fatigue on exploration behavior.

Exploration strategies, performance, and error consequences when learning a complex computer task

When trying to learn a complex task, people can use different strategies. They can use systematic exploration in which they take on an active approach to discover the computer functions and make use of problem solving steps such as planning, evaluation of feedback, and control of emotion and motivation. Alternatively, they can use non-systematic strategies like trial-and-error, rigid exploration, and encapsulation in information seeking. This study examined whether the exploration strategies were related to error consequences and performance when people learned a new computer program. Strategies were assessed by means of coding. Analysis showed strong correlations between strategies, error consequences, and task performance. These results can have implications for training design and human reliability in dealing with complex devices.

General Factors of Personality in Six Datasets and a Criterion-Related Validity Study at the Netherlands Armed Forces

Several papers showed that a general factor occupies the top of the hierarchical structure of personality, the so-called General Factor of Personality (GFP). The first question is whether the GFP behaves similar to the general factor of mental ability (g), in that GFP scores from different personality questionnaires correlate highly. The second question is whether the GFP is related to real-life outcomes. In six large datasets (total N=21,754) collected in the Netherlands armed forces, the GFPs extracted from six personality questionnaires generally showed high degrees of correlation suggesting they measure the same construct. Moreover, GFP was related to drop-out from military training. This evidence strengthens the view that the GFP is a substantive construct with practical relevance.

Overlap between the general factor of personality and emotional intelligence: A meta-analysis.

We examine the relationship between the general factor of personality (GFP) and emotional intelligence (EI) and specifically test the hypothesis that the GFP is a social effectiveness factor overlapping conceptually with EI. Presented is an extensive meta-analysis in which the associations between the GFP, extracted from the Big Five dimensions, with various EI measures is examined. Based on a total sample of k = 142 data sources (N = 36,268) the 2 major findings from the meta-analysis were (a) a large overlap between the GFP and trait EI (r ≈ .85); and (b) a positive, but more moderate, correlation with ability EI (r ≈ .28). These findings show that high-GFP individuals score higher on trait and ability EI, supporting the notion that the GFP is a social effectiveness factor. The findings also suggest that the GFP is very similar, perhaps even synonymous, to trait EI.

The window of my eyes: Task disengagement and mental fatigue covary with pupil dynamics

Although mental fatigue is a complex, multi-facetted state that involves changes in motivation, cognition, and mood, one of its main characteristics is reduced task engagement. Despite its relevance for performance and safety, knowledge about the underlying neurocognitive processes in mental fatigue is still limited. Inspired by the idea that central norepinephrine plays an important role in regulating task engagement, we test a set of predictions that have been derived from recent studies that relate pupil dynamics to the levels of norepinephrine in the brain. Participants worked on a 2-back task for 2h while we used pupil measures to further explore the link between task engagement and the effects of mental fatigue. We hypothesized that baseline pupil diameter and stimulus-evoked pupil dilations decrease with increasing fatigue. Also, because previous studies have shown that the effects of fatigue are reversible by increasing the task rewards, we hypothesized that increasing the task rewards after 2h on the task would restore these pupil measures to pre-fatigue levels. While we did not find a decrease in baseline pupil diameter, we found that increasing mental fatigue coincided with diminished stimulus-evoked pupil dilation. Also, we confirmed that when sufficient rewards were presented to a fatigued individual, the pupil dilations could be restored. This supports the view that motivational factors are important in predicting engagement versus disengagement during fatigue.

Cognitive performance in both clinical and non-clinical burnout.

Abstract Relatively little is known about cognitive performance in burnout. The aim of the present study was to further our knowledge on this topic by examining, in one study, cognitive performance in both clinical and non-clinical burnout while focusing on three interrelated aspects of cognitive performance, namely, self-reported cognitive problems, cognitive test performance, and subjective costs associated with cognitive test performance. To this aim, a clinical burnout patient group (n = 33), a non-clinical burnout group (n = 29), and a healthy control group (n = 30) were compared on self-reported cognitive problems, assessed by a questionnaire, as well as on cognitive test performance, assessed with a cognitive test battery measuring both executive functioning and more general cognitive processing. Self-reported fatigue, motivation, effort and demands were assessed to compare the different groups on subjective costs associated with cognitive test performance. The results indicated that the clinical burnout patients reported more cognitive problems than the individuals with non-clinical burnout, who in turn reported more cognitive problems relative to the healthy controls. Evidence for impaired cognitive test performance was only found in the clinical burnout patients. Relative to the healthy controls, these patients displayed some evidence of impaired general cognitive processing, reflected in slower reaction times, but no impaired executive functioning. However, cognitive test performance of the clinical burnout patients was related to larger reported subjective costs. In conclusion, although both the clinical and the non-clinical burnout group reported cognitive problems, evidence for a relatively mild impaired cognitive test performance and larger reported subjective cost associated with cognitive test performance was only found for the clinical burnout group.

Predicting Sales Performance Criteria With Personality Measures: The Use of the General Factor of Personality, the Big Five and Narrow Traits

The present study investigated the predictive validities of different hierarchical levels of personality for sales performance. The General Factor of Personality was expected to be most effective at predicting general sales performance, whereas the Big Five factors and its underlying narrow traits were expected to be most effective at predicting the specific sales performance criteria to which they are conceptually aligned. Six different sales performance measures were used in an international study involving 405 sales employees. The results suggest that General Factor of Personality is a valid predictor of general job performance but that some of the aligned narrow personality traits predict specific sales performance above and beyond the Big Five factors. The narrow trait Social Boldness has a negative relation with rated sales performance and sales results.