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Self‐efficacy and Strategy on Complex Tasks
Author(s) -
Wood Robert,
Atkins Paul,
Tabernero Carmen
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
applied psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.497
H-Index - 88
eISSN - 1464-0597
pISSN - 0269-994X
DOI - 10.1111/1464-0597.00024
Subject(s) - heuristics , representativeness heuristic , self efficacy , psychology , situational ethics , cognition , heuristic , modalities , interpersonal communication , cognitive psychology , information processing , social psychology , computer science , artificial intelligence , social science , neuroscience , sociology , operating system
The mediational role of strategy in the relationship between self‐efficacy and performance on complex tasks is analysed. Within an individual’s multidimensional self‐efficacy belief system, perceived capabilities for conducting searches in different modalities and for the processing of information, including the use of tools to overcome cognitive limits, are predicted to have differential impacts on the use of judgmental heuristics and biases and the choice of strategies. Search efficacy is predicted to differ across search modalities, such as experimentation, interpersonal questioning, electronic search and passive study, as a function of differences in personal and situational determinants. Processing efficacy is predicted to generalise across a much wider range of cognitive tasks, depending upon perceived similarities in the content of tasks (e.g. verbal versus quantitative) and the tools used. Low search efficacy is predicted to lead to greater use of the availability heuristic, while low processing efficacy is predicted to lead to greater use of the anchoring and adjustment and representativeness heuristics. Choices of specific strategies are predicted from different combinations of weak and strong efficacy beliefs for exploratory search and deliberative processing.