ACTION STYLES AND PERFORMANCE - THE ROLE OF PLANFULNESS AND GOAL ORIENTATION IN PROBLEM-SOLVING AND LEARNING-STUDIES

The influence of the action styles goal-orientation and planfulness on performance is researched in six studies. The hypothesis was that act ion styles interact with resources, with the degree of task routine, a nd with the match of information to the action style. The results show , for example, that high system knowledge in a transfer of training st udy leads to good performance when there is high planfulness and goal- orientation (study 1 with a low degree of task clarity). In a study of high task clarity, there is a compensatory relationship of intelligen ce and action styles (study 2). The importance of the match between th e information and action styles is shown when high goal-orientation an d planfulness lead to low performance when the information given is ba dly organized (study 3) Graphic presentation is particularly useful fo r the performance of highly goal-oriented students (study 4). Planfuln ess is positive when information is rule-governed (learning by studyin g; study 5). Planfulness also influences the amount of information tha t is processed by programmers (study 6).