A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF THE ROLE OF TASK-SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE IN THESUBJECTIVE IMPACT AND STRUCTURE OF PERFORMANCE

It is widely accepted that the structure of performance depends on the relationship between task demands and information processing resource s. This relationship is affected by many factors including practice. F or instance, it is claimed that while use of task-specific knowledge, an information-processing resource, may benefit performance in the lon g term, the costs of its use in the short term are quite high. It is d ifficult to find any studies which can be used to test this claim, as those which have been undertaken typically measure gross performance o nly, lack any measure of the subjective costs of resource investment, and are of relatively short duration. In this paper an experiment is r eported which looks at the effects of task-specific knowledge on gross and process performance, and on a number of subjective indices over a longitudinal time frame. The results are discussed in terms of the re lationships between the context of performance, the perception of cont rol, and strategies of resource management. Finally, the argument that the data suggest a need for the reconceptualization of demands and re sources is mooted and some methodological implications are discussed.