The Yerkes-Dodson law: the relationship between performance and motivation

The Yerkes-Dodson law suggests that performance and arousal are directly related. This law was developed by psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson in 1908.

The Yerkes-Dodson law dictates that performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a certain point.. When arousal levels become too high, performance declines. According to this law, the best way to enhance motivation and performance is to work with objective tasks that allow us to be alert.

In their experiment, Yerkes and Dodson discovered that rats could be motivated to complete a maze with mild electric shocks. However, when the crashes were of a higher degree, their performance level decreased and they simply ran with the intention of escaping. The experiment made it clear that arousal levels helped focus attention on the task at hand, but only to an optimal point.

How the Yerkes-Dodson law works

An example of how the Yerkes-Dodson Law works is the anxiety you experience before an exam. An optimal level of stress can help you concentrate on the exam and remember the information. However, too much test anxiety can affect your ability to concentrate, making it harder to remember.

Other A great example of how the Yerkes-Dodson law works is sports performance. When an athlete is ready to make an important movement, a certain ideal level of arousal – release of adrenaline – can enhance his performance and allow him to make said movement. But when the athlete is too stressed, he could freeze or perform the movement in an energetic but imprecise manner.

So, What determines what level of arousal is ideal? In reality, there is no fixed answer to this question, since this level of arousal can vary from one task to another.

For example, Performance levels are known to decline from a lower level of activation. This means that if you are performing a relatively simple task you can deal with a much larger range of activation levels.

Simple tasks, such as making photocopies or doing housework, are less likely to be affected by very low or very high arousal levels. However, When performing much more complex tasks, performance would be much more influenced by low and high activation levels.

If arousal levels are too low, it is possible to have the feeling that there is a lack of energy to carry out the work. But arousal levels that are too high could be just as problematic, making it difficult to concentrate long enough to complete the task.

Inverted U model

The process described by Yerkes and Dodson often illustrated graphically as a bell-shaped curve that increases and then decreases with higher levels of arousal. That is why the Yerkes-Dodson law is also known as the inverted U model.

Due to task differences, the shape of the curve can be highly variable.. For simple or well-learned tasks, the relationship is monotonic and performance improves as arousal increases. However, for complex, unfamiliar, or difficult tasks, the relationship between arousal and performance reverses after a point, and performance decreases as arousal increases.

The rising part of the inverted U can be considered the energizing effect of arousal. The descending part is caused by the negative effects of arousal (or stress) on cognitive processes such as attention, memory, and problem solving.

According to the inverted U model, peak performance is achieved when people experience a moderate level of pressure. When they experience too much or too little pressure, their performance declines, sometimes severely.

The left side of the graph shows the situation in which people are unchallenged, in which they see no reason to work hard on a task, or are in danger of approaching their work in a careless and unmotivated way. Middle of the The graph shows where you are working most effectively, when you are motivated enough to work hard without being overloaded. The right side of the graph shows where you are starting to give in to pressure, to be overwhelmed.

The four influential factors

The inverted U curve model is different from one individual to another depending on the situation. There are actually four influential factors that can affect this curve, which are skill level, personality, trait anxiety, and task complexity.

An individual’s skill level also affects his or her performance on the given task. A highly trained individual, who is confident in his or her ability, is more likely to cope well in situations where the pressure is high, as the person could rely on his or her well-rehearsed responses.

An individual’s personality also affects how they handle pressure. Psychologists believe that extroverts are better at handling pressure than introverts. Likewise, introverts perform better in the absence of pressure.

Regarding trait anxiety, A person’s self-confidence also affects how they handle any situation.. A person is more likely to maintain composure under pressure if their self-confidence is high and they do not repeatedly question their own abilities.

Finally, The level of task difficulty is another factor that influences an individual’s performance. The difficulty of making photocopies is not the same as having to write a report or an essay. In any case, the level of complexity of any task varies from person to person.

Final comments

Despite being more than a century old, the Yerkes-Dodson law is very useful today. In fact, research has continued along this line, especially to apply it to work and sports performance.

Research carried out between the years 1950 and 1980 has confirmed that There is a correlation between elevated stress levels and improved motivation and focus, although an exact cause for the correlation has not been established.

As recently as 2007, researchers suggested that the correlation is related to the brain’s production of stress hormones, which, when measured during memory performance tests, demonstrated a curve similar to the Yerkes-Dodson experiment. Besides, research showed a positive correlation with good memory performancesuggesting that these hormones may also be responsible for the Yerkes-Dodson effect.

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