Yerkes-Dodson’s law suggests that performance and emotion are directly related. This law was developed by psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson in 1908.
Yerkes-Dodson’s law states that performance increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only to some extent. When arousal levels are too high, performance decreases. According to this law, the best way to increase motivation and performance is to work with objective tasks that allow us to be vigilant.
- In their experiment.
- Yerkes and Dodson discovered that the mice could be motivated to complete a maze with light electric shocks.
- However.
- When the discharges were more severe.
- The performance level decreased and they simply ran with the intention of escaping.
Experience has clearly shown that arousal levels help focus attention on the task in question, but only to some extent ideal.
An example of how Yerkes-Dodson’s law works is the anxiety you feel before a test. An ideal level of stress can help you focus on the test and remember the information. However, too much anxiety in tests can affect your ability to concentrate, making it harder to remember.
Sports performance is another excellent example of how the Yerkes-Dodson Act works. When an athlete is ready to make an important move, a certain level of emotion (adrenaline release) can improve their performance and allow them to take that step. when the athlete is very stressed, it can lock or move vigorously, but not very accurately.
So what determines the optimal level of emotion? In fact, there is no exact answer to this question, as this level of enthusiasm can vary from task to task.
For example, performance levels are known to decrease from a lower activation level, which means that if you perform a relatively simple task, you can handle a much wider range of activation levels.
Simple tasks, such as making photocopies or doing household chores, are less likely to be affected by very low or very high activation levels, however, when performing much more complex tasks, performance would be much more influenced by low and high activation levels.
If the excitation levels are too low, it is possible to feel that there is a lack of energy to get the job done; However, very high levels of arousal can be just as problematic, making it difficult to concentrate long enough to complete the task.
The process described by Yerkes and Dodson is usually graphically illustrated as a bell-shaped curve that increases and then decreases with higher excitation levels. That’s why Yerkes-Dodson’s law is also known as the reverse U-model.
Due to differences in tasks, the shape of the curve can vary greatly. For simple or learned tasks, the relationship is linear and performance improves as the excitement increases.
However, for complex, unknown, or difficult tasks, the relationship between emotion and performance is reversed after a point and performance decreases as the excitement increases.
The ascending part of the inverted U can be considered the energizing effect of arousal, while the downstream part is caused by the negative effects of arousal (or stress) on cognitive processes, such as attention, memory and problem solving.
Depending on the inverted U-shaped model, maximum performance is achieved when people experience a moderate level of pressure; when they are under too much or too little pressure, their performance decreases, sometimes significantly.
The inverted U-curve model is different from one individual to another, depending on the situation; In fact, four influential factors can influence this curve: skill level, personality, anxiety trait, and task complexity.
An individual’s skill level also affects their performance on a given task. A highly qualified person who relies on their skills is more likely to handle high-pressure situations because they can rely on their well-prepared answers.
An individual’s personality also affects the way they handle pressure. Psychologists believe extroverts handle pressure better than introverts. Introverts, on the other hand, perform better in the absence of pressure.
When it comes to anxiety, a person’s self-confidence also affects the way they handle a situation. A person is more likely to stay calm under pressure if self-confidence is high and does not repeatedly question their own abilities.
Finally, the difficulty level of the task is another factor that influences an individual’s performance, the difficulty of making a photocopy is not the same as having to write a report or essay, in all cases the level of complexity of any task varies from person to person.
Although it is more than a century old, the Yerkes-Dodson Act is very useful today, in fact, research continues to emerge in this line, especially to apply it to professional and sports performance.
Research conducted between 1950 and 1980 confirmed that there is a correlation between high stress levels and increased motivation and concentration, although they have not established an exact cause of correlation.
Recently, in 2007, researchers suggested that correlation was related to brain production of stress hormones that, measured in memory performance tests, had a similar curve to the Yerkes-Dodson experiment.
In addition, research has shown a positive correlation with good memory performance, suggesting that these hormones may also be responsible for the Yerkes-Dodson effect.