Bowling Green State University

About: Bowling Green State University is a education organization based out in Bowling Green, Ohio, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 8315 authors who have published 16042 publications receiving 482564 citations. The organization is also known as: BGSU.

Effects of Objective and Subjective Task Complexity on Performance

Abstract: The thesis of this research is that performance on a task depends not only on objective complexity (a task characteristic) but also on one's perception of task complexity. This study allowed investigation of the influences of (a) cognitive ability, (b) motivation, (c) subjective task complexity, and (d) task experience on performance for an objectively simple or complex scheduling task. Potential determinants of subjective complexity were also studied, as well as the mediating effects of subjective complexity on the relations between independent variables (i.e., objective complex- ity, cognitive ability, and task experience) and task performance. Participants (N = 195) were undergraduates who prepared a 1-week work schedule for a fictitious film processing store under either a Simple or Complex condition. Those in the Complex condition were additionally required to account for employee time off and varying store traffic. Hierarchical regression revealed significant, unique main effects for objective task ...

The relationship of selected vocal characteristics to personality perception

Abstract: (1968). The relationship of selected vocal characteristics to personality perception. Speech Monographs: Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 492-503.

Threshold effects of landscape structure on biological control in agroecosystems

Abstract: Habitat fragmentation may adversely affect the ability of natural enemies to control pest outbreaks in agricultural landscapes by interfering with their search behavior and ability to aggregate in response to prey. We determined how landscape structure affected the ability of two ladybird beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) to track aphid populations in experimental landscapes that differed in the abundance and degree of fragmentation of red clover (Trifoliutn pratense). One coccinellid was a native species (Coleomegilla ma- culntn Pallas) and the other (Hartnonia a~ridis Timberlake) was introduced specifically for the biological control of crop pests such as pea aphids (Acyrrlzosiphon pisurn Harris; Homoptera: Aphididae). Landscape structure exhibited a threshold in lacunarity (a measure of interpatch dis- tances) below 20% habitat. at which point clover patches became significantly more isolated. This threshold in landscape structure was mirrored by a similar threshold in the distribution of pea aphid populations. The distribution of the biocontrol agent, H. nxyridis, tracked this threshold in aphid distribution, but the native coccinellid. C. maculata, was unable to do so in fragmented clover landscapes. Although C. maculata was a more active forager within clover cells, overall it was less mobile and moved significantly less among clover cells and between landscapes than H. axyridis, which may have contributed to its inability to track aphid populations in fragmented landscapes. The two coccinellids did not differ in their search success within fragmented landscapes. however. and it was only in clumped land- scapes that H. axyridis maximized search success and foraged within clover cells that had 2.5-3 times more aphids than those in which C. rnnculntn occurred. Thus, the potential of predators to control pest populations in fragmented landscapes may ultimately reflect the extent to which thresholds in landscape structure interfere with the aggregative response of predators. In this system, the aggregative response of cocci- nellids was more closely tied to thresholds in the distribution of clover than aphids. With its greater mobility, H. nxyridis was more effective than the indigenous C. maculata at tracking aphids when they occurred at low patch occupancy (below the threshold in land- scape structure), which is a requisite for successful biocontrol. If native insect predators are generally more sensitive to habitat fragmentation, greater reliance may be placed on the introduction of exotic species for biocontrol, which is not without economic cost and potential ecological impacts to native insect communities. Our study demonstrates that. in addition to economic thresholds. there are also ecological thresholds that must be sur- mounted if biocontrol measures are to be successful. In addition to enhancing vegetational diversity within agroecosystems, conservation biological control should also strive to mit- igate fragmentation effects on natural enemies, especially if thresholds in landscape structure disrupt predator-prey interactions and compromise the efficacy of biocontrol programs.