A multilevel analysis of BIS sensitivity and negative affect during skill acquisition

This Study examined the muldlevel reladonships among negadve affect Behavioural Inhibidon System (BIS) Sensidvit)' and performance. It also invesdgated whether the reladonship among these variables changed across pracdce. Pardcipants performed muldple trials of a simulated air traffic control task, A single measure of BIS was taken before pracdce, while negadve affect and performance were measured at repeated intervals. As expected, negadve affect was detrimental to performance at both a between-person and withinperson level, BIS was also found to be detrimental to performance. Contrary' to expectadons, the reladonship between BIS and performance was not mediated by overall levels of negadve affect. As predicted, the effects of overall levels of negadve affect and BIS strengthened across pracdce as pardcipants gained task knowledge and skill. The findings of this study are interpreted using resource allocadon theor}' and the implicadons for skiU acquisidon discussed.