Nonverbal Displays as Indicants of Task Difficulty

Accurately determining when students are having difficulty with cognitive tasks is important in educational settings. This study investigated whether college students emitted observable displays of cognitive difficulty when engaged in solitary problem-solving tasks. Participants high and low in self-monitoring tendencies were videotaped while solving both hard and easy problems. Ten-second segments of the videotapes were rated for displayed difficulty levels. Results indicate that college students do emit nonverbal displays indicating task difficulty: Students' displayed significantly less difficulty while solving easy problems than while solving hard problems. Results also indicated that the difficulty displays of low self-monitors were more discernible than the difficulty displays of high self-monitors. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.