ternal stimuli associated with high levels of Neuroticism (Matthews & Deary,
1998), it seems likely that such individuals will have a limited ability to ignore
such stimuli, and thus respond relatively poorly in a context where low
Neuroticism is encouraged. In fact, high levels of Neuroticism and Anxiety
(which is strongly correlated with Neuroticism) do appear to be substantially
associated with performance under maximal situations—most likely because
there is a strong performance evaluation apprehension that is often triggered
under maximal performance situations, which in turn, is substantially disrup-
tive to highly anxious individuals (for a more extensive discussion of this is-
sue, see Matthews & Zeidner, chap. 6). In contrast, it should be much easier
for an individual with low Neuroticism to react as if he or she had high levels
of Neuroticism, especially if given instruction on how such an individual
would respond to the environment.
When it comes to intellectual functioning and intellectual development,
typical orientation towards learning, thinking, and problem solving are
clearly related to particular abilities. In a direct investigation of this proposi-
tion, Goff and Ackerman (1992; see also Ackerman, 1994) developed a scale
of Typical Intellectual Engagement (TIE), which asked respondents about
their preferences and typical behaviors for intellectual activities. The investi-
gators hypothesized that scores on the TIE scale would be more highly re-
lated to measures of Gc than it would be related to Gf, based on the hypothe-
sis that this personality characteristic would be associated with level of
intellectual investment over an extended period of time. Because measures of
Gf are relatively less influenced by intellectual investment, and more influ-
enced by maximal effort in the testing conditions, they were expected to have
relatively low correlations with this personality trait. This hypothesis was
supported in several separate studies of adults. A meta-analytic computation
of estimated correlations between TIE and Gf–Gc (Ackerman & Heggestad,
1997), found positive correlations between TIE scores and Gc (meanr= .35),
while TIE scores were largely uncorrelated with Gf (meanr= –.07). Similar
results have been found in more recent studies of adults between age 18 and
65 (e.g.,r= .29 andr= .08 for Gc and Gf, respectively; Ackerman, 2000; and
r= .49 andr= .02 for Gc and Gf, respectively; Ackerman & Rolfhus, 1999).
CONATION AND TYPICAL–MAXIMAL
PERFORMANCE
The construct of conation or will, is usually construed to include aspects of mo-
tivation and interests—two related, but distinct domains of psychological re-
search. The concept of graded levels of effort is inherent in the construct of co-
nation. When considering interests, the inherent assumption is that an
individual will be most likely to typically devote effort when the task domain
matches the individual’s underlying interests (such as the assignment of an art
124 ACKERMAN AND KANFER