This article echoes recent calls for public management research to focus on core questions and utilize multiple methods to advance the state of knowledge in the field. In this article, we call for more experimental research on the public/private distinction, which is a core public management research topic. We then conduct a pilot experimental study that provides new insights—and what seem to be major implications—about this important topic. Specifically, we study individuals’ vigilance when performing work in a government funded research project compared with a business funded research project. Our results show that individuals are significantly faster, more accurate, and more vigilant when their work is funded by a government agency rather than a private business firm. Two major implications are (1) government provision of goods and services that require faster, more accurate, and more vigilant workers (e.g., airport security or emergency responders) may be superior to private provision, ceteris paribus; and (2) our participants in this study, who are college students, seem to perform better when working for government rather than for the private sector. This is heartening because, with the “quiet crisis” looming over government, many seasoned public servants will soon be replaced by these younger workers. The strengths and limitations of the study are discussed.

In the present study, we examined the effect of value-directed encoding on recognition memory and how various divided attention tasks at encoding alter value-directed remembering. In the first experiment, participants encoded words that were assigned either high or low point values in multiple study-test phases. The points corresponded to the value the participants could earn by successfully recognizing the words in an upcoming recognition memory task. Importantly, participants were instructed that their goal was to maximize their score in this memory task. The second experiment was modified such that while studying the words participants simultaneously completed a divided attention task (either articulatory suppression or random number generation). The third experiment used a non-verbal tone detection divided attention task (easy or difficult versions). Subjective states of recollection (i.e., “Remember”) and familiarity (i.e., “Know”) were assessed at retrieval in all experiments. In Experiment 1, high value words were recognized more effectively than low value words, and this difference was primarily driven by increases in “Remember” responses with no difference in “Know” responses. In Experiment 2, the pattern of subjective judgment results from the articulatory suppression condition replicated Experiment 1. However, in the random number generation condition, the effect of value on recognition memory was lost. This same pattern of results was found in Experiment 3 which implemented a different variant of the divided attention task. Overall, these data suggest that executive processes are used when encoding valuable information and that value-directed improvements to memory are not merely the result of differential rehearsal.

The analysis of response times from prospective memory experiments has resulted in multiple theoretical propositions about the role of attention in prospective memory. Extant theories of prospective memory are in good agreement that attention is necessary for detecting intention-related cues. However, these theories were primarily formulated to describe differences in mean reaction times across experimental conditions. While this approach has been fruitful for establishing a fundamental relation between attention and prospective memory, reaction time modeling techniques can be applied to prospective memory data to better constrain theorizing. In the current work, the ex-Gaussian distribution is fit to data from a prospective memory task. The results from this analysis suggest that modeling reaction time data has the potential for clarifying our understanding of the role of attention in prospective memory.

Individuals encounter problems daily wherein varying numbers of constraints require delimitation of memory to target goal-satisfying information. Multiply-constrained problems, such as the compound remote associates, are commonly used to study this type of problem solving. Since their development, multiply-constrained problems have been theoretically and empirically related to creative thinking, analytical problem solving, insight problem solving, and a multitude of other cognitive abilities. In the present study, we empirically evaluated the range of cognitive abilities previously associated with multiply-constrained problem solving to assess common versus unique predictive variance (i.e., working memory, attention control, episodic and semantic memory, and fluid and crystallized intelligence). Additionally, we sought to determine whether problem-solving ability and self-reported strategy adoption (analytical or insightful) were task specific or task general through the use of novel multiply-constrained problem-solving tasks (TriBond and Location Bond). Performance across these tasks was shown to be domain general, solutions derived through insightful strategies were more often correct than those derived through analytical strategies, and crystallized intelligence was the sole cognitive ability that provided unique predictive value after accounting for all other abilities.