Introduction

On this page, we hope to give you a brief overview of what goes on in the Kanfer and Ackerman Knowledge & Skill Lab at Georgia Tech. The menu links will take you to more detailed information about the lab, if you are interested.

The Kanfer-Ackerman lab is a co-laboratory for research on the influence of cognitive, non-cognitive, and situational factors on workplace learning, behavior, and performance. In existence for over 15 years, the co-laboratory serves as a center for graduate training and integrative research that spans cognitive, aging, personality, social, and applied psychology domains.

Current research themes in the lab pertain to adult intellectual development, the determinants of skilled performance, motivation and emotion in the aging workforce, personality-social influences on workplace behavior, and determinants of job search and reemployment success. Lab facilities allow for large-scale computerized testing, including tests that use touch panel monitors.

Dr. Ackerman is the editor for the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. The related links page will guide you to information on other organizations in which members of the lab have been involved.

Recent article featuring Dr. Kanfer and Tracy Kantrowitz of the Knowledge & Skill Lab:

“The more effort people put into a job search, the more likely they are to find employment, even in difficult economic times, says Ruth Kanfer, a Georgia Institute of Technology psychology Professor.” View complete article

Selected articles about Drs. Kanfer and Ackerman:

	"Mutual interests have led psychology professors Ruth Kanfer and Phillip Ackerman to join forces in investigating how we learn to do new tasks." View complete article
	“His experiments with air traffic control and related learning and transfer tasks represent a unique marriage of cognitive theory, psychometrics, and sophisticated data analysis to substantially improve our understanding of real-world complex performance.” View complete article
	“Her task-specific theory of motivation builds on previous work in cognitive-expectancy, goal setting, social learning, and ability theory, and provides a distinctive account of the dynamics of performance during skill acquisition.” View complete article

Selected books:

Kanfer, R., Ackerman, P. L., & Cudeck, R. (Eds.)(1989). Abilities, motivation, and methodology: The Minnesota Symposium on Learning and Individual Differences. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.	Lord, R., Klimoski, R., & Kanfer, R. (Eds.) (2002). Emotions in the workplace: Understanding the structure and role of emotions in organizational behavior. San Francisco, CA: Jossey- Bass.
Ackerman, P. L., Kyllonen, P.C., & Roberts, R.D. (Eds.) (1999). Learning and Individual Differences: Process, Trait, and Content Determinants. Washington D.C.: American Psychological Association.	Ackerman, P. L., Sternberg, R. J., & Glaser, R. (Eds.) (1989). Learning and individual differences: Advances in theory and research. New York: W. H. Freeman.