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Phillip L. Ackerman, Professor of Psychology
Ph.D. (1984) Quantitative/Measurement Psychology
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Faculty Page for the School of Psychology

**Dr. Ackerman is currently the Editor of Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. For further information on the journal, see: http://www.apa.org/journals/xap.html

My research spans several related research areas of differential, educational, cognitive, applied experimental, and industrial and organizational psychology. Theory and empirical research I have conducted relates to the nature of adult learning, skill acquisition, student and employee selection, training, abilities, personality, and motivation. In collaboration with Professor Kanfer and our students, recent empirical research and theoretical contributions address the ability, motivation, personality, interest, and self-concept determinants of skilled performance and training success, and on the development and expression of intellectual competence in adulthood. Current research projects focus on age differences and gender differences in the breadth and depth of adult knowledge, and on the taxonomic nature of perceptual speed abilities and their role in the development of skilled performance.

Affiliations

American Educational Research Association
American Psychological Association
    Fellow, Division 1 -- General
    Psychology
    Fellow, Division 3 -- Experimental Psychology
    Fellow, Division 5 -- Division of Evaluation, Measurement, and
    Statistics
    Member, Division 15 -- Educational Psychology
    Fellow, Division 20 -- Adult Development and Aging
    Fellow, Division 21 -- Applied Experimental and Engineering Psychology
American Psychological Society (Charter Fellow)
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (Fellow) 
International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP)
    Division of Psychological Assessment and Evaluation
International Society for the Study of Individual Differences (ISSID)
National Council on Measurement in Education
Psychonomic Society
Sigma Xi

Selected Publications

• Ackerman, P. L. (In press). Ability determinants of individual differences in skilled performance. To appear in Sternberg, R. J., & Pretz, J. (Eds.) Cognition and Intelligence: Identifying the Mechanisms of the Mind (pp. 142-159). NY: Cambridge University Press.
• Ackerman, P. L. (In press). Personality, trait complexes, and adult intelligence. To appear in A. Eliasz, S. Hampson, & B. de Raad (Eds.)
  Advances in Personality, Volume II. Psychology Press.
• Ackerman, P. L., & Beier, M. E. (In press, 2005). Knowledge and Intelligence. To appear in O. Wilhelm, & R. Engle (Eds.) Handbook of understanding and measuring intelligence. (pp. 125-139). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
• Ackerman, P. L., Beier, M. E., & Boyle, M. O. (In press). Working memory and intelligence: The same or different constructs? Psychological Bulletin (6/04).
• Ackerman, P. L., & Humphreys, M. S. (In press). Obituary: Lloyd G. Humphreys. American Psychologist.
• Beier, M. E., & Ackerman, P. L. (In press). A reappraisal of the relationship between span memory and intelligence via “best evidence synthesis.” Intelligence: A Multidisciplinary Journal.
• Kanfer, R., & Ackerman, P. L. (In press). Work competence: A person-oriented perspective. To appear in A. Elliot & C. S. Dweck (Eds.), Handbook of Competence and Motivation.
• Morris, M. G., Venkatesh, V., & Ackerman, P. L. (In press). Gender and age differences in employee decisions about new technology: An extension to the theory of planned behavior. To appear in IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management.
• Ackerman, P. L., & Kanfer, R. (2004). Cognitive, affective, and conative aspects of adult intellect within a typical and maximal performance framework. In D. Y. Dai & R. J. Sternberg (Eds.) Motivation, emotion, and cognition: Integrated perspectives on intellectual functioning (pp. 119-141). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
• Boyle, M. O., & Ackerman, P. L. (2004). Individual differences in skill acquisition. In A. M. Williams, N. J. Hodges, M. A. Scott, & M. L. J. Court (Eds). Skill acquisition in sport: Research, theory and practice (pp. 84-102). Taylor and Francis/Routledge.
• Kanfer, R., & Ackerman, P. L. (2004). Aging, adult development and work motivation. Academy of Management Review, 29(3), 440-458.
• Venkatesh, V., Morris, M. G., Sykes, T. A., & Ackerman, P. L. (2004). Individual reactions to new technologies in the workplace: The role of gender as a psychological construct. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 34(3), 445-467.
• Ackerman, P. L. & Lohman, D. F. (2003). Education and g. Chapter in H. Nyborg (Ed.). The scientific study of general intelligence -- Tribute to Arthur R. Jensen (pp. 275-292). Amsterdam: Pergamon/Elsevier Science.
• Ackerman, P. L. (2003). Cognitive ability and non-ability trait determinants of expertise. Educational Researcher, 32(8), 15-20.
• Ackerman, P. L. (2003). Aptitude complexes and trait complexes. Educational Psychologist, 38, 85-93.
• Ackerman, P. L., & Beier, M. E. (2003). Intelligence, personality, and interests in the career choice process. Journal of Career Assessment, 11(2), 205-218.
• Ackerman, P. L., & Beier, M. E. (2003). Trait complexes, cognitive investment and domain knowledge. Chapter in R. J. Sternberg & E. L. Grigorenko (Eds.). Perspectives on the psychology of abilities, competencies, and expertise. (pp. 1-30). NY: Cambridge University Press.
• Beier, M. E., & Ackerman, P. L. (2003). Determinants of health knowledge: An investigation of age, gender, abilities, personality, and interests. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84 (2), 439-448.
• Ackerman, P. L. (2002). Gender differences in intelligence and knowledge: How should we look at achievement score differences? Issues in Education: Contributions from Educational Psychology, 8(1), 21-29.
• Ackerman, P. L., Beier, M. B., & Bowen, K. R. (2002). What we really know about our abilities and our knowledge. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, 587-605.
• Ackerman, P. L., Beier, M. E., & Boyle, M. O. (2002). Individual differences in working memory within a nomological network of cognitive and perceptual speed abilities. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 131, 567-589.
• Ackerman, P. L., & Cianciolo, A. T. (2002). Ability and task constraint determinants of complex task performance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 8(3), 194-208.
• Ackerman, P. L., Bowen, K. R., Beier, M. B., & Kanfer, R. (2001). Determinants of individual differences and gender differences in knowledge. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 797-825.
• Beier, M. E., & Ackerman, P. L. (2001). Current events knowledge in adults: An investigation of age, intelligence and non-ability determinants. Psychology and Aging, 16, 615-628.
• Venkatesh, V., Morris, M., & Ackerman, P. L. (2000). A longitudinal field investigation of gender differences in individual technology adoption decision making processes. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 83, 33-60.
• Kanfer, R., & Ackerman, P. L. (2000). Individual differences in work motivation: Further explorations of a trait framework. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 49 (3), 469-481.
• Ackerman, P. L. (2000). Domain-specific knowledge as the "dark matter" of adult intelligence: gf/gc, personality and interest correlates. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, 55B (2), P69-P84.
• Ackerman, P. L. (2000). A reappraisal of the ability determinants of individual differences in skilled performance. Psychologische Beiträge, 42, 4-17.
• Ackerman, P. L., & Cianciolo, A. T. (2000). Cognitive, perceptual speed, and psychomotor determinants of individual differences during skill acquisition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 6, 259-290.
• Ackerman, P. L., & Rolfhus, E. L. (1999). The locus of adult intelligence: Knowledge, abilities, and non-ability traits. Psychology and Aging, 14, 314-330.
• Rolfhus, E. L., & Ackerman, P. L. (1999). Assessing individual differences in knowledge: Knowledge structures and traits. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91, 511-526.
• Ackerman, P. L., Kyllonen, P. C., & Roberts R. D. (Editors). (1999). Learning and Individual Differences: Process, Trait, and Content Determinants. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
• Ackerman, P. L., & Heggestad, E. D. (1997). Intelligence, personality, and interests: Evidence for overlapping traits. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 219-245.
• Ackerman, P. L. (1997). Personality, self-concept, interests, and intelligence: Which construct doesn't fit? Journal of Personality, 65(2), 171-204.
• Schneider, R. J., Ackerman, P. L., & Kanfer, R. (1996). To "act wisely in human relations:" Exploring the dimensions of social competence. Personality and Individual Differences, 21, 469-481.
• Murtha, T. C., Kanfer, R., & Ackerman, P. L. (1996). Towards an interactionist taxonomy of personality and situations: An integrative situational-dispositional representation of personality traits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71, 193-207.
• Goska, R. E., & Ackerman, P. L. (1996). An aptitude-treatment interaction approach to transfer within training. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 249-259.
• Ackerman, P. L. (1996). Adult Intelligence. ERIC/AE Digest Series EDO-TM-96-03. Washington, DC: Catholic University/U.S. Department of Education.
• Ackerman, P. L. (1996). A theory of adult intellectual development: process, personality, interests, and knowledge. Intelligence, 22, 229-259.
• Ackerman, P. L., Kanfer, R., & Goff, M. (1995). Cognitive and noncognitive determinants and consequences of complex skill acquisition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 1, 270-304.
• Ackerman, P. L. (1994). Intelligence, attention, and learning: Maximal and typical performance. Chapter in D. K. Detterman (Ed.) Current Topics in Human Intelligence; Volume 4: Theories of Intelligence, pp. 1-27. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
• Ackerman, P. L., & Woltz, D.J. (1994). Determinants of learning and performance in an associative memory/substitution task: Task constraints, individual differences, and volition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 487-515.
• Ackerman, P. L., & Goff, M. (1994). Typical intellectual engagement and personality: Reply to Rocklin (1994). Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 150-153.
• Ackerman, P. L., & Kanfer, R. (1993). Integrating laboratory and field study for improving selection: Development of a battery for predicting air traffic controller success. Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 413-432.

Contact Information

Office Location: 227 Psychology Building
Phone Number: 404/894-5611
FAX: 404/894-6904
E-mail: pa30@prism.gatech.edu

Last Revised: August 2004

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