The Interesting Case of Mr J

As a tradition for my organizational behavior class, I end the semester with oral exams. "What?!?" usually ask my scared students, "oral exams?" I am the only management (and business) professor within the College that sets up oral exams. There are several reasons for this choice. The most important are: (1) help students manage stress level when they speak on a face-to-face one-on-one meeting, (2) prepare them to think straight/logically when talking about professional subjects, (3) give me a break with paper evaluations.

Although these reasons may be interesting, they are only background information. What I find very interesting from the extendable rationality perspective is one of my student's behavior.

J came to the exam with a notebook and a pen. I asked the first question of the type "pick one topic." He started talking about motivation. Everything went well, and J defined the general concept, and went over intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. At that point, I asked him to define how expectancy theory work. This is when he started to draw something on the page while he was talking. It seemed that his ability to think was completed, maybe enhanced, or stimulated by replicating one of the figures found on the textbook. J was establishing a very peculiar relation with the drawing, and his words. Interactions with me--both explicit, such as comments, and implicit, e.g. body language--were also relevant in the process. I thought this was a good example of how rationality could be extended through external resources (e.g., the notebook and one's spoken words). However, I was even more surprised when the time for the second question came.

I asked J to talk about Human Resource Management. He watched me and said candidly that that was something he was not sure he could discuss. I insisted and told him that skipping that question affected his grade heavily. With a big deal of reluctancy, J started talking. His hand went over the sheet of paper and he started drawing another figure while talking. He remembered almost every single one of the five items that we discussed in class and that constitute the core of Human Resource Management. I was very impressed. The interaction between J, his words, his thoughts, and the picture he was drawing with the words he was writing helped him "solve the problem" and answer the question in an acceptable manner.

I leave the reader with some questions: Is it smart to bring a notebook while interviewing? What is the cognitive aid of this external resource? How does the matching between what is created on the paper, words written and spoken, emotions, cognitive brain status, and body language shape the cognitive process? What happens when what is created on paper does not match what one is talking about? What is that strengthen cognitive activities?